Revitalizing Waterbury looks past pandemic, bestows MK Monley with O’Dell award
April 3, 2021 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
After skipping the 2020 annual meeting, Revitalizing Waterbury gathered for its first-ever online annual meeting with more than 70 attendees to recap an unprecedented year for local businesses, look ahead to moving out of the pandemic, and to honor one of the community’s most dedicated and indefatigable champions.
Art teacher, artist, activist, volunteer, and organizer MK Monley was named the 15th recipient of the Kathy O’Dell Community Service Award. Board member Whitney Aldrich made the announcement last week during the video conference meeting. “MK is a consummate partner and collaborator,” Aldrich said.
Having kept the award a surprise, Monley’s husband Don Schneider by her side at home presented Monley with a large wrapped package containing a landscape painting of Camel’s Hump by Waterbury artist Sarah-Lee Terrat.
“What a surprise,” Monley said beaming a smile. She downplayed accolades from the introduction where Aldrich noted her role as an educator, organizer of the annual River of LIght parade, founding partner in the MakerSphere center, and her prior role as board chair for Revitalizing Waterbury when Tropical Storm Irene hit in 2011. After Irene, the organization sponsored ReBuild Waterbury, the effort that raised over $1 million to help repair and reconstruct homes damaged in the flood.
“It was a team effort. I was part of it,” Monley said. “We have a wonderful community and I’m happy to be part of it.”
Current board president Theresa Wood said the award was “long overdue” for Monley. “Her unflagging support of Waterbury over the years has been extraordinary,” Wood said, recalling the aftermath of Irene. “Her leadership helped our community recover stronger than ever.”
Aldrich, owner of Axel’s Gallery and Frame Shop, noted that leadership took multiple forms including the Floodgates Art Project a year after Irene that Monley helped organize. The result was a powerful exhibition in the then-vacant space at 3 Elm Street (now the Craft Beer Cellar). The pieces began as blank 6-inch square tiles that community members decorated using a multitude of materials, each one telling a personal story about the storm and its impact that together told the community’s story.
Since then, Monley has continued to spearhead the annual River of Light lantern parade in early December that each year has a different theme, including 2020 when it was retooled as a drive-through experience with locations in four towns rather than a downtown Waterbury gathering given the COVID-19 pandemic and public health restrictions.
“Truly, she is an incredible philanthropist with her time and energy, with the latter being what seems to be a bottomless well,” Aldrich said.
Revitalizing Waterbury Executive Director Karen Nevin noted that Monley being the 15th recipient of the O’Dell award joins “a special list of community members who put Waterbury first in their work and life.”
The award is named after the late Kathleen O’Dell, a founding member of Revitalizing Waterbury and the nonprofit organization’s first president in 1991. After a long battle with cancer, O’Dell died in 2005 at the age of 57. Her husband, Otho Thompson, remains active with Revitalizing Waterbury as a current board member. The award recognizes a business or individual who gives back to the community.
Looking back, looking ahead
In addition to the award, the meeting included discussion of the past year during the pandemic which had a significant impact on local businesses, many of which closed for some period in 2020 or significantly scaled back operations. RW staff discussed efforts the organization made to keep in communication with business owners to navigate state health guidance, employment issues, state and federal relief benefits and more.
The creation of Waterbury Bucks local currency was one effort to spark spending at Waterbury shops and restaurants, explained Vice President Katya d’Angelo. The $5 and $20 certificates available through the RW office can be redeemed with many local merchants. RW gave away $6,300 of the certificates to local essential workers and volunteers last year, she said.
Other 2020 efforts focused on assisting businesses during the Main Street water, sewer and road work and redesigning the DiscoverWaterbury.com tourism website. Also noteworthy were the dozen or so new businesses in town including Darn Tough and PK Coffee as well as several businesses that changed owners last year such as Perkins-Parker Funeral Home which was acquired by Lavigne Funeral Home.
At the end of 2020, economic development director Alyssa Johnson resigned to take a position with the Vermont Council on Rural Development. The group Wednesday welcomed Mark Pomilio, hired to take on the economic development director role, a position on the RW staff that’s funded by the municipality.
Revitalizing Waterbury did not hold the annual Waterbury Arts Fest last summer because of the pandemic and restrictions on gatherings. Its singular public event took place at the end of the summer with a drive-in concert and market organized along with the Waterbury Rotary Club.
This year, Arts Fest is back on the calendar as a one-day event on Sept. 11. Another occasion to save is the weekend of Aug. 28 for a celebration to mark the end of Main Street construction and the 10th anniversary of Tropical Storm Irene.
The meeting presentation briefly touched on a new activity planned for summer called the Waterbury Adventure Challenge. Board member Julie Fraley teased to it as a “covid-friendly game” that combines the adventure of geocaching and riddle-solving of escape rooms. More on that to come later this spring.
Expect marketing collaborations this year focused on the Route 100 corridor with economic development groups in Stowe and the Mad River Valley, RW representatives said.
Beautification efforts will add more public art to downtown along with finishing touches to Main Street including hanging flower baskets, new banners, information kiosks and maps, benches and trash/recycling containers.
One slide in the presentation showed the Stowe Street alley, the narrow passage between 21 and 23 Stowe Street (beside Stowe Street Emporium). A community effort involving RW, Waterbury Rotary, MakerSphere, the building owners, an ad hoc public art group, and some business owners is gaining momentum to refurbish the space into a mini-park with the help of grants and fundraising. RW has applied for a $20,000 state grant and is looking for a smaller $5,000 Vermont Arts Council grant to design art for the space.
Other highlights covered the still-closed train station owned by Revitalizing Waterbury and previously leased by Keurig Dr. Pepper for its Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Cafe. The cafe went from temporarily closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic to permanently closed in January. A new tenant for the space is on RW’s to-do list along with a new coat of paint for the station’s exterior.
Similarly halted last March was the Amtrak passenger rail service that used the station. RW representatives are expecting that to restart in the near future.
The board meeting also included an overview of the organization’s finances which is available in slides and detail on the Revitalizing Waterbury website.
Several board members were elected to new terms and officers were chosen for the next year: Wood as president, d’Angelo as vice president, Dave Luce treasurer, Fraley as secretary. The rest of the board is Krister Adams, Aldrich, Jennifer Davidson and Thompson.