Think Globally, Spend Locally: Healthy Gifts
By
Elizabeth Bassett

So you've seen Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Perhaps you
were among the 600 who spent Labor Day walking from Shelburne Farms to
Burlington to draw attention to global warming. You've changed your
light bulbs to compact fluorescents, you're saving your pennies to buy
a Prius, and you've turned down your thermostat. But the holidays,
with their attendant traps, loom. What's a thoughtful person to do?
A gift membership to Local Motion or the Vermont Bicycle and
Pedestrian Coalition delivers a flow of ideas and inspiration to get
moving throughout the year. Local Motion promotes safe routes to
schools, runs a ferry in August across the Gap to South Hero, and
maintains a database of trails. Fostering active lifestyles, the
organization encourages individuals and companies to incorporate
walking or biking into their days. In 2007 Local Motion plans to
launch a free online Trail Finder listing area places to hike, bike,
or walk the dog. Similar in concept to the better-known Recycle North
or Good News Garage, Local Motion's Bicycle Recycle Vermont offers
skills training in bike repair and tuning, provides refurbished
bicycles to those in need, and accepts donations of your out-of-date
or broken-down steed. Local Motion is establishing an endowment that
will fund grants to towns and trail groups that support walking,
bicycling, and trail initiatives. www.localmotion.org.
The Vermont Bicycle & Pedestrian Coalition is trying to change the
culture of our roadways, supporting better and safer bicycling and
walking in Vermont. It advocates for spending by the Vermont Agency of
Transportation for safe streets, bike lanes, and trails. The coalition
encourages the state to routinely spend part of its traffic safely
dollars on bicycle, pedestrian, and related driver education. PO Box
1234, Montpelier 05601.

Remember the adage, there's no such thing as bad weather, just the
wrong clothing? Since 1978 the Cabot family has been knitting socks at
Cabot Hosiery Mills in Northfield, keeping Vermonters employed at
skilled jobs. They recently introduced an all-weather performance
sock, Darn Tough, with a lifetime guarantee- that's quite a concept.
Knit from Merino wool and Coolmax these socks fit and, after several
years, I've failed to wear mine out. As Ric Cabot says, "We know
socks, we wear 'em year 'round." www.darntough.com/weknowsocks.html.
Also available at many local sports stores: Climb High, Danform, North
Star Sports, Outdoor Gear Exchange, SkiRack, and Women's Source for
Sports. Try 'em; you'll like 'em.

Consider a season's pass to the outdoors. It's not too late to buy a
season's pass for ice-skating, snowshoeing, or Alpine and Nordic
skiing. At most areas the best bargains expired while leaves were
still on the trees but at Stowe's Trapp Family Lodge early-season
prices don't expire until December 15. The high point, literally, of a
visit to Trapp's is the Slayton Pasture Cabin for homemade soup, hot
cider, and freshly baked brownies. Well water, pumped by hand, is
fresh and frigid. The cabin, with benches in front of a huge open
fireplace, is a great goal. The downhill schuss to the lodge is the
final reward.
A season's pass at Sleepy Hollow, Catamount Family Center, Bolton,
the four centers in Stowe, or most cross-country ski areas in Vermont,
entitles the owner to a free day of skiing at all other participating
areas.
The Catamount Trail Association (CTA) maintains and protects a
backcountry ski trail that stretches the length of Vermont. The gift
of a CTA membership can easily pay for itself as it entitles skiers to
half-price or two-for-one tickets at nearly every Nordic center in the
state. www.catamounttrail.org
From its modestly titled, The Most Important Gift Catalog in the
World, Heifer International offers "udderly original gifts," young
animals that change the prospects of poor lives around the globe. A
child or a family is entrusted with one little animal. A chicken
supplies eggs, a goat or cow its milk, sheep wool, and bees honey. A
water buffalo provides a family with protein-rich milk, organic
fertilizer, and pulling power. A pig eats scraps, produces fertilizer
to boost crop production, and a sow can give birth to as many as 16
piglets each year. For as little as $10 for a share of a goat or sheep
or tree seedlings, Heifer International sends each recipient a card
that details the transforming power of the gift. Even young children
find pleasure in the photo of an adorable piglet or baby lamb while
learning the importance of giving to the less fortunate.

The average food item in the United States has traveled 1,600 miles
to its destination, using precious energy and adding to the problems
of pollution and global warming. Consider a gift or gift certificate
for local foods. Charlotte currently is home to one CSA- community
supported agriculture, or share farm, Stony Loam Farm.
(www.stonyloamfarm.com) Huntington's Maple Wind Farm
(www.maplewindfarm.com) sells grass fed beef and lamb and pastured
organic pork and poultry. The Shelburne Farms catalog features its
award-winning farmhouse cheddar, maple syrup, Quebec ham, Vermont-made
jams and mustards. Profits contribute to the programs and mission of
Shelburne Farms. (www.shelburnefarms.org) Champlain Valley Apiaries of
Middlebury (www.champlainvalleyhoney.com) sells its local honey,
Vermont maple syrup and cheddar cheese, its own pure beeswax candles,
and Vermont Bee Balm Company skin care products. From its base in
Ferrisburgh, Honey Garden Apiaries (www.honeygardens.com) sells
apiatherapy honey, raw honey elderberry syrup, raw honey wild cherry
bark syrup, and honey house propolis salve, among other bee products.

As the media bombards us with messages to buy, buy, buy, remember the
message your gifts convey. Consider the words of anthropologist
Margaret Mead, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever
has."