Points North; Segments on Vershire, Vermont, and Wynona Ward, and an Interview with Marion von Binsbergen Pritchard

It's a special edition of points nor a telling portrait. This time we settle into a virtual room on to meet some of its remarkable people and take in the area's stunning beauty. Welcome to points north. I'm Fran faltered on a clear day. From certain vantage points here in verse or you can look east to New Hampshire and west to the Green Mountains on the north south access for sure is right about in the center of Vermont. And hugs for the New Hampshire border. In fact I'm told that's how it got its name by combining the verb from Vermont and the Shire from New Hampshire. So what makes a verse or what it is today a remarkable landscape and the people who live here. He's been my whole morning. I mean I would never.

Have been a lot of changes. Since. 1960. We loved our landscape here and the sense of community. Vers sure Vermont. Population 600. By all appearances this is a quiet community one offering a serene life and yet while the view is bucolic the people are busy. We're involved with the fire department and I have a towing business. And I have help on business. And. With the small pond we have salmon business. So there's something going on all the time and usually some money waiting for somewhere. Steve Ward and his wife Diane run Ward's garage a cornerstone of this small community. I like the towing part because I get to go see things and that I wouldn't see and I get paid to do it. And the recovery is what I like of the recovery time we go out to

challenge. You don't know what you get in until you have to learn every time like that back. It's kind of hard making ends meet sometimes. So we've done all kinds of jobs to make enough money. You know the support in the business from. When you live. This far out. And. You know have. Things that you need to pay for you know you do what comes along that you can do to earn the money. Saber Ewing and her family represent the newcomers a verse having moved here in 1904 on land that looks out to both the white and green mountains. Saber oversees the family's young apple orchard. What I'm doing this time pruning. Tends to be not a good quiet time for us when we don't have other orchard work. And so that's why we're doing it now. Well savor of prunes trees. Her husband Sebastian corks cider

champagne. It's quite a hefty corking machine and you're putting a pretty pretty large diameter cork kind of puts it into very small diameter bottle. It's just one of the many challenges of running a small side. Not to mention the brutal wind chill on this hilltop farm. Still Sebastian and saber a exude a spirit of self-sufficiency. One that resonates in the backwoods of Vermont and they share a concern for the environment. The couple used the straw bales instead of fiberglass to insulate their home and they live off the grid utilizing wind and solar power for energy. The elements and the environment. It's a common thread in verse and the focus of another notable resident here the mountain school. OK you're right we did. Hear that at some point in her in northern Canada. The Mountain School is a one semester residential program for high school juniors from

around the country. Not only do students follow a rigorous academic program in environmental studies they experience life on a farm on hill farm including everyday chores. Almost all of the food that we hear is grown right here on the farm. Cathy hook teaches at the mountain school a job that brought her diverse year seven years ago in 1997 and she and her husband heard about a new community effort in town. Verse share an idea developed by their neighbor say Brett Ewing. It was a real economic struggle here and for sure and it's suddenly really occurred to me that what a waste that people are getting. It's separated and you know there's sort of haves and have nots and people have moved here and people who have lived here all their lives and it felt like our town was coming apart a little bit. One of my after numerous public forums and help from the George de Akin Resource Conservation and Development Council save a launch share

the original intent was for people to share their inherent rural talents from logging to sugaring as a way of celebrating the people of this community. We looked at all our resources our human resources of all the different things that people know how to do in town and also our natural resources the people who have been here for a really long time the old families the new sense of community here that none of us will really experience they lived in a town where everyone knew everyone. And I think they they really cherished that and miss it. And so in fact a lot of what verse share has tapped into is this Knicks have been yearning the people who knew what it was like to be in a town where you knew everybody and have lived here for generations and newcomers who are looking for that sense of community and connectedness. Now in its fourth year birth Cher has become many things including a way to fundraise for community programs and the children who really want to reach out to the

children. In town we have a 54 percent poverty rate in verse share and anything that we can do to raise some money to be able to run programs that expand their opportunities and they're really worthwhile thing. It's a challenge faced by many small Vermont towns. No tax base to pay for ongoing needs. The cost of open land surprisingly vers year wasn't always so undeveloped. There was a sawmill aggressed Mellor a shingle factory various little things in their town historian Ernie Parker points to the site where copper mining thrived in the late eighteen hundreds. A time when vers year's population peaked to over eighteen hundred people three times what it is today. Another big change. There were areas that were little communities inhabited. And today there are total wilderness. Today many people in the town work to preserve that wilderness. Stephen

Diane Ward helped their son Tim to buy back land that had been in the Ward family for generations ago. We mortgaged our souls and bought the whole two hundred acres and the house and take a long time to pay off. But you know the risk with the war and not having at the Volokh and having it back in the family feels like home. Having this back and our family so that we can enjoy it and put it back to is close is so what it was originally 40 to 60 years ago. And so the work goes on for her share it's time to get ready for the annual winter fundraiser. A snowshoe if found.

It's notionally which is something that everyone can rally around it's something that the old timers have been doing for generations. When they go out sugaring it's something that the polar fleece clad yuppies who moved into town are excited to put their fences and go and sharing. And it's a fundraiser that raises money for projects in town that really directly affect people that we care about. And as verse your faces the challenges of the 21st century the town celebrates community spirit. And its enduring landscape. Here is a chance to bring our community together in a really positive way and celebrate what is special about this place. After going to see in the cities and self-blame. First thing I want to come back. I don't mind going and see him and I really mean here. My wife and I travel quite a lot so when we come back and we come over the top of verse your heights and down and earth here we say. This is so beautiful. Why did we go away.

Among the interesting and hardworking residents of er sure is a woman named won own award. Like many people here she was born and raised in the area and has extended family here. But in creating her distinctively self styled career when Ana has made something of a name for herself beginning when she won the 1998 award for outstanding law student of the year. How about if I came down about nine. That way the children would be in school by. The way law was practiced years ago in this country when it was being settled. It was there were circuit judges and lawyers. And rather than the people come to one central place judges and lawyers went to the people. Times haven't changed much for attorney and life long Vermonter don't award her business on wheels called have justice will travel provides free legal services to low income women seeking relief from domestic abuse. The client I'm going to see today is a middle aged woman with three children.

Back in the fall she was beaten by her husband and thrown out of the house. What I'll be meeting with this woman about is child support. There was a temporary order for child support and now we will be going back to finalize that so that she has that income to help her support herself and her children. Funded by two private grants have justice will travel serves abused women and their children many of whom live on isolated back roads some without cars or even telephones. In addition to in-home consultations one offers transportation to and from court hearings her services however provide more than just convenience. It's very difficult for a woman who's been abused to come into a lawyers office where she sees fancy leather chairs an oak chest. And it meant that she has been abused by the person who is supposed to love her and take care of her. When I am able to go to their

homes and sit in their kitchens where they are comfortable I can talk with them as a peer. Why how old are you today. Good one known as ability to speak or client's language comes from having walked in their shoes. When I was growing up in poverty on a rollback road in Vermont family violence was a common occurrence. When my father did come home and was attacking my mother all of my siblings and I became involved to try to get him to stop it because there had been times when she had come close to death. Back then if she had chosen to use the legal system she would have been told that a man's home is his castle. We don't interfere there. But little did they know that that castle was like a prison for my mother and her children. Yes. Well no no wasn't always crusading to stop domestic violence. For 15 years she and her husband Harold owned a cross-country trucking business traveling from one

end of the country to another. A new calling came when she learned the abuse in her family had resurfaced. I received word from home that a child in my family had been sexually abused and at that point I came in off the road and became a volunteer victim advocate for her and her family. And it was at that time that I realized how difficult it is for a victim in a victim's family to go through the process of a criminal trial not knowing what was going to happen next and not knowing what to expect. With a long range goal of becoming an attorney firmly in her mind. When I want to work toward her undergraduate degree at Vermont college in the style to which she was accustomed. This is the sweeper area of the truck where I used to study and I would set my computer here and plug it into the AC DC converter and while my husband Harold was driving down the road I would sit back and study my books and then sit and type my

papers here. In 1998 she graduated from Vermont Law School where the idea for have justice will travel was born. I sat and read almost 200 affidavits where these women were coming in for a temporary relief from abuse order but they weren't coming back to finalize it. And so I realize that number one these women sometimes quit. Get back to the room. And number two if they did that they had to litigate against an experienced attorney. And I just said to myself something has to be done to stop this. I think one of the ways that my years as a trucker prepared me for what I'm doing today is I realized how easy it was to have a mobile office equipped with a laptop computer a printer a cellular phone and a CB radio. The virtual resident can work on the side of any road as easily as she does at home. If you're not sure how to program the phone I'll help you do that tomorrow when I get there. Research shows that women without skills are more likely to return to their abusers

meaning when known and needs to offer more than just legal services. I think one of the first session should be. Sort of a domestic violence one on one session with help from people like part time assistant and former client Conny button well known to have sent a proposal to the Vermont Women's Fund to create a mentoring group called Women in transition. This group will show women how to turn the skills that they used to survive every day into skills that will help them improve their lives. What we're going to need is to really work with them to teach them how to write a resume teach them jobs skills. One of the most important things I think can be learning how to write a household budget and balance the checkbook. I want to start working with the well known of because I felt it was important to give back and to help her in a way in which she helped me. I think I've learned from her that I can take care of myself and I can do things on my own. And she told me long ago that I would only grow in and

go from here. And she was right because. I have. When all is good at what she does because she's for real she's an attorney but she's not using big words. And there's a sense that she's going to be with you throughout the process and after. In that way what can happen is that in order to be there for as many clients as possible when no one is continually fund raising. I would like to hire two more tourney's at least in Vermont so that they could be out there serving clients. If we can stop the generational cycle of abuse the violence that happens in the home we will stop the violence that happens in the streets and we will stop violence that happens in the schools. Rain or shine in our four wheel drive well-known award pursues her life's work. The country attorney with a larger mission. The most satisfying part is when. I have worked with a woman we've gotten her

relief from abuse order. And I drive away and think to myself there she won't be battered anymore. The children will not be forced to see their father. With their mother anymore. And she's on her way to independence. There's another remarkable woman tucked in these hills who's been internationally recognized as a person who can and has made a difference. Marian bonbons Bergen Prichard rescued an estimated one hundred and fifty Jews in Holland during the German occupation. She's been awarded numerous medals and awards in Israel and the United States honoring her courage during World War 2. Still a practicing psychoanalyst and distinguished lecturer and as vibrant as ever at 80. We visited Pritchard at her version of her home. When you were in your very early 20s you helped find hiding places for Jews during the German occupation. This was illegal. The Germans said it was illegal. Why did you take such an enormous risk when you watch small children being abused.

What else can you do. There was no choice for me there was no choice. So once you saw that that was it. Well actually I started before I saw the actual abuse but the actual actual abuse that sealed my determination you might say was when my way to the School of Social Work one day. I saw the Nazi truck in front of a home for a small Jewish children between 2 and 10. The Dutch were not happy at the the government not encouraging Jews to immigrate in the hall so some women took their cars and went into Germany and brought Jewish children back a lot of them. Most of them were put in families but some of them were in group homes. And this particular morning they were emptying out the group home. There were kids

for crying and moving fast enough and they pick them up by an arm or a leg and one little girl by a pigtails and threw them in the truck. And I'm just sitting there. Watching MARGARET I couldn't believe what I was seeing two women came from the opposite direction and tried to stop them and they threw the women on the truck so were they drove off but that was very definitely the determining moment that I decided that was the thing to do. You didn't tell your children about your activities in the war and till the 1980s when the Israeli government called to say they wanted to give you a medal for your courageous work. This is fairly common of your contemporaries. But now there are more stories being told. Why the silence. Well why the silence that the men who worked in the in the resistance during World War 2 when the war was over they got together and they formed organizations they have and you will

get together as a separate separate the women who had been involved didn't do that. They just were back to what they'd been doing before the war and it wasn't until Elie Weisel. Call the conference of the State Department. He had 70 or 80 rescuers there and about 700 philosopher all psychologists and psychiatrists and they were supposed to be where there was anything different about us and whether they could us that the help teach us their arms read quote who risk their children for school. You were arrested at least twice and jailed for a time essentially for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Right. You also found yourself in the position of having to kill someone to save the family that you were harboring. How do you live with these kinds of memories. It's not easy and it's funny how it gets sort of harder again

than the later it gets. But. Killing that policeman they really was a no alternative. I don't believe in killing. I don't believe in abortion. I don't believe that I believe women have a right to do with their own bodies what they want and all that I believe in prevention rather than abortion. I don't believe in the death penalty but I'm sure that was the kid's or him thing you feel you made the right decision. Yeah when I tell this story especially the children I always mention that I don't believe in killing one 8 year old told me that I should learn karate for the next. I have an alternative. You witnessed appalling injustice and yet you knew many others that were like you people of conscience. Do you trust the human spirit.

I think that is the way people behave depends an awful lot on how they were brought up. We've all heard the story that abused children grow up and become abuse from parents. That is sometimes true but it's also very often not true. But I definitely think that if children are brought up with you know having a spanking if children are treated with respect then they will grow up and treat other people with respect. Of course there are exceptions to that. But I do believe that that's basically true. That's why I did what I did. With some people it was religion. There were even anti-Semitic Christians who still felt that there was their duty to rescue rescue Jews and even recently there have been incidences of intolerance you had a political sign on your lawn and you had a threatening phone

call just outside your office in Norwich there were swastikas painted. How does this affect you. It scares me. I have lived in Vermont for 37 years now and I have always admired the state for its tall owns it. I would think that the three people who were present that I have equal respect for Leahy would send their Jeffords and the thought of this kind of thing could be happening here is this the beginning is very frightening. You met your husband in a displaced persons camp after the war he was an American officer and one of the first back in Birkenau was very moved by the Holocaust as you were. You met came back to the United States and lived here for a while and eventually moved your family to Vermont. Why Vermont Well it was a new a sheer coincidence our kids were to camp in New Hampshire going to school and we would drive around and look when theyre my

husband fell in love with this place. We bought it the following Saturday. Very very thoughtful of this resort and we fell in love. Well we're very honored that you live here among us. Thank you very much. And that's it for this edition of points north. We hope you enjoyed this portrait. Be sure to send us your comments or suggestions. You can write to us at north Vermont Public Television cold just a room on 0 5 4 4 6. Our e-mail address is p.m. at the P-T dot org. We hope you join us again for whom till then. For all of us at points north. I'm Fran's daughter. Time.