Giving Matters

The Pittsfield Youth Workshop is about empowering kids through skill building, relationship building, and community building. A variety of activities, field trips, homework help, and mentoring encourages kids to thrive. Heather Cole, 17, loves spending time here. Heather: When my sisters came, I was maybe in first grade, and I snuck in the back door. Since sixth grade I've been actually allowed in here. I can say personally it helps our community because kids that do come here don't have a...

Phoenix House is the only residential substance abuse treatment center for adolescents in New Hampshire. Orion is sober and in recovery with help from Phoenix House.

St. Joseph Community Services provides Meals on Wheels to residents in need in Hillsboro County. David Gilmour is a retired physician who has been delivering meals for more than a decade.

It started in third grade. Nora Rogers was having problems. “It’s not like she couldn’t read – it’s just she wasn’t progressing as fast as her peers.” Nora’s mom Erica said the reading circle was causing Nora anxiety. “When it gets around to her turn, she felt like she was holding things up because it was taking longer. And that was starting to hurt her confidence.”

At the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center , visitors learn about New Hampshire’s environment up-close: observing otters, black bear and moose as the walk the center’s trails. Eric Kelsey and his daughter Sophie are regular visitors, and Sophie attended the center’s Blue Heron School, a nature-based early learning center.

Advice to the Players is a theatre company that brings high school students together with professional actors and community members to mount Shakespearean and other classical productions. Lee Stockman joined when he was in high school. Now a full time carpenter, he’s been with the company for a decade. We spoke with him during a break from rehearsals for “Romeo and Juliet.”

In 1915, Robert Frost and moved his family to Franconia, New Hampshire, where he wrote many of his best-known works in the farmhouse overlooking Mt. Lafayette. That house is now the Frost Place , and is open as a non-profit museum and poetry center. Visitors can tour Frost’s home and walk nature trails, as well as attend conferences and seminars hosted by the Frost Place. Ruth Harlow, a retired elementary school teacher, used Frost’s poems with her students.

The North Country Health Consortium’s offers a Youth Leadership Through Adventure program, serving kids in Coos and Grafton County. The program helps middle and high schools to create a healthy culture, develop leadership skills and avoid alcohol and other drugs. Tony Bolash is a student at Gorham High School, where students named the group “Inspire.”

“When I got my hands on clay, I said, ‘this is what I want to do.’ ” And Andy Hampton has been throwing pottery since 1969. The term sounds far more cavalier than is the craft he practices. But after throwing the clay onto his potter’s wheel, he then molds and shapes the stuff into plates, bowls, vases and mugs among other items.

Alexis Brophy is a college student, and already working in real estate. But she struggled to finish high school because of health issues, due to an auto-immune disease. Her disease “made it very hard to get through the traditional high school day. I have extreme fatigue, joint-swelling and pain. Everyday I wake up different.”

The Community Alliance Family Services is a Newport-based non-profit dedicated to supporting individuals and families in maintaining their independence. The organization’s Juvenile Court Diversion Program gives young people the opportunity to learn from, and make reparations for, their mistakes. By attending the program a juvenile offender avoids having the crime added to his/her permanent record. Goldie Burroughs, a long-time volunteer with CAFS , works with kids in developing an...

Bethany had a tough start, at just four days old she was diagnosed with Group B streptococcal meningitis. “We weren’t sure she was going to make it,” said her mother, Michelle. Not long after, Bethany was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. “Doctors weren’t sure what other difficulties she’d have, but they would be revealed as she grew.” Thornton can discuss this calmly now, because Bethany is now 21 years old. “She mainly has difficulty walking. Though she can walk, she didn’t learn to walk...

The SEE Science Center offers scientific explorations for all ages. Barnstead teacher Annie Bourque makes an annual trip with her 6th grade class to take advantage of the chemistry lab there. “This particular lab is about chemo-luminescence, where they get to combine two chemicals and the bonds break and create light.” She walks among her students as they cycle through this experiment and the three others SEE prepped for them today. One is about exothermic reactions mixing chemicals that...

Bridges Domestic and Sexual Violence Support provides free services to victims of sexual and domestic violence, dating violence, harassment and stalking. Emily called Bridges when she and her daughter Brianna needed help. “A few years back I found out that my children were being sexually assaulted by my husband at the time.” Emily was stunned, “as a mom you feel so guilty, how could I not know, I brought this man into their lives, I thought he was a good person and now I find out all this.”...

Bear-Paw Regional Greenways is a land trust that protects important wildlife habitat in southern New Hampshire. Its work in Hooksett has helped to double the amount of conserved land in that town, including ponds, trails, and rare species habitat.

Brenda Bouchard’s mother already had Alzheimer’s when her husband was also diagnosed with the disease. The Alzheimer’s Association has provided Brenda with a constant source of support and guidance.

New Hampshire was the last state in the union to officially celebrate a holiday honoring Martin Luther King by name. It took 20 years of trying , but proponents of the King holiday finally won out.

The Ossipee Children’s Fund was not created by a municipality. It is an NGO, started by caring people in the community who saw a need. The grassroots organization helps to pay for child care, education, recreation and enrichment programs for children from low-income families in Ossipee and surrounding communities.

Nicole Jordan was a stay at home mom, looking after her daughter when her husband was laid off. She turned to the Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, “that was the first time I encountered them. And we got fuel assistance back then because we still had some savings.” It helped the Jordans bridge the gap while he looked for a new job. The Community Action Partnership of Strafford County is a non-profit, non-governmental organization that helps people with basic needs while...

Opera North brings classical music theatre to school groups and local theaters. Its summer festival has a wide following, and its outreach program brings free live opera to school groups. Lindsey Anderson sang the role of the Julia Child in Bon Appetit! which the company brought to Upper Valley schools.