Ruth Melville

I’ll always be glad to have had a part in putting together the first Weekend in Norfolk in 2016, along with Sue Frisch and Holly Gill. The original idea came from Sue, and she was—and still is—the driving force behind the now biannual all-town festival. A crucial part of Sue’s idea was that we three would organize and publicize the festival, but the actual events would all be planned and run by as many of Norfolk’s nonprofits and organizations as we could get onboard. Starting with the enthusiastic support of Jim Nelson, then director of the Yale/Norfolk summer schools, eventually almost every town organization—from the churches to the Lions Club, the library, the fire department, and more—agreed to take part. The festival would never have gotten off the ground without an army of volunteers.

In addition helping with WIN, I have worked on the town newspaper, Norfolk Now, as a writer and editor for 10 years. I’ve also served on the Norfolk Library Board and been a member of the Library Associates (the annual book sale is my favorite part). About five or six years ago, Adair Mali and I started a Norfolk Knitters group that meets in the library every Friday afternoon. We knit for camaraderie and for charity, and we teach anyone who wants to learn.

As a relative newcomer, I can honestly say that not only does the town depend on its volunteers but that volunteering is absolutely the best way to get to meet a wide range of the extraordinary mix of people who call Norfolk home.

Sue Frisch

My first Norfolk volunteer experience, back around 2003, was being a member of the Inland Wetlands Agency. I was asked to chair its committee to write Norfolk’s first Natural Resource Inventory. That took three years, and after the inventory was published, our group became Norfolk’s new Conservation Commission.

To make a change, I resigned and looked around for something else to do. That spring, farmers markets were starting to pop up, so Libby Borden and I drove all over the Northwest Corner to recruit farmers and put together a trial market. We then were able to get a state grant to hire a manager, and we had a real market season the following year. The market is still running today under the leadership of its first manager, Lisa Auclair, who made it a huge success in the first place.

I have since become more and more interested in trying to make Norfolk a vital place for businesses, as well as a wonderful place to live. I joined the Economic Development Commission, created a Norfolk Map & Guide for distribution to potential visitors, and was looking for other projects along those lines. Weekend in Norfolk was born as the result of a conversation between Holly Gill and me in the post office and another conversation in the library between the two of us and Ruth Melville. We developed the theme, sent out an email asking people to meet to talk ideas and have never looked back from that first amazingly well-attended meeting. Norfolk is a fantastic place to live . . . and it’s created by an army of volunteers that the town could not possibly exist without.

Ned Barron

It all started right after I moved here and made my first visit to the Town Clerk’s Office. Linda Perkins welcomed me to town and outlined all the wonderful things Norfolk had to offer. Then she said to me, “What are you going to volunteer for?” I didn’t know if it was an invitation or marching orders, but I knew right away what makes Norfolk great.

Since then, I have been a member of the Norfolk Land Trust, the Board of Assessment Appeals, an alternate on the Planning and Zoning Commission and chairman of the Republican Town Committee. I love this town and want to be involved as much as I can, so when in 2018 Sue Frisch asked me to become a member of the Weekend in Norfolk organizing committee, I jumped at the opportunity. 

Sue is a powerhouse, and under her leadership the WIN committee has been able to develop over the years a template for recruiting, organizing and maintaining the excitement of WIN, both the summer and winter versions. The organizations in town all step forward to do their presentations, volunteers man the information booth at the Hub and people flock to town to participate. 

Among other things, one of my behind-the-scenes jobs on WIN weekend is to put out (and later take down) the WIN signs along Route 44 at both ends of town as well as the signs placed at the entrance of each WIN event. It is a busy and exciting time in Norfolk, and I enjoy being a part of it.