Intervale Center celebrates 30 years with community storytellers

Travis Marcotte, executive director of the Intervale Center, opened the evening by explaining the event's purpose and introducing a lineup of local storytellers. "It's my pleasure, to welcome everybody here for the 1st ever Farms Laren people stories of the Intervale," Marcotte said, and invited attendees to stay for the stories and a June 23 30th-anniversary celebration.

The night featured short, place-based talks from staff and community members about the Intervale's evolution from a dump to a web of farms, gardens and services. Speakers described concrete programs — the Intervale Food Hub and incubator-farmer supports — and recurring community responses to emergencies such as the 2011 floods, underscoring how volunteers, immigrant gardeners and local businesses have shaped the Intervale's role in Burlington life. Organizers invited the public to the center's larger anniversary celebration scheduled for June 23.