For Immediate Release: Tuesday, May 26, 2013

Contact Person: Shelby Girard, (802) 223-7222, shelby@ruralvermont.org

Youre Invited! Rural Vermonts Biggest & Best Party of the Year:

Annual Celebration on April 10th at Vergennes Opera House

Rural Vermonts 2013 Annual Celebration is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10th from 6:30-9pm at the beautiful Vergennes Opera House. This years celebration will include a keynote talk by Philip Ackerman-Leist, director of Green Mountain Colleges Farm & Food Project and author of the newly released book Rebuilding the Foodshed. As always, our biggest annual gathering of members and friends will feature a fabulous finger food potluck, wine & beer cash bar, unique raffle prizes, and best of all great company and conversation.

This years celebration will be free to all thanks to the generous support of sponsors Healthy Living, NOFA-VT, and Vermont Compost Company! Media sponsors are Local Banquet and Edible Green Mountains and additional support was provided by City Market and a number of private donors.

Rural Vermonts Annual Celebration is always festive and fun its the one time of year, before everyone gets caught up in the new growing season, for local food & farming supporters from every corner of the state to gather and either reconnect with or get to know Rural Vermonts work to build community-based food systems that are fair, accessible, and resilient. This year in particular, there is a lot to celebrate!

Following an unprecedented end-of-year matching drive that raised almost $60,000 in a few short weeks, Rural Vermont launched into 2013 with an ambitious campaign agenda and a commitment to work toward greater effectiveness and long-term sustainability. Rural Vermont is eager to share its progress and invite both members and new friends to take an active role in supporting this work and building this movement even stronger still!

With the generous support of Vermont Compost Company, Rural Vermonts members and supporters making donations of $100 or more between now and the event on April 10th will be thanked with a 20 quart bag of compost. Help Rural Vermont get the next season off to a good start and theyll help you do the same!

SPECIAL GUEST PHILIP ACKERMAN-LEIST will share his first-person account of the recent international controversy involving Green Mountain College's pair of working oxen Bill and Lou. This moving and disturbing story illustrates the profound lack of understanding and connection between contemporary American society and the source of our food. Phillip will offer his ideas on how we can work together to bridge this divide. Philip Ackerman-Leist raises grass-based livestock with his family and is a professor at Green Mountain College, where he established the colleges farm and sustainable agriculture curriculum and is director of the Green Mountain College Farm & Food Project.

Rural Vermonts popular raffle is back with prizes including cheesemaking weekend at Trevin Farms in Sudbury, a Black Market Basket featuring the best food you cant buy, and Edible Landscape provided by Elmore Roots and Gardeners Supply, and a collection of autographed books for farm & food activists, including the NY Times bestseller The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Katz. Tickets are $5 each and can be purchased at the event or in advance at www.ruralvermont.org. Winners drawn at end of event and need not be present.

Optional RSVP on Facebook, by calling (802) 223-7222 or emailing shelby@ruralvermont.org.

Rural Vermont is a statewide nonprofit group founded in 1985. For over 25 years, Rural Vermont has been advancing its mission of economic justice for Vermont farmers through advocacy, grassroots organizing, and education. For more info or to be added to the mailing list, call (802) 223-7222, visit www.ruralvermont.org, or find us on Facebook.

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