Few things on Earth are more depressing than an empty, boarded-up school in a small town.
But when life gives you lemons -- well, you know how that goes. Local filmmaker Jessica Vecchione recently made a short video about a new group in Sidney, Delaware County, called Greater Maywood Rural Community Services.
Their goal? To transform the vacant Sidney Center school into a hub for education, community life, and the arts. The group was profiled in the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin recently.
The film's a bit of a tear-jerker, for anyone who grew up in a once-vibrant upstate New York town only to watch it wither. (Bonus points to Vecchione for including a cute eight-year-old who says, "My mommy and daddy say that there's no future here for me.") But watching the the Greater Maywood volunteers walking through the halls of the school building, getting excited about what they could do with all that space, it's hard not to be at least a little bit hopeful.
Rural America: A Call to a New Time! from VeccVideography on Vimeo.
Sidney isn't the only town in the area that's mustering its citizens for education and community. On Tuesday, I was among a group of local residents -- many of them parents with young children -- who held a potluck at the Andes Library to brainstorm about the prospect of forming a center to host volunteer-taught classes and community events. The group is still in its very early stages, and does not have a brick-and-mortar space. But the excitement in the room was contagious, and judging by the vast spread of home-cooked food on display, people in the area have time and energy to volunteer.
To get in touch with the group that met in Andes, or for more information about what they're up to, you can contact Laurie McIntosh -- a.k.a., "Story Laurie" -- at storylaurie@gmail.com.
Full disclosure: Vecchione is a Watershed Post advertiser. Check out more of her recent films on Vecc Videography's directory page on our site.
