President’s Message
For the period July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025

As we entered our third year of operating the Valley Falls Farm and Heritage Center, we continued to learn new and better ways of running a museum.  This year we started the season with an amazing group of volunteers who took part in a series of training sessions that generated good discussion and great ideas.  A comprehensive training manual for our building greeters, docents and volunteers was created that enhanced this enjoyable learning experience.

This was a year of partnerships and collaborations, the theme of this annual report.  For our first special exhibit at the Heritage Center, we worked with Dan Hayden of the New England Civil War Museum to illustrate the commonality we share in the Christian Sharps story.  The Sharps rifle is famous for its role in winning the Civil War, but few people are aware that he lived in Vernon and built a trout hatchery at Valley Falls.

We also took part in the March Healthfest at the Middle School and met people interested in volunteering at the farm and visiting the museum.  In addition, the Friends were invited to create a showcase display at Rockville Public Library.  On June 13, a day before we opened for the season, a group of students from the Agricultural Sciences department at Rockville High School arrived at the Heritage Center to weed, clean, and move displays.

Other valued partnerships include the wonderful and hardworking Vernon Garden Club members who create and care for the beautiful gardens in the old cold frames; a new partnership with Arts Center East to promote our Artists Day event; and  long time partnerships with Strong Family Farm and the Vernon Historial Society to cross-promote our events.  This year’s annual pot-luck picnic with the Vernon Volunteers Collaborative, held in the Red Barn at Valley Falls, was a great way to strengthen these partnerships.

Speaking of the Red Barn, we continue to value our excellent partnership with the Town of Vernon, and the agreement that allows us to use the barn as a welcome center and exhibit area.  And thanks to the Town and the Northford Timber Framers, the Red barn is once again on firm footing, after this talented non-profit group donated its skills to repair and strengthen the cracked beams in the 1911 barn.

An important and costly project completed this year is the restoration of the icehouse wall.  Visitors can now safely walk into the building to see its beautiful stone walls.  Our volunteers continued their dedicated work on other important projects: a successful Bluebird program led by Sheryl McMullen, joined by Jeff Carlson and Jeremy Geller; inventory documentation of the Heritage Center collections, a time-intensive project taken on by Lynn Lusardi and Susann Thiel; and completion of a report on Field Management at Valley Falls Park presented to the Parks and Recreation Department by the Friends.

Looking ahead, plans include converting the swale on the hillside to native pollinator plantings, replacement of the mill bell support, and repairs to the rear porch of the farmhouse.

It’s been a busy year, with lots accomplished and still more to be done.  Support from membership, volunteers and our valued partners make all this work possible.

by Nancy Steffens, Acting Vice-President