Support and Transform Worcester Community Market

Hi friends! This is Drew, of Drew and Sarah up here on Frazier Rd. And of course Thatcher and Maisy too! If you don’t know us yet that’s ok; we haven’t been here long… but we’re SO grateful to call this town our home! I really believe Worcester has a way of choosing it’s people, and I hope we can be as good of neighbors as you’ve all been!

So… Our neighbor Kyle (heard of him?) has become a close friend ever since we got stuck in our own driveway and he pulled us out with his tractor (more times than I want to admit). Well, if you’re not familiar, Kyle does this thing every summer with live music and food and all kinds of things. It’s called THE LANDING and it’s right on Route 12. He does a crapload of other stuff too, but this is the one I want to dig into.

Kyle started the Landing for a bunch of great reasons and with a bunch of great ideas to grow it into something wholesome for the community. Believe it or not, there’s no profit in it, and he’s sponsored it out of his own pocket every year, at a pretty big loss. Well, as we’ve been getting to know him and hearing about his vision we’ve become pretty excited about what the Landing could become. So we want to help him take it to the next level.

The tasks at hand are overwhelming for one person, but if the community comes together on it I think we can have something really REALLY special. So far Kyle’s managed to pull off some pretty great concerts, a community market (before COVID got all up in everyone’s business), and a legit meal service that offers “suggested donation” pricing to make sure people who are struggling can still have a great meal and a free concert. BUT… it’s only the tip of an awesome iceberg. The problem is, one person and a few good helpers can’t pull it off.

I’ll start with the whole vision and after this I’ll break it down into practical steps.

The vision: Concerts every week with progressively bigger and better bands, great food, a kickass playground for the kids, a fence to keep said kids from getting squashed by cars, a big ol’ wedding tent for those rainy-ish days, CLEAN well maintained PERMANENT bathrooms, picnic tables, a volley ball court, some landscaping, maybe a community greenhouse, drum up enough interest to bring back the community market, the kid’s market (more on that later, it’s a killer idea!!!), artisan fairs, fireworks, and on and on. There’s so much room for imagination! Now, to take it from pipe-dream to reality…

It’ll take several summers to pull ALL these things off, but if you’ve ever seen Kyle put his mind to something then you know it’s not only possible, it’s practically guaranteed. He’ll put the work in if his neighbors show the love. So here’s the plan of attack, IF the Landing gets the support it needs: to raise enough money for one upgrade at a time, in order of priority.

Here’s the order we’ve come up with and the estimated funds we’d need to raise for each:

1. Upgrade and multiply picnic tables and benches ($1,500)

2. Fence to keep the kiddos safe ($5,000)

3. Playground to keep the kiddos HAPPY ($2,500)

4. Bathrooms (hurray for no more portapotties!) ($10,000)

5. Party/event tent for shade and the moist days ($3,000)

6. Build a snazzy pizza oven because...duh!!/outdoor kitchen/grill/smoker FOR ALL THE MEATS! ($7,000)

7. Volleyball court for some Top Gun action! ($1,000)

With a grand total of $30,000 in improvements.

Aside from those permanent upgrades it actually costs $10,000 for a summer’s worth of music, lawn mowing, portapotties, insurance, utilities and trash. This does not include any labor, maintenance or facilitation of the events, Thus far the money from donations and food service has been used to cover these costs and the rest has come out of pocket.

After these upgrades are made we would like to find continued annual sponsors to support and promote this community gathering space. In exchange we would offer advertising for our sponsors both at the Landing and on social media as well as on our webpage, thelanding VT.

So where are we now?

We currently have great music booked (yay!) & food service (barbeque and/or mexican with gluten free/vegan options available) every FRIDAY for the summer starting June 2nd with a pop-up event on Thursday May 18th starring Chad Hollister from 6:00-8:00pm. We are also still seeking vendors . Please reach out if you are interested in vending farm goods, crafts, antiques & vintage items, collectibles, etc. Come hang with us!

Thank you in advance for helping us make this dream come to life! Any and all donations will be used to continue cultivating this amazing space in our community!

Check out what we're up to this summer at thelandingVT. :)