Remarks by Alec Webb, President, Shelburne Farms
Good evening everyone!
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Alec Webb and I serve as the president of Shelburne Farm. I want to welcome you and say how much we appreciate you all coming out this evening!
Being here together to celebrate the new life of the Coach Barn is another one of those memorable moments in the life of Shelburne Farms. It’s amazing to think of the arc of this land and this building over time.
You could say this project has been in the works since the founding of the nonprofit in 1972 with the dream of turning Shelburne Farms into an educational resource. And it couldn’t have happened without all of you, without every donor, and every gift of every amount over all those years.
Thank you for making Shelburne Farms possible, through your generous annual support, and for helping us exceed our $50M capital campaign goal!
We are all about inspiring learning for a sustainable future. This building and the whole farm, from the beautiful formal gardens at the Inn to the Breeding Barn, are a means to the greater end of making a difference and cultivating positive change in the world, far beyond this place, through education and collaboration.
With the launch of the Institute for Sustainable Schools and headquartering it here, and the conservation of Windmill Hill, we are working to deepen the learning experiences we offer using both the Coach Barn and the Inn. This project enables us to envision education and community programs in a way we have never been able to do before.
We will be wrapping up remaining work this fall and starting to host programs and events again as we look to our first full year of operation in 2026. Gratefully we are still receiving additional campaign gifts - the donor appreciation wall that is still to come in the elevator room will be up by next May and will include gifts received through the end of this year.
We owe special thanks for the success of the campaign to David and Landon Storrs for their early, pre-campaign seed gift in 2017, to an anonymous challenge donor for getting us to the halfway point just before Covid hit, to John Abele for helping jumpstart the second half of the campaign after the pandemic hiatus, and to a second anonymous donor and the trustees of the Robert W. Wilson Trust for the last major gifts to complete the campaign.
Our board and the campaign committee have been incredible with their guidance and support all along the way. The campaign committee was led by honorary co-chairs Ernie Pomerleau and Lisa Steel, co-chairs Eileen Growald and Landon Storrs, with committee members Bob Baird, Fred Bay, Will Jackson, Steve Johnson, Ian Schmedik, Margie and Peter Stern, and Charlotte Stetson. Many of you are here tonight - thank you!
Steve Smith, Bren Alavarez and the rest of the team at SAS Architects and Craig Jennings and Mike Yendell from Naylor and Breen Builders orchestrated a caring, skilled and creative group of professional consultants, trades and crafts people, and artists doing the work here. They worked closely on project design development and weekly construction decisions with our staff, including our Education and Community Programs team led by Megan Camp and Tre McCarney, Buildings and Landscape team led by Rob Hunter, and our Curator Julie Eldridge Edwards.
It has been just over three years since my brother Marshall died. In 1969, he was dreaming about the idea of turning the Coach Barn into a school. He wouldn’t stop smiling if he were here tonight, seeing the cottonwood from the big trees we had to take down near the Welcome Center turned into this lectern built by Bruce Beekin and Jeff Parsons and into the beautiful furniture made by John Monks of Vermont Tree goods in partnership with Vermont Farm Table. And he would have loved brainstorming and collaborating with his friend and artist Nancy Milliken on turning the need for acoustic panels into an opportunity for creating works of art. I’m sure he would be totally into the driftwood pieces in the east hall!
In 1982, my now partner Megan Camp came to work here as an educator and we have been working together since 1988 as president and vice president as the organization has grown over the years. Megan had a special relationship with Marshall as well. They worked closely together on programs, projects, and partnerships that have made Shelburne Farms what it is today. Megan - the transformation of this building for its higher purpose has grown out of and will always reflect your life-time dedication, passion, and creativity for advancing the mission of Shelburne Farms. Thank you!
And finally, hats off to our wonderful staff that keeps the farm moving forward, and to our development team led by our Chief Advancement Officer Robin Turnau for caring for the relationships that keep the farm going and mean so much to us. Thanks to our whole team for putting this gathering on for us!
To wrap up, we would like to invite everyone to come together for a group photo now outside in the Courtyard!