The Deer Park Project..

bennington vermontList of Articles

August, 2004

The Deer Park project was the first project undertaken by the Bennington Rotary Club more than 50 years ago. The project has been one of the most permanent contributions by the club to the Bennington community and it is as important now as when it was first developed. Information on the project was included in publications in honor of Rotary's 75th and the Club's 50th anniversaries. All of the club members involved in the project have passed on.

The Deer Park project started in 1953, two years after the Bennington Rotary Club was chartered. The 25 members of the club identified the need for a green space available to families and travelers near the center of town. On what was then the north edge of the Village of Bennington was an enclosure for deer (captured by game wardens because of injury or orphaned fawns that otherwise would not have survived in the wild) on the grounds of what was known as the Soldiers Home (now the Vermont Veterans Home) The Soldiers Home, founded just after the Civil War to provide housing for disabled and aging veterans, is a state owned facility.

Rotary members undertook to move the deer enclosure away from the road and create a large, inviting, green space with a pond with the deer enclosure at the rear of the park to entertain children and visitors. To accomplish this the 25 members of the Rotary Club raised $12,000 and put in hundreds of hours of physical labor over two years. The first big job was moving a quarter mile of chain-link fencing (including taking posts out of concrete). The construction of picnic tables and fire places, grading, planting and clean-up followed. Bathrooms were also built. The first stage of the project took two years, although some follow-up activities lasted to the late 1950's.

When finished the large, shaded park had picnic tables, a small pond and stream and the deer enclosure. It is the only roadside picnic area on Route 7 north of the Massachusetts border for at least 100 miles. Because Bennington is a working class town with many lower-income families, a visit to the Deer Park is an inexpensive family activity. On almost any good day parents will be at the park with their small children. Travelers stop for a rest or refreshment. It is next to the tourist information center. For those residents at the Vermont Veterans Home who are able to walk, the Deer Park is an inviting short walk.

This early contribution by the Bennington Rotary club had a number of beneficial results, beyond those to the people who use the park. the ambitious project helped to cement the relationships of those early Bennington Rotarians. The community also saw an early and impressive example of what an active service club could accomplish. Today there are two Rotary Clubs in Bennington with a combined membership of more than 140, in this rural community of 16,000.

By: Charles Putney