Sometimes people end up in communities because their business or a particular school brings them into that town. In Wilton’s case, it is the two Waldorf Schools that are a draw for many new families. High Mowing, one of these two schools, was established in 1942 as the third school in the United States to offer a Waldorf-based education. Although High Mowing is the oldest international Waldorf High School boarding program in the country, it wasn’t until 30 years later that Pine Hill was established to offer an elementary-level Waldorf education.
When thinking about this next column, I realized there was someone who has become a fixture in Wilton; someone who has left her handprint on just about every committee in town for nearly two decades and it was the Waldorf System schools in Wilton that brought her family to town. That person is Donna Crane. I decided to invite her to join me at Bean and Bloom this past weekend when she was free from her job in sales at Earth Sky + Water, a perfect job for Donna with the sale of, as she calls them, “soul-filling products” reflecting their place in the world of nature.
Our conversation began with Donna telling me she and her family moved to Wilton in 2008, drawn to the area by Pine Hill. Her children, who were only three and seven when they arrived, were a fit for the curriculum offered by Pine Hill. She and her husband knew what they did not want for their children. Unlike Donna’s experience in her youth at a 5,000-person school, Pine Hill offered a much smaller, inclusive, nurturing, creative and structured environment that her family valued.
Donna, who is known for all the hats she wears or has worn over the past 17 years as a resident of Wilton, didn’t start out with volunteering as even a blip on her radar.
As she tells it, “I wasn’t brought up with the idea of expecting to serve. I thought other people did things while normal people, like me, just showed up to watch. I had no idea what I was in for when we first settled into the Pine Hill system, but it didn’t take long to learn that being a parent of a child or two at Pine Hill wasn’t all there was to do. Others modeled what was the norm and I realized I could help by joining in.”
The tradition of volunteering is deeply embedded in the High Mowing/Pine Hill system. Cary Hughes, recently retired Dean of Students, emphasized the importance of encouraging young people to make public service a part of their lives in an interview published on the town website. Donna’s journey as a volunteer began with this idea, leading her to serve on numerous Wilton committees. She shares, “There are almost unending opportunities to help a small town. When you give, you receive as much or
more back. Your understanding of the world is different and richer when you serve.” Quoting St. Francis, she adds, “It is in the giving of yourself that you receive.”
She continued, “One of the things you discover when you share your time volunteering is that the more you fill your life reaching out to others, the more time you have. Or to put it another way, I have more time in my life, the busier I am. You use your time in different ways when you know you have things that need to get done.”
When I asked her, “What committee haven’t you served on?” She replied, “I don’t go out looking for things to do. You are asked to join committees when people know you are willing to help.” Donna has served on a variety of committees, from the Old Home Days Committee to the Heritage Commission, Wilton-Lyndeborough Women’s Club, to the Census Committee, and the Wilton 250th Committee. She also works part-time at MacDowell in their James Baldwin Library. She referenced the film “Join or Die,”
by Bob Putnam, noting the Monadnock Region’s high level of social capital, meaning strong community connections, to point out that she wasn’t alone in her spirit and dedication to serving her community.
Donna describes herself as a person who enjoys making connections between people and
organizations and living an active, caring lifestyle. The organization she devotes much of her time working for is the Wilton Community Center, where she serves as president. She became a volunteer after the life-changing death of her husband, Arnold, in a fire in 2012. She reached out, seeking a way to connect to Wilton in a new way just as the community center was moving from dream to reality. Even though former resident Nicole Colvin Griffin was the one who was the initial impetus behind this community center, Donna was there from the beginning, along with Wilton Main Street Association President Alison Meltzer, and Joanna Eckstrom, the community center treasurer.
The Congregational Church in downtown Wilton has recently become the home for the community center that now manages the building in cooperation with the church. It has become a relied upon center for cultural, educational, recreational, and social opportunities for people of all ages in Wilton and surrounding towns. These include hosting The Folk Café, Girl Scouts, educational talks, craft sessions, regular fiber arts gatherings, senior dinners and a growing list of possible other ways it can serve the community. One hope is to offer adult education classes and more speakers on a variety of
topics.
As our conversation wound up, Donna wanted to make certain I reminded people to watch for the informational flyer from the community center mailed to every Wilton resident and business address.
For a full listing of Donna’s involvement over her years in Wilton, visit wiltonnh.gov/about_wilton/interesting_people__wilton_profiles/donna_crane