AHTA National Conference, Burlington, VT

Join us in Burlington, Vermont for the 2017 AHTA Annual Conference. Hosted by the Northeast Horticultural Therapy Network, the Conference will bring together horticultural professionals from around the world. Pre-tours will feature local gardens and programs. Add in the bonus of the Fall “Leaf Peeper” season and you have the perfect combination of networking, education and fun! The conference will be held at the Burlington Hilton Hotel in the heart of the city. 

AHTA has reserved a block of rooms at the Burlington Hilton Hotel located at 60 Battery Street in downtown Burlington which is now open and filling rapidly!  

Registration Schedule

Check the AHTA website often and watch your email for more information.

Will Rapp Kenote Speaker

Will Raap works to create and nurture local food, renewable energy, waste recycling and land restoration enterprises that support a more sustainable economy and future. His innovative efforts extend from the mountains of Vermont to the tropical forests of Costa Rica. He is the founder and chairman of Gardener’s Supply, a Vermont-based employee-owned family of companies known for its innovative and socially responsible business practices. He also founded and was past chairman of the Intervale Center, a non-profit organization that develops farm- and land-based enterprises that generate economic and social opportunity while protecting natural resources. Expanding the Intervale Center’s mission into Costa Rica, Will co-founded Restoring Our Watershed, an initiative that aims to restore the Nandamojo River and its surrounding 29,000 acre watershed through community and business engagement. Will is a founder and member of the New Economy Coalition Board of Directors and has served on numerous non-profit and corporate boards including Vermont Natural Resources Council, Vermont Business Roundtable, Vermont Land Trust, Intervale Center, Vermont Sustainable Agriculture Council, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, University of Vermont School of Environment and Natural Resources, Champlain College, Living Technologies and Seventh Generation. He holds a Bachelor’s in Economics from UC Davis and a Master’s degree in Business and Urban Planning from UC Berkeley.

Charlie Nardozzi and Donna Covais, HTR
Plenary Speakers

Charlie Nardozzi, nationally recognized garden speaker, TV and radio show host, and Donna Covais, HTR, have worked in Vermont communities for many years bringing the benefits of horticulture as a therapeutic tool to groups such as veterans, children, and the aging population.  In this talk they will highlight their unique approach to horticultural therapy where the keys to success are building partnerships, creative thinking and innovation.  Using examples from their programs, Charlie and Donna will expand the traditional boundaries of HT delighting you with their positive attitudes, smiles, and a bit of Psychology, enabling them to bring the benefits of HT to a wide range of people.

Charlie Nardozzi is a nationally recognized garden writer, speaker, radio, and television personality. He has worked for more than 25 years bringing expert gardening information to home gardeners through radio, television, talks, tours, on-line, and the printed page. Charlie delights in making gardening information simple, easy, fun and accessible to everyone. For the past 6 years Charlie has co-lead School and Community Garden Organizers workshops around Vermont helping groups and individuals becoming better at managing their garden programs. For the past 4 years Charlie has partnered with the VT Department of Health, VT Community Garden Network (VCGN), BCBS of VT and Gardener’s Supply Company to administer garden grants to small scale employers looking to start employee gardens. This includes technical assistance. For the past 2 years Charlie has worked with the nonprofit HANDS and VCGN in initiating and teaching classes for Veteran’s Gardening Programs around the Burlington, Vermont, area.

Donna Covais, BA, HTR, and Master Gardener, has been facilitating HT programs for over 35 years.  Early in her career, she used her florist shop as a place for schools, employment agencies for the disabled, and teachers, to visit while learning about plants.  Simultaneously, she coordinated HT programs in community nursing homes.  Donna formally began her career in HT in the early 1980’s by being a presenter at the New England HT Chapter workshop at the University of NH.  She has since worked diligently to bring HT to the fore as a healing modality and a valid profession.  Donna and her husband, Joseph, were invited to speak at the AHTA conference in Norfolk, VA where they introduced their audience to the power of using HT as an adjunct to Psychotherapy in a youth detention center.  She was also invited to speak at the first Horticultural Therapy Week celebration at the US Botanical Gardens in Washington, D. C., which resulted in a write-up in the Washington Post.  After moving to VT in 1999 and becoming blind at age 40, Will Raap of Gardener’s Supply Company reached out to her, helping her on the road to recovery with the powerful people/plant connection.  Since then, Donna has received a $29,000 grant from the state of Vermont to facilitate the first formal HT program in Vermont.  Her current approach with clients with Dementia, Memory Loss, and Alzheimer’s Disease is unique and has proven to be very effective using her motto of “Plants Not Pills”.  This will be evident to attendees touring the Grand Way Adult Day Center at the AHTA conference this year.

View a presentation below…

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Contacts:

Lorraine Brisson at [email protected] or call (413) 268-3660(H)

Valerie Barrett at [email protected] or call (914) 954-8575(M)

 

 

AHTA Site Visit Tour Agenda

Tours are now closed out. Self guided tour option information will be posted soon.

For additional information on many attractions in the Burlington, VT area please click here.

September 7, 2017

8:30 a.m.         Depart Burlington Hilton, drive 1.5 miles

The Intervale – Tommy Thompson Community Garden
Carolina Lukac 860-391-3536 (m)
Carolina Lukac, Garden Education Manager and Teaching Garden Instructor will provide a tour of the Tommy Thompson Community Garden, the largest of the city of Burlington’s community gardens with 3 acres and 150+ individual garden plots. Hundreds of people grow food in this vibrant and diverse space. The garden is also home to the Community Teaching Garden, a 22-week garden education program of the nonprofit Vermont Community Garden Network. Adult students learn how to grow, preserve, and use fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers in a collaborative learning environment. More information is available at http://vcgn.org/what-we-do/community-teaching-garden/

9:45 a.m.         Depart the Intervale, drive 3.3 miles 

Grand Way Adult Day Center
Donna Covais 802-310-0608 (m)
Vermont Nursing Association’s Grand Way Adult Day Center is a special community that provides social activities, healthy meals and opportunities to meet new friends in a safe and homelike environment with nursing oversight.  Clients receive comprehensive health, social and therapeutic services that help maintain their current level of activity and promote physical and mental health.  Grand Way Memory Care Day program specializes in caring for persons with memory loss.  Donna Covais, HTR, will provide a tour of Grand Ways’ Horticultural Therapy Program, one of the most popular activities.  This is Vermont’s only formal horticultural therapy program.  Donna facilitates this program and along with her crew of Master Gardeners helps maintain these gardens.  A wide variety of activities using the garden bounty features growing favorite vegetables for clients, making a variety of floral and green products for drying, wreath making and much more.

11:00 a.m.       Depart Grand Way, drive 2.7 miles

The University of Vermont Medical Center Rooftop Garden
Lisa Hoare, 802-598-5963 (m)
Servicing the Garden Atrium exclusively, the Rooftop Garden is maintained by the hospital’s gardener, Lisa Hoare, and a handful of dedicated volunteers.  Growing lots of lettuces, tomatoes, fresh basil and other herbs, zucchini, tomatillos, eggplant and more, the Rooftop Garden supplied over 700 pounds of produce last year!  The rooftop garden also provides fresh cut flowers for the tables in the café and has started working with a very small patient group to begin introducing some of the healing benefits of being in the garden to our patient community.  Enjoyed by visitors, students, hospital employees and even patients, the garden provides a peaceful space to enjoy a healthy meal surrounded by the sights and sounds of nature under cultivation. 

12:00 noon                  Walk short distance to UVM Campus Gardens

University of Vermont Campus Gardens & Raised Beds                                                                 
Dr. Mark Starrett, 802-999-5467 (m)
Dr. Mark Starrett, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Horticulture and Dr. Stephanie Hurley’s lab group will provide a tour of the campus gardens and raised beds.  The highlight of the raised beds will include scented plants, annuals and herbaceous perennials.  Dr. Starrett will provide an overview of the plan to have a plant identification system include a QR code and braille tags. The garden tour will feature the sustainable landscaping, bioswales, the plant identification system and braille tags.

1:00 p.m.         Depart UVM, drive 6.2 miles.  Arrive at 1:30 p.m. for Garden of Eatin’ bag lunch

Gardener’s Supply Company
Avery Harris 802-660-3521 (m)
Avery Harris, Public Relations and Pure Play Coordinator will provide a tour.  Founded in 1983, Gardeners Supply Company is an employee owned company selling high quality garden tested and earth friendly products for gardeners.  Gardener’s Supply Company donates 8% of pre-sale profits to support programs and organizations that are using gardening to improve the quality of people’s lives and the health of our environment. In 2014, Gardens Supply Company became a certified B-corporation, a company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.  Local donations help support fifty community organizations.  Gardener’s Supply Company is the founder and lead sponsor of the Intervale Center.  Our visit to the Williston Garden Center and Outlet store will include time for shopping and strolling the display gardens.

Depart for the Burlington Hilton at 3:30 p.m.

 

2017 HT Activity Guide

This year will be an exciting year with NEHTN hosting the AHTA Annual Conference in Burlington, VT!  This provides our regional group with an opportunity to do some fundraising, one of which will be an HT Activity Guide.

An easy way for you to support NEHTN is by submitting one or more of your favorite horticultural activities for inclusion in the HT Activity Guide. 

More Info