Dummerston Cares Salutes Jean Momaney organizations

By Bill Schmidt

For all of the voluntary contributions Jean Momaney has made, and continues to make, to the town of Dummerston over many years, the Dummerston Cares Board has enthusiastically named her our Dummerston Cares Volunteer of the Season.

Jean has lived in Vermont all her life so far, in Vernon until 1943 and then Dummerston when she began second grade at the West Dummerston two-room school, now the Community Center. She moved to Dummerston with her parents and four siblings, graduating in 1951. This was the was the same year that the expansion of the West Dummerston school occurred. The expansion included a large classroom and a basement with a kitchen and storage room.

In the early 1950s Jean went to BUHS and was in the first class to receive four years of education at the new high school. In those days there was no bus transportation to BUHS. In her first year her stepfather, who worked in Brattleboro, took her to town and dropped her off at the high school, and then drove her home after he got out of work. For the remaining three years in her late teens, Jean rented a one-room apartment in a rooming house in downtown Brattleboro and walked to the high school from there. After graduation from BUHS, Jean worked as a clerk at the Grants Department Store in downtown Brattleboro and then did childcare for a Vernon family. Her next job was at American Optical as a lens inspector.

She married Francis Momaney in 1955 and with Francis had five children. It seems five was a favorite number for children in her birth family and her own family! Community minded, Jean was a 4-H leader for eighteen years and served for two to three years on the committee that developed plans for an addition to the East Dummerston school.

Following the town’s adoption of a zoning bylaw in 1972 Jean became Dummerston’s first zoning administrator, a position she held for twenty years. This position enabled her to meet newcomers to town, which she liked very much being the people-person she is.

Also in the 1970s, Jean and Cliff Emery were appointed by the selectboard to serve on the West River Basin Energy Committee. This committee studied the potential for electric else she has done for the town over the years. Another niche that Jean volunteered time for was that of a radio technician for the town’s emergency management office for several years after the turn of the century. Susan Daigler, who worked with Jean in emergency management at that time, commented that whenever something was needed in the community that Jean could do, she would step up and offer to do it. Susan emphasized that Jean is a do-er who gets things done. power generation at the site of the Jamaica dam. After seven years of meetings, it was decided the project wasn’t feasible.

With community service in her blood, Jean joined Shirley Perkins and Mary Tyler in 2005 to create Dummerston Cares. Shirley did the organizational work and Jean and Mary put together programs, luncheons, and started the Cares Helpline. In 2016, when Shirley moved to Middlebury, Jean helped Cares to continue through the formation of a new board and expansion of its programs and services.

When the West Dummerston school closed in 1995, Jean stepped up with Ann Davis, Lester Dunklee, Randy Hickin, and Brian Tyler to transform the building into a Community Center. They then formed a board to operate the new Community Center. Jean has served on this board as secretary to the present. Since 1997 she has been the “face” of the Community Center as the go-to person to open the Center for programs and events that have occurred there. Board chair Ann Davis describes Jean as energetic and passionate in all she does, very loyal and committed to following through in all she has taken on at the Community Center as well as in everything

Jean also was with Meals on Wheels as a volunteer driver for ten to twelve years starting around 2010. She delivered fourteen meals on the longest route, fifty miles in all, and was the oldest driver. She ended her Meals on Wheels driving in May 2021 following an accident resulting in a broken wrist, though she finished her route and drove herself to Grace Cottage. She’s a gutsy Vermonter!

Jean can’t stop giving others a hand. Now every Wednesday she takes a neighbor to the Senior Center in Brattleboro for lunch, and sometimes medical appointments. For this person Jean’s a marvelous helpmate and like a sister to her.

Jean’s the community-minded person whose life has helped make Dummerston the kind of town it is. We’re grateful to her for being the neighbor she has been and continues to be.