CRAFTSBURY – Twenty-six volunteers filled the Craftsbury Outdoor Center’s ski shop last Saturday, as they carried out the carefully designed steps to build insulating window inserts for community members in the three-corner area of Caledonia, Lamoille and Orleans Counties.
The Craftsbury, Glover, and Greensboro Energy Committees and the Albany Planning Commission worked together with teams of volunteers from Friday, Oct. 31 through Sunday, Nov. 9, to build 415 window inserts from kits provided by WindowDressers that will go to more than 60 homes in 14 towns.
This is the sixth year of the local project that now continues throughout the year as volunteers begin by sharing the benefits of the easy-to-install insulated window inserts made with two layers of plastic over a wooden frame. The inserts eliminate drafts when installed on the inside of windows, resulting in warmer buildings and lower fuel bills.
Community members learn about the mostly volunteer program developed by nonprofit WindowDressers in Maine from their neighbors and at various events where energy committees share information and often have sample inserts to examine.
Once a person decides to insulate some of their windows, a volunteer will come to their home, mobile home, apartment or business to take careful measurements and might recommend which windows are most likely to benefit from the inserts.
This year half the inserts “are being given away free to homes who cannot afford to buy them,” said the Craftsbury Energy Committee’s Chair Kevin Gregoire. “Several of those recipients are elderly, disabled, or busy with kids and work.”
Gregoire has been involved with the local program since it started and was the lead organizer for this year’s build.
Recipients of inserts are asked to contribute some of their time toward the construction, which helps keep the cost low.
With nordic skis, boots and poles in a section behind a counter, Olympic Rowing hopefuls joined the build during their free time between morning and afternoon practices.
Holly Drapp, who earned a bronze medal at the World Rowing Championships in pairs with Jess Thoennes at September’s 2,000-meter final in Shanghai, has been training with the Green Racing Project in Craftsbury for three years. She enjoys building window inserts each fall. “This is better than the row, sleep, eat routine,” she said.
Green racing project rowers said they enjoy the Craftsbury environment and alternative activities like building inserts, for which they volunteer to defer some of the cost of their training.
Halfway through the four-hour afternoon build session, Gregoire called for a break for volunteers to sip from various beverages, sample Jasper Hill cheese, energy bars, mandarin oranges, and various other snacks.
Volunteers pulled chairs into a circle during the break to visit, enhancing the community spirit, neighborly connections and new friendships that emerge from the week building window inserts. An aspect of the program that helps to make it so special, said many.
Roughly half of the community members helping last Saturday weren’t receiving inserts, but said they do it because it’s a community event that brings people together as they join in a common purpose to help save each other money and have warmer homes.
“With the pre-cut window frame kits, there are simple taping jobs and plastic application jobs for everyone, no minimum skill level required,” said Gregoire.
In addition to the four towns organizing the build, inserts went to buildings in Barton, Derby, Hardwick, Holland, Hyde Park, Orleans, Morrisville, Walden, Westmore and Wolcott.
Grants from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund, the Greensboro
Association, the Town of Craftsbury and the Concrete Foundation, helped to cover
some of the costs of the inserts. In addition, Efficiency Vermont and Electricity providers
offer individuals rebates on the window inserts they build for their homes and
businesses.
First time volunteers, Chris and Buzz Burhans, who live in Albany, saw the call for
volunteers on Front Porch Forum and signed up for one shift. “We didn’t know what to
expect so Buzz brought all his carpentry tools with us,” said Chris. “When we saw how
the event was set up and how simple the process was, with no construction experience
necessary and all the tools provided, we were hooked. We came back every day and
were so impressed with all the organization. It felt good to do something for others in
our community, especially in these challenging times.”
The Craftsbury Outdoor Center donated space for the Community Build again this year. Local businesses supported the event by providing hearty snacks and warm drinks, including Cate Hill Orchard, the Craftsbury Genny, Jasper Hill and Red Sky Trading.
Community members made a selection of sweet breads to help energize the volunteers. “By the end of the workshop, over 125 volunteers and insert recipients will have put in over 650 person-hours of effort building the window inserts at the workshop,” said Gregoire.
Each year’s build begins with a truck full of components and specialized tools to speed the assembly, almost completely eliminating the possibility of error.
The inserts begin with wooden frames that are covered with plastic on both sides and have foam around the edges to conform to imperfections in the window opening, making for a tight fit and eliminating air leakage.
Windows inserts being built last week came in all sizes, to fit openings as small as a foot square and as large as three by five feet, with some even larger.
For more information, or to order window inserts for 2026, go to the WindowDressers website at windowdressers.org.
Liz Steel
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
