Dear VINES community,
Please join me i
n welcoming Amelia LoDolce, our first executive director, and Anthony Paolini, who is following in the muddy shoes of Sean Cummings as urban farm manager.
Amelia has been volunteering with VINES since 2007. She was one of our founding board members and the coordinator of the Liberty Street Community Garden. The past few years, Amelia worked for United Way of Broome County spearheading the Healthy Lifestyles Coalition’s Eat Well. Play Hard. Binghamton! project (a pilot initiative working to improve the health of families on the North Side of Binghamton). Previous to that, she was also the Sustainable Development Planner for the City of Binghamton. Amelia holds a Master’s degree in Agriculture, Food, and the Environment from Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. And she grew up on a farm in Otisco, NY! It’s hard, if not impossible, to image a better executive director for VINES.
Anthony is a 2014 environmental studies graduate of Binghamton University and worked in the Teaching Greenhouse there, developing a biological pest control system using beneficial insects. This past growing season he was the cultivation manager at First Light Farm in Carnation,WA. The season before, he worked at Closer to the Heart Farms locally. We are delighted to have him back in the area.
We are so fortunate to have the terrific team that we have – Youth Program Manager Natalie Hughes, FarmShare Manager Kate Miller-Corcoran, AmeriCorps member Danny Morales and now Amelia and Anthony.
Regards,
Amy Shapiro
Board Chairwoman
VINES