by Chris Graff This is not a column about Grace Potter. It easily could be. She is a star on the national stage who never loses sight of her Vermont roots and her Vermont neighbors. She is amazingly generous and has lent her voice and her star power to help Vermont and Vermont organizations.
Pictured from left to right at the Reason to Hope Dinner on May 20: Bob Miller, Matt Burr, Grace Potter and Holly Miller. The event's honorary co-chairs, the Millers were top bidders at an impromptu auction, taking home a guitar autographed by Grace Potter. Courtesy of Vermont Alzheimer's Association. CLICK ON PICTURE TO GO TO VIDEO, courtesy of Chris Graff.
This, however, is a column about Bobby and Holly Miller, who may lack Grace’s national celebrity but share her huge heart and love of Vermont. This is also a column about how critical successful businesses are to the fabric of our state.
Both Grace and the Millers showed their generosity at last week’s annual fundraising dinner in Burlington for the Alzheimer’s Association.
Grace is a national spokesperson for Alzheimer’s and was one of the headline attractions at the fundraising dinner. At the end of her talk she decided to surprise the audience by singing a song, and when that was over she decided to auction off her guitar. Grace wanted the total raised for the night to hit the $100,000 mark and it was sitting at $93,000. So she said let’s see what we can get for this guitar, which she promised to sign.
I was the emcee of the event and watched in awe as the bidding soared to $1,000, $1,500, $2,000, $5,000 and then to $10,000 – more than enough to blow through Grace’s $100,000 goal for the night. The winning bid was by the Millers, the honorary co-chairs of the dinner.
This may have been a spur of the moment bid by the Millers, but it was merely one of thousands of generous gestures and donations by the Millers, who have given away millions and millions of dollars to help all of us here in Vermont.
Bobby and Holly both grew up in Rutland – and both endured hardscrabble lives. Holly and her family moved on to Burlington in an area that Holly once described as “the war zone.” In a most telling story, she recounted for Seven Days how her mother once hocked her wedding ring to buy Christmas presents and how her guidance counselor at Burlington High School tried to dissuade her from taking college track courses, merely because of where her family lived.
“My guidance counselor called me in and said, ‘What are you thinking? You can’t go to college. Look where you are living – your family. Change those courses, take clerical and secretarial, and get a job… and help your family,’” Holly recalled in the Seven Days profile.
Bobby has been one of Vermont’s most successful businessmen, developing office space and commercial buildings throughout the state, focusing on strengthening downtowns in Rutland, Newport and other communities. That success has allowed Bobby and Holly to give back – and they have.
They have helped hundreds of organizations and made contributions to build programs and educational institutions and finance scholarships. They have never ever lost sight of their roots. When Irene devastated the state, they helped out time and time again. And their assistance has not just been with money. They give their time. And advice.
And that brings me to the final thought here: Our state owes so much to people like the Millers and to our business community.
The list of sponsors of the Alzheimer’s dinner was a who’s who of Vermont businesses: People’s United Bank, Green Mountain Power, National Life Group, Biotek and many others. Those names show up again and again – as do the names of other successful businesses – for providing financial support to causes and organizations in Vermont.
So many critical organizations could not thrive in this state without the support of the business community. And without the generosity of the Pomerleaus, the McClures, the Millers and so many other successful individuals who never lose sight of their roots.
And so I come back to Grace Potter. When Irene ripped apart this state – and hit her home in the Mad River Valley – Grace returned home to hold concerts and raise money to rebuild Vermont and to help her neighbors.
“Vermont has defined who we are as musicians, as business people, and as human beings,” she said at the time. “It’s a place where people go when they need to get back in touch with some piece of themselves that perhaps they lost touch with in a big city. It’s place of peace and humility; it represents our humble beginnings and our humble ends. This is the place we call home. So, to get a message on my phone telling me that I can’t get to the place where I live — that really tore me apart. I can’t imagine anything worse than not being able to get home. That’s where my heart is.”
Thank you Grace. Thank you Bobby and Holly.