In June, when news spread around the world that Vermont would pay people $10,000 to move to the state and work remotely, Bill Hunter of Morristown, N.J., took notice.
Hunter, 52, was working as a freelance content creator for websites, and he liked the idea of living in Vermont, a place where he had skied over the years and that promised a laid-back, small-town lifestyle.
Hunter quickly figured out that he wouldn’t qualify for the $10,000 through the incentive program passed by the Legislature last winter. The remote worker program, which is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, is still being set up by the Vermont Department of Economic Development, and Hunter said he is looking for work with Vermont firms to supplement his remote freelancing for websites.
But he took part in a weekend-long series of events organized for the department’s Stay to Stay initiative, another program created by state tourism officials this year. Hunter said he plans to move to Vermont if the right work opportunity presents itself.
“I like open space; New Jersey can be pretty densely populated,” he said. “The cold doesn’t bother me. I lived in L.A., and I had enough of the sun and warmth.”
The remote worker program, with its promise of $10,000 for people who moved into the state with their remote jobs, has earned a lot of press — 1 billion page impressions, according Mike Schirling, the secretary of the state’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
Many of the people who met at the Brattleboro Coop Monday as part of their Stay to Stay weekend said hearing about the remote worker program on social media or in the news got them thinking about a Vermont move. As they investigated, they discovered Stay to Stay.
Alexia and Chuck Delmoro of Greenville, S.C., plan to move to southern Vermont with their three teenage boys. They have already checked out the schools and Alexia Delmoro, a psychiatric nurse, had a job interview Friday at the Brattleboro Retreat.
The family was drawn to Vermont’s mountains and welcoming culture, said Chuck Delmoro, 43, a plumber by trade and a screen-printer on the side.
“Our middle son just wants to be out of South Carolina,” he said. “He has long hair, he’s a musician; he dresses in his own style.
“It’s cookie-cutter kids, very pro-Trump, where he’s at,” Chuck Delmoro said. “The boys can’t speak their minds. Where we live, it’s ‘join a church and be like everybody else.’”
The Department of Tourism and Marketing will spend $25,000 to $30,000 on marketing for the four Stay to Stay program events held simultaneously around the state this year. Visitors cover the cost of their own travel, lodging and meals.
Tourism Commissioner Wendy Knight said only 28 people had participated in the first three weekends, but 110 people attended the October weekends in four cities. Of the 28 who attended earlier, she said, four have already moved to Vermont, three are job-hunting and three have said they’re thinking of moving in the next year. Chamber of Commerce representatives, real estate agents, local business people and others attend the meetings to talk to the would-be migrants.
Sandra Hegedus traveled from a Cleveland suburb for the Brattleboro Stay to Stay weekend with her daughter Elizabeth Hegedus, 25. Elizabeth, who recently earned a bachelor’s degree in economics, learned of the program from a story in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
“The drivers here are very courteous, and there’s a progressive thought process and an acceptance of different kinds of people,” said Sandra Hegedus. “We don’t quite have that feeling in Ohio.”
Local manufacturer Fulflex, which makes custom elastic for a variety of industries, sent production manager Alex Cooley to the Monday morning mixer at the Brattleboro Coop. He talked to would-be Vermonters about jobs at Fulflex, where entry-level manufacturing workers can make $24 an hour. The company employs about 100 people now and is using a local search firm to find 15 more.
“Even if I don’t find anybody here, I’d like to be supportive of this kind of thing,” said Cooley, 28. “The age of this area is increasing, so there are fewer people available to work, and we want to make it attractive for younger people to come.”
After a weekend of events, the meeting-goers had a good grasp on the reality of Vermont winter (“I don’t like the summers in South Carolina,” said Chuck Delmoro); real estate (“you get more for your money in Vermont,” said Hunter) and Vermont’s political climate (“There’s an idea that people want to do something that’s good but also right,” said man named Orlando, whose business card indicated he was a Florida resort manager but who asked that his last name not be used out of concern he be seen as considering a move).
Knight said the department definitely plans to hold Stay to Stay weekends again next year.
The Stay to Stay visitors in Brattleboro were met with sunny cool fall weather and said they experienced kindness and friendliness from locals. The mixer-goers had absorbed a large dose of Vermont at its best.
“In Florida, you have a surfeit of sunshine, but not solar panels. Vermont, with its limited sunshine, is grabbing that free energy,” Orlando said. “People here worry about where their trash goes, the air they breath, the water they are drinking, not just for them, but for the community. The golden rule seems to apply in Vermont.”
