BRATTLEBORO — Strolling of the Heifers — a local nonprofit whose annual parade has helped fund a $600,000 year-round program budget — is set to sell its central downtown headquarters due to a cash crunch sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organizers of a proposed River Garden Marketplace have told local leaders they are in the process of purchasing the glass-box building at 157 Main St. to use as a showcase for area products.
“Our plan is to create a combination of artisans, makers and local and Vermont vendors combined with a craft beer bar, kitchen and entertainment space,” said Timothy Brady, an owner of the nearby Whetstone Station Restaurant and Brewery.
The sale is the latest downsizing move by the Stroll, which had to cancel its programming in 2020 and 2021 and has yet to say whether it will continue its namesake parade.
“I am so sorry but we are not ready at this time,” founder Orly Munzing emailed VTDigger when asked to talk about the organization’s future. “We will have more info soon.”
Such reticence comes in contrast to the usually loud headlines the Stroll has reaped since its first parade in 2002 spurred national news outlets from the Wall Street Journal to the Los Angeles Times to juxtapose images of Spain’s “Running of the Bulls” with local farmers prodding cows up Main Street.
With its 2013 purchase of a year-round headquarters, the organization expanded its focus to growing the economy — specifically, agricultural production, processing and distribution that annually generate $4 billion and nearly 15 percent of all Vermont jobs.
The Stroll ran several four-season programs supporting agriculture and socioeconomic well-being, including farm-to-table apprenticeships in baking, butchering and cheese making, and a small business hatchery to help startup and early-stage employers with development support.
“Our job is to add value to the food that comes out of the earth to make it healthy and make jobs in the community,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said at the 2017 kickoff of the latter initiative, which received grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Economic Development Administration.
The organization thought it had faced its worst headlines two years ago when nearly a dozen climate change demonstrators, seeking to capture the attention of a crowd of thousands and a live Vermont PBS television audience, blocked the march with a 25-foot-long “Declare Climate Emergency” banner. But that interruption lasted only 15 minutes before police carried off the protesters.
Then came the pandemic, which canceled the 2020 and 2021 parades that would have raised about 65% of the Stroll’s annual budget. That, in turn, spurred the organization to shed its paid staff and suspend programming in the fall.
“Before the money runs out, we’re putting everything on pause and reevaluating to see where we can go in the new normal,” Munzing said in October. “We’re trying to hang in there, but we have to tighten up and conserve what funding we have.”
Since then, the Stroll has faced a $175,000 building mortgage that caused the previous owner, the nonprofit Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, to sell after similar financial struggles.
The for-profit River Garden Marketplace is aiming to purchase the property and open its eating, drinking and entertainment areas by Labor Day.
“We’re hoping this combination will pay the bills and create a cool environment at the same time,” Brady said.
