By Hillary Brown

Photograph by Aileen Meehan, courtesy of Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

The question came up again and again during Wendy Curtis’s time on the Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation (BTCF) board: What do you do locally? In 2001, the Millerton resident turned that question into action, helping launch NorthEast Dutchess Fund (NED)—the first of the foundation’s nine area funds. Twenty-five years later, more than $5 million has flowed into grants that support art programs, legal clinics, food pantries, and health care across the county. Grant decisions flow through a committee of local advisors who know their towns and neighbors firsthand. One recent success story involved an elderly couple facing winter with a badly damaged roof. Working with a local housing organization, NED provided an emergency grant for repairs, and the couple was back home for Thanksgiving. The challenges continue to grow, as the need for food assistance surges, housing costs threaten to displace seniors and low-wage workers, and getting to doctors, jobs, and essential services grows harder as rural transit vanishes.“None of this would be possible without partnerships,” says Sarah Stack, NED’s current chair and a Clinton Corners resident. “We rely on local nonprofits alerting us to the greatest needs, community members who understand the importance of helping neighbors, and BTCF for their resources and expertise. “Twenty-five years after Curtis was asked that defining question, the answer is clear. What does NED do locally? Everything. —berkshiretaconic.org