LETTERS
To the Editor

Traffic Jam Band
I read Vermont Quarterly magazine “cover to cover” and have noticed the increased focus the University has shown towards volunteering. This is a really great direction and important message to send to students. Helping the community can only create more depth in character. I regret that there wasn’t more of a focus on this when I was a student in 1983! That is okay, I’m making up for it now.

The reason I am writing is because I experienced a very heart-warming act while I was in a traffic jam at the Ben Franklin Bridge headed towards Philadelphia. A group of “Alternative Spring Break” students were in a van marked “UVM” on a few bumper /window stickers. Since I am now a “flatlander” in New Jersey, and miss Burlington terribly, I always make a fool of myself waving to folks with Vermont plates, or UVM on their vehicle.

Well, a member of this group ran up to me (we really were in a four-lane parking lot!) He asked if I had attended UVM, and I explained my background of high school and college in Burlington. We had a nice chat, and that was it. Until, about 15 minutes later, he ran up again and was carrying a long-sleeved shirt they had designed for their trip. They were rebuilding homes in Vineland for the migrant farm workers. He gave me the shirt, explaining that they really wanted me to have it. This was a beautiful gesture which brought me closer to Vermont, and continues to do so every day I wear it. The words on the back of the shirt read: “What lies behind you and what lies before you are tiny matters compared to what lies within you.”
That group had a lot of good lying within them.

Greta Hallquist Daczkowski ’83
Sewell, New Jersey