July 30, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 129 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session

[Pages S5185-S5186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         RECOGNIZING WHITE RIVER JUNCTION FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, White River Junction, VT, has seen a 
renaissance over the last 20 years. Led by a band of female 
entrepreneurs, this village tucked along the Connecticut River is today 
the home of dozens of thriving businesses. No fewer than 25 of these 
business are run by women, and together they are the core of a vibrant, 
growing community.
  Kim Souza, the owner of the consignment store Revolution, was one of 
the first business owners to move back to White River Junction. The 
first few years were tough, but with the support of her community, 
Revolution found its footing. Soon more businesses opened, and new life 
was breathed into the town.
  Across the street, Julie Sumanis and Elenda Taylor opened JUEL, a 
juice bar and cafe, in the ground floor of a new apartment building. In 
2008, Leslie Carleton moved from nearby Norwich to open Upper Valley 
Yoga. Seven years later, Kate Gamble opened Open Door, another yoga 
studio.
  The successes of these businesses did not come without challenges and 
difficulties, but their successes showcase the power of bold ideas, 
commitment, dedication, and, ultimately, community. In 2007, Kim 
thought Revolution would have to close its doors, until she found the 
backing of a local mother and daughter that allowed her to stay open. 
Catherine Doherty, the producing director of White River's Northern 
Stage theatre company, credits the community's support for keeping the 
company alive through challenging times.
  Today, White River Junction has become a destination and a cultural 
center of the region. The surge of development brought on by pioneers 
like Kim continues to bring new people into the town, some feeling 
empowered to start businesses of their own, to shape their futures, and 
to make the community stronger. This is the very heart of the American 
dream. The future of Vermont rests with entrepreneurs across the State, 
and I am glad to see it in such capable hands.
  I am proud to recognize the achievements of these women and the 
contributions they have made to the town of White River Junction and 
their broader communities. I ask unanimous consent to enter into the 
Record a Boston Globe article titled ``In White River Junction, sisters 
are doing it for themselves.'' It describes their successes and the 
challenges they overcame in helping to revive their town.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                 [From the Boston Globe, July 4, 2019]

      In White River Junction, Sisters are Doing it for Themselves

                           (By Kevin Cullen)

       White River Junction, VT.--Kim Souza opened her consignment 
     and thrift clothing store here in 2002, when this old, wheezy 
     village hard by the New Hampshire border was so deserted you 
     half-expected to see tumbleweeds rolling down North Main 
     Street.
       She let the locals know that beyond selling new clothing, 
     she would also sell used stuff and offered to buy gently used 
     clothes from them.
       Dancers at The Wrap, a strip joint directly across the 
     street from Souza's shop, began showing up regularly with 
     outrageously high platform shoes and audacious, skimpy 
     outfits. Souza had to wave them off when the strippers tried 
     to sell her their thongs.
       ``I had to draw the line somewhere,'' Souza said, standing 
     behind the counter of her store next to an elaborate 
     cappucino machine.
       The Wrap burned to the ground years ago, and in its place 
     has risen, phoenix-like, a modern apartment building, the 
     anchor of which is a ground-level cafe, apothecary, and juice 
     bar called JUEL, after its owners, Julie Sumanis and Elena 
     Taylor.
       The cafe, located on the corner of North Main and Bridge 
     streets, in the heart of downtown, captures the essence of 
     the renaissance of this old industrial village: On the same 
     spot where women were once exploited and objectified, two 
     young female entrepreneurs are running a thriving business.
       Souza, White River's pioneering businesswoman, recently did 
     some research and figured out that no less than 25 businesses 
     that have opened in the once-vacant and newly built 
     storefronts in the four-block downtown area are run by women.
       It wasn't planned. It isn't part of some high-minded 
     government-incentive program. It just happened. Organically.
       Souza was working at a travel agency in New Hampshire when 
     a mentor, Murray Washburn, suggested she start a business in 
     gritty White River, which is sandwiched in the Upper Valley 
     between the more genteel locales of Hanover in New Hampshire 
     and Woodstock in Vermont.
       Souza went for it, opening a funky clothing store in what 
     had been a frame shop for 30 years and called it Revolution, 
     which was prescient because she started one.
       Things were slow at first. After four years, Souza thought 
     she would have to go out of business. A local woman, Ann 
     Johnston, and her then-teenage daughter, Simran, loved the 
     store and were crestfallen when Souza told them she was going 
     to close up.
       ``What would it take to keep Revolution open?'' Ann 
     Johnston asked.
       The answer was financial backing, which Johnston and her 
     daughter provided, giving new, sustained life to Revolution, 
     and the revolution of female businesses.
       Souza said Leslie Carleton's decision to open Upper Valley 
     Yoga on North Main Street in 2008 was a pivotal moment. 
     Carleton's previous studio was in Norwich, a nearby, more 
     upscale town. Many of Carleton's well-heeled students 
     followed her, with some trepidation, to White River.
       Those mostly female yogis discovered something that Souza 
     has immortalized on a T-shirt she sells, emblazoned with the 
     words, ``White River Junction'' on the front, and, on the 
     back, ``It's not so bad.''
       ``When I came to White River Junction,'' Carleton said, 
     sitting at a table outside JUEL, ``it was still pretty rough. 
     It was dead on a Sunday morning. The sleazy strip club was 
     still there. The ATM at the strip club dispensed only $1 and 
     $5 bills.''
       But Carleton hung in there, and other yoga studios have 
     followed.
       Four years ago, Kate Gamble, a physical therapist, opened 
     Open Door, a one-stop wellness center, offering services 
     including yoga, physical therapy, acupuncture, and Chinese 
     medicine. At something she hosts called The Death Cafe, a 
     hospice nurse helps people ``be more comfortable about end of 
     life issues,'' Gamble said.
       ``This place reminds me of Brooklyn,'' Gamble said. ``It 
     was a dump, but a lot of people with energy and new ideas 
     have moved in and changed things.''
       Carleton harbors a nagging worry that it might become too 
     much like Brooklyn, with rents soaring and inventory drying 
     up.

[[Page S5186]]

       But given what White River Junction looked like and felt 
     like not so long ago, the pros seem to far outweigh the cons, 
     and officials in the town of Hartford, where White River is 
     located, are thrilled with all the new businesses and tax 
     revenue.
       And as freight trains roll through the downtown regularly, 
     blowing their horns, White River is not in danger of becoming 
     precious or pretentious any time soon. It retains a chunk of 
     its old grittiness.
       Taylor, 37, and Sumanis, 31, became fast friends when they 
     worked as waitresses at Elixir, an upscale restaurant here. 
     They had a shared interest in wellness, herbalism, and eating 
     healthy. More importantly, their bosses, Skip Symanski and 
     Jane Carrier, had set an example.
       When Symanski and Carrier opened a high-end restaurant here 
     10 years ago, people thought they were nuts. But Taylor and 
     Sumanis learned that if you build a quality business, the 
     people will come. It gave them the gumption to strike out on 
     their own. Three years ago, they started with a food truck. 
     When space became available in a new building, they went all 
     in.
       ``Elixir paved the way for a lot of us,'' Sumanis said.
       They also point to Souza as a nurturing maternal figure to 
     younger entrepreneurs.
       Souza gives credit to the male developers who remade the 
     town's footprint, but agrees there is a mutually supportive 
     business climate that has an especially feminine side to it.
       ``Women are by nature nurturing,'' she said. ``There is a 
     lot of mutual support and encouragement going on here.''
       Given that they both offer yoga classes, Carleton and 
     Gamble are technically competitors. But they routinely send 
     customers to each other's business, depending on what those 
     customers want and need.
       ``Everybody has each other's back,'' said Taylor, who has 
     given spare keys for JUEL to Gamble and Souza, whose 
     businesses are right across North Main.
       There are downsides to all this progress and prosperity. 
     You used to be able to park an aircraft carrier along North 
     Main Street. Now they limit free parking to two hours between 
     7 a.m. and 7 p.m., from Monday to Saturday. Things can get 
     tight, especially on weekends.
       And, this being Vermont, there are some who decry what they 
     dismiss as gentrification.
       A local blogger, Rejjie Carter, bemoaned what he calls the 
     colonization of White River Junction, writing that the land 
     where it sits belonged to the Abenaki tribe before settlers 
     showed up, and that landlords are now cashing in and driving 
     out poorer residents.
       ``Colonialism, capitalism, and private property are the 
     enemies,'' Carter wrote.
       Like I said, this is Vermont.
       Souza, who is a town selectboard member and committed to 
     many social justice causes, bristles at characterizing what 
     has happened here as gentrification.
       ``When women are opening businesses in a defunct town, it's 
     less about money and power and more about care and 
     community,'' she said. ``Gentrification happens when people 
     are displaced. There were no people in White River Junction 
     when developers like Matt Bucy, Mike Davidson, and Bill 
     Bittinger came along. Almost every single one of the old 
     empty buildings they rehabbed or the new buildings they 
     erected in vacant lots added affordable living space to our 
     community.''
       Two months ago, a teacher from the Hartford public schools 
     brought a bunch of students on a field trip to visit some of 
     the female-run businesses.
       ``It was a joy to listen to so many of the young girls ask 
     questions about how to start a business,'' said Souza. ``It 
     felt like something was happening.''

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