If your business could “loan” out one or two employees to do good work in the community, and, as a bonus, they would be trained with networking, interpersonal and professional skills — would you do it?

I think people like the idea of having general stores, like little local mom-and-pop style stores, for the fact that it’s part of New England’s local color,” says Willy Gomarlo, the new manager at Gilsum Village Store. “It’s always been that way around here long before any of us.”

Radically Rural is a two-day event Sept. 19-20 packed with programs to help small communities succeed.

This is the second installment of a three-part series on how to get the country back on track. I avoid saying “making America great again” because that’s both a political trigger and blatantly wrong. Although I may rail against the country’s direction, America remains the greatest sovereign …

Trump “The Disrupter” was elected because voters grew weary of the Washington status quo. They got it partially right: Change is needed. But expecting Donald Trump to facilitate that change was a miscalculation.

The problem isn’t the migration to an “on-demand” culture per se. It’s how easily we are relegating control to others. More alarming, the “others” we are becoming increasingly dependent on are invariably corporations more concerned with their best interests than with ours.

Somehow our priorities have shifted from getting a good education to ensuring that our children maintain all the comforts of home while attending school.

Before December 2018, Ingrid Aho a 2017 graduate of ConVal Regional High School was known for her pipes, singing in musical theater and choirs. After she graduated she thought about getting serious about her singing or going to college for music, but then life happened. Or more specifically,…

Kat Wood and Aaron Shields describe themselves as partners in life, work and play. Both are transplants to Keene who have settled in and are growing roots, both in their business, Mudita Massage & Wellness on Emerald Street, and in a community of young entrepreneurs that has sprouted in …

Five years ago, Danya Landis was a successful 23-year-old artist living in New York City. She had friends and work and connections in the art world. And her life could have gone on as it was. But five years ago, Landis decided that none of it was for her. She didn’t know why, but it just was…

Sonya LeClair, 41

Name: Debra Caplan

NAME: Katherine McLaughlin

Name: Holly Miller (daughter) 

Halvorson New Media

Dear Helaine,

Dear Helaine,

Dear Helaine,

Tedd Benson knows it is not enough to build sustainable homes. The manufacturing process that creates those homes must also walk the “green” talk.

Ever since I was 10 years old, I’ve been known as “The Green Up Girl.” I grew up in a small Vermont town and each year, on the first Saturday of May, our state would celebrate “Green Up Day” — a day when everyone would come together in their community to walk up and down each road, river and…

Every office relies on good lighting to enhance productivity, light workspaces, effectively sell and create products and so much more. Yet, the cost of lighting can account for up to 25-35 percent of a business’ energy cost, so the bulb you choose can have a big impact on your bottom-line.

How often do you eat out at a restaurant with business associates and find that you can’t finish eating the whole meal? Are you someone who wastes the food — or do you bring it home (quietly) in what we call “the doggie bag”?

It seems like passive investing — index and exchange-traded funds — have won the performance battle in today’s financial market. Trillions of investment dollars now rest in massive pools, while investors question why they pay active managers anything for investment advice.

High stress workplaces are like psychological Petri dishes; they are perfect places to grow nasty things.

At the end of June of this year, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, or the “internet sales tax case,” which overturned its prior case law that required “physical presence” before a state could subject a retailer to its sales tax collection and remittance l…

Press release submissions should be one of the communication options in the public relations arsenal of a business or nonprofit. One of the advantages of submitting a press, or news, release is that the business itself frames its story. Another is that the same story has the potential of bei…

On a pleasant spring day a few years ago, Jill Carson was enjoying some outdoor play time with her granddaughter. The focus of the play: bubbles. It was fun, but with her instinctive sense of quality control, Carson noticed that the bubbles and the medium of play were generally deficient. Th…

Suzanna Kamphuis’ startup, TotumVos, produces and sells multi-collagen chews in Keene. Collagen, if you weren’t sure, is the most common protein found in the body, offering support to everything from bones to skin.

Teresa Cadorette is a self-described “conscious capitalist.” And her inspiration for founding Chrysalis blends a moral intuition with a novel idea for the provision of medical services.

When people talk about downtown Keene, they use words like “vibrant,” and “vital.”

A small New Hampshire downtown fights back rising tide of online shopping, absentee landlords and years of Main Street vacancies

While Webster might associate “malaise” with depression, dejection and good old ennui, Marlborough’s Malaise is having quite the opposite effect.

It’s all about the bones. The bones of the old buildings in Bellows Falls, Vermont. That’s what’s bringing back this town in Wind­ham County that went through some bumps, scrapes and bruises for almost 100 years.

CONNECT2019: ‘WHAT’S NEXT!’

KEENE, N.H. — Radically Rural, a two-day Keene-based summit held for the first time in 2018 — and was host to 544 professionals from 21 states — will be held this year on September 19 and 20, 2019. In addition to its original roster of five tracks — Arts & Culture, Journalism, Entreprene…

Airbnb hosts in Cheshire County earned a hefty sum in 2018, according to a news release. Airbnb allows travelers to book reservations, short- or long-term, with homeowners through an online platform. Hosts in Cheshire County earned $850,700 through the platform last year and saw 6,800 guest …

WILLIAMSVILLE, Vt. — A Vermont-based staffing business hopes to encourage healthy habits while saving companies money. Michelle Mortimer of Williamsville, Vermont, said she acquired Wellness Works LLC a year ago, but a family hardship delayed her ability to focus on the business until recent…

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — The Rich Earth Institute has received multiple grants that total $145,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Fund’s Long Island Sound Futures Fund to divert nitrogen from the Connecticut River Watershed, according to a press release. The Rich Earth Institute is a nonprofi…

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Residents of Summerhill Assisted Living & Memory Care Community baked and sold more than 600 pies in 2018, totaling more than $4,000; the money was contributed to the Alzheimer’s Association. After participating in the annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Keene five yea…