VILLAGE MEMBER STORIES
Joan Cohen, Portsmouth
I had been living in Andover MA for 45 years, but one son lives in Eliot and had been nagging me to move up here for years. When my other son bought a house in Dover, his family joined the chorus. I began exploring places I might want to live, and settled on Portsmouth as an equidistant location between the two.
Why Portsmouth?
I had been telling them that I couldn't move up here unless I could create a life of my own—as a single person, and like most people our age, I did not want to be dependent on my kids for everything in life. Well before the pandemic, I had begun putting some pieces in place up here—I had been volunteering at 10,000 Villages for years, and recycling sneakers since 2017 with the Nike outlet in Kittery, among other things.
I finally sold my house in 2022, and after considerable research, decided to move to Spinnaker Point because it is not age restricted, functions as a community, has forest and trees that my dog, Lola, and I both need, and is very conveniently located. I'm still amazed that everything is 5 minutes away! When I moved, November 1, 2022, I began exploring the enormous variety of resources in the area. One of the first gems I discovered and fell in love with was Carey Cottage! It's a place Lola and I love to walk, and its history is fascinating.
What prompted you to join the Village?
Very shortly after I moved, one of the people I met at Spinnaker took me to a play at the Player's Ring which turned out to be a Village event. I had first read about the Village when it started on Beacon Hill in 1999 and was fascinated. I was still working full time, had a kid still in college, was taking care of my widowed mom, etc., but I loved the concept. So I was thrilled to discover that there was a nascent Village here—and located at Carey Cottage!!
When I filled out the application form I got drafted onto the Fundraising Committee because of past grant writing experience, and got to know Nancy and Cathy DiPentima (a neighbor) pretty immediately. (Cathy stops by with her dog, Penny.) I've only been a member for barely a year, but I'm hooked!
I've participated in a variety of activities, and volunteered for various occasions. And I talk about the Village to virtually everyone as an enthusiastic ambassador. I guess that led to my nomination to the Board, beginning just a few months ago.
Nancy and her colleagues have built an incredibly rich and active Village. I am amazed by the variety of activities, involvement of so many members, and genuine sense of community that she and others have created in so short a time. I'm still very much in learning mode, but I hope to contribute in whatever ways I can to the organization's continued growth.
What did you do before retiring?
Prior to retirement—unbelievably about 10 years ago—my career featured one foot in education and the other, longer ago, in health care administration. For about the last 25 years I and a colleague had a private practice in education consulting, working with high school students and their families essentially as private guidance counselors and culminating in college search and application. I loved working with the kids one-on-one and enjoyed virtually all of them.
Prior to that, I had been the Director of a hospital collaborative— eight hospitals, a few colleges, and a Board of 17! Throughout, I had been active in my community on various boards in both health care and education, so both have informed my working life. My private practice in education in fact grew out of my activity in public education in Andover, filling a perceived need not able to be met by the public schools.
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