Perry Thornley, a long-time Burlington community member, died on January 8th, 2026. He was found nearly frozen to death in Battery Park, lying in the snow after trying to stay warm for one more night, and died hours later. Perry was a tough, kind-hearted, street smart person. To local reporters, he was a headline: “Burlington homeless man found in city park died of hypothermia”. To those who considered him street family, he was a mischievous, funny, treasure of a guy. To those who knew him as someone they recognized on a corner, he was a familiar face who would chat with anyone. To those who saw him at his worst, he was someone they wished would go away. In other words, he was a human being with all the depth and messiness that includes. He was a human being who didn’t have the option of being at his worst in a home with privacy and support. He had to live his life outside for all to see. He lived 61 full years in a world that didn’t know what to do with him. 

Perry lived with both deep pain and trauma, and with psychiatric disabilities that he often self-medicated with alcohol. His brain would show him things that the rest of us couldn’t see, and when coupled with his deep faith in God, he often felt he received divine connections the rest of us never understood. Living in a world that was just slightly different than the one that most of the people around him saw led to a lot of difficult days. He had received no-trespass orders from most of the buildings and organizations where services for unhoused neighbors are provided, leaving him with very few options. When Perry died there were open beds at a shelter just down the street, but after previous experiences there, he believed he wasn’t welcome and had received a no-trespass order at their former location. Each winter, when the temperature started to plunge enough to kill someone from exposure but not cold enough to trigger emergency winter shelter options, Perry did what many others have done before: he would cause just enough trouble to get put in jail where he could stay warm. Just a few weeks before he died he had been released from Corrections into the cold with nothing but DOC-issued scrubs on. When Perry died, having been discharged from prison, not welcome at the hospital or shelters, and alone on a frigid January night, that spot in Battery park where he could sit with his tiny nip bottle of whiskey and  take comfort in his view of the church was his best option.

Perry mattered. His life was meaningful. He was loved and is deeply missed and the world is worse off from losing him. May he rest in warmth and abundance now.  May we all do better for the other Perrys in our communities. May we all come together and decide that a patchwork of underfunded services that leave someone to freeze to death in a public park cannot be the way we take care of each other. 

Perry’s obituary: https://www.sevendaysvt.com/life-lines/obituaries/obituary-perry-edward-thornley-jr-1964-2026/

A look back at 2025:

2025 was a very, very busy year. We more than doubled our funding budget to meet the needs in the community. We began 2025 with $10,000 allocated for grants and projects and had already spent that by July. Thanks to emergency fundraising and reserve funding, we were able to send $26,544.13 out into the Burlington community.

Where did that money go?

Housing: $16,235.70 (61.2%)
At a time when our community struggles with affordable housing, it’s not surprising that over 60% of our funds went to help people with housing costs and repairs. We supported 11 households with rent and mortgage assistance, moving costs, wheelchair accessibility improvements, and negotiations with landlords to maintain housing.

Holiday Senior Dinner: $2,244.08 (8.5%)
After existing end-of-year dinners for older neighbors were canceled this year, we came together with local partners including the ONE Community Dinner, the Heineberg Senior Center, and Feeding Champlain Valley to host our first Holiday Senior Dinner on Dec. 18th. We served approximately 170 meals during the event and another 88 were delivered after the event to local shelters and family centers. We were thrilled to welcome guests 55+ from different parts of our community with different life experiences and give them the opportunity to connect.

Fiscal Sponsorship: $1,985 (7.4%)
One of the ways we work with grassroots partners is to serve as a fiscal sponsor for them so they can receive grants and donations that are only available to nonprofits. In 2025 we were pleased to continue to provide fiscal sponsorship for the ONE Community Dinner so they are able to receive grants for the incredible work they do!

Basic Needs: $1,877.59 (7%)
Through our partnerships with individuals and grassroots groups who provide on the ground assistance to neighbors in need, we paid for emergency supplies for community members with limited resources, often during nights and weekends when other services were closed. We purchased hygiene products, warm outerwear, first aid materials, blankets, over-the-counter medicines, and much more.

Food: $1,700 (6.4%)
We are privileged to live in a community with incredible grassroots and volunteer groups who provide free meals and run food pantries. It was our pleasure to supply funds for four groups and help fill in the gaps that other fundraising doesn’t cover.

Neighborhood Projects: $1,314.94 (5%)
The ONE Good Deed Fund was started on the belief that personal wealth shouldn’t be required for individuals to do good work and every year we fund projects that benefit an entire neighborhood or the whole community. In 2025 we funded materials for mural projects, dumpsters and cleaning supplies for a clean up event, and outreach materials for a community-led planning process.

Fuel Assistance: $812.90 (3.1%)
With Vermont winter weather kicking in well before the November start date for state fuel assistance, we provided three seniors with emergency heating fuel to keep them and their homes warm during very cold temperatures.

Administration: $373.92 (1.4%)
As an all volunteer organization, our administrative costs are minimal. These funds were spent on our website hosting, postage, and office supplies.

We could not do any of this work without the support of our community. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your collaboration and support!

At the end of October, we found out that Burlington Parks, Recreation, and Waterfront was no longer holding their annual dinner for seniors due to budget cuts, and that HANDS, who had delivered gift bags and grocery cards to senior neighbors, was closing down. Our board president reached out to the executive director of the Heineberg Senior Center and the coordinator of the ONE Community Dinner and in a few hours we decided that we would make sure our older neighbors had a community dinner after all. In six short weeks we put together an event at the ONE Community Center on Dec. 18th that we are so proud of. Over 150 older neighbors came out enjoy good food and great company and 30 volunteers worked hard before, during, and after the event to make sure it was the best it could possibly be. This was a true community event with guests from near and far. It was a gift to all of us to be part of it!

Our gratitude goes out to Feeding Champlain Valley who provided the turkey dinner with additional dishes and ingredients from Frankie’s, Miss Weinerz, City Market, Deep City, Intervale Community Farm, Diggers’ Mirth Collective Farm, Great Harvest Bread Co., and Cafe HOT; to Twincraft Skincare, Ursa Major, and HoneyBee / Heather for providing gifts for guests and volunteers; to the ONE Community Dinner for their incredible organizing and logistics help; to the Heineberg Senior Center for their support with registration and transportation; to the Elks Lodge for use of their serving platters; and to Champlain Housing Trust for the discounted rental fee for the Event Hall.

A Look Back at 2024 from the ONE Good Deed Fund

Thinking back on 2024, we are both heartbroken at the number of neighbors here in Burlington, VT whose basic needs are going unmet, and hopeful that so many people have joined with us to step in and help stabilize lives. We were fortunate to continue partnerships with grassroots groups and individuals on the front lines who are doing amazing work. We raised and distributed over $10,250 to pay for foot care clinic co-pays for seniors for the next year, groceries for families moving from shelter to permanent housing, repairs for a neighbor’s home that was going to be deemed uninhabitable without the intervention, and much more. We held drives for clothing and toiletries, connected community members who wanted to get involved with groups in need of volunteers, and served as a fiscal sponsor for $3000 worth of grants to small groups who otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access the funding.

It is an honor to be able to help our neighbors in this place we love. We know the year ahead will bring more challenges, but it will also bring more opportunities to come together and support each other. Never forget that we belong to each other, friends. May we all stand up for each other with radical hope and compassion in 2025.

Back in 2014, three friends who had worked in the local government and nonprofit sectors and seen the deficits in those systems, got together to create a small fund to make sure that money wouldn’t be a barrier for individuals who wanted to do something nice for their neighbors. We raised $800 to cover the costs of incorporating as a nonprofit and to give out in our first grant round and had no idea if we would last a year. A decade later, we’ve raised and given out over $100,000 and done so much more than we ever dreamed.

In the last ten years we’ve:

– fulfilled over 400 grant and project requests,
– been a fiscal agent for $31,000 so that small groups could access money from larger funders
– built and installed a network of little free pantries in Burlington,
– partnered with local groups to fund and project manage making a home wheelchair accessible,
– raised and paid out $35,000 in utility bills and rent between March and May 2020 for Burlington residents who lost their jobs due to the pandemic,
– partnered with local healthcare outreach workers to develop and fund outdoor wound care kits to bring to neighbors living outside,
– paid for dumpsters and organized volunteers for 16 neighborhood cleanups,
– funded food distribution efforts by 6 grassroots groups
– organized 10 community gatherings that brought neighbors together for meals and conversations,
– and so much more!

The majority of the donations we receive are less than $100 and the ONE Good Deed Fund is proof that volunteers and grassroots donations can do an amazing amount of work in one community. It has been an incredible privilege to be part of this work. In times when the world has felt so dark, seeing so many people willing to share their hearts and resources with neighbors has been a gift. Thank you to every single one of you who has been part of this!

2023 felt like a very long year. Burlington saw some very difficult situations and divisions, and it was easy to feel hopeless. But there were so many moments when neighbors came together and kept pushing for a community where we all care about each other that we just can’t be hopeless. We were relieved to be able to play a small part. In 2023 we:

• Distributed over $5000 in small grants to individuals and groups
• Partnered with a local homeless healthcare program to fund non-driver IDs so that individuals can enroll in benefits programs, and we worked together to design an outdoor wound care kit that we funded, helped them distribute, and then shared the instructions and materials list with other groups so they could be replicated
• Provided financial support to six grassroots food access groups who are making sure our neighbors are fed
• Raised $2000 to replace a broken hot water heater for a senior neighbor on a fixed income
• Served as the fiscal sponsor for $3600 in sponsorships from a local bank so that money could get to groups that otherwise wouldn’t be able to accept it without their own nonprofit status
• Increased the amount we give out in our individual and group grants

As an all-volunteer group, we do this because we believe that we belong to each other and that it’s up to each one of us to step up and make sure our neighbors know they’re not alone. In April we’ll celebrate our 10th anniversary and it’s astounding to realize we’ve given out over $60,000 in small grants and project funding, and provided fiscal sponsorship for another $28,000. We’ve been able to do this because of hundreds of people putting their faith in our work. We only exist because of the trust and support of our beautiful community.

Thank you for being part of this!

Hello friends – board president Laura Hale here! Just wanted to share a story of how good things can still happen these days even when everything feels really difficult. A few months ago, a friend got in touch because a family she knew with a member who uses a wheelchair was living in a very small, very inaccessible apartment in our neighborhood and was dealing with all the trauma that comes with unstable and inadequate housing. Finding housing in Burlington is hard enough with a 1% vacancy rate, and finding wheelchair accessible housing that is vacant is nearly impossible with just 3% of all housing stock accessible (whenever possible, please advocate for affordable AND accessible housing!). But we were undeterred. With a whole lot of networking and private fundraising, we were able to find a rental home in Burlington with an owner who would let us install a stair glide and wheelchair ramp. The stair glide and ramp were just installed yesterday, the family moved in, and is now safe and stable for the first time in a long time. My friend who reached out to me and I are both volunteers, so we did nearly a full time job’s worth of work for three months unpaid to make this happen, along with a seriously awesome Medicaid case manager, and the truly wonderful family. It was a combination of hard work and pure luck that got us here. It gives me hope that a small group of people can come together and make some magic happen.

I’m going to get up on my soapbox for a second but please bear with me. The reasons I mentioned that we’re volunteers and that the fundraising was private were two fold. First, it haunts me to think of all the people who don’t get connected by essentially chance to people who have the time to make that effort and who have the connections to get it done. We as a society need to do a much, much better job with our social safety nets. People fall through cavernous cracks every day. Second, raising funds privately without very public gofundmes means no one has to share their story if they don’t want to just to survive. People with means are able to get help all the time without ever needing to share their trauma publicly. Privacy is something everyone should be afforded – not just those with financial security.

If you need hope, know these small wins happen all the time. I don’t promote this work that happens outside our grant rounds at the ONE Good Deed Fund often because I truly believe that supporting people in our community is something that is done without strings attached and without publicity that pushes them into the limelight. It probably makes me a terrible marketer for this fund that I started seven years ago and put my whole heart into, but I’d rather stay under the radar and do good work that respects the privacy of those we work with than raise our profile and grow. It’s an honest privilege for me to be able to put a some good out into the world without requiring anything in return. I prefer to work side by side in solidarity and I’m grateful I have the chance. I just want you all to know that even when it looks like everything around is fall apart, there is so much you don’t see that shows just how amazing we humans can be. Also check out the sweet wheelchair ramp! Big thanks to Chad at Access Mobility in Williston for being frickin’ awesome to work with

Dear friends,

How are you doing? I hope you’re ok. “Ok” seems like a good goal. I don’t know anyone who is 100% great right now, and I don’t blame them. I think many of us are deep down in our soul tired. 2020 tested all of us in different ways. I miss everyone. I’ve lived here in the Old North End for 13 years, and have been in the Burlington area for 20, and I didn’t realize how much I rely on running into folks I know around town for my well-being. If you know me, I miss you. Let’s have coffee when this is over!

Though I wish none of it was necessary, I’m so proud of the work we did in 2020. We raised and gave out over $30,000 in COVID relief to people who lost their jobs, we provided a financial structure for several grassroots groups who needed to be able to accept donations, and we built and installed a network of little free pantries throughout Burlington to supplement all the excellent hunger relief work going on. 
Speaking of the Little Free Pantries, they are open for everyone to access! They are available for anyone to leave or take nonperishable food and toiletries, so please use them! They are located at:

• New North End Little Free Pantry at 51 James Avenue
• Old North End West Little Free Pantry at 197 North Avenue
• Old North End Central Little Free Pantry at 125 Elmwood Avenue   (follow them on Instagram)
• Old North End East Little Free Pantry at 342 North Winooski Ave
• Old North End Battery Park Neighborhood Little Free Pantry at 24 Front Street
• Upper Loomis Little Free Pantry at 235 Loomis Street
• South End Little Free Pantry at 399 South Winooski Ave

You can always find the locations and an interactive map on our projects page. And good news – we’ll be looking for homes for more in the spring! If you’re in Burlington and would like to host one, let me know and I’ll send you the application as soon as it’s available.

The one thing that has given me hope in the last year is the tremendous number of people who have stepped up and helped out wherever they’ve seen a need. Here are a few of the grassroots groups around here who have been doing incredible work getting food, clothing and other basic needs out to neighbors. I like to think of all of us as partners instead of competitors for resources (that scarcity mentality just drives us all apart) so please consider giving them you’re financial and volunteer support too:

• The Iceberg Project
• Food Not Bombs Burlington
• The People’s Kitchen
• Old North End Mutual Aid
• Winooski Mutual Aid

In addition to installing more Little Free Pantries this spring, we’re also working on ways to get free gardening materials out to neighbors and, of course, giving out grants to support good deeds and neighborhood projects, so stay tuned. Thank you for caring, thank you for your support, and thank you for being part of my community, no matter where you are.


All the best,

Laura Hale
ONE Good Deed Fund Board President
   

The last month has been a wild ride! Since we opened the COVID-19 special relief fund on March 18th, we have raised a little over $31,000 and given out $27,000. We expect to give out the remaining $4,000 by the end of next week. Our goal when we opened this emergency fund was to fill the gap for people who lost work because of COVID-19 closures while unemployment and other long-term funds came online, and we had expected to only be running this for a few weeks or a month. But given the difficulties with unemployment, we decided to keep going. Now that people are finally getting unemployment and state and federal dollars are available through other nonprofits, we feel we’ve done what we set out to do and will be closing this emergency fund next Friday, May 1^st to new applications. That will be 45 straight days of providing financial support and we’re proud of the work we’ve done. We’re also ready to transition to working on projects that support multiple people at once.

To that end, we are thrilled to announce our Little Free Pantry project! We originally set aside funds for this early last year, but it’s turned out to be quite timely. Local contractor and woodworker extraordinaire Nick Carr has built Little Free Pantries for us to share with the neighborhood. We will be donating three to Old North End residences and then subsidizing half the cost of four more for residences anywhere in Burlington. More information and the application is online now.

Partnerships are the lifeblood of relief work and we are going to continue to support grassroots groups by serving as their fiscal sponsor, free of charge, so they can access foundation dollars. We became a 501c3 partly to provide structure and support for small groups and that has turned out to be very necessary these days. We’ve provided fiscal sponsorship for three groups so far, and are going to partner with the Food Relief Project, organized by Will Clavelle, that is purchasing groceries and getting them to local restaurants, who then cook meals that are distributed to nonprofits in Burlington, who are getting them out to their clients. We will be providing both fiscal sponsorship and funding to this excellent resource.  We have also been partnering with the Old North End Arts & Business Association and Mascoma Bank to get gift cards at local ethnic markets to New American families who don’t have access to culturally appropriate food. It’s been a win-win of getting money to businesses and getting resources to folks who need them.

It’s been a heck of a month and a half for this small, all-volunteer organization, but it’s been a gift to be able to help in any way we can. We look forward to continue to organize and fund relief efforts for the next few months at least, while also filling grant requests through our main individual good deed and neighborhood projects funds as always.