May 2026
- Bailey McLaughlin
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Trilliums, trout lilies, columbine and spring beauty have emerged and painted the forest landscape of the cemetery. These spring ephemerals are fleeting and some wildflowers, like red trillium, take years to produce a single bloom. You never know what you’ll find reaching towards the light under the leafy loam of the forest floor. We are open every day from dawn to dusk and we hope that you’ll visit and catch this beautiful display before the lush green ferns of summer take hold.
Dive into this month’s newsletter to learn about:
A paid opportunity to join our team
Home Burial workshop with Green Mountain Funeral Alternatives
Final Virtual Q&A for the winter season
First Cemetery Stewardship Day of 2026
Cemetery Tours
Our first Cemetery Stewardship Day of 2026
Screenings of From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America
First Bird Walk at the Cemetery with Evergreen Erb
Cottage for Connection Fundraiser
Dirt Camp
Now is the chance to join the VFC team!
At VFC our small staff works together to make sure families and mourners have the opportunity to experience a deeply meaningful burial for their loved one. As our operation continues to grow we are in need of a talented administrator to help us stay organized and manage the behind the scenes that make VFC possible. If you’ve always wanted a job that makes a real difference in people’s lives and support our natural communities while letting your accounting and event planning skills shine, this is the role for you.
If you or someone you know would be interested in this role please send a cover letter and resume to Jim Hogle at info@cemetery.eco.
Curious about the process of doing a Home Burial on your own land? Green Mountain Funeral Alternatives will be hosting a virtual workshop on Tuesday May 26th from 6:00pm - 7:30pm led by our Founder Michelle Hogle Acciavatti. This workshop will cover: how to determine if your property qualifies, how to site a cemetery on your property, how to work with your town for approval, how to amend your deed and create an easement, and how to plan for burial at home and complete the necessary paperwork with or without a funeral director.
The cost for this workshop is $35 - 50 per household, but please contact us if you have concerns about cost. There are still spaces available and we hope to see you there!
Join us for our final Virtual Q&A session for the winter season on Thursday May 28th from 6:00pm - 7:00pm. During this session, we will address common questions about natural burial, including:
What is natural burial?
How does it differ from traditional burial?
What are the environmental and ecological benefits?
How does Vermont Forest Cemetery preserve the natural landscape while creating a meaningful final resting place?
Our first cemetery stewardship day will be Saturday May 30th from 10am - 4pm. Volunteers of all ages are invited to help maintain and enhance our trails and green spaces. Whether you're passionate about preserving nature or enjoy outdoor activities, your efforts will make a meaningful impact.
Missed a virtual session? Don’t worry, we’ll begin offering these again next January! In the meantime, we encourage you to stop by the cemetery for a tour! From June through November we will offer three in person tours a month led by our Founder and Head Cemeterian Michelle Hogle Acciavatti, Cemeterian Bailey McLaughlin and Docent Jen Whitman.
Our Founder’s Tour in June is completely full and the next Founders Tour will take place on July 5th from 2:00pm - 3:30pm.
Our Cemeterian’s Tour will take place on Saturday June 13th from 10am - 11:30am.
Our Docent’s Tour will be on Sunday June 28th from 10am - 11:00am.
Tours are an excellent way to learn about the history of Vermont Forest Cemetery, the process of natural burial, meet like minded community members, ask any questions you may have, and learn some of the stories the forest holds. If you are interested in VFC as your final resting place, we encourage you to bring along family and friends so they can become familiar with how to support your wishes at the end of life.
Join us on Saturday May 30th from 10:00am - 11:30am at the Brown Public Library in Northfield for a screening of the award winning documentary, From Earth to Earth: The Lost Art of Dying in America and Q&A session with founder Michelle Hogle Acciavatti, Board President Jim Hogle and Cemeterian Bailey McLaughlin. We are thrilled to be able to bring the documentary so close to our cemetery home town!
On Saturday June 13th from 1pm - 2:30pm we’ll be showing the documentary at the Martha Canfield Memorial Free Library in Arlington!
Would you like to have a screening in your town? Email Jim Hogle at info@cemetery.eco with a recommended venue and we will do our best to host a screening near you. We are adding new screenings all the time and we encourage you to keep an eye on our website and social media to learn about the latest screenings.
We are thrilled to announce our first bird walk with Evergreen Erb on Saturday June 21st at 10am. Come walk the grounds of the cemetery and learn about all the different species migrating back to the green mountain state!
Fundraiser
We are halfway through our annual fundraiser and as of May 16th we have raised a little over $3,800! We are thrilled to announce that the next $2,500 of donations will be matched, dollar for dollar, by a generous donor in memory of Kyla Allon. This is your chance to double your impact!
We want to create a space for families and mourners to gather before their burial ceremony with their loved one and for visitors to reflect and recharge in another place of soft refuge under our canopy. Our Fundraiser will take place from May 1 through May 31 and every gift no matter the size gets us one step closer to building our cottage for connection.
If you have already made a donation, shared with a neighbor that we are fundraising or shared us on Facebook or Instagram - we are so grateful for your support! Thank you!
Dirt Camp
The start of Dirt Camp is just around the corner!
Dirt Camp is a multidisciplinary, educator led, place based learning summer day camp for adolescents aged 8 through 14 in Roxbury and neighboring towns. Our mission at Dirt Camp is to facilitate service ecology learning experiences while simultaneously fostering community building opportunities for local youth in the context of Vermont’s forest ecosystem. Campers can expect to design and collect data for experiments, participate in naturalistic observation, grow in their creative capacity through nature based art, and explore their empathy for all things living and nonliving.
There are still spaces available for campers for our 2026 session which takes place Monday June 22nd through Friday June 26th from 9am - 3pm.
Those of us who work at Vermont Forest Cemetery are committed to providing the best possible service to our community, and encourage you to contact us at any time with questions, concerns or ideas at info@cemetery.eco.
We value your continued support and are deeply indebted to those of you who have volunteered to help build trails, participate in burials, or just bear witness for those experiencing loss; for those who chose to make tax deductible donations, and to those who have chosen to support us through advanced purchases of burial rights. Thank you for your continued support!
We hope to see many of you at the cemetery. It is a beautiful place in all seasons, made all the more beautiful by the stories it holds.
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