Our Central Caledonia WindowDressers (CCWD) Team’s big picture goal is three-fold: 1) to help residents of the five towns in our region stay warm during our long, cold winters in the most affordable and energy efficient manner possible; 2) to establish and strengthen relationships among neighbors in our local communities via our Community Builds; and 3) to help ensure the NEK does its part to contribute to meeting the state’s ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goal. Since our first build in 2021 when our team name was the "Sutton Build" (we became Central Caledonia in 2023), we have constructed 924 window inserts for 125 households in this primarily rural and low- to moderate-income region of Vermont. Of these, 31% of inserts were subsidized with a special reduced rate. While we are proud of our impact so far, we still need to reach hundreds of our neighbors to help them better winter-proof their homes. In an era marked by an affordability crisis and a retreat on the national level from our own and international clean energy and climate commitments, mutual aid efforts like ours are how we will secure a safe, equitable and sustainable future. As Heidi M., a CCWD volunteer, remarked after her first build, “This was a wonderful experience overall—I’m conserving energy, saving on heating fuel costs, and had fun meeting new people at the community build. It’s a win-win-win.”