Catalysts for Change Receives Kirkus Review
A study of how various nonprofits have brought about progressive change in the state of Vermont, as told through the story of a former nurse and foundation founder.
Wilhelm anchors his account of the varied work of Vermont foundations and other nonprofit organizations by focusing on the inspiring story of Claire Lintilhac. She moved to the state in 1958 after having received training as a nurse providing various maternity services for poor people in China. She brought this hard-won experience to Fletcher Allen Health Care, Vermont’s largest hospital at the time, and her later creation, the Lintilhac Foundation, which focuses on a range of health and environmental issues. She went on to work with other nonprofits on causes involving land conservation, responsible journalism, and many other topics—including, most centrally, maternity and child health care concerns. Wilhelm goes into granular detail about the history of the foundation’s early years and personal stories of those associated with it; he also shades in Lintilhac’s own personality, giving the book a prominent emotional element: “There was something radiant about her,” says Mary Gibson, a nurse who worked with her. “She just emanated compassion and kindness.” The narrative broadens to chronicle the spread of natural-childbirth advocacy in Vermont, among other issues. Although Wilhelm spends a bit too much time on Lintilhac’s personal story, he makes the rest of the book feel winningly personal, with engaging profiles and affecting black-and-white photos from various sources. Wilhelm also does a smooth, confident job of extending his story into unlikely corners of state history, as when he provides an account of Benedict Arnold’s lost gunboats.
An entertaining and warmly human history.