Manchester, VT – At their annual meeting this month, the Vermont Land Trust honored Orton Family Foundation founder and Board Chairman Lyman Orton with the 2005 Francisca King Thomas and John Bailey Dunne Award for Vermonters who have profoundly influenced the lives of the people and communities in the state. As presented by the Vermont Land Trust, the award is in recognition of Orton’s "generous spirit, wisdom, and hard work on behalf of the Vermont Land Trust and the state of Vermont."
The full award citation reads as follows:
"Lyman Orton has deep family roots in Vermont. As proprietor of the Vermont Country Store, he believed that a truly successful business must serve not only its customers, but its employees and the communities they live in. While staying at the cutting edge of the highly competitive catalogue industry, the company has pushed decision-making, philanthropy, and profit-sharing down through the organization so that all employees have a stake in its success. Alarmed by the rampant development pressures that are consuming Colorado and are licking at Vermont, Lyman established the Orton Family Foundation to connect people to their history and give communities the tools they need to shape future growth. Jan Albers’ book Hands on the Land, community videos, early sponsorship of the Vermont Forum on Sprawl, and the CommunityViz software that lets people see how their decisions will play out on the landscape, all have been inspired by Lyman’s vision and leadership."