The Rural We: Dan Bolognani
You may know Lakeville resident Dan Bolognani from his 20-year tenure as Interlaken Inn’s director of sales and marketing, or as a board member of many of our region’s important organizations, such as the Berkshire Visitors Bureau, Western Connecticut Convention and Visitors Bureau, the after-school program at Salisbury Elementary School, and the Partners in Education program. In 2015, Dan became the executive director of the Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area (a.k.a. “the biggest little nonprofit most people have never heard of"), where he’s been a proud member since 2003.
I was born and raised in Bennington, Vermont, attended high school in North Adams, Mass. and college back in Vermont where I majored in Communications. My very first job out of college was setting up slide projectors at a hotel conference center, and that led into a career in hospitality and marketing.
The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area was incorporated in 2000 and received federal designation in 2006. I started as a board member in 2003 — at that point we survived on individual donation and corporate funding, operating through a lot of volunteer work. I took the mission to heart and devoted myself to fulfilling it, becoming the treasurer and then the vice chairman of the board.
We’re a lesser-known program of the National Park Service, which most people have heard of, and we work in partnership with groups that are more familiar: historical societies, cultural sites, walking trails. We help them do better than what they already do; that’s the real mission that we’re on— not duplicating, but strengthening, what exists.
Heritage Walks was one of the very first programs, started 15 years ago, and it’s been very successful in that it creates collaboration between organizations and people who are like-minded. Volunteers serve as walk leaders and they really enjoy sharing their favorite places with other people.
Preserving our cultural heritage and incredible natural resources is a mission I believe in, and I find it super rewarding. It’s people power that gets things done, and I wish people volunteered more of their time and energy to nonprofits. There are really good organizations here, but they suffer from a lack of people offering their skills.
I really like this area, the people who live here and the rural openness of the land. You have a level of security in that you can live here much as our forefathers did; you can grow your own food and drink the water, unlike in other places. Our grandparents figured out how to be sustainable here and that’s very comforting. I can’t imagine living anywhere other than New England.
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