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Watch now as they show us everything that makes their community a great hometown.

(light music) Little Compton sits on the southeast corner of Rhode Island.

This land was originally inhabited by Sakonnet and Cokesit people.

It was incorporated all the way back in 1682.

Little Compton is not so little.

It's larger than Providence.

However, almost 1/3 of the land is conserved.

People here are passionate about protecting the beautiful coastal landscape.

A mix of summer and year-round residents share a fondness for small town living.

Little Compton has a big heart.

Folks here are supportive of many diverse causes around town.

These are their stories.

This is "Our Town: Little Compton."

First, let's dive into how Little Compton has managed to stay little.

The town has more than 4,000 acres of land protected from any kind of development.

Sakonnet Preservation Association president, Abigail Brooks, brings us this story, filmed by her son, Gabriel Long.

(light piano music) (waves crashing) - I'm Abigail Brooks.

I'm the president of the Land Trust in Little Compton called the Sakonnet Preservation Association, and I am standing here at the entrance to Lloyd's Beach, which marks the southernmost part of the landscape of Little Compton.

(light music) This part of the coastline is extraordinarily rich with migratory and also year-round habitat.

So it's been a popular place for people to fish, and to bird watch, and to enjoy themselves at the beach.

(waves crashing) Straight out from here, you can see two columns and a quarter column standing on the islands, and those are the remnants of a fishing club that was out there from 1865 to 1906 that hosted people like JP Morgan, and President Chester A. Arthur, as well as other fabulously wealthy industrialists.

East Island, which you can see as a sort of hummock, a granite hummock out there, was used as the kitchen garden and dairy-producing spot for the summer kitchen of the club.

So there was a vegetable garden there, there were chickens out there, and there was a cow or two, and during bad weather, the cows needed to be brought over to the main island.

So, there was some tricky business going on out there.

These islands are not easily accessible.

There are not beaches on them.

They have rocky coastline.

They're hard to get onto.

You have to plan it around the tides, getting onto them.

So it's quite miraculous, actually, that so much went on on West Island with this fishing club, considering how inaccessible and, to some degree, inhospitable it was.

By 1906, the club closed because it just didn't have enough membership to sustain it.

So it was put up for sale, and one of the members bought it, and held onto it through his lifetime, and when he died, his heirs gave it to the Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island.

Then, the Episcopal Diocese held onto it until the early 1950s, and they put it up for sale, and Jesse Lloyd O'Connor, the daughter of the family for which this beach is named, was worried that it might be developed again, and so she purchased it and held onto it until the early 1980s.

In 1983, she gave it, essentially for a dollar, to Sakonnet Preservation Association.

(waves crashing) So in 2006, we had a conservation biologist spend time on the islands, documenting all of the plants and various uses that wildlife was putting to these two islands.

So we did discover, as a result of doing this baseline biological survey, that the largest population, Double-crested Cormorants in Rhode Island, is on these islands.

These islands are part of a mosaic of conservation in this area that includes the uplands above this beach, which have been protected with a collaboration between the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, Audubon Society, and The Nature Conservancy.

And, these coastal areas are so important that that many organizations are willing to collaborate on working to make conservation happen here, just by slowing down, and paying attention, and knowing that this conserved land and this particular area provides so much to wildlife, just feels like a real gift.

(waves crashing) - Awashonks was a Native American woman and sachem, or chief, of the Sakonnet tribe.

She lived where Little Compton is today.

Her name actually appears in more official records than any other Native American woman.

In this piece, we learn more about Awashonks and the other people indigenous to this land, thanks to the Little Compton Historical Society and filmmakers, Lily and Cameron Clark.

- I'm Marjory O'Toole, the Executive Director of the Little Compton Historical Society.

Little Compton sits on the traditional homelands of the Sakonnet and the Cokesit people.

The Little Compton Historical Society is deeply committed to researching, preserving, and sharing their stories, and we will be sharing what we learn in the year 2025.

That year is 350th anniversary of the English settlement of Little Compton, as well as the 350th anniversary of King Philip's War.

Those two events changed the lives of the Sakonnet and the Cokesit people forever.

In the 1600s, Sakonnet and Cokesit were home to large indigenous communities that were relatively untouched by the terrible plague that decimated villages closer to Pawtuxet, later called Plymouth.

A map, drawn by the Reverend Ezra Stiles in the 18th century, indicates that as many as 2,000 indigenous people lived here in 1670.

Sakonnet is now what we know as Little Compton.

And Cokesit is now the Acokesit neighborhood of Westport, Massachusetts.

And in 1663, Plymouth gave the former indentured servants of Plymouth the right to purchase land from the Sakonnets.

The English, however, were confused by who had control of the area at the time.

They recognized several possible Sakonnet sachems.

The English decided to deal primarily with Awashonks and Mamanua, and to refer to Sakonnet and Cokesit as simply Sakonnet.

Their purchases began in 1673.

Mamanua sold land that Awashonks believed to be hers, and she ordered her men to capture Mamanua, tie him up, and beat him for betraying her.

Though both sachems tried to reserve land for their people, the colonists persisted in their requests, and purchased more and more land.

The settlers were careful to make sure the deeds would hold up in an English court of law, but the sales were clearly coercive.

While Plymouth officials were pressuring Awashonks and her son Peter to submit to their governmental authority, Awashonks' two sons, Amos and Simon were actively negotiating with the colony of Rhode Island for a better deal.

This angered the Plymouth governor, and Plymouth eventually gained control of Sakonnet.

Shortly before King Phillip's War in 1675, the English reserved a portion of Sakonnet called Three Quarter Mile Square for Awashonks her tribe.

But six years later, the English divided that land among themselves, and Awashonks and her people were landless.

Three Quarter Mile Square became the homestead farm of the Peabody family, and Samuel and Mary Wilbur, whose farm is now the Wilbur House Museum and the headquarters of our Historical Society.

On the eastern side of town, Mamanua reserved large plots of land for himself and his people.

After the war, they had these lands by English deeds and held onto their property for several decades.

But in 1730, all of Little Compton and Acokesit seemed to have been purchased by the English.

During the war in 1675 and '76, Mamanua allied with the English.

This helped assure the survival of his people and their return to Acokesit after the war.

Awashonks' story during King Philip's War is far more complicated.

Though she initially allied with Benjamin Church, his return to Sakonnet was greatly delayed.

A portion of her tribe splintered off and fought against the English.

The English came and burned the Sakonnet's homes, and the survivors sought refuge with the Narragansetts in their fort, where they were attacked by the English during the Great Swamp Fight.

In the spring, Awashonks meant with Benjamin Church at Treaty Rock in Sakonnet, and allied with him again in order to protect the women and children in the tribe from enslavement.

After the war, both Awashonks and Mamanua's people returned to Sakonnet, but as they lost their land and their traditional ways of living, their options became limited.

Many became servants, either indentured or wayjourneying for English colonists.

Others left the area, and may have settled with other tribal communities in New England.

An 1827 obituary reported the death of Sarah Howdee as the last of Awashonks' tribe.

But it is important to remember that this obituary was written at a time when it was popular to report the last of a tribe, and it is not accurate.

It did not take into account the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of Sakonnet descendants living beyond the boundaries of Little Compton at that time.

And we have to remember that those descendants have their own descendants living today.

- We have a moral obligation to go back, and with a very critical eye, take a look at the histories we inherited from previous generations, looking for the prejudices and the misconceptions of those times, and trying to start fresh, not with those secondary sources, but with primary sources, which also have their own problems.

But at least with the primary sources, it is a fresh start and we can use those to present the most authentic histories we can at this time.

One of my real hopes is that someone of Sakonnet ancestry, or someone of not, someone of English ancestry, who at one point, indentured or hired a Sakonnet person, that they'll come forward and say, you know, I have this document, or this diary, or some bit of information in a private collection that we have no idea exists, and it could be the key to telling a completely different story.

So we'll go public with this work in 2025.

They'll be a permanent exhibition at the Historical Society on the history of the Sakonnet people.

There'll be public programs that year, but the book is really the best way to get the information out to a broad audience.

So just in this community, there's over a thousand records of people of color, African, Native American, mixed race, and, you know, their stories really need to be told for our sake, so we can understand the history better.

And I hope in a small way, to benefit their descendants, so they can feel connected to this community.

- Off the shores of Little Compton, a group of surfers is providing a unique form of therapy to neurodivergent and non-ambulatory children.

This story was provided by Justin Kenny, and originally aired on Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

(upbeat surf music) - At Gnome Surf, we surf with over 3,000 athletes and families.

What we do is surf therapy.

Our athletes at Gnome Surf are typically neurodivergent.

WE're for all kids, we've built our program on inclusion, but I'd say not over 95% of our athletes either have autism, Down Syndrome, ADHD, depression, or anxiety.

(waves crashing) My name is Christopher Antao, I am the Executive Director and Founder of Gnome Surf.

- My name's Mackenzie Palumbo and I'm Cash and Hollis's mom.

Cash and Hollis are 13 years old.

They're twin boys.

They were diagnosed at 15 months of age with autism and a handful of other diagnoses.

Both of my boys are pretty much nonverbal, Hollis is nonverbal, Cash has some language.

These are kids that typically do not get invited to birthday parties or sleepovers.

To see them having fun doing something that typical kiddos do, it's a feeling like no other.

Every time I stand on that shore, and I watch my kids out on the board, I always think to myself, this is what parents of typically developing children must feel like when they watch their kids play baseball, or football, or soccer.

And you just feel so proud.

- My name is Geo Mattram, I'm the lead instructor here at at Gnome Surf.

So I was born with brain damage.

It's led to like brain aneurysms, scattered bleeding spots.

It's led to a whole host of different challenges for me.

The most prominent has been sensory regulatory, and then social situations.

I couldn't speak 'til I was like six.

And then it's been a long journey to this point of verbalization.

I've also had seizures, general motor skill challenges, so to say.

Luckily, Gnome has helped me recover from that, amazingly, because when you have a lot of the stuff, you have super low self-esteem, super low confidence.

It's helped my balance, my social skills, and has overall turned me into a more well-rounded human and athlete I would say.

I started surfing with Chris seven years ago, and I started teaching three to four years ago.

I've seen Gnome from all different angles.

I've seen what the surf therapy does, and how amazing of an impact it has, and the true healing potential, and amazingness that it gives off.

And I can also see it from the instructor's side and how what I do, and how I can teach can then heal kids in their certain challenges.

(Abby laughing) - I'm Heidi MacCurtain, I'm Abby's mom.

Abby wasn't meeting milestones, so eventually, around six months her pediatrician suggested that we look at an MRI to maybe see if there's anything else going on.

On that MRI, it showed that she had lesions on her brain, and then elevated lactate, which were consistent with Leigh's, so, at that point what they knew about Leigh's Disease, which is a mitochondrial disease, they said she had about two years to live.

That has since changed.

She's 11, she's been in a drug study, and we're just trying to do as much as we can to live a full life life for our whole family, and Abby getting out, doing stuff like surfing and horseback riding.

We try to do what we can.

Abby loves adventure, and she loves water, that's one thing.

Any type of water play, water activity always brings her to life.

When we had the opportunity to try surfing, I was like, we'll try it.

Like I was a little nervous of how they would support her since she's a hundred percent reliant on somebody to hold her up, she can't sit up on her own, she can't walk.

So I just saw some videos and I said, well, they seem to have a good handle on it.

And the first time I came they're like, mom, don't worry, we've got it.

And I was like, okay.

Even just pushing her across the sand, I was like, I'm so used to doing this stuff.

So to give all the control away, and watch it, it was so enjoyable.

Her smile, her laughter, and everybody around her.

It was awesome.

And we couldn't wait to have another opportunity to do it.

- [Interviewer] Do you like surfing?

- Gnome Surf has, you know, saved my life.

I've struggled with ADHD, depression, anxiety, and when I'm out there on the waves with these kids, everything slows down, it calms down for me, and I truly get my medicine so to say, just like these kids.

It's made my life a thousand times better, you know.

I'm lucky enough to know what my purpose on earth is.

(upbeat music) Do I ever cry?

Yeah, absolutely, I cry.

I try to, you know, shelter the tears a little bit from the families, because I know it's pretty emotional for those parents, too.

It makes me quite emotional to know that we're delivering something to this family that normally they don't have the opportunity to partake in, and to see the parent smile, and to tear up, and to see their child breaking barriers or proving, you know, the scholars wrong is something that, you know, is truly meaningful and deep for me.

- How do you not get emotional?

How do you not get emotional when you have a child who is nonverbal, and all he can do is smile from ear to ear, because he's just so happy?

How do you get emotional when you have a child who's wheelchair bound, or medically fragile, and you see them out on the board?

Those are things that you just never picture for your own kid, and you see them doing something that makes them find joy, and it's, it's emotional.

- She could be feeling crappy at home, or even in the hospital, when she starts to perk up, just hitting her by the sink, and her playing with water just, I don't know, makes her happy.

So I think just being out there when you're surrounded by it, she's in her element.

Right?

Are you a surfer girl?

Yeah.

Can you say thank you?

You know, thank you?

Thank you.

- The Nature Conservancy is a global organization working to protect the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, restoring coral reefs in Australia, and conserving tiger habitats in India.

They are also hard at work safeguarding land in Little Compton.

Tim Mooney and John Berg share this story.

(mellow guitar music) - I love our forest in Little Compton, and this is my favorite trail.

This is our Dundery Brook Trail.

We got together at the Nature Conservancy with some good friends about 10 years ago and said, you know, how can we put a path through this place?

A lot of which was wet swamps, and ponds, and streams, and all that good stuff.

And basically, we followed the way that the deer had been going all these years, and put a boardwalk over a piece of it, and built some connecting trails around it, and today it's just a wonderful passage through little Compton's Oak Holly Forest, which is really kind of phenomenal.

You know, there's all these holly berries for the birds, and other good things for them to eat.

You know, it's a kind of a one of a kind forest, and Little Compton's claim to fame, right?

It's really worth checking out.

The fact that we even have this forest that's worth saving is really a tribute to Blanche Frenning, and Hope Burchard Paramont, who owned this forest, and looked after it, and loved it a hundred years ago.

The fact that these women love these areas so much, and helped us put them into conservation, and look after them for the next generation, it's just been huge, so, we take that duty and responsibility seriously, and love to have all the help we can get from volunteers and folks who love this place as much as we do.

Yeah, since we built this trail, I've seen a lot of folks out here on wheelchairs.

Folks that, you know, need canes and, you know, couldn't get into the woods otherwise.

The little peeps, you know, start 'em off early, and you know, they're in here building their fairy houses and learning, they know the trees and the shrubs better than I do.

Students of all ages are in here learning, and studying, and BioBlitz was here a few years ago.

They cataloged, I dunno, 850 species between here and Goosewing.

It's kind of phenomenal.

It's my favorite place in Little Compton, and it's a good place to get up close and personal with, you know, tupelos, and holly trees, and sweet pepperbush, and all this amazing stuff that lives in here along with the lots of varieties of birds, and peepers, and frogs, and salamanders, and you name it.

This is the best water filtration system ever designed.

This is the way nature does it.

We're in the wetland here at Dundery Brook Trail, right along the banks of Dundery Brook.

There's lots and lots of plant life here to suck up all the nutrients and pollutants before they ever get to the water, keeps the water clean, as it can then flow all the way down Dundery Brook, three miles from here down to Briggs Marsh, and look after all the sea life down there.

You know, Dundery Brook Trail gets up close and follows the length of this brook system for a mile or so, but, you know, it's good to know that this woods is intact all the way down to Briggs Marsh and back up, you know, almost to the Tiverton line, so there's this wonderful system of forest and wetlands in the valley here in Little Compton, which is here for all time.

You know, it might be easy to be in a place like this, and look at this forest and say, oh, it's an accident of nature, you know, it'll always be here, and let's not worry about it.

But I've been fortunate here in Little Compton to be surrounded with neighbors who wanna keep Little Compton little, and to be part of this unbelievable team at the Nature Conservancy that is helping Little Compton stay little, and you know, I think we've had an unbelievable amount of progress to date with saving a lot of these places legally, and stewardship wise for all times.

I think it's important to know that our forest here in Little Compton is important to folks at The Nature Conservancy.

TNC's a global organization, people in Africa, people in the Amazon, and some of these enormous forests, you know, in the oceans, and you know, you name it.

But our own little Oak Holly Forest here in Little Compton is right up there in that ilk.

- When you think of Little Compton, I bet you don't think of race horses, but one farm is changing that.

Retired race horses come from all over the country to live out their days on the idyllic farm, known as Hoo Hollow.

Owners Helena and Buck Harris share this story.

(mellow acoustic guitar) - [Helena Harris] Good morning, Hoo Hollow.

(birds chirping) This is a very special place indeed.

One of the things that makes Little Compton so special is the unique location.

You know, we're just an hour south of Boston, a little over an hour.

We're about 40 minutes from Providence, a day trip to New York, but yet, it feels so rural, and quiet, and it's kind of undiscovered.

Yeah, it's a little inconvenient, yeah, it's another 15, 20 minutes to whatever you need to do, like, pop into CVS, (laughs) or go grocery shopping.

You definitely need to plan, but the peace is so worth it.

The peace and the stress-free living.

This is our little playground, and it's always in some form of construction, or upgrades, or maintenance.

That's just what living with horses does.

That's your life.

(mellow acoustic guitar) That's Susie.

She's an off-track thoroughbred.

She did not retire sound, actually, she never even raced.

She was trained at the track, but we think she had an injury coming out of the gate, and she got passed around, some not so responsible owners.

And then she came into our hands, and we spent a couple of years rehabbing her, getting her body healthy, getting her mind healthy.

And now she gets to enjoy being a Little Compton horse.

In the fall, when things get a little crisp, let's say under 45 degrees, horses pay attention.

And just no matter how many times I experience a New England fall, it never ceases to amaze me.

That contrast of chill in the air with the warmth of the sun's rays, and the colors that just add to that cozy feeling.

- [Buck Harris] There's no shortage of stones where we live here in Rhode Island.

This wall, and all the walls on our property were originally built by farmers.

They were all falling down when we moved in.

And so I took the time to do my best to repair them and make them look a little bit square.

We also live in an area of Holly Oak Forest, which is, I think one of the only places in the world that has Holly Oak Forest.

So we have beautiful holly trees.

Don't walk under them with bare feet in the springtime though, because that's when they lose their leaves.

Ouch.

When you live with horses, there's no shortage of manure, so composting has become a bit of a hobby, and we make a lot of beautiful soil.

(tractor puttering) - Brenda Wrigley Scott is known for her large acrylic paintings of birds, pets, and landscapes inspired by the seaside town.

Allie Shirtleff of Little Compton recorded this interview.

(mellow acoustic guitar) - My work has evolved, starting as a potter for quite a few years, and, I love doing the pots, but I also love surface decorations.

So I also was a decorative painter, and now I'm primarily painting.

So I would describe my recent work as mostly paintings.

I love painting on paper and my favorite image as of late are birds, and nature scenes.

It's really the physical beauty of the place that really brought me here.

But what keeps me here and so happy to live here is the community.

The artist community here is very strong.

The Little Compton Community Center has a wonderful annual art show that's really well attended.

The open studio tours that I've been involved in for 18 years are very well attended, and people really look forward to that.

People come to my gallery and studio to see what I've done on my own, what I've accumulated as work that I do every day.

And they also come to me for commissions, for pet portrait commissions, which I love to do, 'cause I, besides the birds, I love dogs and painting them.

I mean, I work quite large, often, but then I also have a nice variety of sizes, and shapes, and colors.

(mellow acoustic guitar) - Evidence of this country's oldest history can be found right in Little Compton's many historic cemeteries.

See the names carved in stone, and imagine lives lived long before the United States was even formed.

The Little Compton Historical Society and filmmakers Lily and Cameron Clark show us what we can learn from the stories buried in these graves.

- Hello, I'm Fred Bridge, board member of The Little Compton Historical Society, and I'd like to talk a little bit today about historic cemeteries.

Little Compton has 46 historic cemeteries that we know of today.

There were probably more that have been lost through time.

The town's first English proprietors established the old burial ground here on the town commons in 1677 as one of the first orders of business.

The area was called Sakonnet at the time, and renamed Little Compton for five more years.

As a border community between Plymouth and Rhode Island, Little Compton adopted burial prices from both communities.

Like other Plymouth colony communities that maintained this burial ground as a town-owned cemetery where any resident or stranger who died in Little Compton could be buried for free.

Because so many of our early English settlers were from Rhode Island, we also followed that colony's practice of private family cemeteries on family farms.

The old Wilbor Cemetery at the Wilbor House Museum is an excellent example of a family burial ground.

In many of the family burial grounds, and in the commons burial ground, you'll notice many plain fieldstone grave markers.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, many of the people in Little Compton were buried with these uninscribed gravestones, regardless of their race, their religion, their age, or their wealth.

After the arrival of stonemason John Stevens in 1700, carved gravestones slowly gained popularity, especially with the wealthier white members of the Congregational church.

John Stevens eventually established a stone carving workshop in Newport that is still in operation today.

But before moving to Newport, he lived in Little Compton where he married Marcy Rouse.

The earliest gravestones in the old burial ground are from Marcy's relatives, and maybe some of John Steven's first efforts at carving gravestones.

His skill improved quickly, and some of his best work can be found here.

Elizabeth Alden Peabody, the first white woman born in New England, is buried here with a John Stevens stone encased in the 19th century monument.

Benjamin Church, a leader in King Philip's War, is buried with a ledger stone.

Ledger stones cost 50 times as much as a regular set of gravestones, and was a sign of Church's family's wealth and power.

Around 1716, John Stevens changed from hanging tooth skull design to a winged effigy design that was continued by his sons, his apprentices, and the Stevens and slave workers until the American Revolution.

The Little Compton Historical Society began actively caring for Little Compton's historic cemeteries about 30 years ago.

At that time, most of the important work was clearing away years of brush that completely filled some of the abandoned family burial grounds, and reinstalling many of the fallen stones.

Since then, the town of Little Compton has been able to maintain many of these small burial grounds.

Recently, the Historical Society dedicated 2018 to researching each of the town's historic cemeteries, writing a guidebook about them, and recruiting a hundred volunteers to clean a thousand gravestones and the old burial ground on the commons.

We also repaired dozens of stones that year.

One of the most interesting things we learned during our research is that this end of the old burial ground was once the town's Negro burial ground.

Volunteer Linda Green read almost 300 years of town council notes, and found a single line referring to the Negro burial ground.

Around 1870, the town selectmen had the stonewall separating the white cemetery from the Black cemetery removed.

In 2017, ground penetrating radar indicated that there were numerous unmarked graves in this area.

What does remain of the old Negro burial ground is the one row of 19th century gravestones that have been called Slave Row.

But actually, each of the people of color buried here were free when they passed away.

The Historical Society added this new memorial stone in 2016 to honor the more than 200 men, women, and children enslaved in Little Compton between 1674 and 1816.

As you look around the burial ground, you'll see some of the stones were cleaned in 2018, but are already beginning to darken.

Caring for historic cemeteries and gravestones is never ending work, and with the help of volunteers, Historical Society will continue efforts to take care of these historic places.

(mellow guitar music) - Historic preservation is often challenging, but the people of Little Compton found a way to save an old building and bring new life into the heart of the town commons.

Amy Mooney and Samantha Snow bring us this story.

- Really since our inception, the Community Center has been for the community, by the community, started by a group of grassroots organizers who wanted to save the Grange building, which at the time was a 100 year old building.

It's just played a really pivotal role in our community for 125 years now in providing a place for our town to connect with one another, find friendships, find extended family members, create memories, after school care programs, senior lunch program, so it's really an important part of who we are here in Little Compton.

The timing of all of this was really wonderful.

We were in the midst of planning our 25th anniversary celebration, which included a speaking series to walk us through the history of the organization.

So it was really wonderful to see how connected we truly all are, despite 25 years having lapsed from when we opened our doors to now, it felt like it really was able to rejuvenate our organization, and certainly some members of our community have seemed to have wrapped around us again after that big celebration.

- And there were 12 founding members, and we all worked together for hours, 15,000 hours of volunteering for seven and a half, almost eight years.

- We never argued, we never disagreed.

(audience laughs) - We saved the building so that the commons would remain a historical district and that was key, key.

(audience applauds) It wasn't one or two people.

It was a bevy of people.

It was every community member who wanted to be a part of this community space, a vortex, a beginning, a gathering, a belonging.

It was amazing.

- When the town bought the Grange Hall in 1987 for $88,000, there were certain stipulations, including that the roll up stage curtain should not be destroyed, and that the town will eventually find a place where it could be displayed.

These curtains are, there are hundreds and hundreds of them all over the country.

They were in every Grange and Community Center, and they really were the center of activities before World War II.

Everything happened in these, weddings, everything happened in front of these curtains.

And as you can see, the center of that is boilerplate, that is no place in Little Compton.

(laughs) (audience laughs) We don't have many, many mountains.

But all these, all these advertisings, this was a fundraiser, and these people all paid to have their businesses on this curtain.

Some of these are still here, and some of them helped to fund the restoration of this curtain.

It's a really wonderful thing to see hanging today.

It means a lot to me, because I grew up here, I remember all the activities that we did in this building.

- So the quilt, first I have to admit, that I did not put one stitch in that quilt.

(audience laughs) So there it goes.

But what I did do was I was really bossy, and I came up with the idea, and I gathered a bunch of women, I think they were over 25, and it took four years, four or five years?

There's the four seasons, and all the birds around the edge.

And in the center was activities that we could envision happening in this Community Center, and that have happened in here even before when it was a grange.

So there's things like storytelling, theater, music, cooking with the theater in front of it.

- [Audience Member] Clam bakes.

- Yeah, clam bakes, stuff like that.

So those were all done by different people, and all the names of the people that worked on the quilt, except for mine, which I did not do, but are on there all around it.

And then the most, one of those fun parts of it, to me, was the border, which is all the little people, children, and whatever holding hands.

- I think because we're so small in our population, we really have to rely on each other to some extent.

It's really important to be able to find each other and connect with one another.

And Little Compton, I think, has a knack for being able to forge those connections with one another.

(mellow guitar music) - Olivia Leech was just 10 years old when the world shut down at the start of the pandemic.

During this period of isolation, she wanted to spread joy and hope to her friends and neighbors, so she created Olivia's Happy Rocks.

Her mom, Elka, shares this story.

(upbeat music) - I started Olivia's Happy Rocks after we all got locked up from the pandemic in spring 2020 when I was 10.

Schools were closed, and I couldn't see my friends, so I started painting rocks with positive and encouraging words on them, and putting them around town for people to see, (upbeat music) to remind them that they're not alone, or that they're loved, and that there's a lot to be happy about.

I would go for many walks with my mom around Little Compton and we would spread the rocks around.

It felt good to do good.

The rocks were disappearing around town, so I figured people liked them a lot.

In May, I came up with the name, Olivia's Happy Rocks, made a homemade sign, and put a small table outside next to our mailbox.

I kept putting the rocks around the town, but now I also had my own little shop in which the rocks were free, but donations were accepted.

I used the donations for more paint, and for books, my other passion.

So I started putting rocks out around my school to cheer up the kids and teachers, and to brighten up their day.

I even made graduation rocks for the eighth graders at my school that year as gifts.

In December 2020, I made Get Well Christmas rocks and donated them to the Cranston Field Hospital for people who had to spend their holidays there instead of with their families, because they were too sick to go home.

I even got a special letter from the LC Chief of Police, thanking me, and the first Youth Hero Award from the LC Prevention Coalition for spreading creative kindness.

This year my family and I made special rocks in blue and yellow to support Ukraine, and we use, we've raised over $700 for them.

Since I was at school, both of my sisters and my mom joined in the painting fun.

They've created rainbow pocket rocks that we all carry around with us, and give to people who we feel need them.

Sometimes it's a lifeguard at South Shore Beach, because we see how much he really cares about doing his job, sometimes it's a very positive and upbeat person we meet, sometimes it's someone who does something kind, the list goes on and on.

There's so many amazing people around us who really rock.

Please remember that you do too, and to always have hope.

This is a story to show you that if you have a dream, you can start with nothing.

And no matter how old you are, no matter where you live, you can do anything, you just need to start and don't give up.

And remember, you rock.

- Little Compton's Tree Spree signals the start of the Christmas season.

For almost three decades, a unique holiday tradition unfolds.

Talk about trimming the trees.

Lifelong resident Caroline Wardell brings us this story filmed by Travis Snow.

- My name is Caroline Wilkie Wordell.

I am the founder of the Ben and Chet Wilkie Memorial Tree Spree in Little Compton, which takes place every December, the first Sunday of every December.

It started out as the Ben Wilkie Memorial Tree Spree when my brother Benny passed away in 1994, and now it's the Ben and Chet Wilkie Memorial Tree Spree, because I lost another brother in 2017.

I knew I wanted to do something to raise money for a scholarship for my brother, because I didn't want anyone to forget him.

And I thought, well, if his name is spoken every year at graduation, then that should do it.

And I had done a little bit of other fundraising for him, and was trying to find something that would capture the imagination of the people in the town.

Somehow, I came up with this idea of decorating Christmas trees in a theme, and putting them out for raffle in the school gym.

I really didn't know what I was doing at the time, nor did anyone else, but they responded not for me, but for Benny.

(upbeat music) We had 45 trees that year and a few other items.

It was wildly successful.

And so, a tradition was born.

It has grown like Topsy.

Now we usually have 75 trees or more.

Over the years, other organizations from surrounding towns have asked me how to do a similar event.

I always tell them that you begin with incredibly generous, generous people.

Without them, you have nothing.

It's a huge social event where hundreds of people from Little Compton and beyond gather to greet each other and celebrate the beginning of the holiday season.

This event encompasses everything that is Little Compton, love, friendship, generosity, spirit.

It's all there and more.

One of my friends told me that when he's at the Tree Spree, he feels like he's in the middle of a Norman Rockwell painting.

This is gonna be the 29th year, and you think you'll never forget these things.

And, as I started to go through newspaper reports, and public relations, and photographs, especially, it was lovely to bring all these things back to my mind.

The trees and other donations are lined up on the tables in the school gym, numbered, and a container for raffle tickets is placed beside each item.

Attendees buy tickets at the door, peruse the gym, often more than once, to decide what they wanna try to win.

Then they drop a ticket in the container, and hope for the best.

Winners are announced that evening.

Over the years, we have had trees decorated with baseball cards, antique Little Compton postcards, Winnie the Pooh, the Grinch, Barbie, Cat in the Hat, movie themes, Beanie Babies, lobsters.

Just when I think that every theme has been used, someone comes along with another great idea.

1,624 trees have been donated to date.

On Tree Spree Day 2009, I awakened to a blizzard.

I really didn't know what to do.

I couldn't contact everyone, so I called my brother Chet and asked him to plow me out, and off we went to the gym.

We were packed with people that day.

I was so amazed that I wrote a poem about it.

"They came through wind and blinding snow.

"The storm was not so nice.

"They scraped their cars and shoveled, too.

"And spun their tires on ice.

"They came in wooly winter coats, "and boots pulled up to knees.

"Nothing Mother Nature wrought "could keep them from the trees.

"Tree Spree addicts, one elf said, "just see what you've created.

"A 12-step program must be formed.

"These people can't be sated.

"Oh no said I, there is no fear.

"They're only here for fun.

"They'll be back again next year, "especially if they've won."

The most traumatic years were 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic, making the decision to cancel an in-person Tree Spree in '22 was heartbreaking for all of us.

But I was grateful that technology had advanced enough for us to hold virtual Tree Sprees those two years.

In the last couple of days, I've had like six people say, if you need any help with the Tree Spree, I'm all set.

And that just is just what Little Compton is.

They're all set to help you, whenever and whatever you're doing.

(upbeat music) - Finally, we leave you with this look at the quiet and beautiful town of Little Compton set to the 1970 poem, "Our Town," by Ian M. Walker.

Filmmaker duo Lily and Cameron Clark shared this footage.

(mellow acoustic guitar) - [Narrator] "Our Town," by Ian M. Walker.

"And I thought to myself how nice it is "to be able to live in a town like this, "where people are real, and compassionate too, "who care for the many instead of the few.

"And I thought to myself, how long will it last "for man to harken to those of the past, "who worked in the soil to build a town "whose quiet and beauty have won it renown?

"And I thought to myself, they loved this place, "living in dignity with consummate grace.

"Toiling from sunrise to sunset close, "farming the land of patents prose.

"And I thought to myself, in ages gone, "what man had done was create a song "whose grandeur speaks from days of yore, "from Quicksand Pond to Sakonnet's shore.

"And I thought to myself, what must we do "to ensure a place for those others, too?

"Dreamers of dreams for solitude rare, "amidst green country setting and sweet salt air.

"And I said to myself, this gift is ours.

"Meadows, and fields, and bright holly bowers, "entrusted to us by those who cared, "granting to theirs the gift they share.

"And I said to myself, we who live now "must pass to those only who keep the vow, "that this fair place shall continue to be "theirs to enjoy through eternity."

(mellow acoustic guitar) - Our thanks to all our friends and neighbors in Little Compton for opening their doors, history books, and hearts to share the stories that make our town, Little Compton, possible.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] At Residential Properties, we are in the business of helping you love where you live.

As an independent brokerage with roughly 250 real estate experts, we're passionate about our community and are proud to service all of Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southeastern Massachusetts.

- [Announcer] Arkins Construction Company is an integrated design, build, and contracting firm specializing in custom millwork and green building practices.

Their millwork shop edition on Willow Avenue will be powered by solar energy.

Lila Delman Compass has Rhode Island covered from the coast, to the capitol, and is a proud sponsor of "Our Town: Little Compton."

Patron sponsors.

Stonehouse Inn, and Old House Home inspectors.

(upbeat music)