WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.—Remedy Hall founder and board chair Andi Bryant is kicking off the new season of our Community Hero series, as the December Community Hero of the Month. 

 

The Community Hero of the Month is a 12-month series that honors individuals and organizations that have significantly impacted their community. This year's sponsor is Window World of Western Massachusetts. 

 

Bryant co-founded Remedy Hall in 2023 to lessen the financial burden of community members in need by providing essential items that people may be lacking, including hygiene items, cleaning supplies, clothing, bedding, furniture, and other necessities. 

 

In addition, they act as a "stopgap" to help guide people to resources that will provide additional support beyond the tangible items. 

 

"This is everything to me. My family will tell you they don't see me anymore. I spend probably way too much time here making sure that this is neat and clean and provide a compassionate, safe, dignified area for people with need," Bryant said. 

 

"I will have to say the heroes here are really the people that need the help. It takes a lot of courage for them to step forward, and walk in, and ask for help. And what we offer here is just a really safe, really non-judgmental, very dignified location for you to be able to do that." 

 

Remedy Hall's goal is to improve the lives of those facing economic and social challenges who have been exasperated by the effects of the pandemic and the rising cost of living, she said. 

 

"Since the pandemic, the cost of living has gone up. The cost of rent has gone up. People that were already strapped may have lost their jobs during COVID [and] are struggling just to find a balance and live their normal lives," Bryant said. 

 

"For us, what we can do is we can help with some of those things. We can help them with their hygiene items. We can help them with their bedding. We can help them with their winter coats and, cleaning supplies. And it would help in that regard, giving them a little bit more ability to pay their bills, keep in their apartments, [and] keep in their homes." 

 

The charitable organization now serves upwards of 320 households in Williamstown and North Adams, she said. 

 

"Remedy Hall started with an idea and blossomed into this production," the organization's co-founder Carrie Greene said. 

 

"I say production because Remedy Hall is more than the two rooms we have on the ground level of the First Congregational Church. It is really impacting individuals and families in ways that are incredibly meaningful and transformative to them."

 

Remedy Hall board member Rebecca Guanzon echoed these remarks saying, "Remedy Hall is bigger than just a little nonprofit organization. It's a hope. It's an idea." 

 

Helping the community is personally important to Bryant as she comes from the demographic of the "struggling class." 

 

"This is stuff that I wish was available. When I was rearing my kids, I wish was available when I was young, and my parents were raising us," she said. 

 

"I am fourth generation here in Williamstown. It has been a struggle for generations in our house. We were always the worker bees and always the struggling class." 

 

Remedy Hall has also built trust with the transient community in the area, providing them support by supplying them with emergency kits that contain a number of essentials, including tents, sleeping bags, hygiene backpacks, and other essential items to help them survive.

 

"If someone comes in and we know that they're homeless, they get top priority," Bryant said. 

 

Bryant's husband, Dan Bryant, a Remedy Hall volunteer, highlighted that several states have made homelessness illegal. 

 

The nonprofit Invisible People demonstrated this by referencing a report, "Housing Not Handcuffs," which said, "47 states had laws criminalizing homeless people engaging in life-sustaining activities." 

 

Invisible People is dedicated to educating the public about homelessness through innovative storytelling, news, and advocacy.

 

Dan said it doesn't matter how these people ended up where they are; they are still human. We are not here to judge them and tell them what they should have done. 

 

"People can change. People can improve their lives. Some of what we do gives them that opportunity, that extra help, to improve their life," he said. 

 

Remedy Hall tries to meet these high-demand needs as best they can through community donations and strategic purchasing. It distributed nearly 13,000 items in its first year.

 

"I think it's just been incredible the way that Andi has kind of challenged us to think differently about need and to think differently about community," Guanzon said. 

 

"The way she approaches need, of like taking shame and judgment out of it and encouraging, I think, the community, to think about the ways that we can support each other." 

 

Such high-demand items include hygiene products, cleaning supplies, and winter clothing during this time of year. 

 

Bryant demonstrated how helping people in need also helps the community as a whole. For example, providing hygiene products helps those in need maintain good hygiene and improves their overall health and well-being, but can also prevent the spread of communicable diseases. 

 

Remedy Hall is still unburying the different needs in the area. One of the big things emerging and is one thing they will be working on is addressing patrons' inability to do their own laundry. 

 

"It all comes down to personal dignity and care in hygiene. Period poverty is a very real thing in our community. Hygiene is a very real thing in our community, and it's not a personal thing. It is a public thing," Bryant said. 

 

Without proper hygiene, you may carry bed bugs, scabies, and, in some cases, fleas, in addition to worsening the spread of norovirus, COVID-19, and the flu. Bad hygiene can become a public health issue, she said. 

 

"By helping people with being able to increase their hygiene is really for the betterment of the entire community, and not just them. On a personal level, it can really lift somebody's spirits when they're very, very low," Bryant said

 

Remedy Hall has basic medical supplies, including gauze pads and bandages tubing for asthma or respiratory needs, heating pads, braces and supports for injuries or conditions, incontinence and disposable products, foot aids, CPAP machine parts, and accessories, among other things. 

 

They test many of their items including lights and toys. Dan is a Williamstown assistant fire chief and takes safety seriously. Items with wires are reviewed for safety.

 

The medical supplies section is an important part of the organization as many of their clients lack access to affordable healthcare and need these basic medical items to manage their conditions and injuries. One item they are currently looking for is a power scooter. 

 

When people come to Remedy Hall with injuries or health issues, the staff does not try to diagnose them but allows the patrons to take what they need.

 

They also connect them to the mobile health units that come to the area, as that provides an affordable option for those without insurance. However, the mobile units don't come to Williamstown very often, Bryant said. 

 

"I want this to be huge. I want this to be so much bigger. We haven't found the ends of the need just yet," she said.

 

"My biggest dream would be a very large place where people can come and sit, have that community, have a cup of coffee with someone else who may be lonely [or might be] a little uneasy about having to come and ask for help and having that sense of community with like people."  

 

Remedy Hall has about six volunteers, but Bryant hopes to grow that four times. 

 

Donations is the heart of the organization. Without it, the space would just be two empty rooms, Bryant said. Donations can be made by contacting the charity directly by phone or text at 413-884-3051. 

 

"Monetary donations, they help us to be able to keep this, keep the shelf stocked. And whoever has that great big room or big building just sitting there, think of us," she said highlighting her hopes to keep the organization growing. 

 

Remedy Hall also established satellite lockers at local schools and the public library to reach more people, offering essential supplies to those unable to visit the facility, Greene said. 

 

The community has embraced Bryant's efforts, with the Williamstown Board of Selectmen providing American Rescue Plan Act funding to support Remedy Hall's work. 

 

Bryant does not like to be considered a hero, Dan said. 

 

"She identified a problem, had a solution, and then was able, through coordination with many other people, to put that solution into action, and that's what you see here," he said. 

 

Although she doesn't like to be considered a hero, that is how many people preserve her. 

 

Bryant and her husband meet with people, spend time with them, make them feel heard, and help them meet the needs they have to get by in life and thrive, Greene said. 

 

The possibilities of what the center can provide are endless and go beyond what is in the two rooms at the church, Bryant said. 

 

In addition to the two rooms in the church, Bryant and Dan also have storage containers at their home to store items the facility does not have room for.  

 

"Andi works her tail off to meet the needs of other people and to me, that is a Community Hero. She is known in the community as the face of Remedy Hall. During the penny social, people came to the table and just thanked us for the work that we're doing," Greene said. 

 

Greene highlighted how Bryant had a giving tree this holiday season with over 100 tags people could take and purchase gifts for families unable to meet the needs for their kids, other family members, or themselves. 

 

"The community stepped up. Every single tag was taken, every gift was purchased, and a lot of that is the belief in Andi and Remedy Hall," she said. 

 

When you think of boots on the ground, Bryant is something that comes to mind because of all the the interpersonal relationships she has with people and her ability to foster community and support. 

 

Remedy Hall's drop in hours are Monday thru Friday from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. but appointments can be made for evenings and weekends by contacting the charity by phone or text at 413-884-3051.