RICHFORD, Vermont — Colette Aubin-Roy has been tending the community board at the Richford Public Library for several weeks. She pins the notices, smooths the curled corners, clears the outdated flyers when the week has moved on. She does this before the doors open, mostly, which is to say she does it without an audience.

On Monday morning she found something that stopped her. Tucked among the usual postings was a handwritten note — not addressed to the library, not to staff generally, but to her, by name. A Richford resident had written to ask whether Aubin-Roy planned to attend the official dedication of Les Marées / The Tides, the bilingual mural going up at Burlington's Central Transit Hub. "One I wasn't expecting to be asked out loud," she said when reached Monday afternoon, describing the question with the mild bewilderment of someone unused to being its subject. She has not pinned a response to the board. She said she had not seriously considered attending until now.

There is no shortage of people in this principality who do the quiet work of holding space for a community — who make the room ready before anyone arrives and straighten the chairs after everyone leaves. Most of them are not asked, by name, whether they'd like to come to the celebration.