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Manager Worked In New York During Attacks
The Lexington Farmers Market will be honoring local first responders, past and present, at today’s market in the McCrum’s parking lot.
Every vendor will offer a 10 percent discount for all police, firefighters, EMS/ EMTs, medical personnel, nurses, and military service personnel. The discount will be available for the duration of today’s market from 8 a.m. until 12:30 p.m.
A moment of silence will be observed at 8:46 a.m., when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower.
“I took a poll of all the vendors and everyone was interested in doing something,” said Nina Kauder, manager of the Lexington Farmers Market. “My team of 35 vendors join me in wanting to create this sort of a tribute.”
Kauder, a native New Yorker, was working just three blocks from the World Trade Center on the day of the terrorist attacks.
She had decided to walk the 2.7 miles to work that day. Kauder usually took public transportation, but she had just returned from a twoweek trip to France and was battling jetlag. She decided to go in early and catch up on emails before the rest of her coworkers arrived.
When her office mates started filing in, she could hear them all talking about what had happened at the World Trade Center. Kauder, at first irritated by the distractions of the chatter she was hearing, became deeply worried when she began hearing speculation that the plane was intentionally flown into the North Tower and her coworkers had witnessed an act of terrorism.
“I tried to take the high road and say it was an accident,” said Kauder. “But I changed my tune when the second tower was hit.”
None of the people who worked at her firm perished, but they knew many people who did.
Kauder said she lost her sense of naiveté that day. “I tried to see the good in everything, but the world changed for everyone that day.”
Many of her coworkers decided not to stay in New York after that. Kauder left shortly after the market crash in 2008, heading for south Florida, which is often referred to as New York’s sixth borough as many New Yorkers make their way there for the warmer weather.
After 17 years in Florida, she became troubled by the frequency and intensity of the hurricanes. Her own home was well protected, but she worried for her neighbors. The dread of “communal angst” while awaiting the landfall of a hurricane with the shortages in the grocery stores and gas pumps going dry from people stocking up on fuel led Kauder to see permanent refuge elsewhere.
While traveling the East Coast from Florida to Albany, N.Y., Kauder happened upon Rockbridge County. It was a presidential election year and this was the only place where she saw a solid 1:1 ratio of signs supporting the different candidates. “I never saw that anywhere else and it gave me a little bit of hope.”
Soon after moving here she began shopping at Lexington’s farmers market and found it to be a very unique experience. She likens it to a place where neighbors can check up on their neighbors and it is as much a place for socializing as it is for choosing fresh produce and homemade products. Though Kauder came here with the intention of learning how to do less, when the opportunity arose to take over the management of the farmers market, she decided to take it on. She had some experience, having run a vegan farmers market in Florida.
“I inherited an absolute gem,” Kauder said.
Even though the market is only open one day a week, she still works all week on it. Kauder has plans in the works to set up picnic tables in the parking lot so that people can sit while they soclialize. Just recently she started a raffle for a $100 farmers market shopping spree.
In regards to offering the discount to first responders on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks, Kauder is open to continue extending the discount on the anniversary week of Sept. 11 going forward. “As someone who worked only three blocks from the twin towers on the tragic day, I did not want to miss our chance to offer at the very least, a token of thanks to the front line professionals, whether they were in New York City or D.C. that day or not,” she said.
