LUDLOW, Vt. – Phill Gatenby is the recipient of the 2025 Okemo Valley TV Outstanding Achievement Award. Gatenby is an Englishman in Vermont who has fallen in love with covered bridges, adding to his list of passions which also include the Manchester, U.K., music scene and his beloved Manchester City football club. An active member and ardent supporter of the Vermont Covered Bridge Society, last fall he set out on a quest to document all 100 of the state’s covered bridges, starting at the southern end and working his way north. His series, “Vermont’s 100 Covered Bridges,” is part travelogue, part educational, and part cultural heritage, but, as executive director Patrick Cody proclaims, “It’s also first-rate entertainment.”
The series premiered back in December, with a new episode dropping each week. Gatenby is now on episode 30, which means that there are 70 more to go, but, says Cody, “It’s already been an outstanding achievement, as well as a unique and exemplary use of the platform.”
Okemo Valley TV is a nonprofit community television station and media center that provides a variety of media services to the community, including offering local residents equipment, training, and distribution for creating their own programming. Upon receiving the award during a recent visit to Okemo Valley TV, Gatenby said, “I really love that DIY philosophy, and that we have things like this that we can do it ourselves. I am living proof that a dream can become a reality, because there are resources here to [support] that.”