A.V.I.S.

A.V.I.S., the Avonlea Village Improvement Society, is a local civic organization whose work makes village improvement a shared public undertaking rather than a matter of private taste. Under Anne Shirley’s active participation, it persuades residents to improve roadsides and communal spaces, negotiates with trustees and property owners, and encourages other groups to take up neglected projects. Its progress is real but uneven: public persuasion cannot overcome every individual objection, its funds constrain what it can attempt, and a hailstorm later devastates many of its young trees.

Aims and Early Progress

By the time of an important meeting at Mr. Harmon Andrews’ home, the society was already flourishing. Its first conspicuous success began when Mr. Major Spencer fulfilled his promise to clear, grade, and seed the road frontage of his farm. A dozen other men followed, some unwilling to let a neighbor outdo them and others prompted by Improvement-minded people in their households. Long strips of smooth turf replaced undergrowth and brush; farms still untouched looked shabby by comparison, prompting their owners to consider improvements for the next spring. The work thus advanced through a combination of civic encouragement, example, and social pressure.

The society also improved the triangle at the crossroads, clearing and seeding the ground and placing Anne’s geranium bed in its center. The flowers survived the danger of marauding cows, giving the improvement a visible, living focus. Yet the group’s ambitions exceeded its ability to persuade everyone. A committee approached Levi Boulter about the old house on his upper farm, but he bluntly refused to let them meddle with it. The refusal established a recurring limit to the society’s methods: it could recommend, petition, and appeal to local opinion, but it did not control private property.

Meetings, Methods, and Disputes

A.V.I.S. conducted its work through meetings, committees, reports, and petitions. At the Andrews gathering, members planned to ask the school trustees to fence the school grounds and to consider planting ornamental trees near the church if the society’s funds permitted. Anne cautioned against starting another subscription while the hall remained blue, a conspicuous reminder that previous improvement efforts had left a difficult problem unresolved. Before Jane Andrews could move the appointment of a committee to determine tree prices, Gertie Pye arrived with news that Judson Parker meant to rent all the road fence of his farm to a patent-medicine company for advertisements.

The proposed advertising threatened to spoil one of the area’s prettiest stretches of the Newbridge road. The society’s response showed both its procedural habits and its reliance on persuasion. A committee was appointed to protest, with the expectation that girls might be more effective than boys in approaching Judson. Anne agreed to speak but asked for company as moral support; Diana Barry and Jane Andrews were assigned to accompany her. Their visit did not immediately change his mind. Judson received the three young women with flattery, then insisted that business must take precedence over sentiment. He offered only to tell the agent not to use blue paint, an evasive answer that made the dispute especially pointed given the society’s existing frustration with the blue hall.

Public opinion turned against Judson when the facts became known, but disapproval alone did not stop him. At a later society meeting, Anne reported that he had instructed her to say he would not rent the fences after all. He had told her privately that he had decided to humor A.V.I.S. in its dislike of patent-medicine advertisements. Anne offered no further explanation, and the account presents no formal victory beyond his reversal. The episode nevertheless demonstrates that a committee’s appeal could matter even when the result was unexpected and the decisive conversation remained private. The society’s meeting etiquette was strict enough to prevent members from immediately interrupting the formal proceedings to question Anne; their curiosity waited until the meeting adjourned.

Wider Influence and Lasting Plans

The organization’s work gradually gained acceptance beyond its original circle. Gilbert Blythe reported that Major Spencer planned a row of white birches along his roadside to encourage the society, while William Bell intended to plant a spruce hedge along his frontage and lane. Older residents were beginning to take an interest, and people at White Sands were discussing the possibility of starting a society of their own. Gilbert also noted that visitors staying at the hotel had praised Avonlea’s roadsides as prettier than those elsewhere on the Island. Their admiration helped bring Elisha Wright around to the cause, evidence that improvement could acquire influence through the approval of people outside the village as well as through local committees.

A.V.I.S. also helped stimulate work it did not directly undertake. The Ladies’ Aid Society was considering the graveyard, and Anne hoped it would take responsibility for the project because it would require a subscription after the hall affair. She believed the Ladies’ Aid had been prompted to consider the matter by the Improvement Society’s unofficial influence. Meanwhile, the trees planted on the church grounds were flourishing, and the school trustees had promised to fence the school grounds the following year. If they kept that promise, Anne intended to hold an Arbor Day, with each scholar planting a tree and a garden established in a corner by the road. These plans extended improvement from beautification into school life and the participation of children.

Not every goal seemed attainable. The old Boulter house remained the principal exception to the society’s success, and Gilbert had given up hope of persuading Levi to remove it, believing that further committees would only aggravate him. Anne agreed that leaving him alone was wiser than pressing him again. Their decision marks a practical adjustment in the society’s approach: persistence could build cooperation, but repeated intervention might harden opposition. Gilbert proposed that the next campaign should encourage good lawns and grounds, beginning with the preparation of suitable seed and a paper on lawnmaking.

Setbacks and Significance

The confidence of these plans was tested by a violent hailstorm. A white carpet of hailstones lay knee-deep, with drifts beneath the eaves and on the steps. When the stones melted three or four days later, the damage became clear: crops and garden growth had been cut down, blossoms stripped from apple trees, and large branches wrenched away. Of the two hundred trees planted by the Improvers, fewer than ten escaped being snapped off or torn to shreds. The storm did not merely spoil a season’s work; it exposed how vulnerable a long-term civic project could be to forces no committee could manage.

The old Boulter house was struck and burned to the ground in the same storm. Anne admitted feeling glad that the longstanding obstacle had disappeared, even as she recognized the damage elsewhere. Levi Boulter suspected that A.V.I.S. had somehow conjured the storm, while Gilbert treated the coincidence as extraordinary rather than as proof of the society’s power. The destruction removed the house the members had failed to persuade him to remove, but at a terrible cost to the improvements they had made. Anne’s response was to look toward replanting the following spring. In this way, A.V.I.S. embodies both the reach and the limits of local collective action: it can change habits, organize labor, and redirect attention, but it cannot command agreement or protect its achievements from disaster.