Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital recently received a grant from the Thomas Thompson Trust in response to its appeal for COVID-19-related assistance.
According to a news release, like many other hospitals in the nation, Grace Cottage experienced a dramatic decrease in revenue due to the pandemic, as people cancelled or postponed health-care services in response to Vermont Gov. Phil Scott's stay-at-home instructions.
This, along with increased expenses in order to be prepared to respond to community needs, led to a huge financial gap.
Thomas Thompson Trust's award came in response to Grace Cottage's appeal for help to individuals and charitable organizations.
Obituaries • Frances “Val” Bryant, 85, of Westminster. Died Aug. 19, 2020 at Maplewood Nursing Home in Westmoreland, N.H. The daughter of Michael and Petrone Veronica (Kiskionis) Molesky, she attended schools in Alstead, N.H., and graduated from Vilas High School. She was an avid reader, loved to cook, enjoyed...
Sundog Poetry Center has announced an inaugural book award for a first or second poetry manuscript, a contest open to all Vermont-based poets. Green Writers Press, of Brattleboro, will design and print the winning book and distribute it nationwide. The final judge is Vermont poet laureate and award-winning poet...
The Samara Fund, a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, has granted $38,105 to several nonprofit organizations in its ninth annual competitive grant round. With pandemic safety measures in place, LGBTQ organizations are facing increased programming costs to maintain close connections with the people they serve. Community connection is vital to supporting LGBTQ Vermonters, especially youth and those living in rural areas, many of whom are struggling with mental health, isolation, and food insecurity, among other challenges stemming from...
Everyone Eats! extends meals through DecemberBRATTLEBORO - Organizers say the first month of Everyone Eats! has been such a big success that the program now has received state funding to continue the free meal distribution program through Dec. 11 and to expand the number of meals it can serve. This federal stimulus program helps support Brattleboro restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic by providing meals to anyone in Brattleboro, Guilford, Vernon, Dummerston, or Putney who has been affected by the COVID-19...
After maneuvering through the last six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Vermont Center for Photography (VCP) returns to its normal hours on Sept. 2. The center will remain open Wednesday through Sunday, between noon and 5 p.m., with no appointment necessary. Visitors must wear a mask and practice social distancing when inside VCP, which will enforce a strict limit of 10 visitors at a time. As part of the reopening, VCP will present its 2020 annual members' exhibition through...
What is the future of the Putney Community Garden and Farmers' Market? That is a question that a newly-formed nonprofit, Green Commons of Vermont, seeks to answer. According to Emma Bliss, a member of Green Commons' board of directors, some members of the garden and farmers' market, along with several community members, have created the organization. “As you might know, Windham and Windsor Housing Trust is purchasing the property currently held by Putney Gateway Associates to build housing,” Bliss wrote...
With the unique school schedule that parents and students are facing this year, the Recreation & Parks Department and Brooks Memorial Library will offer Gibson-Aiken Day Camp for those who are currently in kindergarten through grade 6. This program will be run by the regularly scheduled staff from both institutions, with local high school and college students who are learning remotely and available to share their knowledge with those who are younger. Camp will begin on Monday, Sept. 14 at...
Next Stage Arts Project presents its fifth socially-distanced, outdoor concert with The Blue Dahlia, plus multi-instrumentalist Stu Fuchs, on Saturday, Sept. 5, at 6 p.m., on the lawn of Greenberg Associates Architects, 168 Westminster West Rd. On its website, The Blue Dahlia trio describes itself as “a tapestry of cultures woven together - lyrics in English and French, warm and joyous rhythms of reggae, ska and Latin America, klezmer violin, French and Mexican accordion and the sensual voice of jazz...
Amidst a pandemic in which social distancing is key, attending in-person school might not be the top choice for families, especially considering the Brattleboro Little League playoffs were canceled because a family contracted the coronavirus. Children learn and discover with their hands, and likely don't wash them enough. Plus, it's hard to stay focused on a screen for hours on end. Many families have been looking into homeschooling since mid-March, according to Wendy Richardson, the director of admissions at Oak...
The word came a year ago this Labor Day weekend: My mother, suddenly hospitalized, was about to die. I should have been shocked, as just two weeks earlier a doctor's visit for back pain revealed a diagnosis of sepsis and discovery of a lump believed to be lymphoma. But my life, a relatively smooth ride from childhood to college to career, had turned into one jolt after another, taking my longtime job, relationship, father, and, on Sept. 2, 2019, last...
Although Friends of Music at Guilford has had to cancel its annual Labor Day Weekend Festival due to COVID-19 - the first time in its 55-year history - the organization will make samples from its digital archives available for the weekend. The archives have yielded a bounty of video, audio, and still photos from nearly 20 years' worth of past concerts, organizers write. The festival traditionally includes an evening concert on the 1897 Guilford Tracker Organ, and an outdoor program...
The righteous behavior of many professional athletes (NBA, WNBA, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer) in boycotting their games on Aug. 26 in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin (as well as the epidemic of police killings of people of color in general) was in such stark contrast to the unreal events at the Republican National Convention the same night that further comment is unnecessary. Suffice it to note that these same athletes are...
Freedom Builders Fellowship will welcome up to 30 fellows, aged 18-24 to town over the next 10 months. According to the program's website, freedom-builders.us, fellows will receive college credit while contributing to the design of an inclusive form of higher education and degree - and they will be paid to do so. Fellows' compensation will include a $10,000 stipend, college courses, and transportation to the former Marlboro College campus. Their work will inform the program-in-progress, Degrees of Freedom, currently envisioned...
While affirming its following of COVID-19 safety regimens and state government protocols with regard to the fencing camp held on the Degrees of Freedom campus in August, Seth Andrew, the founder of the nascent program told town officials that he and his team will “not be bullied or engage with anyone who continues the unfounded and xenophobic attacks on us or anyone not from Marlboro.” In the end, town officials concluded that the participants in the fencing camp adequately followed...
The first non-Marlboro-College program to take place on its former campus drew 20 fencing athletes, along with seven coaches and a few parents, to the property now owned by Democracy Builders Fund and its Degrees of Freedom program. Students of the Tim Morehouse Fencing Club trained on campus as part of the school's annual summer camp program. The founder of the eponymous program, Morehouse, who earned a silver medal at the 2008 Olympic games in Beijing, said that holding the...
An astronaut might greet Academy School students on Sept. 8, their first day back to the building. “We have an astronaut costume,” said Principal Kelly Dias, who hasn't hugged her students since Gov. Phil Scott's executive public health order closed schools in March. “I might wear it so I can hug everyone when they arrive.” Missed hugs and empty classrooms might seem small given the scope of the larger COVID-19 pandemic. Yet they're also emblematic of the social, emotional, and...
It took some doing, but there was youth baseball this summer here, albeit of a different sort because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The takeaway from this abbreviated season? The local baseball pipeline looks promising. Could there be more state championships for Little League, Babe Ruth, and American Legion baseball in this decade? Who knows? But Brattleboro is putting its best teams forward. With statewide play halted by COVID-19, the Brattleboro Little League stayed on South Main Street Field this summer.
What a perfect time for Toni Ortner's book, Daybook III: Morning Is Long Since Gone, to come out! This third “daybook” is comprised of a series of imaginings and musings - maybe dreams, maybe reveries, maybe memories - interspersed with 14 illustrations by Ortner's collaborator, Linda Rubinstein. A very short chapter might be prompted by world news of the past, present, future. Sometimes there is an exploration of personal insights based on these dreams or imaginings. These short “set pieces”
It has taken more than 15 years of work to pull it off, but the town will soon have a skatepark. The most tangible sign that the project at Living Memorial Park is nearing completion took place two weeks ago, when concrete started to be poured for the long-awaited 5,000-square-foot skatepark. Recreation & Parks Director Carol Lolatte said at an Aug. 27 meeting of the Brattleboro Area Skatepark Is Coming Committee (BASIC) that work has steadily progressed on the skatepark...
Yellow Barn's critically acclaimed 2020 Summer Concert Streams will be the focus of a nine-week series of conversations moderated by Artistic Director Seth Knopp. Knopp's conversations with musicians from the performances will take place on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m., through Oct. 27. In a news release, Knopp said that in the conversations, “we will talk about each of this past summer's programs, delving deeply into the music and its performance, and with some special emphasis on what we...
With its Spring Gala and other major fundraisers cancelled this year due to COVID-19, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) says it is counting on an online auction to provide essential support for its year-round youth and education programs. Hosted by Duane Merrill and Company Auctioneers and Appraisers, the auction will take place on Friday, Sept. 4, starting at 9:45 a.m. - in person at the firm's showroom in Williston and online via LiveAuctioneers.com. BMAC has also lost revenue...
“Honoring an Everyday Object,” an art exhibit by Martha Werman, will be on display during September at the Crowell Art Gallery at Moore Free Library. An artist reception will be held on the library's lawn on Friday, Sept. 4, from 4 to 6 p.m. Visitors should expect to see work spanning a number of years, showcasing a variety of media and methods. Werman's journey through the arts began in Scandinavia in 1967. She worked as a choreographer, teacher, and performer...
Jeanette White State senator (D–Windham County) There really are three areas to touch on here. One is women in the field of politics itself. The second is the general area of leadership and influence, and the third is how those all affect the issues. I'll try to weave these themes together. Among people who vote, women tend to vote more than men. This is true in every age group. It's probably because they had to fight for the right to...