Vermont Workers' Center march joins National Week of Action
BELLOWS FALLS - Members of the Vermont Workers' Center will hold a “March for Medicaid” in town on Saturday, Oct. 3.
Vermont's March for Medicaid will begin at noon at the Rockingham Health Center at 1 Hospital Ct. and will end with a rally “highlighting people's stories of being denied the care they need from Vermont's private health insurance companies and underfunded Medicaid program,” according to a news release.
Marchers are calling on Gov. Phil Scott to expand Medicaid to all state residents and cut the state's contract with OneCare Vermont, a for-profit company that organizers of the march say is “siphoning off millions in Medicaid funding that should be spent on people's health care.”
Now in its fourth year of operation, OneCare has come under increased scrutiny for what march organizers say is “its failure to address the main health-care issues affecting Vermont families: skyrocketing individual health care costs, low wages for care workers, and lack of access to primary and preventative care.”
The actions are part of a National Week of Medicaid Marches in 13 states coordinated by the Nonviolent Medicaid Army, a new and growing national force of the poor and dispossessed modeled on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s “nonviolent army of the poor” of the first Poor People's Campaign in 1968.
Windham County genealogy group to meet online
BRATTLEBORO - The next meeting of the Windham Windham County Genealogical Interest Group will be held via Zoom on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 10 a.m. to noon.
The meeting will discuss how to improve genealogy search results when searching the two largest genealogical databases, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org.
These sites contain millions of documents necessary for creating a family genealogy. While it is easy to get started, sometimes finding the right source is tricky. This session will focus on some of the tools built into these websites such as Ancestry's card catalog and Family Search's wiki, ways to improve the results, and tips for searching.
The free meeting is limited to the first 30 people to register at bit.ly/windhamgen3.
Genealogists Jerry Carbone, of Whetstone Brook Genealogy, and Wayne Blanchard, genealogy volunteer at Rockingham Free Public Library, will facilitate the event, sponsored by Rockingham Free Public Library and Brooks Memorial Library.
For more information, contact [email protected].
Brattleboro Food Co-op offers food assistance
BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Food Co-op's Shareholder Assistance Grant supports those in the community who cannot otherwise afford the cost of a membership/ownership share in the cooperative.
The grant covers $60 of the $80 cost, and the new member can pay the remaining $20 over the course of a year.
Membership benefits include a “10% Food for All” discount, which gives eligible shareholders a 10-percent discount on all food purchases, with a few exceptions (such as alcohol).
For more information, contact the Shareholder Services department at 802-246-2821 or [email protected].
NECCA, Prouty School host Red Cross blood drives
BRATTLEBORO - The New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) and the Winston Prouty School will be hosting Red Cross blood drives in October.
The bloodmobile will be at NECCA, 10 Town Crier Dr., on Friday, Oct. 16, from 2:30 to 7 p.m. and at the Winston Prouty School, 20 Austine Dr., on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.
To reserve a spot at either site, visit redcrossblood.org/give.html/find-drive.
Putney Food Co-op seeks volunteers
PUTNEY - The Putney Food Co-op will collaborate with Seth Knopp and Catherine Stefan of Yellow Barn to recruit and coordinate volunteers who will be stationed at the co-op's front entrance during the busiest hours (Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.)
Volunteers will remind patrons to don their mask and sanitize their hands, and will introduce them to the market's process for entrance. (You must wait until a basket or cart is free.)
If you are interested in volunteering, contact Knopp at [email protected].
LGBTQIA+ resources available via Out in the Open
BRATTLEBORO - Out in the Open is offering a lot of resources and virtual spaces for rural LGBTQIA+ folks during the COVID-19 crisis. The full list and calendar is on their website, weareoutintheopen.org.
They have a Community Care Offers & Asks list, and a list of Rural New England Mutual Aid opportunities, with specific resource links for LGBTQIA+ and QTPOC folks. Out in the Open also has a Slack channel for rural LGBTQIA+ folks to share resources and connect outside of social media. Email [email protected] for more information.