Grace Cottage Family Health, 185 Grafton Rd. (Route 35), will offer a flu vaccine clinic on Saturday, Nov. 21, from 9 a.m. to noon. Pre-registration is recommended; call 802-365-4331.
You do not need to be an established patient at Grace Cottage to participate. Masks are required, and anyone under 18 years of age must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Those who come for a flu shot are also invited to donate to a food drive for the Townshend Food Shelf, whose representative will collect items. If you can, bring a canned good or other non-perishable item.
If you are not insured, payment for your flu shot is expected at the time of service. Most insurance covers this preventive health measure; please bring your ID and insurance card with you.
The Red Cross Bloodmobile is coming to town on Tuesday, Dec. 1, when the Marlboro Alliance, the Marlboro Volunteer Fire Company, and the Degrees of Freedom program will host a blood drive in the Dining Hall on the former Marlboro College campus, 2582 South Rd. As thousands of blood...
Obituaries • Eleanor Kingsley Bemis, 93, of Athens. Died Nov. 11, 2020. Eleanor was born on Jan. 5, 1927 in Hartland, Vt., to Cordelia Bayliss and Frank Kingsley. She was one of 12 children. In 1957, she married Robert Bemis of Athens, where she became a lifelong resident. She...
Thank you to voters in the Windham-2-2 district for re-electing me to serve as your representative in the Vermont House. I am grateful for your support and for the trust you have placed in me. During this election season, I have missed meeting you in person. I've missed talking with you at your doorways or out and about at community events. We're all looking forward to the time when we can meet up again in the not-too-distant future. I hope...
Pop-up testing for coronavirus available in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - The Vermont Department of Health recommends testing for people who have symptoms of COVID-19, have had close contact (within 6 feet for a total of at least 15 minutes over a 24-hour period) with someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, or have recently attended an event with people who are not in their usual social circle. COVID-19 symptoms can include fever (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher), coughing, shortness of breath...
On four Mondays - Nov. 23 and 30, and Dec. 7 and 14 - from 5 to 6:30 p.m., Brattleboro Area Hospice (BAH) will host a book discussion group based on Sallie Tisdale's book Advice for Future Corpses (And Those Who Love Them): A Practical Perspective on Death and Dying. The free event will take place via Zoom and is open to Windham County residents. As described in promotions by publisher Simon and Schuster, Tisdale offers a “lyrical, thought-provoking, yet...
Area community radio station WOOL 91.5 FM will hold an online auction of gift cards and gift certificates from local business. The fundraiser will run from Nov. 21 through Nov. 29 on the auction site eBay. Bidders can win gift cards at businesses they already support for a fraction of their value. Doing so helps community radio, area commerce, and the bidders themselves. The annual Black Sheep Radio Silent Auction normally is the principal fundraiser for WOOL Radio, but such...
Calling up an old folk tale about making something out of nothing, Our Place Drop-in Center has reconfigured its signature Empty Bowl fundraiser into a do-it-yourself event. Instead of gathering to share soup donated by local chefs and restaurants, bid in live and silent auctions and take home a handcrafted bowl, would-be attendees are being invited to buy a ticket and a bowl and pay to add items to an imaginary soup - all by mail. The Stone Soup Supper...
I read with interest Tim Kipp's top-of-the-fold Viewpoint on real democracy. There are items, as a conservative, with which I agree or mostly agree - for example, his points that democracy is a participatory process, and that it may need to change as the country evolves regarding demographics, technology, world relationships, education, and social norms. However, it seems the biggest issue in the article revolves around money and economic opportunity. While it is a feel-good sentiment, true equality of income...
Apparently, the writer had a neighborly and congenial relationship with his neighbor until he discovered they were Republicans. He says, and I quote, “I have never shied away from a robust, friendly dialogue about the state of our union, and I enjoy going up against well-informed opponents, as we both learn from each other and sharpen our thinking after a good debate.” Toward the end, he opines that perhaps his neighbor is misguided or has no empathy. And, this person,
Jim Freedman (a leadership development consultant, whatever that is) doesn't know how to “deal with the fact” that his neighbors support President Trump. He is alarmed that they have a MAGA flag on their property. He wonders if it is his “job” to “educate” them. This may come as a shock to Mr. Freedman (and his wife), but their neighbors have every right to support our current president. They don't need to explain themselves to the Freedmans, or to anyone.
I was so proud of my town when I read about its recognition of COVID-19-period unsung heroes. This expression of compassion, this unwillingness to allow such efforts to be taken for granted, is exactly the reason I moved to this town. Bravo, Brattleboro, and special thanks to Compassionate Brattleboro for this, for our monthly compassion stories, and for your efforts to help reduce the heartbreaking divisiveness in our country.
New travel restrictions for those living in Vermont and those wishing to travel to Vermont were announced on Nov. 11, Veterans Day. I think of my brother on Veterans Day, as well as Memorial Day, since he's now gone. Often, I remember my mother as well, anxiously waiting for a letter from her son in Vietnam. There were no cell phones, no email, no FaceTime, no Zoom. And that leads me to think of those men, many of whom were...
It would have been comforting to have Donald Trump out of our minds in the last few months of his reign of chaos, but egomaniacs such as he do not move on graciously. We will continue to be enveloped with the shroud of madness until Jan. 20, and that is a disgrace for the United States of America. It eases the pain of the last four years for many of us that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were elected by...
Life is increasingly becoming too expensive to live here, and it's been happening over a long time. Selectboard Chair Tim Wessel wrote an opinion piece about the proposed security deposit ordinance, in which he used the saying, “The road to ruin is paved with good intentions.” I'd counter with, “The road to ruin is paved by those afraid to stop it.” This is what we know: • The first wave of shops and businesses have closed due to coronavirus. Meanwhile,
As a new wave of COVID-19 sweeps through the United States, Vermont is taking some significant steps to control the coronavirus after a week that saw the highest number of new cases in the state since tracking began in March. On Nov. 13, Gov. Phil Scott announced an executive order that calls for strict new guidelines for social gatherings, bars and restaurants, and sports leagues. “We are definitely moving in the wrong direction,” Scott said at a news briefing regarding...
Selectboard Chair Chris Parker has seen Fire Chief Alex Dunklee's car outside the fire station almost daily since Nov. 4, the date the board appointed the new chief. “We lucked out,” Parker said. A seven-member Fire Department Advisory Committee selected Dunklee to fill the position, which ended a difficult process for a small town managing its residents' well-being. On Sept. 22, Parker posted a letter online stating that the Selectboard voted to suspend the operations of the Vernon Volunteer Fire...
A longtime supporter of the Brattleboro skiing community was honored posthumously with induction to the National Ski Patrol Hall of Fame. Nick Collins, who died on Feb. 14, 2019, at the age of 87, served 73 years as a member of the National Ski Patrol in Brattleboro and Hanover, N.H. At the time of his death, he had been the the longest continuously-serving patroller in the nation. Collins is the second member of the Brattleboro Ski Patrol to be inducted...
After 23 years running the Brattleboro Senior Meals program, Chris McEvoy is stepping down as its executive director. Cynthia Fisher, who has served of the Senior Meals board as its assistant chair, has succeeded McEvoy, who had led the program since its inception in 1997 under the auspices of a different organization and spearheaded the formation of the current nonprofit in 2004. Fisher started in her new position on Nov. 13. According to the Senior Meals board, McAvoy is retiring...
The Brattleboro Women's Chorus will perform its 25th annual fall “singalong concert” via Zoom on Sunday, Nov. 22 at 4 p.m. As members celebrate the group's 25th anniversary, the chorus will be singing songs about rivers, welcoming the ancestors, and healing. The program will be led by Director Becky Graber. “Some of the songs are very easy to join along with, and Becky will teach a song or two to all,” concert organizers write in a news release. Concertgoers should...
The Vermont Jazz Center's Emerging Artist Festival, set for Friday, Nov. 20 and Saturday, Nov. 21, is a celebration of the young artists whose voices are pushing the music forward or paying homage to the deep legacy of the art form. This year, the VJC will present a livestream event that features younger musicians who are inspired by tradition and propelled by visions of possibility. Jazz has evolved consistently since its formation in the beginning of the 20th century. By...
The Selectboard held a site visit and public hearing last week related to the state's acquisition of property rights necessary for the estimated $59.44 million Brattleboro-Hinsdale Bridge Project. Once completed in 2024, the new bridge will replace the Anna Hunt Marsh and Charles Dana bridges that currently connect Brattleboro to Hinsdale, N.H. The two 1920s-era metal bridges over the Connecticut River have been deemed functionally obsolete and structurally deficient. The project was first proposed in the mid-1990s, according to documentation...
I was about 10 years old when I first encountered Mrs. Dalem. A few of us neighborhood kids - my little sister, Benny Weiner (the kid upstairs), and I - trekked through the wooded hillside from the playground behind the Academy School and found ourselves in what seemed like a fairy tale. We saw behind the manicured lawns a little white stucco building with a water wheel that turned at the edge of a pond. Large, white, elegant, seemingly gentle...