Issue #606
Looking back, looking ahead
Beverly Langeveld, Vernon: Over the past year, I've been both surprised and dismayed - surprised that so many people were willing to abide by the restrictions such as mask wearing, and dismayed that so many did not.
I'm hoping that many of us will realize how precious our daily routines are after seeing them put in upheaval by the pandemic. However, I do think there will be some permanent changes to those routines, especially with working from home.
Crosby-Gannett Fund awards $23,000 in grants to support Brattleboro nonprofits
The Crosby-Gannett Fund, a component fund of the Vermont Community Foundation, has granted $23,000 to 15 nonprofit organizations in its 2021 competitive grant round. This year, the Crosby-Gannett Fund chose to focus on community needs related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Awards represent a combination of grants to organizations for...
BMH, CCV graduate fifth class of medical assistants
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) and Community College of Vermont - Brattleboro (CCV) recently held a virtual graduation ceremony for students enrolled in the college's accelerated College to Career medical assisting program. The nine students included Jennifer Winte, Olivia Rhodes, Susan Jones, Morgan Gero, Allison Fiske, Hannah Buffum, Stephen Cannon,
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Will Amtrak be back in Vermont this summer?
You weren't imagining things if you saw an Amtrak train whizzing through town on March 15. It was just one sign that Amtrak service to Vermont, which was shut down on March 26, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, is in the process of being resumed. The train that passed through Brattleboro was what Amtrak calls a “requalification run” for engineers and conductors who will be operating the Vermonter, the daily train that had run between St. Albans and Washington,
Around the Towns
Booklet highlights compassion in regionBRATTLEBORO - A new booklet, “Brattleboro Is a Compassionate Town,” is now available on brattleboro.org. The booklet, published by the town, the Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce, the Brattleboro Area Interfaith Leadership Alliance, and Compassionate Brattleboro, summarizes the multiple compassion-related activities being undertaken in the area and includes a set of “Compassion Stories of the Month.” It can be found on the page devoted to activities relating to the Charter for Compassion. Other content includes film...
Epsilon Spires presents lush Chinook documentary
Sky Hopinka's new film, maɬni - towards the ocean, towards the shore (2020), will begin screening in Epsilon Spires Virtual Cinema on Friday, April 9. A viewing link can be found at epsilonspires.org. The film (whose title is pronounced “moth-nee”) centers on Chinookan cosmology and the unfolding life transitions of its subjects, Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier. As described in a news release: “Sweetwater is pregnant and Jordan is awaiting the imminent birth of his second child. From these critical...
West Village Meeting House marks its 50th year with virtual exhibit
At its March 21 service, All Souls Church released a new section of the church website at ascvt.org celebrating the 50th anniversary of its West Village Meeting House. The church had planned a major celebration event for the 50th anniversary, but COVID-19 intervened. So the church built a special section of the website instead. The virtual exhibit was developed by many church members, with Christina Gibbons serving as chief archivist. Gibbons said in a news release that she hopes the...
Porche to lead free online poetry workshop
On Friday, April 23, at 7 p.m., Guilford poet Verandah Porche will lead a free, virtual interactive poetry workshop. The event, organized by the Children's Literacy Foundation (CLiF), is open to teens and adults. You can sign up at clifonline.org. Since the fall, CLiF has been offering adult programs and book discussions with local authors, in addition to its children's programming. Previous featured authors include fiction writer and journalist Sarah Stewart Taylor, poet Rajnii Eddins, bestselling author Dan Brown, and...
College to honor TV personality Al Roker
Landmark College has announced it will present Al Roker with its LD Luminary Award during its “Rising to the Challenge” online fundraiser on Thursday, April 29, at 8:15 p.m. Roker, who will provide remarks during the event, is the Emmy Award–winning weather and feature anchor and co-host of NBC News' Today franchise. He has written and spoken about his family's journey with a child who has learning differences, noting that stigmatizing labels are frustrating because they do not convey the...
Milestones
College news • Hannah Aleshnick was accepted to the doctoral program at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, Ann Arbor, leading to a Doctorate of Nursing Practice degree for credentialing as Family Nurse Practitioner and Certified Nurse Midwife, for a dual focus on primary care and midwifery. Her goal is to address health inequities and structural harms in healthcare. Obituaries • Lucyann Duby, 83, of Putney, Died March 24, 2021 at Thompson House nursing home in Brattleboro. Lucyann was...
Colonels named to SVL Nordic all-star teams
Brattleboro skiers filled the rosters of the Southern Vermont League's 2021 Nordic ski all-star teams. Named to the SVL boys' team were Luke Rizio, Twin Valley; Riley Thurber, Peter McKenna, Finn Payne, and Silas Rella-Neill, Mount Anthony; Nolan Holmes, Tenzin Mathes, Sam Freitas-Egan, and Magnus vonKrusenstiern, Brattleboro; and Brady Geisler, Rutland. Named to the SVL girls team were Eden White, Maggie Payne, Sadie Korzec, Chloe Stitcher, and Elyse Altland, Mount Anthony; and Katherine Normandeau, Ava Whitney, Sylvie Normandeau, Hazel Wagner,
By imagining the unimaginable, area hospitals avoided disaster
As the calendar turned to the year 2020, the respective medical staffs at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital and at Grace Cottage Hospital in Townshend could see the gathering storm that would be the COVID-19 pandemic coming straight toward them. “Yes, we were watching the situation very closely, as most health care organizations were at the time,” said Grace Cottage President and CEO Douglas DiVello. “I think we all realized at the time [in January 2020] that it was eventually going to...
By the numbers
It would have been a bigger surprise if Vermont had failed. Think of Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and how Vermont and Vermonters rose to meet the challenge. Why would we expect anything less when COVID-19 came along? We wouldn't, of course, which is why Vermont has been a leader in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic since it first reared its ugly head at the beginning of the year 2020. The state's leadership was recognized when, in September 2020, Dr.
Poems Around Town project brings poems to public
To celebrate National Poetry Month, and poetry's life and wellness over the pandemic, three area writing organizations have collaborated on “Poems Around Town,” a project placing poems written over the past year into downtown shop and restaurant windows. Stroll downtown, and you will find more than 50 poems written by 35 authors. Participating local and regional poets range from unpublished-but-passionate to well-known literary figures, such as Sydney Lea, past poet laureate of Vermont, and Alice Fogel, past poet laureate of...
A new view
Stacks of moving boxes line the walls of the first floor apartment at the far end of Valley Cares' West River Valley Assisted Living Facility. At my mom's request, I retrieve her book, The Tao of Watercolor: A Revolutionary Approach to the Practice of Painting, by Jeanne Carbonetti, from her bedroom bookcase and pass it to JoAnne Blanchard, the facility's executive director and also an artist in her own right. Blanchard and Beverly Cable, my mother, talk enthusiastically about the...
With funding assured, Water Treatment Plant project a go
Town Meeting members overwhelmingly approved $12.5 million to upgrade the municipal Water Treatment Plant last week. The 111–2 vote officially capped off Annual Representative Town Meeting, which lasted 15 hours over two days. On March 21, meeting members voted to recess the ARTM until March 26. This action was necessary to give members a week to drop off their ballots at the Municipal Center. Under state law, voting by Australian ballot is required for bond votes. Director of Public Works...
Putney School students honored in art and writing contest
Two Putney School students were among nine Vermont youth selected as 2021 national award recipients in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, with four winning gold medals and five receiving silver medals. Viva Vadim of Putney, grade 11, won the American Visions Medal for art, as well as a Gold Medal. She is a student of Vanessa Vadim. Anna Hubbard of Putney, also an 11th grader, won a Gold Medal for art. She is a student of Lynne Weinstein. Works...
At Valley Cares, a new executive director takes stock of elder residents and their needs
In college, JoAnne Blanchard planned to become an art therapist and work with children. That plan changed. She found that professional trajectory disrupted by a job that brought her into contact with the elder population and by her close relationship with her grandmother. “Everyone has a reason why you get into taking care of elderly, and my grandmother was a big piece of that,” she said. But in her first job working for the Council on Aging - now Senior...
No crystal ball
Amid the difficulties of a school year like no other, educators, students, and parents agree on several important points. While this year has certainly been challenging, they say that potential lingering adverse effects on students are being addressed. And even so, they say, it has brought a few silver linings. School officials have praised their students and their families for resilience, patience, and flexibility for making a difficult situation work for all. Reopening schools to full in-person learning remains a...
Literary Festival hosts Julia Cooke and Ann Hood in online discussion
On Friday, April 9, at 5 p.m., the Brattleboro Literary Fest continues the celebration of its 20th anniversary year with a free virtual gathering celebrating Vermont author Julia Cooke's new book, Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am. A news release describes the book as an account of “glamour, danger, and liberation in a Mad Men–era of commercial flight.” Cooke will be in conversation with author and former TWA stewardess Ann Hood. Cooke's intimate...
Brattleboro beats Harwood to win first-ever hockey championship
History is in the books at Brattleboro Union High School. The Brattleboro boys' varsity hockey team won their first-ever hockey championship on March 24 at the Barre City B.O.R. Arena, defeating the Division II defending champs Harwood, 5-3. It was a sweet victory after the Colonels lost to the Highlanders in the regular season, 6-4. But this time they were victorious in the game that counted the most - a game that had many improbable twists and turns. Harwood took...
Book collects collage collaborations between local artist, poet
GorMatt StrangePeak: Great Art Undone is a book compiling three years of collage making by two Saxtons River residents, artist Matthew Peake and poet Gordon Korstange. Using techniques of surrealism such as chance, collaboration, and spontaneity, the two have crafted colorful collages that have been attributed to a fictional artist named “GorMatt StrangePeak” residing in the imaginary obscure village of “Happenstance, Vermont.” Each collage, many made from randomly cut images of great art calendars, includes a parody of a museum...
We made it work as best we could
What a year it has been in our kitchens! The last 12 months have changed how we interacted with family, friends, coworkers, schools, our health-care providers, and most certainly the food we consumed. Our shopping changed dramatically as panic buying left many grocery shelves bare. We lived through shortages of staple items –– flour, yeast, bread, even canned beans. We masked up, and we went to the market less frequently. We thought twice about dashing to the store just to...