On April 29, the Board of Directors of the recently merged Members Advantage and River Valley credit unions approved the credit union's new name: 802 Credit Union.
The process of merging “provided an opportunity to reimagine our name and brand to better reflect where we have been and where we are going in the future,” CEO Sean Gammon said in a news release.
The credit union hired an outside financial branding consultant, Stackpole & Partners of Newburyport, Mass., to assist with the rebranding process as members, staff, and volunteers were surveyed. A committee was then established to review the feedback and come up with a new name and logo.
“Our Vermont roots are an important factor for our staff and membership, and we wanted a name that reflected that heritage while also differentiating us from other Vermont financial institutions,” said Gammon.
The Athens Brick Meetinghouse Committee, in conjunction with the Athens Historic Preservation Society, is hosting an ice cream social and a concert featuring Bard Owl on Sunday, Aug. 8 at the 1817 Brick Meetinghouse on Route 35. Doors will open at 4:30 p.m. with an ice cream sundae “buffet...
The town has entered into a contract for 20 hours of weekly policing services with the Windham County Sheriff's Office as of July 13. Voters at the Annual Town Meeting on May 1 overwhelmingly voted to support the $41,000 one-year contract, the first such agreement between the town and...
After a nationwide search, violist Ashleigh Gordon has been selected as the Brattleboro Music Center's new artist in residence. Gordon will spend up to two years engaged with the BMC, with an estimated two months each year on site. She will work with BMC faculty, ensemble leaders, and students to explore new pieces and to expand current curriculum and performance programs featuring lesser-known and -heard composers and musicians of color. The goal of the BMC Residency Program is to create...
Weston Playhouse Theatre Company announces its 2021 Young Company production Seussical, which is touring venues throughout central and southern Vermont. Follow Horton the Elephant, the Cat in the Hat, and more of characters into the world of Dr. Seuss in an afternoon of storybook fun and “all the thinks you can think” for the whole family. The theater company joined with partners across the state to bring Seussical free to audiences in their own towns. In a news release, Director...
In July, the University of Vermont (UVM) and Community College of Vermont (CCV) launched the Upskill Vermont Scholarship Program, which is intended to address the training needs of the state's workforce. According to a news release, the $1 million program, funded by the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, is for unemployed or underemployed individuals seeking new opportunities through career change or advancement in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic state of emergency. The response to the program, designed...
BMH changes afoot for Covid testing, vaccinationsBRATTLEBORO - Brattleboro Memorial Hospital continues to offer COVID-19 testing and vaccinations but is changing how these services are delivered. The COVID Vaccination and Testing Center has moved from the Richards Building and Brew Berry conference rooms, respectively, at the hospital to Brattleboro Family Medicine, 53 Fairview Ave. The center will operate Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Appointments are available, and walk-in patients will be accepted every day...
College news • Rachel Yrsha of Londonderry recently received a Master of Medical Science degree in Physician Assistant Studies from Frostburg (Md.) State University. • Hope Divello of Townshend recently graduated from Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology with a B.S. in biomedical engineering. • Gabrel Vanni-Phillips of Newfane achieved a perfect 4.0 GPA during the spring 2021 semester, earning a spot on the Provost's List at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. Named to Hofstra's Dean's List were Spencer Fowler of...
The Vermonters for Vermont Initiative (V4V) will host a public town-hall-style informational meeting on Friday, July 30, at 6:30 p.m., at Whetstone Church, 28 Birge St. V4V, a conservative Rutland-based group established in 2018, says its mission is to “educate all Vermonters on public policies coming from Montpelier and local governments.” They will be discussing public schools' teaching of equity and approaches to race in the classroom. In its promotional outreach, the group says it is addressing critical race theory.
Artists Delano Dunn and Susan Luss, baker Megan Sway, and Dunn's mother, Diane Mangle, will work together (virtually) to make pies, discuss African American foodways, and eat, as the old Creoles used to say, “melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness.” Presented by the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), “Pâte Brisée: A Conversation with Four Pies,” will take place on Thursday, July 29, at 7:30 p.m. This unusual online event is offered in connection with the exhibit “Delano Dunn: Novelties,” on view at BMAC...
I was surprised to find myself referenced in the lines of the obituary. Somebody was mindful - maybe the parent of the other three step-grandchildren, though I'm not sure who they are. When the deceased and I first met, I was already a young adult, so I don't know that I ever considered her a step-grandmother, though perhaps some if not all of my younger sisters did. I find myself touched to be included all these years later, to be...
While CRT - critical race theory - is getting headlines these days, CTS is really what's going on. CTS - changing the subject - is Mitch McConnell and his local minions carrying water for Donald Trump and their attempt to distract from America's - and Joe Biden's - successes in cleaning up the mess that Trump left. Most of all, President Biden has appreciably calmed things down from the daily rollercoaster of chaos that was the hallmark of the former...
The Department of Public Works continues to have crews out in several areas of town working on road repairs following the severe rainstorm on July 17. Motorists and residents are asked to continue to use caution on roadways when approaching crews and equipment working on these repairs and to expect delays. According to a news release from Highway & Utilities Superintendent Dan Tyler, these are the projects that are ongoing this week: • Hinesburg Road: With the failure of the...
Last week was the final week of the regular season for American Legion Baseball in Vermont, and Brattleboro Post 5 and Bellows Falls Post 37 spent the week battling for playoff spots. Post 5 secured the top spot in the Southern Division. They head into this week's state tournament with a 12-4 record, while Manchester Union Underground took the second spot at 11-7. Post 37 and White River Junction Post 84 battled for the third and final spot, and it...
Norma Hardy decided to become a police officer while working for EMS in New York City during the 1980s crack epidemic. Until then, her goal had been to become a lawyer. But Hardy - who steps into her new role as police chief here on July 28, making her the first Black woman in the state to hold that rank - realized that a law career wouldn't allow her to stand on the front lines of people's lives in the...
Man's best friends here are leading in a new way to help build community and make for a more dog-loving, tourist-friendly town. The Wilmington Dog-Friendly Downtown Group and Wilmington Works, a downtown organization that collaborates with businesses on public projects to improve and support a vital downtown, petitioned the Selectboard for $1,010 from the local option sales tax to buy four “poop stations” to be located on trails throughout the downtown. At their July 6 meeting, board members agreed. “Dog...
The Twilight on the Tavern Lawn series of folk, world beat, zydeco, Celtic, jazz, rock, and bluegrass summer concerts continues on Sunday, Aug. 1 with roots and world music quartet the Gaslight Tinkers The free concert (donations will be accepted) takes place downtown on the Putney Tavern lawn (bring a lawn chair or blanket) or at Next Stage at 15 Kimball Hill in case of rain. Food will be available. The Gaslight Tinkers' blend of global rhythms “creates a joyous...
After a hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Brattleboro Clayworks Bowlerama will return on Saturday, Aug. 7. Last year was the first year in 18 seasons that Clayworks was unable to host this popular event. The Bowlerama is a free opportunity for those who have had little or no experience in clay to create a bowl to donate to the Empty Bowls dinner, held each Indigenous Peoples' Day weekend at Landmark College as a fundraiser for Groundworks Collaborative. Bonnie...
Edward Kingsbury III's new works are featured at Gallery in the Woods, 145 Main St., during August, with an opening during Gallery Walk on Friday, Aug. 6 from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Kingsbury is a self-taught artist who works in many mediums. His artistic process is informed by a deeply prayerful, meditative life. In 1997, he was diagnosed with Crohn's disease, and he found making art therapeutic, as it serves the purpose of connecting at a deep level with the...
They called this Vermont Civil War hero “Aunt Lydia.” Gen. Lewis Addison Grant was also known as “the other Grant,” and this General Grant lived in Bellows Falls. After a year's hiatus because of the Covid pandemic, the annual pilgrimage to the landmark Rockingham Meeting House will return on Sunday, Aug. 1, at 1 p.m., with a presentation from Civil War historian Howard Coffin. Grant went to war from Rockingham and became the commander of the Union Army's best brigade,
“The Rich Get Richer: How Our Quest to Accumulate Wealth has Divided America” will be the topic of a conversation between author/journalist Michael Mechanic and local author and campaigner Chuck Collins, at 7 p.m., on Tuesday, Aug. 3, at 118 Elliot, 118 Elliot St. Since Mechanic and Collins share overlapping interests, “their dialogue about the surprising advantages and pitfalls of wealth hoarding promises to be as lively as it is informative,” event organizers write in a news release. This event...
The Crowell Gallery at the Moore Free Library, 23 West St., presents an exhibit by Vermont Pastel Society during August. An artist reception will be held on Saturday, Aug. 7, from 2 to 4 p.m. Ten artists from the South East Regional Hub of the VPS will show selected original pastels. As described in a news release from the gallery, the artists “are folks who live and work in the area, who may be your neighbors or friends, or people...
Marlboro Music has operated a world-renowned summer residency for up-and-coming chamber musicians on the campus of the former Marlboro College on Potash Hill for 70 years - a location that leaders of the nonprofit say that it will soon own. On July 23, Marlboro Music announced that it had reached a purchase agreement with the two organizations currently laying claim to the campus, Democracy Builders Fund, Inc. and Type 1 Civilization Marlboro Campus LLC - one that wraps up the...
Jesse Lepkoff is a man of many musical affinities - early jazz/blues to early music (Medieval and Renaissance); bossa nova to Baroque. Having performed around the world with top musicians, including the premier early-music ensemble, the Boston Camerata, he's earned his chops in each of these genres, too. Next in queue on Lepkoff's peripatetic musical journey is a set of three area performances with his Baroque music ensemble, Trio Amphion. On Thursday, July 29, the ensemble performs as part of...