Thanks to a third year of state funding via H.484, Section 17, an act relating to enhancing workforce and economic development opportunities, The University of Vermont will be offering up to two free courses to eligible Vermont residents seeking education and skills for professional growth or employment, with new course additions in the healthcare field.
From August 2023 through June 2024, the UVM Upskill Vermont Scholarship Program will offer free academic learning opportunities in business, education and social work, food and agriculture, healthcare, and STEM, while funds last.
"Students from all of Vermont's 14 counties participated in courses made accessible by Upskill over the last two years, learning new skills needed to meet the qualifications for desirable jobs," Dr. Jill Irvine, Chief Officer of Professional and Continuing Education (PACE), said in a news release.
Irvine added that "this year, we are particularly excited to add course opportunities for Vermonters that will address the medical staffing shortage through accessible, on-demand certifications in Behavior Technician Specialist, Patient Care Technician, and Medical Laboratory Assistant."...
In the 19th and early 20th century, the settlement house movement in urban areas sought to bridge the gap between social classes. In these programs, middle-class community members offered their skills and abilities to provide child care, education for children and adults, health care, and cultural and recreational activities...
The Brattleboro Music Center (BMC) presents a series of Summer Salons exploring the magic and method behind master musical works. Led by longtime BMC faculty member Moby Pearson, the salons will be held Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. in the air-conditioned BMC. Pearson will share remarkable recordings of music from...
I would like to thank the community for supporting The Winston Prouty Center's annual Par for the Cause fundraiser. This year we raised over $25,000! We are grateful to the more than 100 businesses and individuals who supported our fundraiser by placing an ad in the event program, donating products and services to our raffle, or contributing to our family-fun experience. This year the event drew more than 150 people to our campus for a morning of pretend play, bouncy...
The Brattleboro Rotary Club recently awarded a total of $16,500 in scholarships to five local high school students who will be attending college this fall. The scholarships are funded by The Gateway Foundation, an affiliate of the club. This year's recipients include Avery K. Bennett of Brattleboro and Trinity S. Stroud of Hinsdale, who will who will both attend the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth; Connor V. Sengaloun of Hinsdale, who will attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Abigail L. Towle of...
Queer Dance Party, a local organization devoted to supporting the queer community, comes to Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Friday, July 28, 7 to 10 p.m., with a family-friendly event. The evening will feature drag performances, a dance party with music by DJ Bux Wild, and a pop-up exhibition of Jeffrey Lewis's photographs of the southern Vermont drag scene. This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition "Pride 1983," on view at BMAC through Oct. 9. "Pride...
Canal Street Art Gallery recently announced that Len Emery is the newest artist to participate in the Working Artist Program. Emery's work is on view through Sept. 29. The Working Artist Program now provides two artist studios and exhibition spaces within the Canal Street Art Gallery. Artists process their own sales and curate their own space, all during regular gallery hours. Emery, based in Springfield, is an aerial, photojournalism, and fine art photographer. Emery continues his darkroom practice on a...
Recreation & Parks Department seeks ideas on pool improvementsBRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department invites everyone to pool their ideas on Monday, July 31, from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.,at the Living Memorial Park Pool in the grass area near the lounge chairs. The rain date is Tuesday, Aug. 1. (Same time, same place.) The department hopes for brainstorming help for how to improve the pool and make it more accessible, inclusive, and welcoming for all. Those who...
College news • The following local students were honored for academic achievement during the spring 2023 semester at Champlain College in Burlington. Ashley Bolton of South Londonderry and Zachary Condon of Whitingham were named to the Trustees' List for maintaining a 4.0 GPA for two or more consecutive semesters. Bolton, Condon, and Janelle Fisher of Whitingham were named to the President's List for maintaining a 4.0 GPA during the spring semester. John Clark of Brattleboro, Jayden Crawford of Wilmington, Hailee...
In small towns, even one additional informed, focused, and engaged community member can make a difference. But for new volunteers, getting involved with local projects and governing boards can seem intimidating. The Southern Vermont "Get on Board" program, starting this fall, will equip participants with practical skills to become more effective and active in local civic life. From big-picture knowledge to finding mentors, participants will learn tips and techniques for navigating local government, fostering positive community dialogue, being an effective...
In a departure from Stage 33 Live's "No Covers" rule, Lou Antonucci will perform "You, Me & Harry," his newly developed celebration of the story-songs of Harry Chapin - "Cat's in the Cradle," "Taxi," "Story of a Life," "W.O.L.D.," "A Better Place to Be," and many more - on Sunday, Aug 6, in a 3 p.m. matinee at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge St. There will be limited seating for this show, and the event will be recorded and filmed.
An original Guilford Community Church production of drama, music, and dance, The Pageant of the Parables, will be performed by local talent on Saturday, Aug. 5, in the Guilford Community Park Pavilion at 7 p.m. A parable is a short and user-friendly story in which Jesus illustrated simple truths about life. "Ours is a faith that is based on stories," explained Guilford Community Church pastor, the Rev. Elisa Lucozzi, in a news release. "One of the primary ways Jesus taught...
Over the course of this weekend at Marlboro, two emerging clarinetists, Javier Morales-Martinez and Yuhsin Galaxy Su, will play works by Beethoven and Schubert. Six young string players - violinists Randall Goosby and Stephen Kim, violists Haesue Lee and Samuel Rosenthal, and cellists Minji Kim and Taeguk Mun - will make their summer performance debuts, as will four senior artists: soprano Lucy Fitz Gibbon, pianist Lydia Brown (Met Opera and Juilliard), violinist Daniel Phillips (Orion Quartet), and cellist Marcy Rosen...
Bill McKibben is a very smart man, but he is also completely misguided in his attacks on "Big Oil." Everyone needs to stop blaming corporations for their actions. Shell, BP, and ExxonMobil, or whoever, aren't responsible for society's addiction to oil. They are certainly not responsible for Bill McKibben's lavish, jetsetting lifestyle, in which he personally is responsible for burning countless tons of fossil fuels into the upper atmosphere, where it does the most damage of all, while getting paid...
I get it. We need housing. Windham County needs more housing. Vermont needs more housing. America needs housing! I get it! We all get it! We especially need housing for people who have lower incomes. We understand the need is very real. Just look at the houseless community in downtown Brattleboro. Oh, yes, the need is real. We know that, we see it, and we want to do something positive about it. What needs to be understood is that solutions...
With only three days remaining in their 21-day, maximum-allowed stay at Fort Dummer State Park's campground, Kayla and Travis Lavonte and their two cats are scrambling to find shelter - again. "We have to leave for seven nights but then we plan to come back," Kayla said. The couple has been camping since being evicted from the Quality Inn in mid-June. They are among the 70 households sheltered in six local motels who lost access to the pandemic-era emergency shelter...
When he began his day on the morning of Sunday, July 9, Drew Hazelton was planning for 5 to 7 inches of water to fall on southern Vermont. Hazelton, the chief of operations at Rescue Inc., knew that the nonprofit's two swift water rescue teams would be called into service. The state provides equipment. In turn, "we agree to be there when we are needed," he says. And in this case, Hazelton adds, "we knew we would be called out...
I would like to thank the members of the Greater Falls Connections' advisory board for all that they do to support our substance use and abuse prevention and community building work by helping with events, coming to the monthly meetings, and providing guidance to the staff. At our recent annual meeting, coalition members re-elected advisory board members Doreen Stoodley, Lama Tomas O'Flaherty, Sam Maskell, and Michelle Bos-Lun. Alex Stradling is returning to the board as well. Joining them is new...
On July 18, Jodi Keeler, chair of the Dover Free Library Trustees, summarily informed John Flores, director of the library, that his employment had been terminated "for the good of the community." John has been library director for 24 years - always working "for the good of the community"! The Dover Free Library, under Mr. Flores's direction, is one of the jewels of the Deerfield Valley. Over the years, he has brought his energy, warmth, imagination, intelligence, and profound love...
I'm sad to say that the recent Viewpoint by Dale and Nancy Gassett fails three key tests that I always found useful when I was in the Legislature - regardless of whether I was in the minority or the majority. To summarize, they are outraged that a "tyrannical" legislature passed a law allowing Brattleboro to have people under 18 to vote on local issues, and they demand that Brattleboro officials do their supposed duty under their constitutional oaths by refusing...
The Fourth Corner Foundation - an organization devoted to the artistic possibilities of designing with nature - will celebrate the life of its founder, Robert (Bob) Foote Shannon, with a free gala gallery opening and concert on Saturday, July 29. Matt Brader is the executive director of the foundation, which is based 28 miles from Brattleboro, high on a mountaintop in Windham, in an unusual set of buildings that have grown to cover 4 acres since their construction began in...
When Franklin Delano Roosevelt uttered his famous phrase, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," at his first inaugural address in 1933, he recognized that fear of the Great Depression could paralyze people and interfere with ways to address an unprecedented economic crisis. He realized that catastrophic thinking and overwhelming anxiety had the power to harm his plan for economic (and political) recovery. He recognized, as Auschwitz survivor Viktor Frankl did, that "between stimulus and response there...
As a beginner pickleball player, I have noticed that our group tends to have more fun than the advanced players. I could be wrong, or I may be biased. We laugh a lot and get excited over even the slightest victory, clicking our paddles in acknowledgment. Our infectious laughter and occasional spontaneous dancing make for a lively and enjoyable game. In contrast, the advanced group plays in silence, focusing solely on the game. Having fun! Isn't this what recreational pickleball...
A three-judge panel of the Vermont Supreme Court has rejected the latest appeal by opponents of a proposed affordable housing community on Alice Holway Drive in Putney, but despite a new construction start date of spring 2024, appellant Laura Campbell says she will take steps to request a re-argument of the appeal in front of the full court. The July 21 ruling by the state's highest court affirms the Environmental Court's decision earlier this year to reject an appeal to...
Week four at Yellow Barn's 54th Summer Festival continues with a series of concerts and events that highlight the work of Composer in Residence Hilda Paredes, including Yellow Barn's annual Composer Portrait, which gives audiences the opportunity to enter a conversation with the composer and the musicians performing her work. The cornerstone of Paredes's residency, and the subject of her composer portrait, is the American premiere of her award-winning chamber opera Harriet: Scenes from the Life of Harriet Tubman. The...
Flooding this month will force the Weston Theater Company, Vermont's oldest professional acting troupe, to relocate from its waterlogged playhouse for the rest of the year. "The extremity of the damage combined with the difficulty of the timing requires us to make some essential changes," Susanna Gellert, executive artistic director, wrote in a statement to supporters. The company - a cornerstone of its namesake Windsor County hometown of 623 - had planned for an 87th summer season with big productions...
After Tropical Storm Irene did major damage to Vermont in 2011, the state recognized the need to prepare for future storms of that magnitude. People started to take the idea of climate-related weather events more seriously. In building back our infrastructure, the Agency of Transportation put in larger culverts and stronger bridges, and it paid attention to riverbank restoration, among other measures. Lessons were learned. Now, a mere 12 years after Irene, these improvements have been tested with catastrophic flooding.
The Vermont American Legion Baseball tournament began on July 22 after a hectic week of make-up games for many teams. Persistently rainy weather this summer jumbled the regular season schedule. Brattleboro Post 5 was fortunate to be able to get their games played without resorting to multiple doubleheaders, while Bellows Falls Post 37 saw too many postponements in the first half of the season. For Post 37, this meant having to scramble in between storms to make up games, and...
There was a time in this old state when yoked oxen hauled logs out of frozen woods, people flocked to county fairs for fun, for relaxation, and to see their neighbors, farriers shoed draft horses which then competed in strength contests, wooden barns and church steeples dotted the landscape, and covered bridges hung tenuously over rushing streams. For the most part, if you look hard enough, this is still Vermont. But nothing has captured the old-timey feel of Vermont more...
A 25-foot section of the world's largest eight-color rainbow flag will hang on the M&T Bank building on the corner of Main and Elliot streets, beginning with its unfurling on Wednesday, Aug. 2, at 3 p.m. The Sacred Cloth Project of Key West, Florida, whose director, Mark Ebenhoch, is a part-time resident and property owner near Brattleboro, manages Section 93, the best known segment of the historic banner, which will remain on the building at 100 Main St. through Aug.