WESTMINSTER-The Westminster Community Festival will be held on Saturday, Sept. 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (rain date: Sept. 15) on the grounds of the Westminster Institute, 3534 U.S. Route 5, and First Congregational Church of Westminster. Admission is free, with more than two dozen vendors and exhibitors of local products and services on hand.
They'll have plenty of stuff to do, eat, and see as the town celebrates the 100th year of the Westminster Institute by dedicating the North Room as the Dascomb Room.
Also showcased will be the Westminster Congregational Church, just down the street from the Institute. Find out about the newly restored stained glass windows and some history of the structure that was completed in 1835 and raised in 1902–03. Get a guided tour of the building, and listen to music from its historic pipe organ.
The Creative Community Collage, featuring the work of more than 25 local artists, quilt makers, writers, and others, will be on display in the Westminster Institute's Big Hall.
Obituaries • Kenneth "Reggie" Lee Blanchard, 70, of Rutland. Died unexpectedly at his home on Aug. 15, 2024. He was born Sept. 7, 1953, in Bellows Falls, the son of Ernest R. and Susan Darlington (Jones) Blanchard. Reggie was a 1972 graduate of Bellows Falls Union High School, though...
Brannan Street closed for retaining wall repairsBRATTLEBORO - This week, LaRock Construction began replacement of a retaining wall near the eastern intersection of Brannan and Williams streets. The work is expected to take several weeks. Brannan Street will remain closed from the east intersection with Williams Street to its...
Actors Theatre Playhouse (ATP) presents "Spotlight," a program of short stories, poetry, music, and more, on Saturdays, Sept. 7 and 14, at 7:30 p.m. Spotlight is ATP's new literary variety show. This year, actors, musicians - and perhaps audience members - will explore what it means to be "good" (and not so good!) through various short performances. The evening will include works of Mark Twain, Bertolt Brecht, Dorothy Parker, John Prine, Robert Frost, Aesop, John Steinbeck, and others. "Spotlight pieces...
BRATTLEBORO-In "Looking Beyond," Rose Watson explores grief and loss following her sister's death. She asks, "what happens when your sister, who feels more like a twin, dies?" Watson shares her experience following that loss in a show during the month of September at the Harmony Collective. "Looking Beyond" will open Friday, Sept. 6, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m, during Brattleboro's Gallery Walk and continues through the month of September. Watson is an artist who found her way...
DUMMERSTON-The Landmark Trust USA (LTUSA) is the recipient of $401,274 awarded through the Save America's Treasures Grant Program, funded by the Historic Preservation Fund and administered by the National Park Service (NPS), Department of the Interior. The funds, which will be matched by public and private donations, will support climate adaptation measures at Rudyard Kipling's Naulakha, the former Vermont home of the famed English author. Naulakha was built for Kipling in 1892, and it was here that the Nobel Prize-winning...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-"Details: Fifty Years of Photography and Mobiles" by Doug Frantz will be on view at All Souls Church in the West Village Meeting House from Saturday, Sept. 7, through Oct. 29. The public is invited to an opening reception on Sept. 7, from 2 to 5 p.m. There will also be an artist's talk, with accompanying digital slides on Thursday, Oct. 3, at 7 p.m. Frantz received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Kalamazoo College, and since then has...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC)'s annual gala raises vital funds for the museum's contemporary art exhibitions, transformative education initiatives, and dynamic public events serving thousands of local residents and visitors to Brattleboro. This year's gala, what organizers call "a festive evening of appetizers, drinks, dinner, dessert, dancing, and a silent auction," will take place at the museum on Saturday, Sept. 21, 6 to 10 p.m., and will honor Sara Coffey and Dave Snyder of Guilford for "their extraordinary...
GUILFORD-Write Action is in its 24th year as a local writers' nonprofit, with programs and readings throughout the year. The organization will be holding its annual potluck picnic on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 1 to 4 p.m., with a rain date of Sunday, Sept 8. Members of Write Action, participants in Poems Around Town, and the public are invited to attend. With the passing of Write Action's devoted friend and past board vice-president Tom Ragle, the event has been moved...
BRATTLEBORO-The Women's Freedom Center (WFC), dedicated to supporting survivors of domestic and sexual violence, will hold a 50th Anniversary Gala event on Saturday, Oct. 12, from 6 to 10 p.m. at The Stone Church on Main Street. Organizers say this celebration "promises an evening of reflection, joy, and renewed commitment to ending domestic and sexual violence." Since its founding in 1974, WFC has been at the forefront of supporting survivors and advocating for systemic change. Over the past 50 years,
WILLIAMSVILLE-Rock River Players will present Sophocles's Antigone in a contemporary translation by Paul Woodruff from Sept. 13 to 20 at Williamsville Hall, 35 Dover Rd. Antigone was the first in the last set of plays, the Theban Plays, written by Sophocles (c. 496 - 406 BCE). Followed by Oedipus Rex and Oedipus at Colonus, the tragedies center on the characters of Oedipus and Antigone and the myriad challenges they and their (rather odd) family face. Antigone, according to Brittanica.com, "is...
SAXTONS RIVER-The Rockingham Free Public Library, in partnership with Main Street Arts, will hold auditions for Murder by the Book, a play written by Canadian Laura Teasdale and sponsored by author Louise Penny. The auditions for the production, which will be directed by Sam Howard, will take place on Saturday, Sept. 7, and Sunday, Sept. 8, from 10 to 11 a.m. and 3 to 4 p.m., at Main Street Arts. The three performances will take place at Main Street Arts...
-Both the Brattleboro Bears and the Bellows Falls Terriers opened their football seasons at home, and both teams met with similar outcomes in Week 1. Both teams struggled with first-game sloppiness, but both came close to winning their respective contests despite the mistakes. In the end, the Bears lost to the Burr & Burton Bulldogs, 28-21, on Aug. 30, and the Terriers lost to the Lyndon Vikings, 21-20, on Aug. 31. Bulldogs bite Bears • Brattleboro held their own against...
BRATTLEBORO-What does accountability look like? How does a school district repair a legacy of harm? Reading Linda Hecker's self-pitying opinion piece, it's clear that not much has changed in our community since the revelations of "No more secrecy" [Viewpoint, Aug. 25, 2021], a memoir written by Brattleboro Union High School alum Mindy Haskins Rogers over three years ago. The WSESD school board's refusal to release the results of their years-long sexual abuse investigation has emboldened Mrs. Hecker to write and...
BRATTLEBORO-A petition to "Revitalize Main Street Brattleboro: Support Small Businesses and Public Safety" is circulating in town. I am not writing as a small business owner. Instead, I write as a private citizen and as faith leader of a faith community (Centre Congregational Church). For this reason, I should, and do, approach the issue of business and public safety with a unique and faith-based vantage that is not necessarily in agreement or in opposition to the petition. We simply view...
PUTNEY-Putney Community Cares will hold an Open House and Volunteer Appreciation Party on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m., in the Laura Heller Community Barn at 54 Kimball Hill. "We want to celebrate not only our amazing volunteers, but also the improvements to our physical space," said Ruby McAdoo, Putney Community Cares coordinator, who described the nonprofit's volunteers and donors as "the backbone of what we do." "Volunteers are the drivers and packers for our Meals on Wheels...
BRATTLEBORO-Charlie Light has finally got the film in the can. Having started to document the development of communes in Guilford and in Montague, Massachusetts in real time in the 1970s, Light is relieved to see Far Out: Life On & After the Commune make it to the big screen. The gestation period of the film, created by Green Mountain Post (GMP) Films, spans five decades over which "we had shot home movies and tried different iterations," Light explains. The catalyst...
Chloe Learey is the executive director of Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development in Brattleboro and serves as the steering committee chair of the Vermont Early Childhood Advocacy Alliance, as well as on the boards of the Vermont Community Loan Fund and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital. BRATTLEBORO-MacKenzie Scott gave $20 million to Champlain Housing Trust, unsolicited, in 2023. Three years ago, she gave $9 million to the Vermont Foodbank. These are incredible gifts that have the power to effect...
BRATTLEBORO-It's a warm, late summer day, and Kayla sits on the curb at the edge of the Quality Inn parking lot on Putney Road, smoking a cigarette. Tammy sits across from her, playing games on her phone. Nearby, Amber is calling the state's Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) to renew the housing voucher that allows her and her fiancé and their 11-year-old son to stay at the motel. Kayla, Tammy, and Amber are three of the 253 adults and 76...
Mark Treinkman has felt compelled to advocate for support of Israel in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks and kidnappings by Hamas-led militant groups. ATHENS-To consider the proposals in Ramsey Demeter's letter, a responsible, honest, and objective reader must be willing to put in the work to contemplate the most complex geopolitical issue of our time (and possibly of all time). As a Jewish American Zionist with friends and family in Israel and deep spiritual ties to the region,
ROCKINGHAM-The Rockingham Meeting House has been awarded a National Historic Preservation Grant for $750,000 toward current efforts to preserve the town's first public structure. The funding is one of 19 awarded in nine states by the National Park Service through its Semiquincentennial Grant Program in honor of the nation's 250th anniversary in 2026. The town describes the meeting house as "the largest intact [18th-century] public building remaining in Vermont still in its original material form and in active use." The...
PUTNEY-"I love old houses and I love the idea of fixing them up," said Dawn King, who is among seven property owners who are working with the Putney Housing Solutions Task Force to add to the town's housing stock. "The more rundown they are, the more I love them." The dilapidated, 150-year-old house on Main Street next to the post office needed a lot of love. "The house was an eyesore," said King. "It needed absolutely everything. The foundation was...
BRATTLEBORO-Groundworks Collaborative, which operates a 34-bed overnight shelter and food pantry in Brattleboro, has launched an outreach program to identify and serve people experiencing unsheltered homelessness in the community. The four-member outreach team provides "street-based programming" to people who are not already connected to services. In addition to distributing basic supplies like water, snacks, socks, and wound care supplies, the staff connects people to housing services and to case managers who help clients access food stamps, health insurance, and other...
BRATTLEBORO-Caz Clark has a reputation in town. Karli Schrade, who runs Groundworks Collaborative's street outreach program for people experiencing homelessness, describes him as "one of our best collaborators." Knowles Wentworth, social worker and police liaison with Health Care and Rehabilitation Services (HCRS), called Clark "a unique community partner." As his wife, Lisa, held a cardboard sign saying "Homeless. Anything Helps," Scott, who was standing on the Whetstone path across from the Brattleboro Food Co-op, said that Clark "has helped us...
NEWFANE-I found myself wanting to know much more about SUSU Community Farms before launching into its #GiveBlack fundraising effort this fall. Apparently, the organization has a yearly operating budget of $1 million and needs to raise $200,000, which they hope will then lead to an additional grant of $600,000. The Vermont Land Trust has apparently helped them buy the land this year. That's a heck of a lot of money. How many farms are using all of their meager resources...
Fhar Miess is a resident of Brattleboro, chair of the Conservation Commission, a District 9 Representative Town Meeting member, and bookkeeper at Everyone's Books. BRATTLEBORO-Dear Brattleboro Selectboard, I'm a resident of Brattleboro, and also the numbers guy and the keeper of the financial books at Everyone's Books, off of Harmony Lot downtown. We've been hearing a lot about how downtown merchants are hurting. From my position as the staff bookkeeper for a downtown merchant, I can confirm that pain. Our...
NEWS FEATURES BY ELLEN PRATTA helping handCas Clarke's first job with the Brauleboro Food Co-op required him to address shoplifting. The safety and outreach manager note tries to positively change the lives and struggles of people on the street. Housing solutions are few, while the need is greatWith a housing market that is out of reach of practically everybody, three people in the state’s General Assistance Emergency Housing Program look to a future without shelter Taking it to the streetsNew...