• Dwight Everett Blossom, 82, of Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Died Dec. 29, 2024, at the VA Medical Center in White River Junction. Dwight was born in Brattleboro on May 1, 1942, the son of Charles and Elizabeth (Brink) Blossom Sr. He was raised and educated in Hinsdale, graduating from Hinsdale High School with the Class of 1960. He proudly served his country in the Air Force, and was stationed in Germany. Upon his honorable discharge, he returned home to Hinsdale. While on active duty, Dwight suffered a serious illness and received a full disability pension from the Air Force. Dwight was a member of the First Congregational Church in Hinsdale and held membership in American Legion Post 5 in Brattleboro. He took great interest and pride in his community and was regarded by many as the honorary "Mayor of Hinsdale," and an expert historian of all things Hinsdale. In his leisure time, he enjoyed hunting, fishing, and sharing time with his family and friends. Dwight was an avid sports fan. He followed all the Boston teams religiously. A plaque in his living room declared that Dwight was a "Boston Red Sox fan since 1942." He was a devoted fan of the local high school teams as well. Although challenged physically by his disability, he remained very active, independent and unstoppable in his daily activities. He loved a good joke and spending time with his many friends, discussing local, state, and national politics. You could often see him coming in his white Miata convertible with the Woo-Sox plate. Dwight is survived by his six nieces and nephews: Dale, Randy, Lee, and Kyle Blossom, Lynn Carrigan, and Tracy Hicks. Dwight was predeceased by his brothers Charles Blossom Jr. and Robert "Rusty" Blossom; his sister-in-law, Jean LaChance Blossom; and his adopted...
BRATTLEBORO-Sambaganza invites everyone to join them in the lively percussion rhythms of Brazilian Carnival. Those who love samba, drumming, joyful music, and the occasional parade, will find it all here. Sambaganza has been together since 2016 as a class at the Vermont Jazz Center, with a steady core of...
BRATTLEBORO-Sarasa Ensemble welcomes the new year with "Color Burst," set for Friday, Jan. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center. "Warmth, beauty, humor, and pathos from Haydn and Boccherini, including rarely heard music by 18th-century Moravian composer Pavel Vranicky, will add to a gorgeous palette of colors...
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts presents a double bill of swing blues music from the 1930s with The Smack Dabs, and Gypsy jazz from Rhythm Future Quartet, on Saturday, Jan. 11, at 7:30 p.m. The Smack Dabs feature the songs of 1930s blues musicians Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, The Harlem Hamfats, and many others. This group features a variety of musical styles, ranging from mournful blues to joyful celebrations, with solos and group improvisations. The core band includes Mark Earley on...
Dog licensing for 2025 begins now BRATTLEBORO - It is time to license dogs again per Vermont law. All that is needed is a current rabies certificate issued and signed by a veterinarian. Vaccination against rabies is required by Vermont Statutes before licensing. Effective Jan. 1, dog licensing fees were increased statewide by $2 per dog. This money will go directly to the state to fund an animal welfare program. If an animal has been spayed or neutered, documentation from...
BRATTLEBORO-Yes, the holiday season has been celebrated, and now it's time for the season's next big event: the opening of the Vermont Legislature today, Wednesday, Jan. 8. It is no secret that things will be different this year. For one thing, the Democratic-Progressive supermajorities have been voted out of office, meaning that Republicans can uphold a veto from Gov. Phil Scott. The GOP has nearly doubled its representation in the 30-member Senate, from seven seats last session to 13. A...
15 years ago January 2010 issue Gordon Bristol, of Newfane, one of 15 members of his family who worked in the printing, typesetting, and prepress industry in Brattleboro in the past century, says printing has been "a good salt-of-the-earth industry for the town." "If you needed a job, you knew that you could find one there," he said. Not anymore. Due to its strategic geographical position as a river valley town and tri-state gateway, and its proximity to New York...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Literary Festival will hold its first Literary Cocktail Hour of 2025 online on Friday, Jan. 10, at 5 p.m. The discussion that will showcase the new book, Ski, Climb, Fight: The 10th Mountain Division and the Rise of Mountain Warfare, by Lance R. Blyth. Blyth's book examines how the 10th Mountain Division of World War II met the challenges of fighting in the mountains, where armies must overcome the challenges via survival strategies and mobility, and how the...
PUTNEY-The Putney Public Library Writers Salon is a Zoom series that brings writers across the country together with an enthusiastic audience online at tinyurl.com/yck6n8dc. The session on Wednesday, Jan. 15, at 6:30 p.m. will feature readings by Claudia Putnam, Ivy Schweitzer, and David W. Berner. Putnam grew up in New England, lived a few decades in Colorado, then joined her adult son in the Pacific Northwest. A sense of place is critical in all of her poems, essays and stories,
BRATTLEBORO-The Latchis International Music Series warms up winter with two concerts featuring musicians visiting from Italy. On Friday, Jan. 17, violinist Luca Ciarla performs. On Friday, Jan. 24, the Latchis welcomes Calabrian singer-songwriter Peppe Voltarelli. Each show starts at 7 p.m., and the concerts take place in the Latchis Ballroom Theater. Italian violinist Ciarla performs with a loop pedal, his voice, and a few toy instruments. He performs solo, playing the violin also like a guitar, a cello, or a...
PUTNEY-Brattleboro artist Ruth Shafer's soft sculpture show, "The Weight," will open at The Putney School on Friday, Jan. 10, and runs through March 1. There will be an opening reception at the Micheal S. Currier Center Gallery from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 10. "The Weight" features five fabric sculpture installations which explore the feminine body's place in the home, in art history, and in the ways the past becomes the future. By conflating the female form with furniture...
BRATTLEBORO-Events are being planned all across the nation to commemorate, in 2026, the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. "This 'semiquincentennial' calls for more than just a bigger fireworks display," local organizers said in a news release. "It offers an opportunity to creatively engage and express ideas about our country's past and future and what it means to be an American in the world today." How Vermont, and specifically the Brattleboro area, shares these ideas with the...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-In the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., All Souls Church, Unitarian Universalists, and the Windham County Vermont NAACP will host a Justice Soup Supper and Community Sing on Friday, Jan. 17, at 5:30 p.m. at West Village Meetinghouse, 29 South St. The gathered community is invited to share a meal together, witness part of King's last speech in Memphis in April 1968 - "I've Been to the Mountaintop" - and sing spirituals and justice songs...
Elayne Clift (elayne-clift.com) has written this column about women, politics, and social issues for almost 20 years. BRATTLEBORO-Throughout the ages it's been true. Now, here we go again. Sexism and misogyny 3.0. With the second reign of Donald Trump, women will continue to be ignored, excluded, trivialized, objectified, assaulted, shamed, and afraid. In the truly old days women became chattel when nomadic societies ceased to be mobile and agrarian. Before yielding to land ownership, life meant that everyone in the...
PUTNEY-"Metalsum: Art Inspired by Nature and Imagined Through Found Objects" by Jane Kolias is now on exhibit at the Putney Public Library through Feb. 28. Kolias creates rustic metal art from found objects. Her previous work in metalsmithing includes jewelry fabrication and welding. Her finished wall pieces involve many elements intricately combined. They take on "a spirited playfulness" say organizers - cutlery is welded to form palm fronds, a sunflower form is created from screwdrivers welded to an iron agricultural...
BRATTLEBORO-As described by the Vermont Automobile Enthusiasts club, the automobile "was a rare phenomenon in Vermont in the early 1900s. However, there were a few Vermonters who thought the Automobile was a viable means of transport and they set out to formalize their belief." One of those men was Andrew Chapin Wright, who lived with his widowed mother, Emily Harriet Wright, and younger brother Sherman on the corner of Greenleaf Street and Abbott Road. Their three-storied white clapboard farmhouse with...
-Bellows Falls got a balanced scoring effort and strong defensive play in the second half to defeat the winless Leland & Gray Rebels, 52-26, in Townshend on Jan. 2. Freshman Jaden Bazin led the 3-2 Terriers with 10 points. Seniors Will Hallock and Carson Clark each scored nine points. Juniors Coby Levesque and Cameron Perry added seven and six points, respectively. Senior Cody Hescock led the Rebels with a game-high 13 points, and Ely White chipped in with six points.
HINSDALE, N.H.-To those complaining about criminalizing poverty, homelessness and drug use: Each of you could be helping. Right now. Take in a homeless person, give them "a soft place to land", give them a place to use the bathroom (yours) and a place to store their belongings (your abode). Concerned that drug users don't have a "safe space" to use drugs? Let that space be your very own yard/patio/spare room. You can watch over them and use the readily available...
GUILFORD-Betsy Thomason clearly shows that she has no idea what book banning is. In her letter, Betsy claims that as the former owner of Everyone's Books, I refused to display books by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and refused to order them if requested, and when we held an event to discuss book banning, she accused us of being book banners. These statements are untrue for three reasons: 1. We did special-order single copies of the book, which was full of...
Libby Bennett submitted this piece on behalf of Groundworks Collaborative, where she serves as executive director. BRATTLEBORO-As we reflect on another year of service to the Brattleboro community, one thing stands clearer than ever: the path to ending hunger and homelessness requires all of us to work together with shared purpose and compassion. At Groundworks Collaborative, we see firsthand how the challenges of housing and food insecurity have intensified. Yet, we've also witnessed the extraordinary resilience of our neighbors and...
WEST BRATTLEBORO-We look to the Brattleboro Selectboard for leadership, not for them to get bogged down in the weeds. Ironically, it is because of their leadership efforts - in using emergency powers to hire nine new Police Department personnel to address community safety issues - that they ended up bumping up against another emergency: the astronomical rise in property taxes that Vermont property owners are experiencing. The Selectboard knows that the 22% increase in municipal taxes originally arrived at in...
LEYDEN, MASS.-F. Miess of Southern Vermont for Palestine advocates for a boycott of an Israel-produced software product. Apparently, it is in vogue now to cancel anyone, or anything, Jewish or Israeli. Recently, even the Jewish musician, Matisyahu, who sings about peace, had three U.S. concerts cancelled. If Mr. Miess truly wants to boycott Israel he will also need to stop using his cell phone, forego many lifesaving technologies, and refrain from any produce grown with drip irrigation. Mr. Miess has...
NEWFANE-As it does annually, Crowell Art Gallery at Moore Free Library, 23 West St., is featuring the Robert L. Crowell Art Collection. The collection will be shown until Thursday, Jan. 30. A reception will be held Sunday, Jan. 12, from 3 to 5 p.m. Displayed will be artwork by Mallory Lake, Jules Olitski, Emily Mason, Wolf Kahn, Janet Fish, Eric Aho, Diedre Scherer, Roger Sandes, James Urbaska, David Brewster, Marcy Hermansader, Michaela Harlow, Clare Adams, Bobbi Comfort, Susan Osgood, Johnny...
CAVENDISH-The recent writers of letters opposing using Eleos technology for mental health care seemingly do not understand what this software does. It uses augmented intelligence to assist mental health professionals. There are many mundane tasks that all medical professionals have to do which take up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent in direct care with clients. For instance, clinicians can spend up to 50% of their day charting and submitting claims to insurance. Using Eleos can cut...
Stacy W. Kramer is chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont. Visit bbbsvt.org to join as a donor or volunteer. BRATTLEBORO-Amid an increasing mental health crisis, communities across the nation, including our own here in the Green Mountain state, are searching for sustainable, effective solutions. As the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of mentoring. The evidence is clear: Mentoring not only changes lives, it can also be a...
PUTNEY-Last month, the Colonial Performing Arts Center (CPAC) in Keene, New Hampshire, announced the appointment of Next Stage Executive Director Keith Marks to fill that same role at the Colonial. A Colonial press release notes that "Marks, a seasoned arts administrator with a proven track record of revitalizing arts organizations and a deep commitment to fostering diverse and inclusive cultural experiences, brings a wealth of experience and a passion for the arts to this prestigious role." Marks, the release continues,
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Board Chair Andrew Frost says that the search for a new director will ensue on the heels of a strategic planning process the board ran last year to chart a course for the performing arts nonprofit through the rest of the decade. Having cast a wide net with a survey of the organization's mailing list and the broader community, "we identified a number of key influencers within the community across different subsections of donors, partners, and business...
BRATTLEBORO-While most residents sought refuge indoors during the icy grip of the polar vortex, a dedicated team of volunteers braved the cold to bring snow to a barren hillside. Todd Fahey, vice president of the board of the Brattleboro Ski Hill, spearheaded the efforts on Jan. 3, turning an already-long week into a marathon. As a self-proclaimed "diehard skier," he chargeD into the frigid air despite having spent most of the past 24 hours on his feet at Brattleboro Memorial...
WILMINGTON-That Richard Evers cites his being of Jewish and German descent makes him able to judge a complex situation is difficult to understand. If anyone cares to hear another point of view from people close to the problem they should look up Goldie Ghamari of Iranian Muslim background and member of the Ontario Provincial government in Canada and also Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. We are not experts so we can't comment on Evers' criticism...
Cindi Krug works downtown at her family's store, Twice Upon a Time. "I wrote this a while ago but was nervous to [say] it aloud... now I think it's time," she writes. "I speak for myself and no one else." BRATTLEBORO-I write this with a very heavy heart. In one night, we found a stash of needles. The day before, I took a video of the trash and litter strewn around our private property, and that pile was not there.