On behalf of the people who enjoyed “Gathering in Gratitude 2012: The Source,” a benefit for Project Feed the Thousands produced by Mahalo Art Center on Nov. 17 at the Latchis Theatre, we offer greatest thanks to Kiwell Law, New Chapter, and Staples, our main sponsors.
We also send gratitude to all the people and businesses who have given their time, services, products, or money to support the work of Mahalo Art Center this summer and fall of 2012. Your support made this work possible.
Thank you to A Candle in the Night; Adivasi; Amy's Bakery Arts Café; Earl Zahir Avant; David Bayer; Jeff, Maria and Wendy at BCTV; Beadniks; Fernando Beltrán; Cara Benedetto; Marta, Josh, and Finn Bernbaum, the Blessing Foundation; Michael Bosworth; Brattleboro Holistic Health Center; Brattleboro Subaru; Breath of the Heart; Brown and Roberts Hardware; Chai Wallah; The Commons; Commonwealth Dairy; Aimee Creelman; Cultural Intrigue; Delectable Mountain; Patti Honeysuckle Donnelly; Dottie's; Thea Elijah; Jennifer Fowler-Greaves; David Goldschmidt; Susan Hebson; Hidden Springs Maple; Amy Hyatt; Parker Huber; Leader Distribution Systems; Alison Beth Levy; Theresa Maggio; Merchants Bank; Lisa Merton and Alan Dater; Mocha Joe's Coffee Roasters; Dr. and Mrs. Phil and Colleen Morey; Kaiilama Morris; Sara Nolan; North End Butchers; North Road Guitars; Omega Optical; Gene Parulis; Mary Perry; Emily Peyton; Marjorie Pivar; Maria Pugnetti; Putney Food Co-op; Dillon and the folks at Radio Shack; Wendy Redlinger; Judith Reichsman; Alexa Rittichier; Rocky Top Tavern; Teresa Savel; Ami Ji Schmid; Kerry Secrest; Joyce Shaffer; The Shoe Tree; Shortstop Distribution; Hassan Suhrawardi Gebel; Deirdre Sulka-Meister; Marie Summerwood; Wayne Tirone; Twice Upon a Time; Vermont Artisan Designs; Vermont Country Deli; Jorge and Ana Maria Vinha; Lissa Weinmann and John Loggia; Robin Weston; John Whiteside; Thyrza Day and George Zabriskie; and Zephyr Designs.
Special thanks also go to Gail Nunziata...
There is a lovely space of years when your children are adults but your grandchildren are not yet attuned to Christmas and its feast of presents. These are years when one can rise early in a quiet house, with late-twenties children still asleep and no little tots hungrily lusting...
The 22nd annual American Legion Band Holiday Concert, co-directed by Bruce Corwin and Raymond Brown, will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 19, at 7:30 p.m., at the Legion Home at 32 Linden St. Admission is free, though donations will be welcomed. Here is what concertgoers can expect, both as...
It was 1968. Verandah Porche and her literary friends had just moved to an abandoned farm in Guilford to create what would become a legendary commune. And she wanted her life to be a poem. “There was a lot of grandiosity back then,” she said wryly, on the farm still. We were sitting in her large, wood-hewn living room, where an elegantly glazed wood stove provided the heat. She lives there comfortably with one of her two daughters, surrounded by...
Since its construction in 2005, the Guilford Volunteer Fire Department facility has been readily identified by its unique paint color: sky blue. Now, earlier than expected, the wall and floor have begun peeling and the fire department board has begun budgeting to repaint. Three representatives from the fire department met with the Guilford Selectboard on Nov. 19 to discuss the project. Starting with a blank canvas, with the exception of some fixed price items, fire department treasurer Neil Quinn, along...
Obituaries • Brett Tolleson Blanchard, 73, of Weston, Fla. Died Sept. 9 in hospice care in Hollywood, Fla. Brother of Karen Jane Stromgren Blanchard of Westminster West and the late Susan Margaret Blanchard Adamek. Born in Providence, R.I., the son of the late Benjamin Brett and Emagene Stromgren Blanchard, he graduated from West High School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island in 1956. He attended Brown University and Western Connecticut College. He was a marketing consultant in Stamford, Conn., a residential hotel...
December Bag Sale at Worn Again Thrift Shop SAXTONS RIVER - The Worn Again Thrift Shop at St. Edmunds Catholic Church in Saxtons River is having a Bag Sale Dec. 5-8. In addition to the bag sale, they are offering free books to customers, with a variety of cook books available. Jewelry is not included in the bag sale. The shop has an excellent selection of clothing for men, women, and children; shoes, boots and sneakers, caps, socks, costume jewelry...
To the cheese neophyte, Swiss cheese is that smooth, semi-firm, pale cheese with big holes in it and a kind-of-bland-kind-of-acidic flavor. And that's it. That's the cheese from Switzerland, right? Well, not really. That cheese is not even called “Swiss” in Switzerland, and it isn't called that in any respectable cheese shop, either. That cheese is called Emmentaler and, according to its Protected Designation of Origin - which protects the producers of food in the European Union there and, increasingly,
Now that reconstruction of the fire-ravaged Brooks House is under way, attention is turning to another piece of the downtown landscape, the Harmony Lot. The Brooks House project includes an upgrade of some of the private parking spaces in the north end of the Harmony Lot, as well an outdoor terrace. But bigger plans may lie ahead. A graduate student from the Conway School of Landscape Design is working with the town of Brattleboro and adjacent property owners to come...
In those old musicals from MGM, when Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland found out that their neighbors and friends were in financial need, they took matter into their own hands, gathering all the town's kids together to raise the money on their own by putting on a show. That's exactly the spirit that students at Marlboro College will be showing this weekend when they present their fundraising event, “Art for Aid,” at the Robert A. Gibson River Garden on Saturday,
It might have been more than 20 years ago at some Midwest outpost we'd journeyed to that Stephen Beaumont and I idly speculated on who might eventually succeed the bard of beer, Michael Jackson. The British writer strode like a colossus over the world of beer journalism, having pretty much invented the discipline in the first place. The rest of us were pedaling furiously just to stay far behind. Still, I think I put my money on Steve anyway. The...
Volunteers this November put the finishing touches on three raised beds anchoring the first phase of an ambitious community garden at Saxtons River School, and say plenty of opportunities remain for volunteers of all ages. Another three raised beds are planned, making one for each class in the K-5 school. Volunteers filled those first beds with rich soil and compost, planted garlic, and built three leaf-mulch bins. The Saxtons River Community Garden committee, a member of the Greater Falls Community...
Next weekend, the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) will present their holiday show, The Flying Nut: A Dark & Stormy Night, a quirky fantasy that puts a circus spin on the perennial Christmas favorite, Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker. As in the classic ballet, a party leads to a magical gift, but in this new offbeat version, which NECCA office manager Janet Lowry, calls “a vertical Nutcracker,” the gift leads not to a series of dances, but rather to a...
You can buy gasoline in Jamaica again. Mo's Market in East Jamaica, which was destroyed by fire in August, stopped selling gas last year and left the village without a gas station. However, Cota & Cota, a heating oil and propane gas dealer based in Bellows Falls, bought Kearley Fuel Service of Jamaica in July and decided to do something about the gas pump deficit. In addition to taking over Kearley's customer base, Cota & Cota installed a new set...
On the night of Saturday, Dec. 8, the first of the eight candles of Chanukah will be lit. As Chanukah falls near Christmas, many people mistakenly think that it is a Jewish version of Christmas. However, the meaning and origin of the two holidays are unrelated. The Brattleboro Area Jewish Community (BAJC) will be celebrating Chanukah on Friday, Dec. 15, the last night of Chanukah, with “Latkes and Lights,” starting at 6 p.m. Bring your menorahs and candles to light.
The sun will come out tomorrow. Bet your bottom dollar. Proving the point are the nearly 50 member cast and crew of New England Youth Theatre, staging a holiday production of the musical “Annie” opening Dec. 6 at New England Youth Theatre. Tickets are $12 to $14. “Annie,” based on the popular American comic strip “Little Orphan Annie,” which debuted Aug. 5, 1924, in the New York Daily News, follows the adventures of a scrappy, red-haired 11-year-old girl who escapes...
It's a simple equation that water douses fire. For the Brattleboro Fire Department, fighting fires beyond the municipal water system adds delay and logistical complications to a process where time is always of the essence. In early November, the fire department cooperated with local property owners to install a fire pond and dry hydrant on Ames Hill Road, providing easy access to a sufficient volume of water for fire safety. Unlike a fire hydrant hooked up to a municipal water...
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has given the Cooperative Building a gold star. The EPA has awarded the building, which houses the Brattleboro Food Co-op and Canal & Main Apartments, with the agency's 2012 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement. The building and its three owners, the Brattleboro Food Co-op, Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, and Housing Vermont, located in Burlington, won in the category of Main Street and Corridor Revitalization. “There were many potential reasons why this innovative collaboration...
The Brattleboro Housing Authority's mission to provide affordable and safe housing has not changed in its 50 years, but the authority has changed how it thinks about its services. “Housing is a platform for so many other things,” said Executive Director Christine Hart. “You can open up people's worlds so much from [this] platform.” “This is where we can be instrumental,” she said. According to Hart, affordable housing is more than bricks and mortar. It's also about people and community,
As we move into December and along our journey into the holiday season, I think that one of the greatest joys to experience is unconditional love, especially from one's family. Recently, I returned to Albuquerque for a birthday visit with my 89-year-old mother. When I arrived, there she was at the door, greeting me with a smile, a hug, and a kiss. As the visit progressed, she kept me very busy with odds and ends of errands and projects. During...
Marked by a five-alarm fire downtown, a murder at the local food co-op, and flooding from Tropical Storm Irene, 2011 was not a year Brattleboro residents will soon forget. And as Dave Eisenstader describes in his new book, 2011 also revealed Brattleboro at its best. Embattled Brattleboro: How a Vermont Town Endured a Year of Fire, Murder and Hurricane Irene is packed with photos and interviews with women and men who had a front row seat at the disasters, including...
On Sunday, Dec. 9, at 3 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church, the Brattleboro Music Center's Chamber Music Series presents renowned musicians Jamie Laredo, violin, Steven Tenenbom, viola, Sharon Robinson, cello, and Benjamin Hochman, piano. The program includes Stravinsky's “Suite Italienne,” based on the 1920's ballet “Pulcinella”; Beethoven's “Sonata for Cello and Piano in A Major”; and Faure's “Piano Quartet in C Minor.” Laredo and Robinson serve as the Brattleboro Music Center's artistic advisors and generously offer their performance as a...
Vermont Yankee's parent company wants to build a generator at the nuclear power plant site to produce electrical power in the event of a station blackout. In mid November, representatives of Entergy Nuclear Operations Inc., which owns and runs Vermont Yankee, met with Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials at the agency's headquarters in Rockville, Md., to discuss Entergy's planned application to amend the Vermont Yankee license to allow it to build the generator. The nuclear plant draws power from the Vernon...
Santa Claus made his annual arrival at the Gibson-Aiken Center on Saturday. He rode in the back of a hay wagon, pulled by a tractor from the Robb Family Farm, and was accompanied by Frosty, the mascot of the Brattleboro Winter Carnival, and elves Alfred Hughes Jr. and Casey Manning. As members of the Brattleboro Union High School band played, the queue quickly formed for pictures with Santa and his elves and to decorate holiday cookies. The event was sponsored...
RE: “Why is dignity and respect so elusive in today's workplaces?” [Editorial, Nov. 28]: As I read your editorial about applying Betsy Myers's writings to the situations at the Brattleboro Food Co-op and the Brattleboro Retreat, I immediately thought of the book The Empathy Factor by Marie R. Miyashiro, an internationally recognized business consultant. In this book, she focuses on qualities of empathy, trust, and understanding among all people in the workplace, from the CEO to the janitor, as key...
The next Brattleboro Contra Dance, on Sunday, Dec. 9 from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m. at the Stone Church, located at the corner of Main and Grove streets, will be a benefit for Rural Vermont. All dances are taught, no partner is required, and everyone is welcome. The beginners' lesson starts at 7:15 p.m. and the dance will follow at 7:30 p.m. Admission will be $10-$15 sliding scale for adults and $7 for students and seniors. Proceeds will benefit Rural Vermont...
The town has determined that two upcoming motocross races do not fall under the jurisdiction of any town ordinances or bylaws, and the Selectboard has declined to establish any. After having run the Davenport Trucking Wild West GP race on Oct. 7 - which Selectboard members said went unnoticed by them - Tim Harlow is organizing the 2013 J Day Winter Triple Crown, the second of a three-part event that takes place on David Brewer's property on Feb. 17. Another...
The Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture with New York Times chief Washington correspondent David Sanger, originally scheduled for Dec. 5 at First Baptist Church in Brattleboro, has been rescheduled to Monday, Feb. 18, 2013. The talk, “Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and the Surprising Use of American Power,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays series and will be held at the same location at 7 p.m. First Wednesdays is held on the first Wednesday of...
Three appointed to animal advisory board PUTNEY- The Selectboard has appointed Sandra Hartley, Honey Loring, and Susan Samitz to the town's Animal Advisory Board. Maggie Smith will also be active on the committee, although not as an official member. The three will serve for three years. The committee already has three tasks before it: to look at the animal ordinances and update the fine amounts, to get unregistered dogs registered, and to educate the public about town animal licensing policies.
The Nov. 29 Brattleboro Reformer editorial lambasting six elderly nuke protesters for irresponsible behavior represented a dogmatic thinking process so narrow and mean as to have no place in the here and now. Had this smug soulless writer been extant to witness the capture of escaped slaves during the antebellum era, would he have been pleased to see the law upheld? Would he have gone against a person of sympathy who broke the law by attempting to aid the escapees?
What a great day it was on Tuesday, Nov. 6! To have been a part of democracy in America was second to none, especially as a Vermonter! Congratulations to Charles Goodwin on his victory as state representative for the Windham-Bennington-Windsor district. The campaign and the race were the most challenging things I've done since bringing my farm back. It was a race that interested many people and thus activated a whole new dynamic in our district electorate. This experience allowed...
RE: “Historical novel imagines a 'murky and fascinating history'” [Arts, Nov. 14]: I do look forward to reading Sackett. I've always thought that the best way to get kids really hooked on history is to wrap it around a great story. Good luck, Stuart Strothman.
Throughout this election season, GOP challenger Randy Brock criticized Governor Peter Shumlin for supporting a reform of Vermont's outdated marijuana laws. Vermonters listened but weren't impressed with Brock's “reefer madness” propaganda, choosing instead to re-elect the popular governor. Did Brock really believe that opposing a sensible marijuana policy reform would help him win votes? If so, he should have looked at a few polls before forming his campaign strategy. A poll conducted in February by Public Policy Polling found that...
Are you freakin' nuts? I hope you're kidding. Please try not to get killed. These are just a few of the posts that brightly adorned my Facebook wall a few weeks ago, when I announced I was leaving that day to go volunteer in Uganda. Never mind that this was my second time going to Uganda in the past few years. Never mind that I was volunteering with an American nonprofit organization that safely sponsors four of these trips a...
The town's winter parking ban will go into effect starting Saturday, Dec. 8. Overnight parking is forbidden on all streets in town. Vehicles parked for longer than one hour between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. may be ticketed and towed at the owner's expense. During snowstorms, vehicles must be parked under cover in the Transportation Center. Vehicles parked there must be removed by 8 a.m. to allow for the regular day's parking. Vehicles may be towed at any time if...
The Windham Regional Commission has completed its Windham Regional Mobility Study, recommending several improvements and initiatives for public transit service in the area. Among the recommendations: putting school buses to work for public transit after they're done dropping kids home from school, improving public transit service for the West River Valley along Route 30, and establishing a central clearinghouse to connect callers with complete public transportation guidance. The Commission is a collaboration among public transit providers, school supervisory unions, youth...
When Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican who sought Claire McCaskill's Senate seat, declared that “if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down,” the women of the Boston Women's Health Book Collective, now known as Our Bodies Ourselves (OBOS) after their acclaimed and widely respected book of that name, let out a collective gasp. Then they took to the road. Delivering their iconic book to Akin as well as McCaskill during...
If you were lucky, you had at least one teacher who opened your eyes, pulled you out of your shell, or saw something in you that no one, perhaps not even yourself, had recognized. I was fortunate enough to have five. Any of these teachers would tell you that I was far from the best student and, while I didn't always have academic success, each one of them channeled my energy, fostered my creativity, and turned me in directions I...
Some golfers let the season go readily. Others move south to avoid the problem. Those of us who winter on here eventually have to admit that golf is finished until the spring thaw. Eventually. The first of December revealed the first semi-serious blanket of snow on the ground. But with reports calling for temperatures over 50 by mid-week, the golf clubs remained in the car trunk, delaying the fatal move to the garage. Still, it's not premature for reflection about...
One of the area's most popular holiday programs, the musical group Nowell Sing We Clear, featuring Tony Barrand, Fred Breunig, Andy Davis, and John Roberts, will be presented at the Latchis Theatre on Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 7:30 p.m. Nowell Sing We Clear celebrates the mid-winter season as it was known for centuries in Britain and North America. The songs come from an age when this time of year was a time for joyous celebration and vigorous expression of older,
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital reopened its diagnostic imaging department's upgraded magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) suite Nov. 26, following the hospital's planned move of its MRI equipment to accommodate renovations and expansion of the emergency department. According to Marcy Rushford, director of BMH's radiology and cardiology unit, the MRI unit's new location, on the ground floor of the Richards Building, was designed with patients' physical and emotional comfort in mind. “The new location provides a quieter, more welcoming environment of care for...
An exchange on parking permit revenues during the Nov. 13 Trustees meeting, between Municipal Manager Tim Cullenen and village resident James Mitchell, has drawn public criticism. Members of the village Board of Trustees and the town Selectboard on Nov. 20 followed up with an executive session that resulted in a letter in Cullenen's personnel file. A comment Mitchell made on parking permits revenue apparently provoked Cullenen. “Would you explain to Mr. Mitchell - use really small words and talk really...
The Selectboard has voted to work with the state attorney general's office on a second formal appeal to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for the Dam Road culvert. Board members signed the appeal at their Dec. 3 meeting. FEMA first told the town that approximately 75 percent of the $550,000 cost of installing a new, larger, box-style concrete culvert would be covered, but more recently said it would be unable to provide assistance, as the culvert represented a significant...
Union Institute and University, a four-year liberal arts program, will close its Montpelier campus in mid-June when its long-term lease with the Vermont College of Fine Arts expires. The University is consolidating its facilities in Vermont and will continue to offer a weekend residency program in Brattleboro. More students are opting out of low-residency programs and taking online-only courses, according to Ann Stanton, an associate dean of the University. The move was prompted by students demanding more flexibility, less “seat...
Atamaniuk Funeral Home is hosting its 16th annual Holiday Support Program and Service of Remembrance for bereaved families and friends on Tuesday, Dec. 11. The event is at the Carl M. Dessaint VFW Post home, 40 Black Mountain Rd., at 7 p.m. The public is invited free of charge. Celebrating the holidays without a loved one is one of the most strenuous events for a grieving family. Often, celebrations and special family traditions are difficult for the bereaved. During this...
Lew Sorenson, the town's representative to the Windham Regional Commission (WRC), cautioned the Selectboard about several dangerous traffic patterns in the town. “Route 30 is now designated as a high-crash zone statewide,” warned Sorenson, who serves on the regional planning agency's transportation committee, at the board's Nov. 28 meeting. “There are warrants that justify a left-turn lane at the covered bridge,” he said. He said that danger arises when a vehicle is sitting in the southbound lane of Route 30...
Voters at Special Town Meeting have rejected the Selectboard's request to purchase property that has been landlocked since Tropical Storm Irene destroyed the bridge that provides access to the parcel. The board considered buying the land, at 14 Lynch Bridge Rd., so that the town could redistribute anticipated funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) more strategically. But residents at the Nov. 8 meeting, saying they were motivated by a distrust of FEMA and uncertainty over unforeseen costs, described...