WESTMINSTER - One in five Vermont children experiences hunger or food hardship. Lack of affordable housing, low wages, high unemployment, a decrease in the number of local, affordable grocery stores, and lack of public transportation all contribute to hunger and food insecurity in Vermont.
Everyone needs access to healthy food, and 3SquaresVT is there to help; in fact, 1 in 8 Vermonters get 3SquaresVT benefits. A family of four earning up to $3,746 a month may be eligible, and households can have a savings account or an asset like a car or home and still qualify.
3SquaresVT food benefits can also be used to buy seeds and plants to grow your own fruits and vegetables. Seedlings can be purchased wherever EBT cards are accepted. More than 40 farmers' markets across the state accept 3SquaresVT for starter plants as well as fresh produce. Check online to locate a participating farmers market at www.vermontfoodhelp.com/farmers-markets.
Southeastern Vermont Community Action's Family Services staff are available to assist households to apply for 3SquaresVT by appointment. To schedule an appointment, call 800-464-9951. For a list of participating stores and markets, or to apply for 3SquaresVT benefits online, visit www.vermontfoodhelp.com.
On Saturday, June 10, at 6 p.m., New England Youth Theatre hosts “Roots & Wings: A Celebration,” a benefit reception to raise funds for NEYT's Angels in the Wings Scholarship Fund, which supports more than 60 percent of all NEYT students with financial aid. The reception, featuring savory hors...
College news • The following local students at the Community College of Vermont earned associate degrees at the College's 50th commencement on June 3: Andrea G. Given-Vanleeuwen and Matthew A. Morrill of Bellows Falls; Gloria J. Anderson, Mary D. Baker, Cheryl-Ann E. Caldwell-Lahue, Lisa A. Fricke, Bradley Henry, Mary...
An estimated 3,600 Vermont residents will learn they have cancer this year, and getting to their scheduled treatment will be one of their greatest roadblocks. To ensure patients get to the critical care they need without additional stress, the American Cancer Society Road To Recovery program can help provide free transportation to and from treatment for people who have cancer and who do not have a ride or are unable to drive themselves. “Every driver has what it takes to...
For thousands of years, Native Americans lived on the land now known as Dummerston, Vermont, and made decisions by consensus. Since the town of Dummerston was founded by Europeans about 265 years ago, direct democracy has continued through Annual Town Meeting. Now, the Selectboard seeks to drive a “dagger into the heart of town meeting.” Those were the words of University of Vermont politics professor Frank Bryan, author of a book about Vermont town meetings, when he learned on May...
On June 14, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Brattleboro Area Hospice will host a community screening of the documentary Being Mortal. After the screening, audience members can participate in a guided conversation on how to take concrete steps to identify and communicate wishes about end-of-life goals and preferences. A panel of local medical professionals - Denise Paasche, MD; Franz Reichsman, MD; Michele Rowland, MSN/RN, LICSW; and Megan Hawthorne, MSW and advance care planning guides will join the community conversation. The...
Vivian J. Prunier of Westminster was recognized for her significant contributions to her community and to the Brattleboro branch of the American Association of University Women at its recent 91st annual meeting. Prunier was cited for her leadership of the branch as membership chair and president, as well as her participation in the branch's book sale and Welcome Center fundraisers that raise money for the scholarship fund. An involved community member, Prunier is a member of Mak'hela Jewish Chorus of...
Since 1965, more than 12,250 area youths have developed skills, friendships, and memories at Meeting Waters YMCA summer camps. This summer marks the 53rd consecutive year that hundreds of area youths will keep their minds and bodies active throughout the summer at the regional Y's three day-camp programs. Y Day Camp for 6- to 13-year-olds offers eight one-week sessions between June 26 and Aug. 18. The Y's Leader-in-Training program provides a week of leadership development (June 26-30) followed by three...
Voters OK school budget on third try VERNON - After it was rejected, 272-222, on Town Meeting Day, and rejected by a single vote - 128-127 - on April 13, a school budget for fiscal year 2018 was approved by voters on the third try by a wide margin on May 31. According to Town Clerk Tim Arsenault, the school budget passed, 211-114. The original FY18 school budget of $4,079,300 was one of 18 school budgets statewide that were rejected...
On Sunday, June 25, at 7:30 p.m., Nadine Gaab, Ph.D., will give a talk titled “Hope or Hype? The Use and Misuse of Neuroscience in Education.” The event will be held at the Brooks M. O'Brien Auditorium in the East Academic Building at Landmark College. This talk will be the keynote address for the 27th annual Landmark College Summer Institute. As a special benefit to the local community, the keynote address of the Summer Institute is free, accessible, and open...
Brattleboro-West Arts has become a fixture of the community's vibrant art scene through exhibits, open studio events, public forums, and creative workshops. This year, its members felt moved to share a positive message about the current political climate with the community. To that end, 14 BWA members have created an 8-by-5-foot tapestry titled Art Connects US. Based on the American flag, the mixed-media piece comprises 13 stripes and one rectangular field, each its own work of textile art by a...
Linda Gifkins of Wardsboro is the June Artist of the Month at the Wardsboro Public Library. She will be exhibiting her hooked rugs made for her children and grandchild celebrating life's events. Rugs that have seen wear on the floors of her Wardsboro home and decorative items, including pillows and holiday decorations, can be seen as well. The highlight of the exhibit is the spectacular folk art hooked Christmas tree skirt that Gifkins recently completed. It will be the prize...
That the Putney Fire Department needs more members is nothing new. But according to an Internal Operations Report filed by the department in May, the problem has reached critical status. At its current staffing levels, the department may not be able to adequately respond to emergencies. Fire Chief Tom Goddard appeared at the May 24 regular Selectboard meeting to go over the report and make a suggestion: It might be time to start paying firefighters, and it will likely cost...
The West River Valley Chorus will present their annual spring concerts on June 9 at the Wardsboro Town Hall and June 10 at the Townshend Church. Both concerts will begin at 7 p.m. Ken Olsson will direct and accompany on piano. The concert, titled A Spring Sing, will feature music by John Rutter (“Distant Land”) and Mark Patterson (“The Silence and the Song”). The chorus will also sings “Just a Little Talk with Jesus” written by Rev. Cleavant Derricks, a...
The Farm to Family Program gives families in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutrition program coupons for free, locally grown, fresh vegetables and fruits from participating farmers' markets around the state. WIC participants over the age of 6 months are eligible for Farm to Family coupons, which are available on a first-come, first-served basis. There is a $60 maximum benefit per family. Coupons will be distributed at these three events this summer: • Thursday, June 29, from 10 a.m.
Early detection is an important strategy - by professionals and volunteers - in efforts to minimize the detrimental effects of invasive species on native species and habitats. A workshop on how to be become a Vermont Invasive Patroller will be offered on Saturday, June 10, from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., in Room 2E at the Marlboro College Graduate Center on Vernon Road. A half-hour lunch break is included in the time frame. The three-hour workshop is a program of...
It was deeply disturbing to hear a member of Brattleboro's decidedly homogenous, all-white Selectboard declare that even though the town has no employees of color, he considers town government “diverse.” I'm not going to try to parse what he meant by that. As a person of privilege, I admit to frequent stumbles in how I talk about race and diversity. In fact, I'm anxious about writing this letter lest I appear to be trying to speak on behalf of people...
Where do you see compassion at work in our community? Is there a person who comes to mind when you think of selfless acts? An organization that has made a caring impact on your life? A time that people have come together out of concern for others? We are looking for good stories about compassion that you have seen or experienced! Consistent with Brattleboro's newly publicized, and continued, commitment to compassion, the Reformer and The Commons have agreed to publish...
Town receives highway grants PUTNEY - The Agency of Transportation awarded the town two grants totaling $28,000 through the Better Roads Program. An $8,000 grant will fund a mandatory road erosion inventory, and town officials will work with the Windham Regional Commission to complete the study. The remaining $20,000 will support an erosion mitigation project on Sand Hill Road. This project involves creating drainage to divert sediment into a settlement pond to keep it out of the wetland. Both grants...
The town's delinquent tax situation has gotten out of hand, Town Manager Cynthia Stoddard announced at the May 24 regular Selectboard meeting. “I think we really need to have a serious discussion about changing the policy for our delinquent tax collection,” she said. Currently, a property owner has to be in arrears for two years before the town begins a tax sale on the parcel. Stoddard proposed changing the policy to allow the town to begin tax sale proceedings after...
Good day to you! We have certainly been dealing with unseasonably cool temperatures in an intermittent cadence for a few weeks now. I know many farmers and gardeners are ready for warmer, drier, sunnier streaks of weather, and I'm happy to say we may get to tie at least several such days together late this weekend into early next week. After Tuesday's super rawness, we can hopefully finally turn the corner into the summer season. For Wednesday, the upper level...
On the way into Magic Mountain Ski Area, drivers pass a sign declaring that “you've now officially taken the road less traveled.” That's a key marketing slogan for the property's new owners: They're trying to differentiate Magic Mountain from much larger competitors by emphasizing a less-crowded, “throwback” ski experience. But administrators also are hoping a lot more people see that sign in the years to come. To that end, they've submitted state Act 250 applications for major upgrades to snow-making...
For the second straight year, Bellows Falls used their depth and their talent to sweep the state Division III track & field championships at Green Mountain Union High School in Chester on June 3. The Terrier girls won their second straight Division III title with 144 points. Oxbow was second with 97 points and Thetford was third with 94. The BF boys were just as dominating in winning their fifth consecutive state title, winning with 177 points. Thetford was a...
The Roots on the River Music festival will run from Friday, June 9, through Sunday, June 11, and features returning headliner Hayes Carll and a host of nationally acclaimed singer/songwriters, as well as a number of popular regional artists who will add local flavor to the weekend and lots of music from freshly released albums. From a Thursday night kickoff party at Donovan's with Jatoba reunited, through three lively days of a variety of musical genres, artists range from Carll,
A Williamsville native and Leland & Gray Union High School graduate, Petty Officer 1st Class Christopher Stover, is serving in the U.S. Navy as a member of the Navy Information Operations Command in historic Pearl Harbor during the 75th commemoration of the Battle of Midway. Stover works as an NIOC Cryptologic Technician Networks specialist supporting real-world strategic intelligence missions primarily in support of U.S. Central Command and U.S. Pacific Command. The work done at their operations center remains as important...
Hilltop Montessori School announced the inception of The Kahn Mason Annual Award honoring outstanding contributions to the school. Wolf Kahn and Emily Mason, of West Brattleboro and New York City, are the namesakes and first recipients of the award. The ceremony will take place Saturday, June 10, at 5 p.m., in the Hilltop Arts Barn. The generosity of an initial seed gift from Mason and Kahn enabled Hilltop to buy the property at its current 43-acre location off Guilford Street...
The Photo Committee of the Wardsboro History Group will present “Windham County 100 years ago,” on Wednesday, June 21, at 7 p.m., at Union Hall on West Street in Newfane Village. Many people have enjoyed the old photographs from the Porter Thayer collection over the years, but the photographs presented in this evening's program will be seen for the first time in over a century, according to a news release. Hundreds of glass plates which have been in the family's...
Day 1: June 18, 2010 I think I had a life outside of airplanes once. I'm not entirely sure, because the past few days have been nothing but my butt in various airplane seats. Still, I'm feeling reasonably certain that I had a life out of airplanes once. “Once” being 65{1/2} hours ago. Sixty hours ago, I got off a plane at Bradley International Airport in Hartford, Conn., having finished one of the most fulfilling weeks of my life. I...
Writer, director, and actor Peter Gould has written a new book about his experiences living in a commune at Packer Corners in Guilford in the 1970s. Published this spring by Green Writers Press, Horse-Drawn Yogurt: Stories from Total Loss Farm is a collection of true-life stories of Gould's life on a Vermont farm commune at the height of the back-to-the-land movement. In 1969, Gould moved to Vermont. Soon after, he turned all the communal living, eating, smoking, dancing, loving, and...
This issue of taking down Confederate monuments has been brewing for several years, since the tragic murder of nine African-Americans by white supremacist Dylann Roof, in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., on June 17, 2015. This act was so revolting to even conservative white southerners as to prompt the Republican governor and legislature to remove the Confederate battle flag from the grounds of the South Carolina statehouse. It then served as the impetus for a larger,
To the casual observer, it might not immediately be clear why Rescue Inc. has built a nearly $800,000 station - with room for three full-time ambulance crews - along a sparsely populated stretch of Route 30. But Operations Chief Drew Hazelton says Rescue's new satellite facility in West Townshend is the direct result of major changes in the way ambulances transport and treat an increasing number of patients. When Brattleboro-based Rescue Inc. first came to Townshend a dozen years ago,
Entergy has requested permission to shrink Vermont Yankee's high-security “protected area” by nearly 90 percent, a move the company says will save at least $1.2 million per month. The plan - which is under review by state and federal regulators - is to downsize the former nuclear plant's most secure zone from the current 10.5 acres to just 1.3 acres encompassing a spent fuel storage facility. Though the change wouldn't take effect for more than a year, Entergy is asking...
Award-winning watercolor artist Robert O'Brien will offer a one-day workshop on “Painting the Many Moods and Facets of Water” at Main Street Arts on Saturday, June 10, from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The workshop will focus on the many moods and facets of painting water in the watercolor medium. Participants will learn techniques from rendering a simple reflective puddle to a swift-moving mountain stream and everything in between. Foreshortening and the ability to suggest a flat plane when painting...
Forest tent caterpillars have hatched, according to forest health specialists from the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks, and Recreation. The insect is expected to cause widespread defoliation this summer, mostly in forests across northeastern and central Vermont. Forest tent caterpillars are native to North America, and prefer eating the leaves of sugar maple and ash trees over other tree species. The tree damage caused by the insect can significantly reduce tree growth and affect maple tapping operations for Vermont sugar-makers,
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center's plans to convert an abandoned downtown industrial building into an arts space got a big boost this week. On June 1, BMAC Director Danny Lichtenfeld announced the museum received a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Brownfields Program to clean up the neglected property at 11 Arch St. The BMAC purchased the building from Green Mountain Power in December 2015 to expand the museum's arts and programming space. “We have some exciting...