Bellows Falls
• “SuperReader” comes to RFPL: The American Literacy Corporation (ALC) invites families to the Rockingham Free Public Library on Tuesday, June 15, at 3:30 p.m., to hear stories from author Floyd “SuperReader” Stokes. Each child will receive a free book, and there will also be arts and craft activities. This interactive performance will get kids up and moving to promote good health and wellness. It is part of the SuperReader 50 State Tour sponsored by The American Literacy Corporation and Rockingham Free Public Library.
This program will mark the kick-off for the RFPL Youth summer reading program, “Make a Splash!” Participants can register at this event for “Make a Splash” which officially begins on July 6.
As the ALC executive director, Stokes says “The ALC, a non-profit organization, was established to combat illiteracy at an early age by working with elementary-aged students. Reading aloud early and often has proven to be one of the best ways to prepare kids for school success.” He has performed the SuperReader program for ten years and has read to over 85,000 children.
Also an author, Stokes has written five books - Teddy, the Hungry Little Bear, Say Ahh! The Teeth Book, Popcorn Popcorn, There Was An Old Lady Who Lived In A Shoe and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. “I'm excited to visit Vermont as a part of the 50 State Tour,” he said. “Reading is the tool that will enable our children to open many doors. It is the master key. It's needed in all subjects and areas of interest. I am very pleased with the wonderful reception that I have gotten from the library staff of Rockingham Library.”
For more information about ALC and SuperReader, visit www.superreader.org. For more information about this event, contact the library at 802-463-4270 or visit www.rockingham.lib.vt.us.
• BF Alumni Weekend is June 18-20: The 105th Bellows Falls Alumni Association's three-day weekend celebration will commence Friday, June 18, with dances from 8 p.m. to midnight at the Waypoint Center with music by Intercept, and at American Legion Post 37 with deejay Pete Carlson. Paid dues ($7) and a $5 cover charge are necessary for admission to any of the dances. Alumni may purchase one guest ticket. Dues should be paid by mail, but dues may also be paid at the Dari Joy the night of the dance from noon to 8 p.m. or the immediately preceding Wednesday and Thursday from 5 to 8 p.m.
Class reunions will be held Saturday at various locations, including the 50th reunion of the Class of 1960 at Vermont Academy as guests of the Association.
The gala alumni parade will kick off at 1 p.m. sharp on Sunday from the Morgan's' field staging area, south on Atkinson Street, then north on Westminster Street thru the Square to Rockingham Street. Class entries are encouraged. Register your entry by calling 802-376-6975. Prior to the start of the parade, the Alumni Queen, selected by the 2010 graduating class, will be crowned in the Square at 12:30 p.m. Queen candidates include Julie Cermola, Nicole Gay, Sophie Geha, Alyson Hewitt and Nadine Rowell. Hardworking businessperson, jack of all trades and generous community member Steve James is the Grand Marshal of the 2010 parade.
A collection for the 52-year-old scholarship fund and the general support of the weekend will be conducted during the parade. More than 228 graduates have received $120,200 in scholarship awards since 1958. The annual business meeting will be held at 4 p.m. Sunday at the Bellows Falls Middle School. Awards will be presented for class attendance, long distance, floats and bands.
Brattleboro
• Humane Society awarded $3,500 grant. The Windham County Humane Society has been selected to receive a $3,500 grant from the American Humane Association's Meacham Foundation Memorial for improvements to the outdoor dog kennels.
The money will go toward replacing the current gravel surface under existing kennels with a cement pad, and to build new roofing over the kennels for protection from the elements. “This will be a vast improvement over the current kennels” said Anna Mefferd, a canine specialist and certified pet dog trainer at the shelter. “Healthy dogs are happier and go home faster, and that's our goal.”
The Meacham Foundation memorial was established in 1969, in memory of Tressa Meacham, to provide financial assistance for shelter expansion or improvements that directly affect the welfare of animals in shelters. The grants, in amounts up to $4,000, are awarded each year to several animal care agencies.
The Windham County Humane Society is a nonprofit animal shelter located just outside of downtown Brattleboro on Rt. 30. Last year, the shelter found homes for 568 animals, as well as offering low cost spay-neuter clinics and a pet food assistance program. Visit www.wchs4pets for more information.
• “Slow Money” founder speaks at World Learning: On Friday, June 4, join Woody Tasch and other Slow Money leaders at a roundtable entitled “Slow Money - Investing in Local Food Systems” from 1 to 3 p.m. (with optional lunch noon to 1 p.m.) at World Learning on Kipling Road in the Lowey International Center, Room 101.
Slow Money is a new nonprofit organization founded by Woody Tasch, a pioneer in merging investing and philanthropy. Slow Money's mission is to build local and national networks, and develop new financial products and services, dedicated to investing in small food enterprises and local food systems, connecting investors to their local economies and building the nurture capital industry.
Soil fertility, carrying capacity, sense of place, care of the commons, cultural, ecological and economic health and diversity, nonviolence - these are the fundamentals of nurture capital, a new financial sector supporting the emergence of a restorative economy, and are the fundamentals of the Slow Money Principles. Slow Money is launching a national campaign to obtain one million signatories to the Slow Money Principles. Slow Money has attracted more than 150 Founding Members including many recognized leaders in organic food, sustainable agriculture, philanthropy and social investing.
On June 4, Tasch (founder, Slow Money and author, Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered), Martin Ping, (executive director of Hawthorne Valley Association, a leading biodynamic agriculture community and food enterprise in New York), Cathy Berry (managing director and one of the founders of Baldwin Investment Group, LLC, a small boutique investment management firm) and Jeff Rosen (director of finance and administration at Solidago Foundation) will provide a vision of what this new economy could look like and will lay out concrete steps to take to facilitate capital investment in small food enterprises and local food systems. Find out how, together, we can build a “nurture capital industry” that enhances food security, safety and access, improves nutrition and health and promotes cultural, ecological and economic diversity.
To pre-register for this event, please email your name, any business or organizational affiliation, and whether or not you will be eating lunch at World Learning to Carrie Walker at [email protected]. The event kicks off the 2010 Strolling of the Heifers weekend, which is highlighted by the Strolling of the Heifers Parade on Saturday, June 5 at 10 a.m. For a schedule of events throughout the weekend, from Friday evening through Sunday, visit the Strolling web site at www.strollingoftheheifers.com.
• Brattleboro-area Delegation to Participate at United States Social Forum: Area residents are coming together to participate at the United States Social Forum (USSF) from June 22-26 in Detroit. All are encouraged to join in, especially area youth. The Brattleboro Delegation is part of a regional effort to get to the forum – including a caravan that will begin in the Northeast and stop in cities along the way to Detroit.
There will be a benefit concert, raffle and auction on Friday, June 4 at the Elliot Street Cafe. These events will provide information about the forum and help us fundraise so that young people and people with low or no income can attend free of charge.
The USSF is a movement building process that sprung out of the World Social Forum, which started in Brazil in 2001. Rather than a “conference,” the USSF is a space where people can come up with solutions to the economic and ecological crisis and build a powerful multi-racial, cross-class, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and changes history.
If you would like to help plan, fundraise, donate or attend the forum, contact [email protected] or [email protected] or check out the Web site at www.ussf2010.org.
• Friends of the Brooks Memorial Library book sale: A Strolling of the Heifers weekend tradition is the Friends of the Brooks Memorial Library book sale. The ninth annual edition of the sale, which is the Friend's main fund raiser for the library, is Saturday, June 5, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
There will be thousands of hardcover and softcover books, plus DVDs and audiobooks, for sale at really good prices in the Library's Main Room. For more information, call the library at 802-254-5290.
Also, as of Saturday, June 5, the library's Saturday hours will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The library weekday hours remain the same through June 30. 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays.
Beginning July 1 the new library hours will be: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 1 to 6 p.m. on Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Fridays. Saturday hours will remain the same, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., throughout the year.
• Birth circle meets: A birth circle, sponsored by Brattleboro Circles of Care, will continue to be facilitated by Cynthia Cutting the first monday of every month at 167 Main St., Suite 410, from 6 -8 p.m. (please note room and time change). Participants will share their stories of birth, with their challenges, fears and joys, and learn together in a safe and supportive surroundings.
Pregnant women, women with babes in arms, doulas and anyone else interested in sharing birth stories are welcome. No fee, donation accepted. Contact Cynthia at 802-348-6372 or [email protected] for more information.
• BMH to Host Tech Tour on June 8: Brattleboro Memorial Hospital presents the second of its Spring 2010 Technology Tours for the community on Tuesday, June 8, starting at 5:15 p.m.
The June 8 tour this spring will feature the new Oncology Department, which is now affiliated with the Norris Cotton Cancer Center at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and has a number of highly trained nurses and oncologists who provide the exceptional care available in this bright new unit.
The tour will start in the Richards Building lobby, and will last for approximately an hour. Call Dulcie Gatley at 802-257-0341, ext. 8833, if you plan to attend, although walk-ins will also be welcome on the tours.
• Boards seek imput on Town Plan: The Brattleboro Energy Committee and Brattleboro Conservation Commission will present “Making Connections: Energy, Transportation and Land-Use Planning,” on Wednesday, June 9, from 6:30-9:00 p.m., at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, 28 Vernon St.
How do you imagine Brattleboro in 2030? How will we meet our energy and transportation needs, while preserving our natural environment? If you are interested in these questions, the town is interesting in your answers. The agenda will include an introduction, small-group discussions around specific focus questions and final presentations.
The Brattleboro Planning Commission is working now to re-write the Town Plan, for completion in 2011. They have enlisted the help of the Town Energy Committee and the Town Conservation Commission to help gather public inputon the energy, transportation, and land-use planning sections of the plan.Please come to help us imagine and build Brattleboro's future. Light refreshments will be provided. Seating is limited and pre-registration is required. To register, contact Paul Cameron at 802-251-8135 or at [email protected]. Registration deadline is Friday, June 4.
• The Future of Marijuana Decriminalization in Vermont: On Wednesday, June 9, from 7-9 p.m. at the River Garden on Main Street, Daryl Pillsbury and Vidda Crochetta will lead the second of a series of strategy meetings open to the public and public officials to discuss the future of marijuana decriminalization in Vermont.
Featured local speakers include state Sen. Jeanette White, D-Windham, and professor Jerry Levy, former Liberty Union candidate for Vermont Auditor. The meeting will be filmed as a documentary in progress. Audience participation encouraged. Free refreshments served. For more information, contact Pillsbury and Crochetta at [email protected]. Note that this is not a community meeting for marijuana users. It is a meeting to discuss the political, economic, social and other related issues concerning the criminalization of nonviolent marijuana adult users. All people are welcome.
Londonderry
• Plant, Book & Bake Sale: On Saturday, June 5, support the South Londonderry Free Library by buying beautiful flowering plants, books, audios or yummy baked goods. This annual fundraiser will take place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the library's porch and gardens, as well as inside the library.
On display in the Janeway Wing will be an eclectic selection of colorful, quilted wall hangings created by Vicki Greene. New this year, thanks to the generosity of artist Nancy Tips, frames for artwork will also be sold.
Last year's event was successful thanks to the generosity of many local businesses, gardeners and bakers. Any bakers who would like to make a cake, pie, cookies or brownies for resale would be most welcome. Some may even want to donate a house plant or two before they turn your home into a veritable jungle. Drop off any donations by Friday, June 4.
The library is located at 15 Old School St., just off Main Street and Thompsonburg Road, just down the street from the Town Offices in South Londonderry. Contact the library at 802-824-3371, [email protected] or virtually visit by going to londonderryvt.org or Facebook.