BRATTLEBORO - The members of the National Honor Society at Brattleboro Union High School will hold its annual Community Service Fair on Wednesday, Oct. 13, from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
The fair is designed to acquaint high school students with opportunities to provide service to nonprofit organizations in the community.
Honor Society members invite local nonprofit organizations to set up a station at the fair. If interested in participating, let them know by Oct. 8 and arrive at BUHS at least a half hour early on the day of the fair. Table space will be provided in the Multipurpose Room, as well as donuts and coffee. Participants are free to stay as long or as short as is appropriate. Those with special needs such as a television, VCR, DVD, access to an electrical outlet or anything else should provide advance notice.
Contact Deb Heller at the school at 802-451-3757 or [email protected] for more information.
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. • Donald M. Austin, 78, of Springfield. Died Sept. 21st at McGirr Nursing Home in Bellows Falls, Husband of the late Mary Ann Ploof.
It shouldn't take a court order to get the Brattleboro Selectboard to follow the law and allow citizen referendums on the ballot. However, this year, the Windham Superior Court has twice had to remind the board that the town charter clearly states that when 5 percent of the voters...
The Bellows Falls Trustees and Rockingham Selectboard have progressed in the search for a town manager to oversee all departments and employees, as well as do budgetary reports, negotiate contracts and report to both boards. A five-member committee of two members from each board, and Interim Town Manager and Development Director Francis “Dutch” Walsh, have met to lay out a battle plan, and hope to have a town manager in place by Jan. 1, 2011. Ann DiBernardo and Matt Trieber...
Some consider Leland & Gray versus Twin Valley as one of the best boys soccer rivalries in Vermont, and it is hard to argue with that statement. These two teams play tense and hard-fought games every time they face each other. It was no exception last Friday in Townshend, as Twin Valley's Ian Murdock scored in the 78th minute off a deflection of a corner kick to give the Wildcats a 1-0 victory and hand the Rebels their first loss...
Visual arts • Photo exhibit looks at small town life: Marlboro College and the Vermont Folklife Center will present A Deep Look at a Small Town: Marlboro, VT, a photography and oral history exhibit by Forrest Holzapfel in the Drury Gallery, Oct. 1-22. From 1999-2002, photographer and oral historian Forrest Holzapfel photographed the people of Marlboro, outside their homes and - with the support of the Vermont Folklife Center - conducted 18 interviews with residents of the town. Holzapfel is...
Let me tell you about the company I work for, and the problems we are solving. The world and national news is full of oil spills, natural gas plant explosions, global warming and air pollution. Every day, I and my company make low-carbon, emissions-free electricity, which is a partial solution to all four of those pressing problems. Here in Vermont, the news is full of stagnant unemployment and a state government that doesn't have enough money to protect its many...
We “met” on datehookup.com. He wrote me an e-mail saying how much he liked my profile and my picture. He was flattering from the word go. How could I not resist the opportunity to know him better? The next thing I knew, he was messaging me within the site but soon asked for my Yahoo instant message name so we could chat. I thought that would be neat. We chatted a lot, and I learned that he was divorced and...
The newly constructed bridge on Western Avenue next to the Creamery Bridge needs a name. The Selectboard intends to choose one from a list of 25 at its Oct. 5 meeting. Residents submitted name suggestions over the course of a month. The suggestion process has since closed. The Selectboard planned to choose a name at its Sept. 21 meeting but decided to table the issue until absent member Martha O'Connor returned. “I've received as many e-mails about this [bridge naming]
As most of you know, over the past 13 years, my wife Nancy has put her heart and soul into building the Girls on the Run program throughout Vermont with the goal of having a positive impact on the lives of our elementary and middle-school girls. Thanks to Nancy's devotion to the program, more than 13,000 Vermont girls have experienced the thrill of completing a 5K race. While training for that event, these girls have learned about good nutrition, physical...
Here is the list of approved names under consideration by the Selectboard: Broken Jaw Bridge; Tess (Teresa S.) Brungardt Bridge; Buttermilk Bridge; Centerville Bridge; Frank Dearborn Bridge (or Dearborn Bridge, or Frank H. Dearborn Memorial Bridge); Dora Ferrante Bridge; Fireman's Bridge; Gibson Bridge (honoring Ernest W. Gibson Sr., Ernest W. Gibson Jr., Robert Gibson and David Gibson); David A. Gibson Memorial Bridge; Capt. Frederick J. (Joseph) Giroux Bridge; Alfred Hughes Jr. Bridge; Lolatte's Bridge; T. Howard Mattison Honorary Bridge; Milkery...
Acclaimed Civil War historian James M. McPherson will discuss how peace negotiations foundered during the war in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library on Oct. 6. His talk, “No Peace without Victory: The Failure of Peace Negotiations in the Civil War,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council's First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7 p.m. By 1863, the Civil War's casualties had produced a widespread desire for peace. But how was it to be attained? McPherson will...
Festivities launch with music and fireworks on Friday night. Saturday features “Our Heritage, Our County Today” community parade, craft fair, concerts, food vendors, and artisans. The Matterhorn Inn and Celebrate the Valley host the Living History Association's 24th Annual International Walk through the Centuries performed by re-enactors, and don't forget the Saturday evening square dance. Friday • 6:30 p.m., The play, History of Dover, written by music teacher Andy Davis, will be presented at Dover Elementary School, along with Birthday...
At a recent workshop where I was teaching educators how to facilitate literature-based book discussions, my colleague tossed a copy of the book we'd been talking about into the middle of our circle. We all stared at it, a little perplexed, until she explained: “It's like a campfire,” she said. “We're all sitting around a fire, drawn together by the same story.” She's absolutely right. Stories bring us together. Stories have probably been bringing people together even before we discovered...
More of our neighbors than ever are in need of food and basic necessities. That's why more than a dozen area restaurants and caterers are coming together during one of their busiest seasons to donate delicious, fresh ingredients and their soup-making talents to the seventh annual Empty Bowls Dinner. Sponsored by Brattleboro Clayworks and Landmark College, the event benefits the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center, a day shelter providing an emergency food shelf, overnight shelter, and other support services. For restaurant...
For all the importance of the subject of child sex abuse, only about 20 people showed up a Sept. 23 forum organized by Greg Brown, a member of the Windham Community Advisory Board to the State Police, and Lt. Kraig LaPorte of the Vermont State Police in Brattleboro. Working in close association with the Putney and Dummerston school boards, Brown said the Dummerston forum followed on the heels of a similar forum in Jamaica late last year, as well as...
On Oct. 2, in solidarity with national marches in Washington D.C. and elsewhere, citizens in Brattleboro will hold a march and rally calling on Congress and the president to bring our troops home now and end U.S. military action in Afghanistan. Organizers are trying to show the government that Americans are just as concerned with militarism as they are with high taxes, and they recognize that the deficit spending that is garnering so much attention these days is largely a...
Attendees at the first BEAN ("Brattleboro Essential Arts Network") Micro-Grant Dinner at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center on September 19 awarded grants totaling $800 to support three local art projects. The winning proposals were submitted by alumni of the New England Youth Theatre, In-Sight Photography Project, and early childhood educator and dance instructor Cyndal Ellis. According to BMAC staff member Margaret Shipman, who organized the event, approximately 80 people paid $10 each to attend dinner at the museum. During...
Rusty DeWees returns with a fresh edition of his one-man comedy show, The Logger, at the Bellows Falls Opera House on Oct. 8 and 9. The Logger's original ever evolving one-man comedy tour de force has played to hundreds of thousands of fans throughout Vermont, Northern New York (state, not city), and around New England since The Logger first took the stage in 1998. The comedy features the Stowe native playing a host of offbeat, rural characters (plus a few...
Local Senate and House candidates discussed their positions and answered questions from members of the public on school choice and charter schools at a forum in Grafton on Sept. 23. But it did not take long for the discussion at the White Church to shift to the economy and Vermont's aging population. Windham County Senate candidates Hilary Cooke, Lynn Corum, Peter Galbraith, and Sen. Jeanette White and House candidates Chris Moore, Rep. Carolyn Partridge, and Rep. Michael Obuchowski had two...
Break out the birthday cakes and history. The town of Dover celebrates its bicentennial on Oct. 1–3. “This celebration is not only a way for the community to come together and share everything that has taken place prior to now, but to get an understanding of where we've come from, where we are today and where we can go in the future,” says Mary Lou Raymo, chair of the Dover Bicentennial Committee. Festivities will include a parade, art show, musical...
From serendipitous beginnings, the Exner Block has been a collaboration with the local community, other interested individuals and several Vermont organizations such as Vermont Housing and the Rockingham Area Community Land Trust (RACLT). Robert McBride is the acknowledged visionary behind the Exner Block, at 7 Canal St., which is celebrating 10 successful years there at 3 p.m. on Oct. 7, beginning at the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project (RAMP) offices, followed by a gathering at 4 p.m. in the newly...
Saxtons River Trustees finally got to the table in August for wastewater treatment talks that began last year. They met with representatives from the Bellows Falls Trustees, as well as interim Town Manager Francis “Dutch” Walsh, to discuss their counter proposal for a possible wastewater connection pipe from the Saxtons River pump station to the Bellows Falls wastewater facility. The delay was a matter of overcoming conflicting schedules. Saxtons River Trustees Chair Louise Luring explained, “The reason we are talking...
The cover of Write Action's new anthology features a picnic motif - a birthday cake on a checkered tablecloth, a ghosted photograph of writers milling about on a sunny summer afternoon. A picnic? It's an important symbol of the organization, says Arlene Distler, a writer who cofounded the organization with other area writers, including her late partner, journalist and writer Marty Jezer. The annual meeting and picnic, like other Write Action events, offers those attending “a chance to mix it up...
The Greater Falls Warming Shelter will host a community meeting at its new location at 83 Westminster St. on Thursday, Oct. 7 from 5 to 7 p.m. The public is invited to tour the shelter, ask questions and learn about volunteer opportunities. Pizza and beverages will be served. The GFWS steering committee hopes to open for its second winter season Nov. 15 in its new location in the basement of the Athens Pizza building. Volunteers are needed overnight in two...
c1YVNM fbettcnjozin, [url=http://wetxecavkajb.com/]wetxecavkajb[/url], [link=http://evrlhqxvfssd.com/]evrlhqxvfssd[/link], http://yrfnihwezawq.com/
At 5 p.m. Saturday, people mill around the Brattleboro Food Co-op parking lot looking warily for information. Selectboard member Daryl Pillsbury moves to the edge of the hill overlooking the parking area, unfurling a microphone for Brattleboro Community Television. Pillsbury corrals the small crowd that warily and steadily gathers over the next few minutes. WKVT News Director Gorty Baldwin cranks up his car radio. At 5:15 sharp, the oom-pahs of “Dance Little Bird” come over the car radio, and for...
Let me see if I got this straight. I thought the USA was the country that protected the little guy. I thought we were the ones that protected one country from another's aggression. Yet in the case of Iraq, we became the aggressor. We invaded and annihilated another country, killed thousands of civilians, dislocated millions, and destroyed a culture and a country's infrastructure. We did so based on the belief that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and was planning...
The Selectboard has learned from a consultant's report that parts of the Vilas Bridge remain reparable, and that the state of New Hampshire, which owns almost all of the historic span, plans its repairs in 2015. Interim Municipal Manager Francis “Dutch” Walsh reported to the board at its Sept. 7 meeting that the analysis from the consultant hired by the New Hampshire Department of Transportation to look into the condition of the Vilas Bridge is done. Walsh will be scheduling...