Nancy A. Olson
‘The backbone of what we do’
PUTNEY-Putney Community Cares will hold an Open House and Volunteer Appreciation Party on Saturday, Sept. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m., in the Laura Heller Community Barn at 54 Kimball Hill.
"We want to celebrate not only our amazing volunteers, but also the improvements to our physical space," said Ruby McAdoo, Putney Community Cares coordinator, who described the nonprofit's volunteers and donors as "the backbone of what we do."...
Brattleboro library staff wins an award for compassion
Workers at Brooks Memorial Library are named Unsung Heroes of 2024
BRATTLEBORO-Each year since 2016, Compassionate Brattleboro (formerly the Brattleboro Interfaith Alliance) has recognized a person or persons who, motivated by the deepest compassion, provide quiet and unassuming service to others that is characterized by sincerity and creativity. This year's Unsung Heroes Award goes to the staff of Brooks Memorial...
A tireless foreign language teacher bids au revoir
Alice Charkes retires after 33 years of teaching students young and old throughout Windham County
BRATTLEBORO-After a varied teaching career of 33 years, Alice Charkes, language teacher, is retiring on June 14. Since 2007 she has taught French to all grades at Green Street School. "It's important to understand the pulse of whom you're teaching," she said. "You have to know who the American...
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Gonna do their very best
Conflict between the generations is a given. The February production by the Brattleboro Union High School Players of the musical Mamma Mia! explores, through the songs of the pop group ABBA, the relationship between a single mother and her daughter. The show was a hugely popular 1999 stage hit and an acclaimed 2008 movie. The daughter, Sophie, is about to be married at her mother's taverna on the fictional Greek island of Kalokairi. She really wants to have her father...
Getting a second chance
Steven Haisley has developed a CBD-infused salve, which he has named Second Chance. That's because when he was offered a second chance, he took it. And it changed his life. "About 23 years ago, I got sober," he said. "I was one of those people you read about in the papers, time after time. I was on probation, and I was given a choice: jail or rehab. I chose rehab." Haisley had started coming to the Brattleboro area in his...
‘Unsung heroes’ use music to bring people together
Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, local performers and teachers of traditional music, dance, and storytelling, are the 2023 recipients of the Brattleboro Unsung Hero Award from Compassionate Brattleboro. The ceremony will be held on Tuesday, June 13, at 5:30 p.m., at Centre Congregational Church on Main Street. The citation describes them as “two remarkable musicians“ who have “sung so often and so beautifully for the living and the dying, for justice, love and compassion, for members of our community, both...
Life, love, and tolerance
This year’s musical at Brattleboro Union High School, the 50th to be staged there, is “Fiddler on the Roof,” opening on Thursday, Feb. 16, at 7 p.m. With book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, it tells the story of Tevye, a poor dairyman, who lives with his wife Golde and their five daughters in the small Jewish village of Anatevka, in czarist Russia, in 1905. It is based on the short stories of...
For adoptees, path to healing begins with rejecting secrecy
Abby Jacobson wants other adoptees to have what she never did. That's why she has started her consulting practice to offer adoptees a safe and supportive place to explore questions of identity. “My vision is to offer guidance to other adoptees, ages 16-plus, in order to prevent continued issues of low self-esteem, low self-worth, and an overall sense of loss of connection with others,” she said. Jacobson worked for over 20 years as a licensed substance abuse clinician and psychotherapist.