Soup, pottery, and people come together for a good cause

The Empty Bowls dinner will take place at Landmark College as a fundraiser for Groundworks Collaborative's Food Shelf. A group of dedicated potters and community volunteers come together each year to create this event, on Saturday, Oct. 7, benefitting neighbors in need. The Food Shelf at Groundworks Collaborative is the region's most heavily used food pantry, providing supplemental food to upwards of 1,000 individuals each month. Because Groundworks can leverage donations - purchasing just one quarter of the food the...

Senior Solutions receives grant from Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation

Senior Solutions recently received a $10,000 Respite Care grant from the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. This grant program recognizes family caregivers and the vital role they play by supporting nonprofits that address the occasional respite care needed to prevent caregiver 'burn out.' Senior Solutions will support the expansion of services from an aging and dementia-focused respite program to include individuals from younger populations with physical disabilities. They will partner with the Vermont Center for Independent Living as well as...

A son’s loving tribute

In producing To Their Appointed End, four one-act plays directed by William Stearns, Guilford Center Stage gets personal. The playwright, Jean Stewart McLean, is GCS co-founder Don McLean's mother. The four short plays, written around 1950, have never been staged, and GCS presents them in commemoration of Jean Stewart McLean's centenary. “Part of our theater company's definition is, we do stuff nobody else does,” Don said. Born in 1917 in Rahway, N.J., Jean Stewart McLean was an avid writer, Don...

Marlboro College expands Beautiful Minds Challenge

Marlboro College announced the launch of their popular Beautiful Minds Challenge for the 2017-2018 academic year, with significantly expanded opportunities for scholarships and prizes. Inspired high school students from across the nation and around the world are invited to respond to the prompt: “Innovative communication unites people. Share your vision.” “Creative and effective communication is more important than ever, to counter the current climate of divisiveness in national and world discourse,” said Kevin Quigley, president of Marlboro, in a news...

Fall events from around the region

Grafton firefighters host tag sale GRAFTON - The 36th annual Grafton Firefighters' Tag Sale will be held Saturday, Oct. 7, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 8, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the firehouse, just east of the village on Route 121. This is a popular event for people - locals and visitors alike - seeking bargains furniture, linens, toys, tools, books, housewares, small appliances, and numerous other items. Most items will be half price...

NEYT presents ‘The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940’

New England Youth Theatre, 100 Flat St., presents The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, written by John Bishop and directed by Julia Tadlock, at 7 p.m. on Oct. 6, 7, 14, and 15, and at 2 p.m. on Oct. 7, 8, 14, and 15. Despite its title, The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 is not a musical - though there are a couple of songs - rather, it is “a side-splitting sendup of the classic whodunit,” full of confused identities...

SIT Study Abroad expands 2018 summer offerings with new programs and internships

School for International Training is accepting applications for a larger portfolio of summer 2018 study abroad programs that expands the range of internships and focus areas available to undergraduate students. Already one of the largest providers of accredited study abroad programs in the U.S., SIT Study Abroad will add six new internship programs in summer 2018, ranging from a focus on public health in Kenya to counseling and humanitarian action in Jordan. Other summer offerings will introduce new fields to...

Should Brattleboro have a sister community?

Most of us know that Brattleboro voted overwhelmingly in March to join the international Charter for Compassion - as have more than 400 cities and towns around the world - and that a resolution to that effect was passed by the Selectboard in May. Since that time, most of the follow-up attention has focused on questions facing our own town. Initiatives are in the works, for example, to increase the number of police cases referred to the restorative justice process,

Main Street Arts seeks art-show entries

Local artists are invited to submit pieces for a community art show being hosted by Main Street Arts. The show will run from Monday, Oct. 23, through Sunday, Nov. 19, with an artists' reception Thursday, Oct. 26, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Artists - professional and amateur - may drop off their work Monday and Tuesday, Oct. 16 or 17, from 9 a.m. to noon or 4 to 6 p.m. Other arrangements can be made if necessary. Artists of all...

Single-payer in Vt.: What happened?

I think there are a few things that really reflect on single-payer health care. Let me start by saying that Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren have it right with their Medicare for All bill. I say so as one who has been in the trenches, done more work on this issue than any other governor in America, I would argue, of actually figuring out how the mechanics would work. If we can simply say that we have a...

Groundworks Collaborative to hold seventh annual Hike for the Homeless

Groundworks Collaborative will hold the seventh annual Hike for the Homeless fundraiser on Saturday, Oct. 14, on Mount Wantastiquet in Hinsdale, N.H. There will be two start times, 10 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., each beginning at the Mountain Road trailhead in Hinsdale (an immediate left after the second bridge on Route 119 when coming from downtown Brattleboro). Registration begins at 9:30 for the 10 a.m. start, and at noon for the 12:30 p.m. start. Whether hiking to the summit or...

Milestones

Obituaries • Donald “Don” Albano, 77, of Dover. Died Sept, 23. Born in Springfield, Mass, he was the beloved husband of Sheila Joyce-Albano and resided in Dover since 1968. He was the father of Marc Albano and his wife, Brandy, and Leslie Arre-Albano, both of Brattleboro, and the stepfather of Ben and Kevin Joyce. He was the brother of Janice LaPlante and her husband, Paul, of Wilbraham, Mass. He gradauted from Classical High School in Springfield in 1957 and Springfield...

New faces, work emerge on Brattleboro-West Arts tour

The Vermont Crafts Council's Fall Open Studio Weekend, Oct. 14-15, will include 12 artists in 10 studios and one gallery in and around Brattleboro and West Brattleboro. Of those artists, nine are members of Brattleboro-West Arts. Participating studios will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day, with many sites offering demonstrations as well as the opportunity to purchase art and talk to the professional artists who made it. The local event is part of...

Brief warm-up begets intermittent showers through the weekend

Good day to you! We've been enjoying more in the way of cool and fair weather conditions over the past several days, but that is coming to a close as we push into the upcoming late-week and weekend period. The culprit for our impending dampness is a slow-moving cold front draped off of low pressure that will track into Hudson Bay, Canada. This front will be more or less parallel to the upper flow, which will cause it to slow...

On another shooting

One of the first things I do to wake up my daughter on a school morning is to turn on her radio. She likes to listen to Keene's pop station with a really funny morning duo. The first words I heard on this first Monday in October were, “There has been another mass shooting.” The first words out of my daughter's mouth as she rolled over in bed were, “Another shooting?” I sat on the edge of her bed and...

Dried mushrooms: buy with care

Dried mushrooms can be readily found, but read the package carefully. In recent years, China has flooded the market with extremely cheap dried mushrooms with unknown quality control. There are some good varieties of domestic dried mushrooms, many from Pennsylvania, which, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, produces 68 percent of the U.S.'s 946 million pounds of mushrooms annually. Closer to home, dried mushrooms are available from Jamaica-based Terrafunga (terrafunga.com). You can even dry your own.

Stockwell Brothers, Bondville Boys will share the stage in Jamaica

The historic Jamaica Town Hall will be filled with the lively music of southern Vermont's finest bluegrass bands on Saturday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m., as The Stockwell Brothers and The Bondville Boys will share the stage to entertain the audience. Bruce, Barry, and Alan Stockwell's music spans traditional and progressive styles, but their trademark acoustic sound features new singer/songwriter material recast with banjo, alternative rhythms, and three-part harmonies. They cover straight ahead bluegrass songs, finger picked acoustic guitar ballads,

NorthStar defends plan for ‘rubblization’

State regulators and anti-nuclear activists are taking a stand against a proposal to reuse large amounts of Vermont Yankee's concrete as fill when the plant is decommissioned. The latest objections to the so-called “rubblization” plan come from the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources and the state Public Service Department. Officials wonder whether the former nuclear plant's concrete is safe and suitable for burial at the Vernon property. “We want to feel comfortable ... that the material is truly clean,” said...

Southern Vermont Lyric Theatre celebrates music of Verdi

Southern Vermont Lyric Theatre presents its fourth annual “Verdi in Vermont” concert at the Grafton Church. This year, two concerts will be offered: Saturday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Oct. 8, at 3 p.m. The annual concert celebrates one of the most famous of all Italian opera composers: Giuseppe Verdi. Born on October 9 or 10, 1813, Verdi wrote 25 operas that have become the most performed by any operatic composer. Not only was Verdi an influential composer,

Brattleboro board moves to address diversity

After months of research, Town Manager Peter B. Elwell presented Selectboard members with his report on increasing diversity in town government and the community. At the Sept. 19 regular Selectboard meeting, Board members unanimously voted to approve Elwell's recommendations for actions to support diversity, inclusion, and equity in Brattleboro. Before they voted, Elwell gave a brief history of how the issue - the lack of racial diversity in municipal staff - came to town officials' attention and the research he...

Thanks for raising funds for food shelf

Just wanted to drop a brief note to thank supporters of the Townshend Community Food Shelf (TCFS). The TCFS provides nutritious foods and goods to some of our less-fortunate neighbors in the community. Faithfully, volunteers open the doors of the food shelf every Monday evening at the Congregational Church at the Townshend Common at 6 p.m. On Aug. 18, I completed a triathlon at Lake Dunmore and was hoping to help people sponsor me on behalf of the TCFS. I...

31 wins (and counting) for BF field hockey

You do not get many chances to witness greatness in Vermont high school sports. It is a rare privilege to watch a team play well and play with the confidence that comes with knowing you have more talent, skill, and determination than your opponent, and that the only question will be the margin of victory. That is the place where the Bellows Falls field hockey team resides right now. After rolling over Mount Anthony, 8-0, on Sept. 29 in Westminster,

‘Always something’

Rickey Harrington oversees two southern Vermont towns, and his job titles include budget preparer, tax collector, planner, dog licenser, constable, and truant officer. So it's a good thing he's responsible for a total of 11 full-time residents. Harrington is the new state-appointed supervisor of Somerset, an unincorporated town on the western edge of Windham County. It's a good fit, he says, because he's been supervisor of neighboring Glastenbury - an unincorporated Bennington County town where he also resides - for...

A bombardier’s memories

On Nov. 25, 1944, 20-year-old Jay Karpin - my father - walked away from his B-17 aircraft, having completed his 35th and final mission as a bombardier in the Eighth Air Force during World War II. Nearly 73 years later, the 93-year old Brattleboro resident stood on the airfield at the Dillant-Hopkins Airport in Keene, N.H., revisiting two of the military airplanes he flew in during the war. The occasion was the Wings of Freedom Tour by the Collings Foundation,

Community comes through for injured couple

When Kelli Worden was 7 years old, she asked her dad, Stanley Lynde, for a flute for Christmas. She got a yellow flute shaped like a banana - and a custom-built minibike. This past week, after Lynde and his wife, Laura D'Angelo, were injured riding their motorcycle in a Sept. 25 accident - from which Lynde has yet to regain consciousness - Worden asked the community, via GoFundMe.com, for $20,000 to help with related expenses. She got $80,000 and counting.

Four-string celebration

Beloved regional musician Lisa McCormick recently has added a new role in her efforts to make Southern Vermont a musically brighter place to live: ukulele instructor. McCormick has spearheaded a ukulele explosion in the Brattleboro area by teaching more than 200 local students to play the instrument and boosting a new community spirit focused around love of making music. An established singer/songwriter, McCormick plays guitar and banjo as well as the ukulele, and has made five CDs of her original...

Penciling in some beer on the calendar

Thursday, Sept. 28 was National Drink Beer Day. Or so I was informed via a cornucopia of social media messages. It was also National Poetry Day, which suggested that by late evening we could have probably, with impunity, added a National Verbosity Day. In case one overdid on National Drink Beer Day, whoever comes up with these things deemed Friday, Sept. 29 National Coffee Day, which is some kind of perfection. Several national coffee-and-doughnut chains gave away free coffee that...

October song

When my mother had become so shrouded in the mists of Alzheimer's disease that she could no longer leave her assisted-living residence, Dad began to visit us without her. Their D.C. residence, near to my sisters' homes, had been chosen to serve Mom's advancing needs, but over the years it had become obvious that Dad, too, was declining. In order to be part of his life while he was still capable of sharing it, I brought him to our home...

Nice and social

On a Friday night at Duo, a jazz trio was in full swing when a sharp-eyed, gray-haired woman of indeterminate age carefully climbed aboard a high wooden seat and leaned into the bar. She asked for a pinot grigio, then stopped the bartender: “Do you have riesling?” They did, and when it arrived, she raised it to the stranger on her left. “Whatever that is, I hope you're enjoying it,” she said, nodding toward his glass. Salud. * * *

Statewide craft tour includes 19 artists from county

An upcoming art tour will let participants combine fall foliage viewing and harvest activities with purchases from local artists across Vermont. Bright yellow signs will mark the studios of craftspeople and fine artists across the state during the 2017 Fall Open Studio Tour on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 14 and 15 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. The Vermont Crafts Council is coordinating the event and timing it to correspond with American Craft Week, a national celebration of...

‘A cool crop’

Whether or not you grew up foraging lion's manes or hens-of-the-woods, stalking the wild mushroom has become much easier in southern Vermont. In fact, you have to go only as far as your local farmstand or farmers' market to find delicious, succulent varieties. In recent years, many area farmers have added cultivated “crops” of this wild delicacy to their offerings - natives such as oyster mushrooms and wine caps, and exotics such as shiitake. “There's not a ton of agroforestry...

A few heirlooms

The spaces within

These autumn scenes come to us via “Quotidiously,” by Rich Holschuh of Brattleboro, who describes the photo blog (richholschuh.wordpress.com) as “a casual repository of things encountered nearby, whether at home or wandering about.” Holschuh, active in Native American issues, spearheaded the movement to formally create the Indigenous People's Day holiday in the town of Brattleboro and the state of Vermont.

Landmark College opens exhibit of Dave Cole’s art

Landmark College is currently displaying an exhibition of Dave Cole's artwork including a monumental new piece, “Machine Dreams.” Cole is a 1997 alumnus of Landmark College, a graduate of Brown University, and a prominent contemporary artist included in public and private collections worldwide. Commissioned by Landmark College, this exhibition includes a 1950s Farmall tractor that Cole has repurposed into a printing machine. This project is loaded with biography, as the tractor has been in Dave's family for three generations and...

Pie is nigh

Even if you missed the sign in front of the Dummerston Congregational Church announcing “Pie is Nigh,” the sweet, warm aroma wafting up from the church's basement kitchen would tell you: Pie is coming. For the two weeks leading up to the town's famous Apple Pie Festival - held the second Sunday in October - groups of community and church members gather in the kitchen twice daily to pare, core, slice, and spice approximately nine bushels of Cortland apples each...

Heritage Festival fills Common with arts, crafts, and treats

The tradition continues into its 47th year. Once again this holiday weekend, historic Newfane Village will host the Heritage Festival. People will celebrate community, crafts, food, and entertainment from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., on Saturday and Sunday, Oct. 7 and 8, rain or shine. Hundreds of visitors from near and far return year after year for this signature event in southeastern Vermont, gathering on the Newfane Common for a quintessential Vermont experience during foliage season. Hundreds of people volunteer...

Heirloom Apple Day highlights a busy fall

The Heirloom Apple Day at Scott Farm Orchard, on Kipling Road, beckons apple lovers of all ages to celebrate this iconic fall fruit. Come visit the 571-acre historic farm and orchard that border Rudyard Kipling's former Vermont home, Naulakha, and other historic rental properties owned and renovated by Landmark Trust USA. On Sunday, Oct. 8 at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m., Scott Farm's Orchardist Zeke Goodband entertains guests with the history of the orchard and its ecologically grown fruits,

Two exhibits celebrate region’s literary heritage

Under the auspices of a National Endowment for the Humanities matching grant, five local nonprofit organizations - Marlboro College, Brattleboro Literary Festival, Brattleboro Historical Society, Brooks Memorial Library, and Write Action - have joined forces to embark on a multiyear community journey to research and present the Brattleboro area's rich and undersung history of writing, publishing, printing, and words. “People, Places, and the History of Words in Brattleboro, Vermont” (Words Project) will produce podcasts and maps for bicycling, walking, and...