We at Safe Place Child Advocacy Center hosted our fifth annual Can Cops Cook competition on Feb. 29 at the VFW. I wanted to take the time to thank all the people and corporate sponsors who made it such a success.
First, Lisa Lofting and her crew at the VFW were so amazing and helpful! The VFW took care of all of our needs, from donating the space and the bartender, to promoting, to setting up and breaking down before and after the event. Their excitement for our cause and event really helped to bring some good energy to the entire process.
We have worked with the VFW several times over the past few years, and their consistent support has always made us feel calm and ready for whatever we are planning.
We would also like to thank our corporate sponsors, without whom we would not have an event!...
Town Meeting informational forum set for March 11 BRATTLEBORO - The Selectboard will hold a pre-town meeting information forum on Wednesday, March 11, at Academy School beginning at 7 p.m. Representative Town Meeting articles will be discussed, including the budget. At 6:30 p.m., town meeting members of each district...
College news • Peyton Eisler, a nursing major from Wilmington, was named to the fall 2019 Dean's List at Endicott College in Beverly, Mass. • Liam McNeil, a mechanical engineering major from Brattleboro, was named to the Dean's List for the fall 2019 semester at Clarkson University in Potsdam,
Maybe you've never read Austen's debut novel or maybe it's an old favorite worth revisiting. What keeps readers and adapters coming back to this classic novel? Join other Jane Austen fans and neophytes for a multi-media study group at Brooks Memorial Library during four Saturdays in March and April. Participants will read and discuss Austen's 1811 novel, view the award-winning Ang Lee film (1995), sit in on a rehearsal, and attend a matinee performance of the Kate Hamill 2014 stage...
So many of us have discussed whether it would be wise to buy a new electric car or another gasoline-powered one. And so many questions: Which kind of vehicle would best suit our needs? Is a suitable electric vehicle even available? Which option is most cost-efficient? Which is truly better for the environment? What is the current state of electric vehicle incentives in Vermont? First, what kind of vehicle would we really need during a typical month? If we live...
The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Vermont begins a new year by educating and offering support to those with family members who live with mental illness. This “life changing” program is offered yearly in several counties across Vermont. In addition to helping with the everyday challenges that might be expected for the friends and family of those living with mental illness, these free classes provide up-to-date research surrounding mental illness. Classes run for eight weeks and will begin Thursday,
The Windham Southeast School District (WSESD) will hold its Annual Meeting on Tuesday, March 17, at 7 p.m., in the gymnasium at Brattleboro Union High School, 131 Fairground Rd. Child care will be provided. Warned items for the meeting include election of district officers and a vote to approve the $51,171,300 district school budget for 2020-21. You can vote only if you are present on the floor of the Annual Meeting. To take advantage of child care, email WSESD Board...
Health Care and Rehabilitation Services, Southeastern Vermont's community mental-health agency, will host a multidisciplinary art show at the River Garden during the month of March. The art comes from an array of artists, classically trained and outsiders alike, who are part of the HCRS community. The show represents more than 50 artists employed and/or served by the nonprofit agency. “We believe in the therapeutic value of creative expression and look forward to seeing the incredible artwork entered in the show...
The Landmark Trust USA, a nonprofit focused on historic preservation, has been awarded a matching grant of $75,000 from The 1772 Foundation, a private foundation. The challenge grant is the first step in The Landmark Trust's Expansion Campaign, launching this spring. Since 1991, The Landmark Trust has been preserving historic properties through creative, sustainable uses for public enjoyment and education. The Trust restores vacant or underutilized historic properties and makes them available as short-term vacation rentals, using the rental income...
The Brattleboro Recreation & Parks Department is taking reservations for the Stockwell Drive Community Garden Site's 11th season. The garden, located in the nine-acre Stockwell Park overlooking the Ames Brook in West Brattleboro has 17 100-square-foot plots, along with common crops of raspberries, a small asparagus patch, and flower beds. There is also a charcoal grill, a picnic table, an umbrella, and Adirondack chairs for all to use and enjoy. There are garden tools, from shovels and rakes to wheelbarrows,
I want to take a moment to recognize someone I see making a wonderful difference in our community: Lindsay Bellville, the youth services librarian at Brooks Memorial Library, has transformed its children's room since taking over leadership in 2015. She brings an incredible creative vision to her work. Not only was she the brains behind the life-size Candyland game during Winter Carnival, but she also had the idea to promote the recent “Let's Read 2019” Community Read by marching in...
The Brattleboro Music Center and the Latchis Theatre present the Windham Orchestra's performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute. Four performances are scheduled: Thursday, March 19, at 7 p.m.; Saturday, March 21, at 2 p.m.; Friday, March 27, at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, March 29, at 2 p.m. Performances will feature well-known local voices in minor and major roles, as well as performers from New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Albany, N.Y., and New York City. “The Magic Flute is about quarrels and reconciliation,
On Sunday, March 22, at 7 p.m., Wendy Redlinger's House Concerts, 2596 Tater Lane, presents Trio Mambo. Admission is $15-$20 on a sliding scale, with no one turned away for lack of funds. Trio Mambo features the classic Latin trio of piano, bass and congas, reimagined through contemporary jazz. The band's original compositions keep the fire and flavor of Latin jazz, while exploring new rhythms and forms. Trio Mambo brings together three veterans of New England jazz: Dan DeWalt on...
Have you ever dreamed of making your own personalized puppet, and then breathing it to life and into story? Sandglass Theater is offering two intensive weekend workshops in April on puppet building and performance. No previous experience is necessary. The puppet-building workshop, April 3-5, will be led by Sandglass co-founder Ines Zeller Bass and associate artist Jana Zeller. Participants will learn the basics of a customized rod puppet. The process will include modeling a head and hands, learning techniques for...
Vermont's existing education funding formula, Act 60, also known as the Equal Educational Opportunity Act, was signed into law in June of 1997. The Legislature drafted the law in response to a Vermont Supreme Court decision that said the state's existing educational funding system was unconstitutional. The court, in Brigham v. State of Vermont, concluded that the state must provide “substantially equal access” to education for all Vermont students, regardless of where they reside. In 2018, the Vermont House and...
Compassionate Brattleboro announces its spring Community Conversations on Compassion, a continuing series designed to highlight the compassion issues in our town, responses to date, and priorities to be addressed. The Conversations will take place on Wednesday evenings in March, April, and May, beginning at 7 p.m., in the Brooks Memorial Library, 224 Main St. The programs are as follows: March 18: Safety in a Compassionate Community; March 25: Compassion and Disability; April 22: Compassion and Animals; April 29: Language and...
Two exhibits and a series of related events at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center this spring aim to spotlight the humanity and dignity of people experiencing homelessness. BMAC is partnering with Groundworks Collaborative to increase awareness, foster empathy, spark conversations about homelessness in the Brattleboro area, and raise funds for Groundworks. Taking its name from the number of people who were unsheltered in America in 2018, “Steven Kinder: 522,830” is on view in BMAC's Wolf Kahn & Emily Mason...
After years of institutional mismanagement and months of fostering confusion, misdirection, and outright fabrications, the Marlboro College Board of Trustees and its president are set to close down the 70-year old institution and transfer its $35 million remaining endowment to Emerson College in Boston, along with a handful of tenured Marlboro faculty. Meanwhile, Emerson will sell the $10 million campus to the highest bidder. Everyone else will lose their jobs, Windham County will lose a remarkable asset, Vermont will see...
In anticipation of National Sexual Abuse Awareness Month, Brooks Memorial Library, The Women's Freedom Center, and The Commons are collaborating with writer and educator Deborah Lee Luskin in Telling Our Stories, a free writing workshop for survivors of sexual abuse and violence. Luskin will facilitate the workshop at the library, 224 Main St., on three Saturdays: March 14 and 21 and April 4 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. An advocate from the Women's Freedom Center will be present to...
Dan Weber and The Milkhouse Heaters will co-headline a show on Sunday, March 15, at 7 p.m., at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge St. Weber won first place in the 2019 Woody Guthrie songwriting contest, and is a rare three-time finalist in Kerrville's “New Folk” competition. His songs have been described as “reminiscent of early John Prine” and “insightful and awfully funny,” according to a news release. His album What I'm Lookin' For rose to No. 2 on the folk...
Thank you to the people of Brattleboro for electing me to a three-year seat on the Selectboard. Your vote allows me to continue to work for fairness and kindness as we maintain a civil society in Brattleboro. I thank David Schoales for his many years of service to the Selectboard and continued service to the School Board. To all the candidates who stepped up to serve our community, I thank you as well. It is a sign of democracy and...
A week after Annual Town Meeting, Ann Manwaring and Gretchen Havreluk were working on the meeting agenda for the March 11 Broadband Working Group's meeting. “This is new stuff, and we're coming out of the gate,” said Manwaring, a former state representative and a current member of the Wilmington Selectboard. Havreluk, an economic development specialist, serves on the Bi-Town Economic Development Committee for Wilmington and Dover. The working group formed last fall at a joint meeting of the Wilmington and...
It's quite disappointing that the only candidates remaining for president are three old, white men: Biden, Sanders, and Trump. As if we need any more evidence, white male privilege is still a driving factor in the decisions being made. It's illogical to think that out of the millions of eligible people in our country, we couldn't include any women and people of color who are at least as capable and qualified as the three men we ended up with. This...
BYOD: Bring your own disinfectant. This advice may become de rigueur for any community gathering as the number of COVID-19 cases increases. “We want to make sure we're not overreacting,” said Windham Southeast Superintendent Lyle Holiday, “but that we're prepared if we need to react.” Holiday said sardonically that she might spray with disinfectant everyone who attends the upcoming annual WSESU meeting on March 17. Holiday's comment might be lighthearted, but the supervisory union's preparations to respond to potential spread...
The standing Finance Committee, which reviews town finances on behalf of Town Meeting members, has recommended the body approve the proposed fiscal year 2021 municipal budget. This budget and other financial items will come before Town Meeting members during Annual Representative Town Meeting on Saturday, March 21. Town Meeting members will meet in the gym of the Academy School for a pre-meeting informational session on Wednesday, March 11 at 7 p.m. This session, which is open to the public, allows...
March is Women's History Month. What better time to honor the women - contemporary or not, familiar or unknown - who influence the worlds in which they live(d)? Even in ancient times, examples abound. Cleopatra, the last pharaoh of Egypt, was a favorite of Julius Caesar's. Another Cleopatra was a Syrian queen who claimed power when her husband died. Hatshepsut also ruled Egypt, as did Nefertiti. The Vietnamese Trung sisters led the first national uprising against Chinese conquerors in 40...
The Proctor Phantoms won their 18th state boys' basketball championship on March 7 with a 65-50 victory over the Twin Valley Wildcats for the Division IV title at the Barre Auditorium. The result wasn't a shocker, for even though Proctor was the third seed, they have a very good basketball program and any team that wants to claim the crown in Division IV usually has to get by the Phantoms first. Top-seeded Twin Valley needed to play perfect basketball to...
Joel Ross, a 24-year-old Blue Note recording artist, is making the “vibes” a more familiar and accessible sound to audience members of his generation. The Vermont Jazz Center presents Downbeat Rising Star Award–winning vibraphonist Ross in concert on Saturday, March 14. For listeners familiar with the impact of the vibes in bebop and swing, Ross's dynamic sound and virtuosity brings back memories of its judicious use by jazz legends Red Norvo, Lionel Hampton, Bobby Hutcherson, Milt Jackson, and Gary Burton.
The Arts Council of Windham County (ACWC) recently announced the award of $15,000 through the Brattleboro Town Arts Fund to support six community-focused creative initiatives. The six grantees were selected from a competitive field of 39 proposals received in this first year of the Town Arts Fund program. “The number of worthy projects applying for funding attests to the wealth of creative energy in the Brattleboro community,” ACWC Board Chair Sharon Fantl said in a news release. “This process gives...
Daniel Chiaccio, the director of First Proof Press, a community-based environmentally friendly printmaking studio, is giving the community - from enthusiastic amateurs to seasoned professional artists - the opportunity to create their own work with the space and equipment he is providing. People can schedule time in the new studio, at 183 Main St., to create etching projects on copper or zinc, woodcuts, photopolymer imagery, and relief and screen prints. The shop, which celebrated its grand opening March 6 during...
For the first time since he was elected to the Brattleboro Selectboard in 2013, David Schoales faced a contested race. For the first time since she was elected to a one-year seat to the board last year, Elizabeth McLoughlin was trying to win re-election, as she went after the three-year seat that had been won twice by Schoales. Two worthy incumbents trying to win one three-year seat on the Selectboard, with another newcomer, Rikki Risatti, also in the electoral mix.
It's Friday night here in our little old village, with the Rock River plummeting through variegated post-Tropical-Storm-Irene-riven channels. There used to be a crib dam here, as well as many businesses that derived their power from multiple river-driven locations. Tonight, I am walking approximately 1,000 feet down Main Street from my driveway to the Williamsville Hall, where one of my talented neighbors is settling down on the well-tuned old Poole piano to accompany a 1929 silent Russian film that he...
David Stern's production of the classic musical Cabaret, from Main Street Arts, has all the ingredients of a hit: great book and lyrics, gifted actors in fabulous costumes, striking dance numbers, and a brilliant set. The shadow of Nazism falling over Berlin in the early 1930s injects dark poignance and contemporary relevance into a plot that centers on the brassy, talented, and scandalous Sally Bowles. Aidan Flower Des Jardins, an up-and-coming alumna of New England Youth Theatre known to local...
Enough rumors and gossip have been swirling around the region regarding the ongoing novel coronavirus crisis that one town was compelled to issue a statement designed to knock down some of the chatter. “I have been advised this morning that some rumors of significant COVID-19 impacts are circulating in Brattleboro,” wrote Town Manager Peter Elwell in response to the fast-spreading virus, which originated in China and affects vulnerable populations with unusual intensity. “Examples include 'hospital staff have been instructed not...