COVID-19 has encouraged collaboration between organizations to an extent not seen before. This year, St. Brigid's Kitchen and Foodworks collaborated to create November and December food boxes, joining forces to distribute more than 400 boxes of holiday food to anyone in need.
For many years, St. Brigid's Kitchen & Pantry and Foodworks of Groundworks Collaborative, both in Brattleboro, have each distributed holiday food boxes in both November and December. These events usually involve transforming our normal locations into festive free “storefronts” where people choose items that best make sense for their family. We knew that with COVID-19, we wouldn't be able to have these indoor distribution events and would have to come up with a creative solution. We decided to collaborate on an outdoor distribution event, which we did with great success.
Combining forces helped each organization manage its unique logistical challenges.
Brigid's Kitchen supplied an outdoor venue more suitable for a COVID-safe distribution, as well as the people power to both assemble the holiday boxes and manage distribution. Foodworks supplied much of the food and created an updated registration and scheduling system. Sharing a registration system benefited the people receiving these boxes as well, creating multiple avenues for registration to ensure that no one in need of food would go without.
New England Youth Theatre (NEYT) will offer a variety of fully virtual and in-person programs for its winter and spring programming for 2021. Youth of all backgrounds and abilities ages 6-19 are encouraged to participate. NEYT says it “has continued to offer programming to youth throughout the pandemic, recognizing...
With support from the Samara Fund, as well as individual donors, the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) has launched three scholarships in support of LGBTQ+ students facing financial difficulty. According to a news release, the scholarship began as an idea by NECCA Cofounders Elsie Smith and Serenity...
Perhaps the most appalling defense mounted by members of the GOP for the fallen Donald Trump was that the violence at the U.S. Capitol was somehow equivalent - or even less serious - than the protests for civil rights that occurred throughout the summer in the cause of Black Lives Matter. Let me clarify. The marches and protests that followed the extralegal lynching of George Floyd and the utterly incompetent raid that resulted in the murder by police of Breonna...
This article on the highly questionable projects that stand to do significant damage to the bottom of Main Street/riverfront area reads far more like a slick piece of marketing than anything like journalism. Where are the opposing voices? Especially ironic and absurd are statements to the effect that these “improvements” to “this long-neglected part of Brattleboro” will somehow open up access to the river, when in fact they'll do the opposite. The bridge that New Hampshire is forcing on Brattleboro...
When Gov. Phil Scott declared a state of emergency on March 13, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every sector of the state's economy was affected. For many businesses, the restrictions on their operations were painful to their bottom lines. For some, the safety measures proved fatal as shops and inns and restaurants closed and unemployment soared throughout Vermont. Now, 10 months later, still nervous about the future and concerned about when the pandemic will be brought under...
I sort of understand the mindset of people who refuse to follow recommendations for reducing the risk of COVID-19, like wearing masks and avoiding crowds. When I was 11 years old and walked to school every day with my brother, we would go a long way out of our way to avoid the crossing guards, who would tell us when it was safe to cross the street. “This is a free country,” we'd shout. “No one can tell me when...
Jan. 6 and 7, 2021 have been memorable days. Wednesday morning started with the convening of the 2021–22 biennium of the Vermont State Legislature. The first action was a roll call by the secretary of state, Jim Condos. Each member was required to acknowledge their presence. I was asked to say, “This is Leslie Goldman, and I am here.” These words were more moving than I expected. Reflecting on the meaning of “I am here” led me to realize that...
College news • Several local students were honored by Castleton University for academic excellence in the fall 2020 semester. Named to the President's List were Greer Bills of Wardsboro, Saima Cassell of Westminster, Abby Chapman of Brattleboro, Maureen Hughes of Westminster, Maria Page of West Halifax, Jonah Siegel of Brattleboro, and Veronica Stevens of Newfane. Named to the Dean's List were Cody Cutler of Newfane, Taylor Goodell of Westminster, Rebekah Lazarek of Westminster, Valentina MacEachern of Vernon, Devin Millerick of...
The Brattleboro Concert Choir invites new and returning singers to take part in its spring 2021 virtual season as its Stay-at-Home Sing-Along series continues. The group also is offering virtual performances of choral works. Music Director Jonathan Harvey and the choir are committed to building and maintaining a musical community. “Especially now, music is an essential source of joy, solace, solidarity, and hope,” Harvey said in a news release. This spring, the choir will offer monthly virtual performances of works...
The Broad Brook Community Center, in the heart of Guilford, needs your help. To support the final phase of renovation, a group of donors is offering to match, dollar-for-dollar, all donations and new pledges received before the end of January. Since 1896, this building, our former Grange Hall, has welcomed the kinds of gatherings we are missing in these isolated times. Here, residents graduated from one-room schools, danced, courted, and wed. Here, we've listened to speeches, debated, and voted, secure...
Everyone Eats! returns in Rockingham area BELLOWS FALLS - Rockingham Help & Helpers says the Everyone Eats! program, which provided free restaurant to-go meals, is returning. Picking up where the program paused in December, community members can collect meals for their household and up to three other households at Parks Place Community Resource Center, 44 School St., on Wednesdays from 5 to 6 p.m., and Fridays from 10 to 11 a.m. Meals are also distributed through Our Place, the Bellows...
I have heard the outrage about the march on the Capitol in Washington, D.C. I have heard lawmakers were afraid for their lives. I am betting that regular civilians trying to live their lives in Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Kenosha, and other cities felt that exact same fear when violent protesters set fires, destroyed businesses, and viciously attacked the police. They marched under different banners, but their results were the same: Fear and danger to everyone. We were horrified that anyone...
I was born in 1979 and therefore consider myself a Double Stuf Oreo of generational influences. I have the unique perspective of having all of my formative years wedged between banana clips and Nirvana. If my inner child took visible shape, she'd be smoking a clove cigarette while watching Punky Brewster - the show about a single, white man in his 50s who somehow manages to adopt a runaway child after hiding her in his apartment for several days. Children...
State officials announced on Jan. 15 that the next phase of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, for Vermonters 75 and older, will begin on Monday, Jan. 25. Agency of Human Services Commissioner Mike Smith said online registration for the estimated 50,000 Vermonters in that age group will begin on that date, with clinics scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Jan. 27. Clinics will be run by the state as well as by pharmacies and hospitals. Details on how to register will be made...
There's an activity occurring right now in Vermont, on both private and public lands, that many are unaware of: hounding. Hounding is akin to dog fighting - it is lawless and unregulated, and those who participate in it have no regard for hunting ethics. It involves unleashing packs of powerful, radio-collared dogs upon a lone coyote and running it to exhaustion, with the final “treat” of cornering the terrified, and often injured, animal and ripping it to shreds. Photos posted...
I was born in the early '50s. As far back as I can remember, there has been the specter of communism/socialism lurking in the shadows. We called each other “commie pinkos” on the playground. Our new '60s house had a flimsy bomb shelter built in the basement just in case that Soviet threat proved real. We played in it. In this last election, socialism was once again used over and over as a fear-tactic weapon to keep Americans voting to...
This 2020-21 year, the Brattleboro Women's Chorus celebrates 25 years of singing, with online musical events on the 25th day of each month through May. All singers (not just women!) are welcome to join in for these events, which will be hosted on Zoom. On Monday, Jan. 25, from 7 to 8:15 p.m., director Becky Graber welcomes one of her Women Sing 100 colleagues, Dr. Kathy Bullock, to lead the chorus in song. Bullock will lead everyone in singing several...
A consultant from a Virginia-based marketing and advertising firm has presented a new branding strategy for the Deerfield Valley region - “the Foothold of the Green Mountains” - as part of a five-year strategic marketing plan. “A foothold suggests that it's a secure position from which progress can be made,” Julie Garel, chief curiosity officer with Charrette Agency, told members of the Dover and Wilmington selectboards as the firm recommended the tagline at least as a “placeholder.” “It is, in...
A new land inventory report offers a series of possibilities for the Vermont Yankee site to eventually be used for industry, recreation, preserving habitat, and recognizing the Abenaki relationship to the banks of the Connecticut River, past and present. The report is a collaboration between Antioch University New England, NorthStar, the town of Vernon, and Rich Holschuh, representing the Elnu Abenaki tribe. It exists in a hard copy and an online interactive version. The nuclear plant started operating in 1972...
The Vermont Jazz Center is excited to present Cole Porter Fellow and pianist Emmet Cohen, who will be performing live from the VJC in his working trio, with Russell Hall (acoustic bass) and Kyle Poole (drums). The trio will be joined by a special guest, guitar legend Mark Whitfield. Cohen's list of awards and accomplishments is impressive, but these days he's attracting a particularly high level of attention due to his weekly livestream Facebook concerts. As of this writing, he...
The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) presents a one-time online screening of the HBO documentary Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro Sr. on Thursday, Feb. 4, at 7 p.m. The 39-minute film is presented in association with the BMAC exhibit “Figuration Never Died: New York Painterly Painting, 1950–1970,” which includes work by De Niro and nine other painters. After the film, the exhibit's curator, Karen Wilkin, will offer insights and take questions from the online audience. In the film,
Terrorism takes many forms - from violent high-profile attacks to sophisticated cyber-intrusions. Yet there is another, more insidious form of terrorism - one practiced by President Trump that was on full display on Jan. 6 on Capitol Hill. It is called stochastic terrorism. Stochastic terrorism is a process in which a speaker makes comments that promote terrorism without explicitly asking people to engage in violence. By keeping their statements implicit, stochastic terrorists maintain plausible deniability if violence actually occurs. For...