Winter Carnival marked with scavenger hunt
BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Winter Carnival Committee invites all downtown businesses to help local families celebrate winter.
This year, the committee is focusing on COVID-friendly activities, one of which will be a downtown scavenger hunt.
Committee members are asking businesses to post the Winter Carnival Snowman in their storefront windows. Families are then, over the entire week, encouraged to get out and stroll through downtown Brattleboro to see how many of the Carnival Snowmen they can spot.
Businessesare also asking families to take selfies at the Winter Carnival torch located at Wells Fountain, at the north end of Main Street, and to share these photographs on the Winter Carnival Facebook page.
For more information, contact the Winter Carnival Committee at info@brattleborowintercarnival.org or 802-254-5808.
West River Mutual Aid helps neighbors in crisis
WEST TOWNSHEND - West River Mutual Aid is a project where neighbors are working together to support one another through the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
The project is building a network of people who are able to help their neighbors in some way, big or small, and trying to identify people who need help, now or in the future, whether that's with errands, grocery delivery, access to food, child care, computers and personal technology, and more.
There are no strings and no requirements. West River Mutual Aid works to connect with other organizations in the community to create a central list of resources and volunteer opportunities.
If you need help, use the form at westrivervalleymutualaid.wordpress.com to say what you need and how to reach you.
If you would like to get involved as a volunteer, visit the website and indicate whether you'd like to help organize or offer help based on your skills or resources.
COVID-19 grief support group forms
BRATTLEBORO - Brattleboro Area Hospice is forming a free new support group to assist people in the community during this challenging time.
The organization is broadening its grief and spiritual support to include issues of loss, transition, and other difficulties and challenges that arise and are magnified during this time of pandemic. This group experience will focus on strengthening resilience and expanding inner resources.
This new group will be co-facilitated by Muriel Wolf, BAH's spiritual companion, and Rick Willhite, a BAH volunteer with a professional background in spiritual care and social work.
Wolf and Willhite will offer opportunities to learn simple, non-religious spiritual practices as well as practical tools that have helped many find their way through times of difficulty and change.
The group will offer times for journaling, shared reflection, and conversation, with an emphasis on attentive listening, compassion, and mutual trust - “all of proven value in difficult times like ours,” organizers write in a news release.
The group will meet on the first and third Tuesdays of the month, from 5:30 to 7 p.m., beginning on March 2, via Zoom. (BAH can help you learn how to use Zoom before the first session; just ask when you register.)
The group will meet for eight sessions, the first of which you can attend with no obligation to continue. “After this point we ask that you stay with us for our remaining time together,” the organizers write. “This is not a drop-in group; registration is required and membership is limited to seven participants.”
For registration or more information, email Wolf at muriel.wolf@brattleborohospice.org or leave a message for her with Hilary Farquhar at the BAH office at 802-257-0775, ext. 105.
Workshop offers introduction to historic preservation
ROCKINGHAM- Why are historical places important? What does historic preservation mean to our community? Join a community workshop about Historic Preservation Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 7 p.m. with the Rockingham Historic Preservation Commission and the Rockingham Free Public Library via Zoom.
Historic preservationist Paula Sagerman teams up with Vermont State Architectural Historian Devin Colman - who describes himself as a “perpetually curious explorer of our built environment” - to lead the workshop to find answers to these and other questions about what preservation means to property owners and our community.
Learn hands-on what qualifies a house as historic, how to get historical landmark status, what it means to be in a historic district, and the benefits of owning a historic home. Topics will include what to know before buying a historic home, about tax breaks, and the ins and outs of remodeling or conserving a historic home.
To receive an invitation to this Zoom discussion, email programming@rockinghamlibrary.org or call the library at 802-463-4270. Leave your phone number and email address.
Wardsboro library holds winter book sale
WARDSBORO - The Wardsboro Public Library is hosting a winter book sale in the gallery area at the library through the end of March.
The sale features fiction and nonfiction, thrillers, mysteries, children's and young adult literature, audio books, and DVDs.
Proceeds benefit the library for purchasing new items to add to the collection.
For more information, contact Librarian Beth Liller at 802-896-6988 or visit wardsboropubliclibrary.org.
Women's Clubs make scholarships available
The General Federation of Women's Clubs of Vermont (GFWC-VT) announces the availability of scholarships for Vermont women, beyond the traditional college age, seeking to further their education, training, or to upgrade their skills in preparation for advancing in the workplace.
The scholarships range from $500 to $1,500.
Applicants must submit a specific plan for their education or training. Applications are due to Betty Haggerty, 16 Taylor St., Bellows Falls, VT 05101 (hubett@hotmail.com) by Monday, March 15.
GFWC-VT has been awarding this financial aid, funded through contributions from the state federated clubs and from individuals for 27 years.
The scholarship is named for Barbara Jean Barker, late of Poultney, who served as GFWC-VT president from 1992 to 1994 and who was instrumental in establishing the program. Women receiving the awards over the years have come from a wide range of towns in the state.
Applications for the scholarship can be obtained from Haggerty or from Beverley Pallmerine. They are also available through federated woman's clubs in several Vermont towns and through Community College of Vermont and Vermont Technical College sites around the state.
The scholarships will be awarded at the state federation's annual meeting in late April.
SUSU receives Co-op round-up funding
BRATTLEBORO-The SUSU commUNITY Farm has received $5,072.81 through the Brattleboro Food Co-op's Round Up for Change program, where customers choose to round up their purchases to the next dollar.
According to a news release, the Afro Indigenous stewarded farm and land-based healing center in southern Vermont “elevates Vermont's land and foodways [...] by co-creating a life-affirming and culturally relevant platform for Black, Indigenous, people of color, youth, under-resourced folx, and allies to thrive and experience safety and connection while beginning to develop the tools and agency to heal from the trauma of colonization.”
For more information about the farm, visit susucommunityfarm.org.
For more information about the Round Up for Change program or how to apply to be a recipient, visit brattleborofoodcoop.coop/roundup/.