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Your support powers every story we tell. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
JAMAICA - One of Jamaica's favorite winter traditions - the "Jamaica Holiday Market" - is set for Saturday, Dec 13, and Sunday, Dec. 14, from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., at the Town Hall on Route 30.
Town Hall will be filled with the scent of fresh baked goods, and tables will be lined with the work of local craftspeople who have spent all year creating something special for this market. Visitors will find original paintings and artwork, fiber arts, pottery, jewelry, local herbal treasures, candles, baked treats, felted art, and other treasures and gifts.
This year, there will be a Hot Cocoa Bar, complete with marshmallows, whipped cream, and other seasonal toppings. Proceeds will benefit the Jamaica-Wardsboro Food Pantry. For more information, visit bit.ly/842-jam.
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SAXTONS RIVER-24 Main Street Limited, a nonprofit community center, presents an evening of live music Saturday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m. featuring two Vermont-born artists: Ezra Holloway and Corrina Bridget. Holloway is a Vermont-born rock artist known for "blending punk energy with raw emotion and commanding live performances," said...
BRATTLEBORO-Rita Corbin, a graphic artist and printmaker, became involved in the Catholic Worker Movement while living in New York City in the 1950s. The co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and the Catholic Worker newspaper, Dorothy Day, hired Corbin to make illustrations for The Catholic Worker newspaper, and they...
BELLOWS FALLS-As Parks Place looks ahead to the holidays, the team is seeking "holiday elves" - individuals, families, or organizations willing to purchase gifts for local children through the annual Holiday Gift Program. Each year, Parks Place works with Chroma Technology to fulfill the wish lists of local children throughout the Windham Northeast school district. The organization is also welcoming monetary donations to help purchase food gift cards for families, so they can share a warm meal this holiday season.
PUTNEY-Next Stage Arts Project and Twilight Music celebrate the season with an evening of traditional Irish and original holiday music by John Doyle and Cathie Ryan on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Next Stage. "An Irish Christmas" is an evening with two of Irish music's artists sharing their memories of festive Christmas traditions in song, story, and the pure joy of the season. Doyle and Ryan are longtime friends who have shared decades of musical collaboration. They have...
Christian Science Thanksgiving Day church service BRATTLEBORO - The community is invited to the annual Thanksgiving Day service at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 57 Putney Rd. across from the town common. All are welcome. The hour-long service starts at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 27, and includes readings from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, plus hymns and a time for Thanksgiving testimonies. The service will also be available via a...
BRATTLEBORO-Entrepreneurs Geoffrey Habron and Kate Glynn are putting heart and soul into a sweet offering and help make a difference, locally and globally. The Mermaid Collective will be located in the former First United Methodist Church at 20 Elliot St. (the former Hotel Pharmacy), along with four apartments. The women-centered social enterprise is grounded in Doughnut Economics, is a framework developed by economist Kate Raworth that seeks to balance human needs with a the planet's ecological needs, thus promoting sustainable...
BELLOWS FALLS-Michael Tarbox brings his guitar playing and voice to Stage 33 Live for a 7 p.m. show Saturday, Dec. 6. Tarbox writes songs anchored in rock 'n' roll, backwater blues, hillbilly music, and country - "rough-hewn, immediate, and hard-won," wrote organizers in a news release. His gospel-tinged electric guitar playing, "tough as Texas barbed wire, brings it all together." Tarbox's songs have been used in the television shows Sons of Anarchy and Supernatural. "My inspirations are musicians from a...
-The Vermont Soccer Coaches' Association recently released their all-state teams for each of the state's four divisions. Topping the Division I girls' team is Brattleboro senior forward Reese Croutworst. She finished her high school career as the school's all-time leading goal scorer, and helped lead the Bears to their first playoff win since 2007. The Division IV girls' team included Leland & Gray freshman striker Addison Eldridge, who helped lead the Rebels to a surprising run to the semifinals this...
BELLOWS FALLS-Dr. Taronté Venable, certified chiropractic neurologist and owner of Temple Chiropractic in Bellows Falls, is also a singer-songwriter embarking on performing publicly. Bellows Falls Pride is delighted to invite him to join the program on Thursday, Dec. 4 at the Rockingham Free Public Library, where a 12 foot by 12 foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt will be on display from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. The event is free. The quilt will be displayed in the third-floor...
BRATTLEBORO-On Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 7 p.m., the Latchis Theatre will ring again with the sounds of Sing Nowell: Songs & Carols for Midwinter & Christmastide. This musical celebration of community and midwinter benefits Groundworks Collaborative in their work to end hunger and homelessness for all people in this region. Brattleboro folk musicians (Fred Breunig and Andy Davis of Nowell Sing We Clear; Arthur Davis, Emma Schneider, Guillaume Sparrow-Pepin, Laurel Swift) are joined by the Vox Hunters (Flannery Brown, Armand...
BRATTLEBORO-Hilltop Montessori School recently announced a major $600,000 gift from Parker and Alexandra Conrad. The school said this donation launches a new capital campaign designed to expand elementary classroom space and equip students with state-of-the-art materials for integrated Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) learning schoolwide. The $750,000 campaign will allow Hilltop's Montessori-trained teachers to fully implement the robust STEM curriculum outlined in their Montessori "albums." The planned expansion includes: • Enlarged Lower Elementary (LE) and Upper Elementary (UE) classrooms...
TOWNSHEND-After "Black Friday" and "Cyber Monday" comes "Giving Tuesday," a worldwide day of philanthropy during this season of gratitude. This year, Giving Tuesday falls on Dec. 2. To aid in its long-standing commitment to providing exceptional care, Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital says it is seeking Giving Tuesday donations to upgrade security in its Emergency Department. Upgrades include additional security cameras in key areas; shatterproof, impact-resistant glass and doors; and improved lockdown mechanisms for rapid response. "These improvements will...
PUTNEY-Sandglass Theater's "A Rafter of Crankies" is a candlelit celebration of storytelling through art, puppetry, and music. Now in its fourth year at Green Mountain Orchards and its 11th year as part of the Putney Craft Tour, the event will take place on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 28 and 29, with performances at 5 and 7:30 each evening. A crankie is an illustrated scroll, hand cranked through a wooden box accompanied by live storytelling, music, shadow puppetry, and light, like...
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Memorial Hospital CEO Christopher Dougherty, on an unexplained leave of absence for nearly two months, won't be returning to his job. "The parties agree that under the current circumstances it is best for Chris to depart and for the hospital to bring in new leadership," the not-for-profit facility said in a written public statement on Nov. 20. The 500-worker hospital, one of Brattleboro's three largest employers, named Dougherty as its chief executive officer in spring 2022. In the past...
BRATTLEBORO-Cor Trowbridge was among the dozens of area producers, creators, and fans gathered to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) at Stone Church Nov. 14. In a recent conversation with The Commons, Trowbridge, the executive director of the station from 2006 to 2024, looked back on her 18-year tenure, which coincided with rapid changes in broadcast and video technology that also has disrupted the fragile business model of public access stations like BCTV. She also led the...
Obituaries • Timothy Joseph "Tim" Alexander, 66, of East Dummerston. Died peacefully Nov. 15, 2025, at the Jack Byrne Palliative Care Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, after a lengthy period of declining health. A lifelong "true" Vermonter, Tim was born in Bellows Falls on Feb. 24, 1959, the son of Richard and Lorraine (McClary) Alexander. He was raised in the surrounding Brattleboro area, primarily Dummerston, and graduated from Brattleboro Union High School with the Class of 1977. Over the years,
PUTNEY-Twenty-four of Vermont's makers will open their studio doors at the 47th Annual Putney Craft Tour this Thanksgiving weekend, beginning Friday, Nov. 28. Glassblowers, potters, jewelers, painters, sculptors, stained glass artisans, woodworkers, photographers, and award-winning wine and cheesemakers welcome visitors to their studios to discover, ask questions, and snag that one-of-a-kind gift direct from the crafter who made it. "The opportunity to experience the uniqueness of the number and the variety of craftspeople and artists in a small rural environment...
Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., chairs the Westminster Town School District Board, the Windham Northeast Supervisory Union Board, and the Steering Committee for the Rural School Community Alliance. WESTMINSTER-We at the Rural School Community Alliance (RSCA) commend the leadership and members of the Act 73 Redistricting Task Force for their principled, evidence-driven approach to the work assigned by the Vermont Legislature. On Nov. 10, the Task Force voted to send a proposal forward to the Legislature that calls for voluntary, cooperative agreements...
BRATTLEBORO-Artist Jonathan Ryan Storm will lead a walking tour and discussion of his outdoor exhibition, "Time Was a River, Too," at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC) on Saturday, Dec. 6, at 3 p.m. The event begins outside the museum, where participants will view the large reproductions of Storm's artwork installed in the museum's window bays, followed by a discussion indoors. Storm's paintings and textiles feature compositions that, in his words, "don't tell a story, nor are they static-they...
BRATTLEBORO-Nearly 70 creators, producers, and fans of Brattleboro Community Television (BCTV) traversed a red carpet into the Stone Church on Nov. 14 for the local cable access station's annual Producers' Party/awards night, yoked with its 50th anniversary celebration. A huge screen loomed over Aaron Wallace, aka Oh Dad, playing on stage as people met, mingled, and queued up for a buffet catered by 802 Soul Kitchen. As award winners, families, and friends took to the tables, the mood was upbeat...
WESTMINSTER-The Vermont Democratic Party (VDP) has seemingly been in disarray for the past few years, but Lachlan Francis of Westminster, its newly elected chairman, has big plans for change. On Nov. 15, Francis, 29, defeated Justin Willeau of Vershire, the former secretary of Orange County's Democratic Committee, by a vote of 33 to 12 at the party's biennial reorganization in Randolph. Previously, Francis was the chair of the Windham County Democratic Committee. That two-year post now goes to Stuart Brown,
BRATTLEBORO-Like so many area residents, I've been concerned about news of the financial struggles Brattleboro Memorial Hospital is experiencing. I worked at the executive level at BMH for many years, until 2012. My faith in the quality of care continues. BMH is full of competent and caring physicians, nurses, and support and technical staff. But like many rural hospitals, BMH is facing increasing financial challenges. One of the worst things that can happen is people going elsewhere for care in...
Carolyn North (carolynnorthbooks.com) is a writer of books that address "the interface between matter and spirit." (Lest readers be concerned about her well-being, she notes that the events she documents happened a few years ago.) PUTNEY-After my rather inexpert attempt to propel a canoe over high swells, I sit waiting for a call from the hospital to schedule an appointment with a surgeon, my body on fire and all my pain receptors on high alert. Ouch. It has turned out...
BRATTLEBORO-Thanksgiving will soon be here with the usual gatherings of people who are not likely to agree about a lot of things. In our divided nation, it's time to learn how to bridge the gaps, starting at our own family tables. The divisions and hatred in our country are perhaps not surprising, given our history of violence, racism, and colonialism. And yet, there is something in our claims of being a nation of democracy, inclusion, and promoters of the good...
PUTNEY-The story being told is what I regard as coming from the entitled position on the sociopathic spectrum. Deborah Lee Luskin, you say that you finally felt the tree, and your place in the forest. The awe and connection to nature, the voice from the universe. Really! No other part of nature has a gun. But this is all about you. And your additional ability to dress it up with an old tale, green-washing, an anti-Bambi tirade, and self-serving facts...
Michael Mrowicki represents the Windham-4 district (Putney, Dummerston, and Westminster) in the state Legislature and is a longtime Putney resident. PUTNEY-A 2-year-old held her dolly up to me, and I asked what her name was. "Mine," she said. Then she said, "Love," and she cuddled the doll. Sums up my feelings for our country: "Mine," and "Love." Especially these days, as we feel the threats to our ("Our") democracy and actions from the current president, even in Vermont. We've seen...
