BRATTLEBORO-Since moving to Brattleboro over a year ago, I have learned that there are so many cool things about this town.
I love the history, and how there's so many things to do - movies, bowling, ice skating, shopping, snowboarding, and even a pinball arcade! The excellent Parks and Recreation Department will keep everyone busy. I love how people here get out and demonstrate for justice and democracy.
Another thing that makes Brattleboro special is how this town is inclusive and kind. I attended a Compassionate Brattleboro event at the first-rate Brooks Memorial Library, where I joined up with their Compassionate Dining group. It's great to see that many restaurants are positive about the possibility of serving all guests, even people who want plant-based choices.
I'm sure that having inclusive restaurants that care about people, animals, and the planet will keep locals and tourists coming back for more. I can add compassionate dining to my list of cool things about Brattleboro!...
WILMINGTON-WheelPad L3C, a Wilmington-based company, designs and builds modular, accessible living spaces for people with mobility challenges - including veterans, individuals recovering from injuries, and older adults who wish to age in place. As the company prepared for growth and increased demand, it became clear that expanding its physical...
BRATTLEBORO-The Vermont Insight Meditation Center and Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts are co-hosting a special event featuring author David Hinton. "The Edges of Consciousness and Our Place in the Cosmos" takes place at Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, 181–183 Main St., on May 24, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Registration is required.
Obituaries • Raymond J. Aumand, 91, of North Walpole, New Hampshire. Died peacefully at his home on April 21, 2025. Born on July 31, 1933 in Bellows Falls, Vermont, Raymond grew up in North Walpole and graduated from Bellows Falls High School in 1951. Raymond then served his country in the Navy from 1952 to 1955 aboard the USS Pittsburgh. During his time in the Navy, Raymond also took business and marketing classes with the goal of returning home after...
BRATTLEBORO-On Tuesday, May 13, from 4 to 6 p.m., ByWay Books & More, 399 Canal St., will host Alexandre Caillot, author of Late to the Fight. His book explores the experiences and contributions of Union soldiers from the 17th Vermont and 31st Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiments, indiviuals who entered the Army of the Potomac in time to serve during the Overland Campaign during the Civil War. "This event will be of particular interest to aficionados of the Civil War, military...
BRATTLEBORO-The Brattleboro Women's Chorus presents its 29th annual spring concert, "Up on the Roof," on Saturday, May 10, and Mother's Day Sunday, May 11, at 4 p.m. at the Brattleboro Music Center. This year's program celebrates music written by women - all of them living composers - highlighting the beauty found in life's meaningful moments and the powerful connection of collective singing. Under the direction of founder Becky Graber, and in collaboration with guest songleader and local musician Anna Patton,
BRATTLEBORO-"May Day!" an exhibit of artwork by Kay Curtis, is on display through Tuesday, June 3, at the Harmony Collective Artist Gallery on Elliot Street. Curtis says she has known herself as being an artist since childhood. "A lifetime is a long time to spend playing and growing through art making. I am incredibly blessed in my life that I have been able to love what I do and do what I love." She invented a version of gouache and...
BRATTLEBORO-On May 1, hundreds of people took to the streets of downtown Brattleboro to protect democracy and denounce the Trump administration's effort to roll back workers' rights, cut education funding, carry out mass deportations, and much more. "Show up and make your voices heard," said Calvin Dame of Brattleboro Area Action, one of the organizers of a May Day march along with Brattleboro Indivisible and 50501 Vermont. "This isn't about right and left. It's about right and wrong." "This is...
-For a team that's in transition, the Brattleboro boys' tennis team looks like they are headed in the right direction. The Bears lost their opening match of the season to Burr & Burton on April 11 and were off for 11 days for the school's spring break. Once they got back into action, the team won five straight matches to improve to 5-1. Bears head coach Ben Brewer said he has nine new players on the roster this season. "We're...
SAXTONS RIVER-Music, community, and dessert come together for a good cause on Saturday, May 10, at 7 p.m., with "Just Desserts," a benefit concert featuring the folk quartet 2x2, held in the Assembly Hall at 24 Main Street Community Building. This event will support 24 Main Street Community Building, a local nonprofit center. Attendees will hear a performance by 2x2-Valerie Kosednar, Mark Grieco, and Lee and Betsy Rybeck Lynd - a vocal and instrumental quartet known for their harmonies and...
TOWNSHEND-After one year in operation, the New England Collaborative Health Network (NECHN) has grown to 10 members. Founded in May 2024 by its first members - Copley Hospital, Northwestern Medical Center, and Brattleboro Memorial Hospital - NECHN continues to grow, with Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital becoming its newest member. "Healthcare in Vermont is challenging, with many changes on the horizon. But we are responding to the needs of our patients and community as best we can - while...
TOWNSHEND-The Townshend Village School has opened registration for incoming kindergarten and preschool students for the upcoming 2025–26 school year. Incoming kindergarten students turning 5 and pre-K students turning 4 before Sept. 1, 2025, are now eligible; with 3-year-olds accepted based on space availability. Eligibility requirements differ for both programs, though both programs take place at 66 Common Rd. in Townshend. Visit townshendschool.org to download a registration packet, pick one up at the school, or call the school at 802-365-7506 to...
BRATTLEBORO-In connection with the exhibition "Contemporary Ukrainian Folk Art: The Matrix of Resilience," currently on view at the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center (BMAC), Ukrainian ethnographer and folk art curator Sophia Sushailo will lead a tour of the exhibition followed by a panel discussion with three of the exhibiting artists. The event, "Art Talk: Live from Ukraine," will take place on Saturday, May 17. It will begin with an in-person exhibition tour at the museum at 1:30 p.m. The panel...
BRATTLEBORO-Brattleboro Area Hospice has officially changed its name to Center for Solace. This change reflects its growth and commitment to serving even more people in Windham County and its neighboring New Hampshire towns, as well as its expanded goals, programs, and mission. Since its founding in 1979, Brattleboro Area Hospice has been "a beloved part of Windham County," wrote Center for Solace officials in a news release. "It has worked tirelessly to address the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of...
Committee vacancies in Brattleboro BRATTLEBORO - The town of Brattleboro is looking for citizens to serve on the following committees and boards: ADA Committee; Arts Committee; Brattleboro Housing Partnerships; Citizen Police Communications Committee (CPCC); Conservation Commission; Design Review Board (full and alternate); Development Review Board (full and alternate); Energy Committee; Fence Viewer; Honor Roll; Inspector of Lumber, Shingles & Wood; Nelson E. Withington Fund Advisory Committee; Planning Commission; Recreation and Parks Board; Senior Solutions; Traffic Safety Committee (Citizens Representative and...
BRATTLEBORO-Artistic talent travels down the generations, and Cai Xi has the generational stories to prove it. Cai (pronounced "Sigh") Xi, 65, is a painter, gallerist, caterer, Tai Chi teacher, and Chinese language teacher. She will be telling her family's story at the CX Silver Gallery, 814 Western Ave., on Saturday, May 17, from 1 to 3 p.m. Her paintings will be on the walls of the gallery to illustrate the story in an exhibit, "Then and Now." The story starts...
Nancy Braus, a retired independent bookseller, is a longtime activist. Since she submitted this piece, two other similar and significant protests have taken place in Brattleboro and other towns in the region. GUILFORD-It was impossible to read some of the accounts of April 5's Hands Off rallies around the country and the world and not feel that something has shifted. In the face of a massive fear campaign by the Trumpers - arresting people for speech that did not meet...
Richard Foye has enjoyed a long career as a creator of Raku pottery and is also a member of Rock River Artists, a fine arts and crafts collective in southern Vermont. Not all his memories are fond: "I haven't even mentioned my dentist's drill which was powered with his foot without Novocain: zhroom, zhroom, zhroom," he adds. SOUTH NEWFANE-I have been thinking recently about the Good Old Days, back when America was Great. I grew up during the 1950s, when...
Kevin O'Keefe is artistic director of Circus Minimus, which brings the magic of circus arts to kids and to schools. BRATTLEBORO-On the scummy pond of the Trump Administration's immigration atrocities, this one wouldn't make much of a ripple. It's not like when, in a stunning display of ineptitude they exiled Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a citizen of these United States, to a gang-filled super-max prison in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia maintains a full-time job, is married to an U.S. citizen, has...
BRATTLEBORO-When Richard Berkfield graduated from the School for International Training in 2008, he could not have imagined he would go on to build a $5 million regional food distribution network that would fundamentally reshape how communities think about local agriculture. Now, after nearly two decades of pioneering local and regional food distribution, Berkfield, founding director of Food Connects in Brattleboro, is stepping down. Since March 24, Deputy Director Lee Halpern has served as interim executive director, with Berkfield helping with...
BELLOWS FALLS-For more than two decades, residents and community leaders have been working on a vision to transform an abandoned, polluted 8-acre former industrial site along the Connecticut River into a universally accessible community park. That vision has resulted in Riverfront Park, a beautiful green space in the center of the Village, on the west bank of the Connecticut River, with accessible hiking trails, meadows, benches, picnic tables, a pond, a labyrinth, and the only direct access to the river...
BRATTLEBORO-After eight intense meetings to draft a new budget, the Selectboard has voted to recommend a $24.97 million budget for fiscal year 2026 budget - a budget just 1.3% less than the one that Representative Town Meeting failed to pass in March. The Selectboard-recommended plan proposes a 10.8% increase in municipal taxes, but taxpayers can expect to see their bills increase by about 5.6% on the tax levy in fiscal year 2026 when the school district is factored in. If...
The writer is a Town Meeting member representing District 8. BRATTLEBORO-As part of Brattleboro's FY26 budget redevelopment process, the town manager issued a memorandum to the Selectboard on April 18. On page eight of that public document, the town manager claimed that the cost to the town, if Rescue Inc. were our EMS provider for FY26, would be $477,143. This gross misrepresentation of Rescue's cost was used to crow about the amount of money that the town is saving by...
DEERFIELD, MASS.-U.S. Rep. Becca Balint claims that President Trump "does not give a damn about working people! Not a damn! Not a damn!" Who else is fed up with Democrat anger and profanity? They've all been cursing since Trump won, and they're just the angriest bunch of sore losers I have ever seen. I'm thankful the grownups are back in power cleaning up Biden's and Harris's mess. This country needs Trump now more than ever, and if Becca is so...
BRATTLEBORO-The Anti-Defamation League's 2024 Audit of Antisemitic Incidents reports a deeply troubling rise in antisemitism across the country, including and especially, here in Vermont. We know that many people in our community are passionate about political issues, including those related to Israel and Palestine. The local Jewish community asks that, especially in this moment, we all take extra care to express political views without unintentionally fueling antisemitism or being insensitive to Jewish neighbors. There are people in the community -
BRATTLEBORO-Composer and pianist Keane Southard, who has produced numerous works for choral and instrumental performance, believes in "the power of music to inspire positive change in the world." Thus, Southard, of Brattleboro, has created his latest work with deep compassion for the animal world. "Requiem for Animals," commissioned by the Brattleboro Music Center (BMC), will be performed Saturday and Sunday, May 17 and 18, by the Brattleboro Concert Choir (BCC), under the direction of Jonathan Harvey. The 50-minute requiem for...