The CharloTTe News
Volume lX Number 21 | wedNesday, may 2, 2018
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Vol. 60, no.21 May 2, 2018
Vermont’s oldest nonprofit community newspaper, bringing you local news and views since 1958
Green Up Vermont 2018:
Let’s pick up this town together! Kim Findlay CO-COORDINATOR CHARLOTTE GREEN-UP DAY
Did you know that Vermont was the first state to designate a day of the year to clean up litter along the roadsides? And on that day in 1970, participation and results far exceeded expectations: 95 percent of the 2,400 miles of the interstate and state roads and 75 percent of the 8,300 miles of town roads were cleared of garbage! Thanks
to Governor Deane C. Davis and Senator George Aiken, we have a wonderful tradition that inspires Vermonters young and old to get out and de-trash this beautiful state. In Charlotte, Green Up Vermont has had a strong turnout every year with tons (yes, tons!) of litter removed from our roadsides. This year Green Up Vermont is May 5. To round out the weekend, there are special events and activities planned to celebrate spring and expand on the
The MacPherson family, from left, James, Emerson, Erika and Nouvelle celebrating Earth Day – cleaning up at the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge on April 29.
stewardship theme: e-waste recycling at the Quonset hut and a group cleanup of the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge. I don’t know about you, but it warms my heart to see folks out cleaning up our town together. It says so much about how we care for this land and shows how important it is to keep trash from piling up. And whether driving, biking or walking around town, isn’t it great to not see all that junk on the roadsides? This year I want to send out a very
special thank you to Jr and Leslie Lewis who have helped in a huge way (literally!) with their trucks and time. You guys are so awesome, and we appreciate your help so much! Won’t you join us and sign up for a route? It’s so easy to do. Our website has all the information you need...and lots more! Visit CharlotteVTGreenUpDay. com or contact either me at farafieldfarm@ gmail.com or my co-coordinator Ken Spencer at spenken@icloud.com.
Jenny Cole, left, speaks with Emerson MacPherson at the Earth Day clean up at the Charlotte Park and Wildlife Refuge on April 29. Photos by Erika MacPherson
Report from the Legislature
A case for raising the minimum wage We are now in the last weeks of the 2018 legislative session. Barring any surprise demands by the governor or legislators, like the call for passing Mike Yantachka a bill taxing STATE REP. and regulating marijuana sales that occurred last week, we should be finished by mid-May. There are a number of important bills that we continue to deal with before we pass the budget and adjourn. One of these bills is the minimum
wage bill (S.40), which was passed by the Senate and has been studied for several weeks by the House General, Housing & Military Affairs Committee. The current Vermont minimum wage is $10.50/hour that became effective on January 1, 2018. The bill under consideration would continue increasing the minimum wage to $15/hour by 2024, about a 75-cent increase per year on average, starting at 60 cents in 2019. The minimum wage exemptions would remain the same, including for students under age 18, agricultural workers, nannies/ babysitters, newspaper deliverers and employees of nonprofits that receive state funds. The bill would also adjust
state child-care subsidies to account for the minimum wage increases in order to maintain those benefits for low-wage workers with children. So, why do we need to keep raising the minimum wage since Vermont has one of the highest minimum wages in the Northeast? The simple answer is that for a large number of people it is simply not enough to live on. Governor Scott has talked repeatedly about making Vermont more affordable and protecting the most vulnerable. For the approximately 25,000 Vermonters who work one or more minimum-wage jobs, it is still too hard to see
WAGE page 20
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At $15 an hour, the 2024 target, a full-time, minimum-wage job would pay $26,500, which would no longer be a poverty-level wage.
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2 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Editorial
A posture of peace
I am composing for you my biweekly missive from the eastern end of Long Island. My daughter Coco and I traveled out here with my former Melissa O’Brien brother- and sisterin-law, Mark and NEWS EDITOR Margaret, to visit with members of the family to which I belonged when I was married the first time. If I go much deeper into the dynamics of this situation, you’ll lose track. It will become confusing, but not because of all the descriptors, because of all the peace. We are staying at a magical place called Pow Wow Point, built by my former husband’s grandparents, Helen and Richard, now inhabited by their son, his wife and their charming Lab, Chica. We have come here, in part, to say both hello and good-bye to a member of the family who is moving closer to end of life. And to stalk Ina Garten, Coco’s culinary heroine; but that’s a separate story. This is the first time in 20 years that I
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have woken up in this house. It’s a funny and jarring and wonderful feeling to have been welcomed warmly back here into the home and lives of these people all these years later. A lot has happened in 20 years. The band of rug rats who were not taller than the picnic table 20 years ago are now all taller than us, away in school, buying houses of their own, getting engaged. Most of us have gray hair now, some of us have stopped drinking, all of us are shocked by the passage of time. No one is holding a grudge or acting weird. Time will do that, if you let it: soften the rough edges on one’s righteousness, turning it into a kind of generosity that allows one to accept the truth that life rarely turns out how we imagined it would. It is not lost on me that this particular pilgrimage is taking place in the same week when the leaders of North and South Korea came together, shook hands, sat and shared a meal and spoke of hope and peace. Kim Jong-un began that day by stepping over a slab of concrete that marks the border between those two nations, becoming the first North Korean leader to set foot in the south. Later in the day the leaders’ wives
joined them for dinner, and during the farewell ceremony the two men, Kim Jongun and Moon Jae-in, held hands. One simply cannot help feeling a kind of joy witnessing an historic moment like that. Families can become divided; I see it all the time in my hospice work. Communities like ours face challenges that provoke contentious and divisive feelings; even countries can split in two. We can burn bridges, and we can build them, too. I know we often don’t like to admit it, but we are more alike, us humans, than we are different. We like to be right just a wee bit too often, and a righteous stance is fertile ground for dissension. Mr. Moon and Mr. Kim broke bread and offered at least the possibility of peace in their time together. It was a gesture as old as humankind, sharing a meal and setting aside past differences. When we arrived here at Pow Wow Point, Paddy and Laura set out plates of oysters and tuna, grilled sausage and octopus, the treasures of the nearby landscape. And we stood together on the back patio looking out the foggy bay, talking as if the 20 years between our last meeting and this one had never happened. Lessons all around this final week of April: bring peace to the table. Borders, divorces, fences, concrete slabs—these are human constructs, made permanent and unwieldy only by sheer force of will. Welcome to May, bright and beautiful Charlotter, break down some boundaries of your own in the freshness of this new spring.
The Charlotte News is a nonprofit, communitybased newspaper dedicated to informing townspeople of current events and issues. It serves as a forum for the free exchange of views of town residents and celebrates the people, places and happenings that make the Town of Charlotte unique. Contributions in the form of articles, press releases and photographs pertaining to Charlotte-related people and events are accepted and encouraged. For submission guidelines and deadlines, please visit our website or contact the editor at news@thecharlottenews.org.
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ON THE COVER:
Bike at Philo Ridge Farm, with Camel’s Hump in the far distance.
By Lee Krohn
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 3
Around Town Congratulations: to Jonathon Silverman of Charlotte who was featured in the “Talking Art” section of the April 25 Seven Days. Head of St. Michael’s College Department of Education and coordinator of the arts education program, Silverman went to Seattle where he was recognized as Vermont Art Educator of the Year for 2018. The award came from the Vermont Art Educators as well as the National Art Education Association. Ann JoppeMercure, a colleague at St. Mike’s, nominated him for this award, and was quoted as saying,” His influence is extraordinary in this state.” In addition to creating the art work itself, Jonathon sees it as a way of understanding others and communicating better through it. He says, “I truly believe we can learn to live together better.” Jonathon is retiring from the college at the end of this academic year. He will continue to be active in his volunteer work at The Charlotte Library. to Adam Hausman, owner of Adam’s Berry Farm off Bingham Brook Road in Charlotte, who was featured in AAA magazine’s recent issue of Northern New England Journey for his recipes in the Vermont Non-GMO Cookbook (written by Tracy Medeiros and published by Skyhorse Publishing). The article contains Adam’s recipe for French raspberry sorbet. Adam moved his berry farm from Burlington’s Intervale in 2013 after he discovered that the low floodplain there destroyed large sections of farmland annually. Adam said that he became tired of “canoeing through his raspberries” and looked for higher ground, which turned up in Charlotte. to Anna Roberts-Gevalt, formerly of Hinesburg, CVU and the Vermont Youth Orchestra, who now is one half of the folk-music duo “Anna and Elizabeth.” Featured in the April 20 New York Times Arts section, their music is called a “subtly subversive kind of folk.” Their first album, The Invisible Comes to Us, has them performing traditional folk songs with the standard words mixed with “flecks of found sound and unusual percussion.”
After performing a benefit concert for the Vermont Folklife Center in Middlebury, they headed south to play at New York City’s Le Poision Rouge on April 23. to Charlotters Christine Kogut and Chase Weaver who were among the 90 Vermonters to finish the Boston Marathon. The women Green Staters outnumbered the men by 62-28. Christine finished 17th among Vermont women; Chase finished 11th among the men. to the following Charlotte landscapers who were recognized for their work at the 9th annual Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association Industry Awards Program: Excellence Award for Distinctive Landscaping, Charlie Proutt, Distinctive Landscaping; Honor Award for Distinctive Landscaping, Elizabeth Proutt, Distinctive Landscaping; The Vermont Nursery and Landscape Association Green Works Annual Awards, Environmental Awareness Award, Nate Carr of Church Hill Landscapes; the Retailer of the Year Award, Eileen Schilling and Charlie Proutt, Horsford Nursery; NENA Young Professional of the Year Award, Ashley Robinson, landscape designer.
Sympathy: is extended to family and friends of Ruth Garen of Charlotte who passed away April 18 at the age of 96. Ruth moved to Charlotte as an Ruth Garen infant and lived in town her entire life. She grew up on the Sunny Acres Farm on Prindle Road, and she and her husband, Richard Garen, raised their four children on their Lake Road dairy farm. Richard passed away in 1994. Ruth’s surviving family includes her son, Reg, and his wife, Janice, of Charlotte. The family asks that those wishing to make donations in her memory do so to VNA Hospice, 1110 Prim Road, Colchester, VT 05446.
All Eyes On You. Happy Mothers Day!
is extended to family and friends of Ray S. Cooley of South Burlington who passed away April14 at the age of 87. President of the Charlotte/Shelburne Rotary, he received the Paul Harris Award among other honors. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to VNA Respite House, 3113 Roosevelt Highway, Colchester, VT 05446 or to the Shelburne United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 365, Shelburne, VT 05482 or to the Shriners (LoveShriners.org). is extended to family and friends of Edward Melby, Jr., DVM, of Charlotte who passed away April 22 at the age of 88. A veterinarian, Ed had been Dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, followed by time in animal health work in Pennsylvania before moving to Vermont. A sixth generation Vermonter, Ed served on Charlotte’s Planning Commission and was an active member of the Charlotte Congregational Church. His family held regular gatherings at Cedar Beach. His surviving family includes his wife, Jean, of Charlotte. The family plans to remember Ed through a celebration in the summer. is extended to family and friends of Joan Gates of Charlotte who passed away April 24 at the age of 86. She and her husband, Wally, moved to Charlotte upon their retirement in 1996. An active gardener, Joan was president of the Burlington Garden Club where she initiated a gardening program for psychiatric patients at the local hospital. She became active in the Charlotte Senior Center, arranging fresh flowers weekly, and she was one of the cooks for the home-cooked luncheon
program, preparing lunch for 40 to 50 seniors. Joan is survived by her husband of 65 years. A celebration of her life will be scheduled for a future date. Donations in her memory can be made to the Charlotte Senior Center, P.O. Box 207, Charlotte, VT 05445 or to a charity of the giver’s choice. is extended to family and friends of Jean Andrews of Yarmouth, Main, who died April 22 at the age of 91. Her husband, a physician, served for 17 years on the faculty of the University of Vermont as both teacher and administrator. Her surviving family includes her son Scott Andrews of Charlotte. The family asks that those wishing to make donations in her memory consider giving to The Good Shepherd Food Bank, P.O. Box 1807, Auburn, ME 04211 or to the Vermont Historical Society, 60 Washington Street, Barre, VT 05641.
Email us your Charlotte news to: news@ thecharlottenews.org
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4 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Town Shanta Lee Gander joins the A Sense of Place team
Scavenger hunt at the Charlotte Park and Refuge
Managing director to support farm’s transition to African-American Heritage Center The Clemmons Family Farm is pleased to announce the addition of Shanta Lee Gander as managing director to help curate and manage a vibrant new multicultural arts and heritage program as part of the A Sense of Place project, funded by ArtPlace America. In this consultant position, Gander will co-plan, co-develop and lead the coordination of African-American/African Diaspora arts and culture exhibits, presentations, performances, workshops and classes on the farm. She will also lead the project in intensifying its community outreach and mobilization around African-American and African diaspora history, arts and culture programs in six towns covered by the ArtPlace America grant: Charlotte, Shelburne, Hinesburg, South Burlington, Burlington and Winooski. Gander is well-known and respected in the arts, literature and history communities, with established professional and social networks in Vermont and New England. She is an artist and multi-faceted professional with 20 years of experience in leadership, marketing, management, event planning and operations logistics. Gander has created strong community coalitions in Vermont, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Her project management experience also includes the creation of academic mentoring programs. As an artist, she loves writing prose, poetry and articles, in addition to theater, dance, storytelling and photography. Gander has an MBA from the University of Hartford and an undergraduate degree in women, gender
Stock image. Shanta Lee Gander and sexuality from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. About The Clemmons Family Farm The 148-acre Clemmons Family Farm in Charlotte, owned by Jack and Lydia Clemmons since 1962, is one of the largest African American-owned historic farms in the state and celebrates African-American and African diaspora history, arts and culture. The A Sense of Place project, funded by ArtPlace America, supports the farm’s transition into an African-American Heritage and Multicultural Center through creative placemaking in partnership with Building Heritage, LLC, Burlington City Arts Foundation, Inc., Champlain College, Conscious Kitchen, and INSPIRIT, a dance company.
The Charlotte Land Trust is excited to announce its first ever Nature Scavenger Hunt for kids and their parents. The event will take place on Saturday, May 19, from 9:30 to noon (in the event of rain, the event will take place on Sunday, May 20, at the same time). Each participant or group will receive a card and enjoy an exciting walk through the park searching for various landmarks, insects, tracks and plants…all the while exploring the wonderful natural beauty of the refuge. This is an event for children of all ages, and cards will be accessible to both toddlers as well as more-advanced kid naturalists (accompanied by an adult). Refreshments and snacks will be provided at the end. The event will be organized at Charlotte Central School at 9:30 a.m. Because there is no parking at the top
of the park, the Land Trust will provide a bus to take participants from CCS to the start of the scavenger hunt. Everyone will be back to the school by noon or possibly earlier. If you choose to park at the Greenbush Road entrance, it will take at least a half an hour to walk to the start of the hunt, which will be take place along the scenic Thorpe and Byington trails at the top of the hill. Participants are asked to preregister. Forms are available on the town website (Charlottevt.org) under the “Recreation” tab, on the CLT website (CharlotteLandTrust.org) or at Town Hall. Please return registrations to the Recreation Office at the Town Hall or mail them to Recreation, P.O. Box 119, Charlotte 05445. Questions? Call Frances Foster at 3430633.
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Food Shelf News Susan Ohanian Thank you Thank you for the support this month from Meg Berlin, Jennifer Cote, Janet Morrison and an anonymous donor. Many wonderful baked items, including brownies, muffins and cookies, were received from the fabulous Baker Volunteers and coordinator Holly Rochefort. Nancy Smith and Stacey Dobrowolski have been supplying the food shelf with fresh eggs. Thanks to our community gardeners who are planning to plant a little extra to help out our neighbors this growing season. The Postal Service Mail Carriers are planning their May Food Drive for May 12. Items needed include canned tomatoes, soups, unsweetened canned fruit, kid-friendly cereal and toilet paper. A special thank you to the hard working mail carriers for their dedicated service to the community and to all who participate in this annual food drive. Books, books, books. The Food Shelf has a book table. Young readers from infant through teenage years are encouraged to take home a new book. A longtime reading teacher is available to help, but kids are encouraged to choose for themselves. Important upcoming 2018 Charlotte Food Shelf distribution dates Wednesdays, May 9 and May 23, 5 to 7 p.m. Thursdays, May 10 and May 24, 7:30 to 9 a.m. Financial assistance As a reminder, the Food Shelf has some funds available for emergency assistance with fuel and electric bills. You may contact Cindi at 425-3234 if you need assistance.
Faith & Religion
We are open to all community residents. Privacy is very important and respected in our mission of neighbor helping neighbor. For emergency food call John 425-3130. For emergency assistance (electricity, fuel) call Cindi at 425-3234. For more information call Karen at 425-3252. Wish list We need granola bars, kids healthy cereal, crackers, popcorn, pudding cups, trail mix, spaghetti sauce, shelf Parmesan cheese, vegetable, creamed soup, beef and chicken noodle soups, tissues, body lotion. Donations We are a volunteer organization, so all donations you make to the Food Shelf go directly for food and/or assistance to our local neighbors in need. Checks may be mailed to Charlotte Food Shelf & Assistance, PO Box 83, Charlotte, VT 05445. Thank you. Donated food drop-off locations. All nonperishable food donations may be dropped off at the Charlotte Library, the Charlotte Congregational Church vestry, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church (main entrance) or at the Food Shelf during the distribution mornings. We request that all fresh foods be dropped off at the Food Shelf before the Wednesday distribution hours or before 7:30 a.m. on the Thursday distribution mornings. The Charlotte Food Shelf is located on the lower level of the Charlotte Congregational Church vestry. Distribution days and times are posted on the bulletin board in the Charlotte Congregational Church Hall. You may also call the Food Shelf number (425-3252) for a recording of the distribution times. New Facebook Page. Go to our Facebook page, Charlotte Community Food Shelf and Assistance, and see photos and updates on all Food Shelf activities. And you can “like” us.
Dr. Katie Sarah Manges Smets
“Light Shall Rise” Rev. Kevin Goldenbogen SENIOR PASTOR, CHARLOTTE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
I moved to Charlotte with my family at the end of August 2017 from Underhill, Vermont. Since moving, I have regularly experienced something that others in Charlotte may find familiar. Not every day, but definitely every week, when I tell someone that I live in Charlotte the response I get is some form of, “Oooh, Charloooootte!” (as eyebrows raise). Why? Well, to put it frankly, it happens because Charlotte has a reputation for being wealthy. That reputation is somewhat deserved, and the statistics I have seen report that the average household income in Charlotte is higher than most towns in Vermont. When I say that I live in Charlotte, the assumption is that I am wealthy, and that all of my neighbors are wealthy too. So, not every day, but definitely every week, I get raised eyebrows and an “Oooh, Charloooootte!” Something else that I have experienced regularly, that others in Charlotte may find familiar, is that there is not only wealth here, but there is also hunger and poverty. My church, the Charlotte Congregational Church, is home to the Charlotte Food Shelf, which exposes me every few weeks to many individuals and families in our community who rely on this resource to put food on their tables. My colleague Rev. Susan Cooke Kittredge and I administer a “basic needs” fund that puts us in contact on a regular basis with many who need groceries, heat assistance, gas for their cars, etc. These two examples reveal the fact that, even
in Charlotte, many of our neighbors are struggling. Whether that is news to you, or not, I think it’s essential that we know, remember, and acknowledge it to one another from time to time. For, if we do not know, remember, and acknowledge it, how can we ever work together to ensure that all of us have enough? As a way of knowing, remembering and acknowledging, on Sunday, May 27, at 10 a.m., the theme of Charlotte Congregational Church’s weekly worship service will be: “Light Shall Rise.” During our service we will: 1) hear from a representative of the Charlotte Food shelf, 2) hear from Claudia Marshall about a local initiative called “Garden to Give” that encourages people to plant rows in their gardens to benefit their local food shelves, 3) hear a message from me based on the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 58 (“if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday”), 4) take a quick tour of the Charlotte Food Shelf, which is located in the basement of one of our church buildings, and 5) pray that together our “light shall rise” for the good of us all. Whoever you are, wherever you come from, wherever you are on your spiritual journey, whoever you love, and wherever the food in your cupboard comes from, the Charlotte Congregational Church invites you to join us for a time of knowing, remembering and acknowledging hunger on May 27 at 10 a.m. Please contact me at 425-3176 (x11) if you have any questions.
6 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Region Ferrisburgh’s Union Meeting Hall & Historical Society open houses The Ferrisburgh Historical Society invites any and all curious souls to an open house, Saturday, May 12, from noon to 4 p.m., at the Union Meeting Hall (aka Union Church). This lovely brick church, overlooking the maples of our own village green, was built in 1840 to serve five distinct congregations. The Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, Wesleyans and Spiritualists all shared in the church’s construction and its original use. In 1897, with the Congregationalists and the Methodists having built their own houses of worship, the “Union” dissolved and the town purchased the building. Around that time, the maples in the green were planted to commemorate our Civil War veterans, and to this date, the only municipal plaques in honor of our veterans are mounted on the Hall’s front. It’s a lovely building, with an uplifting history. Please join us and take this rare opportunity to tour this oldest of our town’s assets. The Ferrisburgh Historical society will also be open. This one-room school was built in 1862 and now houses the Ferrisburgh Historical Society. Please stop in and take a look.
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City Market, the member-owned grocery store serving the greater Burlington community, began as a buying club in the 1960s and incorporated with the State of Vermont in 1973 as a cooperative association for the mutual benefit of its members. Over the years, the co-op has moved location several times in line with modest incremental growth. In 2002, when City Market moved to its downtown location, 55 members loaned the co-op almost $378,000. These loans were integral to ensuring the viability of the downtown store’s success. In mid-November of last year, City Market opened a second store on Flynn Avenue in Burlington’s South End. The co-op has financed the entirety of the expansion through a mix of funding sources. A key element of this mix is the member loan campaign, using Milk Money’s Vermont-only crowdfunding platform, which allows coop members the opportunity to directly support the co-op’s expansion. Milk Money’s goal, according to cofounder Louisa Schibli, is to help local
businesses expand their companies by gaining access to “neighborly” capital from all Vermonters. City Market is Milk Money’s ninth crowdfunding campaign, and Vermonters who are members of City Market Co-op can visit Milk Money’s website, MilkMoneyVT.com, to learn more about, and how to invest in, the coop.
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8 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Biking
Green Mountain Bicycle Club day touring rides in May • All riders must wear helmets and obey the rules of the road. Please do not ride two abreast if there is traffic in either direction. • For mornings with questionable weather, please call the ride leader to make sure the ride is still taking place. Ride leaders are obligated to go to the starting point and provide maps but may choose not to ride if the weather is miserable. • Riders below the age of 18 must have a signed waiver from a parent. • E indicates an easy ride, M is for moderate, and S is for strenuous. Rides begin promptly 15 minutes after the meeting time. • Social rides are more leisurely versions of the mapped ride—usually the shorter route—with longer food breaks. Always contact the social ride leader before the ride to make sure those versions of the ride are taking place. Additional local social rides will be scheduled as weather permits in the Champlain Valley. Please email lightspd@comcast.net to be added to the social riders email contact list, which is the only guaranteed notification for these rides. Weekend social rides are usually announced by Thursday. Saturday, May 5 Introductory ride for new riders. We will go 12-20 miles at a leisurely pace. Our goal is to teach new cyclists the rules of the road and how to ride in a group. Meeting time: 10 a.m. at Veterans Memorial Park, South Burlington, Wheeler lot. Leader: Holly Creeks, 233-9013, creeksh@ yahoo.com Co-leader: Lou Bresee, 658-0597, lakelou@comcast.net Sunday, May 6 Covered Bridges of Chittenden County: 23- (E), 30- (E/M) and 36- (M) mile options of rolling hills through Shelburne and Charlotte, with the longer ride going through Ferrisburgh. Possible food stops include the Old Brick Store in Charlotte (no bathrooms) or a convenience store in Ferrisburgh for the long ride. Visit up to four of the five covered bridges in Chittenden County: the Shelburne covered bridge and the Holmes, Sequin and Quinlan bridges in Charlotte.
Meeting Time: 9:45 at Veterans Memorial Park (paved parking area), South Burlington. Leader: Lou Bresee, 658-0597, lakelou@ comcast.net Co-leader: Brian Howard, 505-1148, bjhowd@gmail.com Social ride leader: Donna Leban, 862-1901, lightspd@comcast.net Sunday, May 13 Kingsland Bay. The 35-mile (E/M) ride rolls from Shelburne through Charlotte to Kingsland Bay Park and returns. The 46-mile (M) ride heads toward Vergennes and climbs to Monkton Ridge, returning through Hinesburg, and a 65 (M/S) option heads into Huntington. Meeting Time: 9:45 at the Shelburne Village Shopping Center. Leader: Amy Otten, 878-4070, amyotten@ netscape.com Co-leader: Ralph Kilmoyer, 878-4070, ralphkilmoyer@comcast.net Saturday, May 19 Introductory ride for new riders. We will go 12 to 20 miles at a leisurely pace. Our goal is to teach new cyclists the rules of the road and how to ride in a group. Meeting Time: 10 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Park, South Burlington, Wheeler lot. Leader: Chris Johnson, 373-9015, cajohnson42@gmail.com Co-leader: John Bertelsen, 864-0101, jo.bertel@gmail.com Sunday, May 20 Vergennes Voyager. A 26-mile rolling (E) or 39-mile flat-to-rolling (E/M) rural ride running along Otter Creek to Middlebury for a bakery stop. The longer ride rolls out by Kingsland Bay State Park before heading south to Middlebury. There are no big hills on this ride. Meeting Time: 9:45 at Vergennes Union High School, Monkton Road, east parking lot. Leader: John Bertelsen, 864-0101, jo.bertel@gmail.com Co-leader/social ride leader: Karla Ferrelli, 864-0101, karla.ferrelli@gmail.com
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Stock image Saturday, May 26 St. Albans Explorer. Light, rolling hills with beautiful views by the lake. The 35mile (E/M) route goes out to Kill Kare Park and returns, while the 50-mile (M) route continues on to Swanton and back. Both rides can break for food at St. Albans Bay. Meeting Time: 9:45 at Georgia Park and Ride. For those coming from the Burlington area, we suggest carpooling at the Colchester Park and Ride at Exit 17 off I-89 or perhaps meeting at UVM or Veterans Memorial Park in South Burlington.
Leader: Kerry Crosby, 578-3249, crosbykn@comcast.net Co-leader/social ride leader: George Thabault, 598-3409, gthabault@gmail.com
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 9
Biking
Protect a cyclist: Do the Dutch Reach
Vince Crockenberg CYCLIST
If a driver of a parallel-parked car suddenly opens the driver-side door just as a cyclist is passing alongside, the cyclist either has to suddenly veer into the traffic lane—and perhaps into the path of an oncoming car—or get “doored.” Either option can result in injury or even death to the cyclist, as well as injury to the passengers in the car or damage to the car itself. Enter the Dutch Reach. Here’s how to do the Reach: When opening the driver’s side doors (from either the front or back seat) reach across your body with your right hand. This requires you to swivel your upper body toward the door. In doing so you can easily look into your rear-view mirror and then over your shoulder to check oncoming bicycle and car traffic to ensure that it’s safe to open the door. At the same time you can use your left
hand to hold on to the larger cushioned handle below the window to prevent the wind from suddenly blowing the door open. In 2017 the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles added a section to its driver’s manual describing the benefits of the Dutch Reach. It also produced a one-minute video showing drivers how to do the maneuver; you can check it out at https://youtu.be/8A9RGDFGDE. And in the Netherlands, where the Reach was invented, it is taught in school and is a required part of the driving test. A tip: The habit of using our left hands to open the driver’s side door is so ingrained in all of us that it is helpful to add some kind of reminder to do the Reach when opening the door. One trick advocated by the Dutch Reach Project (dutchreach.org) is to tie a brightly colored ribbon to the door handle as a reminder to reach for the handle with the far hand.
Statewide VT walk/bike summit to be held in White River Junction In partnership with the Vermont Agency of Transportation and a number of other participating organizations and sponsors, the Southern Windsor County Regional Planning Commission and the Two RiversOttauquechee Regional Commission will host the 2018 statewide Vermont Walk/Bike Summit on May 4, 2018, at the Barrette Center for the Arts through a partnership with Northern Stage in downtown White River Junction. The Summit program has been released. Congressman Peter Welch is stopping by to say hello. Our acclaimed keynote speaker Russ Roca, co-owner of The Path Less Pedaled—a bike travel blog-turnedbusiness—is thrilled to check out what Vermont has to offer. This year’s summit will include interactive Demo-It sessions, like how to set up a valet bike parking system in your community, test driving an
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10 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Charlotte Library News Margaret Woodruff LIBRARY DIRECTOR
The Seed Library is open! Stop by the table at the Charlotte Library to join up. You’ll get to select some prime seeds to try in your vegetable garden and be part of the food community here in Charlotte and beyond. Upcoming at the Library Tuesday, May 1, at 9 a.m. Baby Time. Meet other caregivers and the littlest ones in our area. We’ll chat, sing songs and read to Baby. Wednesday, May 2, at 7 p.m. Emerald ash borer: Be prepared. Charlotte Tree Warden Mark Dillenbeck will speak about the emerald ash borer. EAB has very recently been detected in Orange County and is expected eventually to reach Charlotte. When it arrives we can expect ash tree mortality of close to 100 percent. Mark will explain how to detect EAB, what the town is doing to prepare, and what individual land owners can do to preserve select specimens. Thursday, May 3, at 3:15 p.m. THINK Tank: Description: Strobe Goggles. Learn about visual perception with motorized goggles made by you! For 4th to 8th graders. Registration required.
Wednesday, May 9, at 10:30 a.m. Protecting Against Malware for PCs. What is malware and spyware? Learn the difference and find out what you can do to protect your computer and your personal information. This program is specific to Windows (PC) users. Please bring your laptop or let us know if you need to borrow one (limited availability). Space is limited, please register.
Please sign up for up to two THINK Tank programs in May. For more sessions, please request to be put on the waiting list. Friday, May 4, at 10:30 a.m. Preschool Story Time. Join us for stories, songs and crafts. Ages 3-5. Monday, May 7, at 10:30 a.m. Protecting Against Malware for Macs. What is malware and spyware? Learn the difference and find out what you can do to protect your computer and your personal information. This program is specific to Mac users. Please bring your laptop or let us know if you need to borrow one (limited availability). Space is limited, please register. Tuesday, May 8, at 9 a.m. Baby Time. Meet other caregivers and the littlest ones in our area. We’ll chat, sing songs and read to Baby.
Thursday, May 10, at 3:15 p.m. THINK Tank: Shoe Design Challenge. Take the challenge! We’ll design, create and test some footwear. Can your creation make it through the obstacle course in style? For 4th to 8th graders. Registration required. Please sign up for up to two THINK Tank programs in May. For more sessions, please request to be put on the waiting list. Friday, May 11, at 10:30 a.m. Preschool Story Time. Join us for stories, songs and crafts. For ages 3–5. Tuesday, May 15, at 9 a.m. Baby Time. Meet other caregivers and the littlest ones in our area. We’ll chat, sing songs, and read to Baby.
PLANTS RO CKS ER P L AW NAT TS
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Tuesday, May 15, at 7 p.m. Great Decisions: Russia’s Foreign Policy. Join us for discussion about Putin’s foreign policy toolkit and how the U.S. should respond. Reading materials available at the circulation desk.
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Thursday, May 17, at 3:15 p.m. THINK Tank: Cryptography. Learn the science of decoding messages and its importance in history. Solve some cryptography puzzles and create your own secret messages. For 4th to 8th graders. Registration required. Please sign up for up to two THINK Tank programs in May. For more sessions, please request to be put on the waiting list. Thursday, May 17, at 7:30 p.m. Book Discussion Group: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. A true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice, from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. Copies available at the circulation desk. Friday, May 18, at 10:30 a.m. Preschool Story Time. Join us for stories, songs and crafts. For ages 3–5. Charlotte Library Board Of Trustees: Katharine Cohen, Nan Mason, Danielle Conlon Menk, Jonathan Silverman and Robert Smith. Charlotte Library Information: Margaret Woodruff, Director Cheryl Sloan, Youth Services Librarian Susanna Kahn, Tech Services Librarian HOURS: Mondays & Wednesdays: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, & Fridays: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reach us on the web at charlottepubliclibrary.org Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/charlottelibraryvt Follow us on Twitter & Instagram: @CharlotteVTLib
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The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 11
Charlotte Library News
2018 Charlotte Seed Library now open Linda S. Hamilton SEED LIBRARY COORDINATOR
The Charlotte Library is happy to announce the opening of our 2018 Seed Library and invites both experienced and new gardeners to become members. The project is intended to encourage and support our community’s home food producers and seed savers. It is part of a worldwide network of seed libraries and seed savers that promote the growing of heirloom varieties—because growing, eating/enjoying and then saving seeds for next year is the only way their rich biodiversity survives. This year, our focus is on vegetables. The Seed Library is located near the Library main desk and is self-serve. There are more than 30 locally adapted varieties of vegetables to choose from, and these are described in the 2018 Seed Library Catalog. Select some varieties you would like to grow, either because they are new to you or because they are already favorites and you’d like to start saving seeds instead of buying more each year. Complete the Seed Library card with your contact information and what seeds you are “signing out.” Then find your seed packets in the alphabetized Seed Library Cabinet. Packets contain a few organically grown seeds of that heirloom variety for you to grow and enjoy. There is no charge. Participants are encouraged to use eco-friendly gardening techniques and to save some of this year’s harvest of seed to restock the Seed Library for next year. We will support you with gardening and seedsaving technical information and hands-on learning opportunities during the year.
Wrestling Win (True Story) Thomas Murphy, Grade 6
It was a beautiful morning and nothing was wrong until I noticed the time. I jumped out of my bed and started screaming for no apparent reason; then I remembered why. I had my wrestling match in Texas. I ran and got my parents when I realized my witch of a sister had cast a horrible spell on them that had put them in a deep sleep. I ran to my brother who was looking at himself in the mirror and taking pictures. I closed the door slowly and just said no to it all. I got the keys to the Batmobile and was off with the pedal to the floor. I hit the big red button and there I went at lightning speed. I arrived just in time. I pulled my singlet up, checked in at the table, and I walked onto the mat super pumped up. Then I noticed some weird light shining. It was Darth Vader and his entire army. I went to the line; the ref blew the whistle
And you will enjoy a delicious and healthy reward for your labor! A word about heirloom varieties and why they are important: Varieties arise naturally through cross-pollination within the pool of biodiversity of a plant species. When a variety is self-pollinated or pollinated by another plant of the same variety, the seeds produced can be saved and will grow out “true to type” (just like the parent). Varieties are called heirloom (or heritage) when they either pre-date or are unaltered by the last 100+ years of intentional modifications by plant breeders. Savable (heirloom) seeds have been the core of agriculture since the beginning. Farmers and home food producers around the world have traditionally saved seed from one year’s harvest to plant next season, selecting for desirable characteristics related to hardiness, productivity, flavor, texture, color or something else that made them special. Seeds passed from neighbor to neighbor and through families for generations. For more than 10,000 years it was this way, until the early-mid 1900s when plant breeders started crossing different varieties of the same species to create hybrids. Hybrids also have special desirable characteristics, but unlike heirlooms, they only run true in the first (F1) generation. If you want to repeat the characteristics of a particular hybrid, you must repeat the original cross. If farmers want to grow hybrids, they must purchase seed each year rather than saving their own. With the rise of large-scale commercial agriculture, hybrid seeds were also commercialized and aggressively promoted to both large and small farmers as the “way
and we started wrestling. I threw a smoke bomb down, then there were light saber noises in the big cloud of smoke. The ref started to clear out the smoke, and when he could start to see, he called a pin. I had singlehandedly pinned Darth Vader and his entire army. I shook Darth Vader’s hand, and the ref raised my hand. I ran over to the podium and received first place medal. I ran out to the Batmobile, drove to a nice witch and picked up a potion that breaks spells, I also got a potion that makes witches nice. I drove home and made my parents drink it so that they would wake up. Next, I ran to my sister’s room, threw the other potion at her and she turned super nice. I checked on my brother, but he was still looking at himself and taking pictures for Instagram and Snapchat. I asked my sister if there was a potion for him, but she said that he was incurable.
of the future.” Combined with chemical fertilizer and pesticide inputs, higher yields of food crops were possible, but with that has come an astronomical rise in production costs per acre, the poisoning of air, water and soil, and crushing farmer debt. Not only that, but in the last 100 years a shocking 90 percent of the world’s diversity of heirloom food crop varieties simply died out when farmers stopped using and saving their seeds. Significantly, it is the biological diversity in the gene
The Rain Falls Down Claire Sigmon, Grade 6
The rain falls down slowly, surely It drenches the trees and the rooftops and the flowers that worked so hard to survive and me and people scurrying by to get to shelter Me? I stay I wait And soon... the sun comes out Yes I am drenched but I saw the rain fall down slowly, surely
Rain
Kate Kogut, Grade 6 Here I am, standing in the rain, waiting for
Photo contributed pool of heirloom varieties that provides a plant species with resilience and the ability to adapt and persist in changing environmental conditions. Clearly we need to keep the heirloom varieties we still have going, and fortunately we have a rewarding and delicious way to do that: grow and enjoy them, and save some seeds for replanting! The Charlotte Seed Library can help you do that.
the clouds to go away. What purpose does rain serve in the world, I say. But then I chance a look around, at the flowers waiting to bloom, and suddenly I understand, I do, I do! Flowers can’t grow without sunlight, without earth. But they also have need of something else that was there at creation’s birth. The world itself could not survive, but for one thing, It needs rain, and all of the things that rain brings.
Summer vs. Winter Alicia Palmer, Grade 6
So let me just start off with a question, why does winter have to be so long, and why does it have to be so cold?! I have always loved summer, and I always will, and not you or anyone else can change that! Just take winter out of the world right now. You can do many more things and many more fun things during summer. Why does winter even have to exist; why can›t it be summer year-round like in Florida or some see
YWP page 20
12 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Outdoors Water, water everywhere… and nowhere, plus an idea Elizabeth Bassett I recently spotted something remarkable at the Denver Botanic Garden: an atmospheric water harvester. What, you say? Denver receives from eight to 15 inches of rain in an average year; Vermont about 37. (For the record, Colorado experiences 300 or more days of sunshine each year while Vermont averages about half that number.) The solar-powered water harvester absorbs and condenses water out of the dry, near-desert air. A kitchentable-sized panel produces about one gallon of potable water each day. Zero Mass Water, which sells the harvester, claims on its website: No pipe input. No electrical input. No infrastructure. Up to a case of drinking water generated per day from a pair of panels. If Charlotters were to list their concerns, running out of drinking water would likely not figure in the top 10. In many western states, however, discussions and disputes about water dominate the media, government planning and the courts. Eighty percent of Colorado’s precipitation falls on the western half of the state, while 85 percent of the population lives east of the Rockies. Several major reservoir, dam, and tunnel systems deliver water to the populous Front Range cities of Fort Collins, Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. One such water-moving network, the Frying Pan-Arkansas Project, collects snowmelt from the western flank of the mountains, thus diverting water that would otherwise flow into the Colorado River. The Fry-Ark quenches
“
Water is becoming the scarce resource over which mankind will struggle for the foreseeable future.
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the thirst and agricultural needs of the southeastern quadrant of Colorado and includes six large dams, 16 small dams, four canals, 27 miles of tunnels and 282 miles of conduits. The project was authorized by President Kennedy and took nearly 20 years to build. The average user of its water does not even know it exists, and it’s likely that American taxpayers are unaware that their largesse funded it. Warmer weather, reduced snowpack and a growing population are putting Colorado on a collision course with other users of water from the Colorado River. More than 36 million people depend on the Colorado for their water, from California’s Imperial Valley, which grows half the produce consumed in this country, to cities that include Salt Lake City, Albuquerque, Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San Diego. Wars have been attributed to religion, often a stand-in for socio-economic disparities, and oil. With population growth and climate change exacerbating historic trends, water is becoming the
A vernal pond.
Photo from VT Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s Watershed Management Division
scarce resource over which mankind will struggle for the foreseeable future. The next time your well pump fizzles in the dead of winter, take a deep breath and be grateful for our water. The idea If you enjoy being in the outdoors, and perhaps yearn for an excuse to spend more time there, consider enlisting as a citizen scientist to help monitor our state’s natural resources. Every day Vermonters are observing, counting, documenting and mapping birds, butterflies, vernal pools, loons and more. For those who prefer not to use sunscreen or bug dope, record keeping can be done from the comfort and convenience of home. The nonprofit Vermont Center for Ecostudies (vtecostudies.org), in Norwich, serves as a clearinghouse for a
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range of projects: • iNaturalist • e-Butterfly • Vermont Vernal Pool Monitoring Project • Vermont Vernal Pool Mapping Project • Vermont eBird • Loon Watch • Vermont Loon Conservation Project • Mountain Birdwatch • Vermont Forest Bird Monitoring • National Park Service Landbird Monitoring • Vermont Breeding Bird Survey • Phoenix Project (entering paper records into eBird) Consider vernal pools, seasonal wetlands that fill with snowmelt and spring rains and are often dry by midsummer. By enlisting as mappers, volunteers search for vernal ponds that have been spotted from the air and verify their existence. Monitors “adopt” a pool that they assess, evaluate and record over time. Monitors may enumerate egg masses of salamanders, fairy shrimp, frogs, dragonflies and freshwater snails. These ephemeral bodies of water serve as breeding habitats and often as “bridges,” providing connectivity between permanent wetlands. With no flowing water they are peaceful places to enjoy being in the outdoors. Follow your interests into the fresh air. Your rewards will be great!
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 13
Into The Woods
The case for active forest management
J. Ethan Tapper Forestry is the practice of managing forested ecosystems. However, since forests seem to be able to take care of themselves, do we really need to manage them at all? In theory, forested systems don’t need human intervention to be healthy. If left alone a forest will grow, change and develop, be periodically disturbed by natural events and recover. However, “leaving forests alone” as a management strategy is more complicated than it seems, largely due to problems created by humans. Nearly all Vermont’s forests are recovering from being cleared for agriculture in the 1800s. While most fields were abandoned and regrew into forests, these areas are now generally less diverse, less healthy and less resilient to disturbance, and feature lower-quality wildlife habitat than the forests that existed prior to clearing. Invasive pests, nearly all introduced by humans in the past hundred years, have also fundamentally altered our forests. Exotic pathogens have ravaged or removed American chestnut, American elm, butternut and American beech from Vermont’s forests, with ash trees soon to follow due to the recent discovery of emerald ash borer (EAB) in Vermont. Invasive exotic plants such as honeysuckle, common and glossy buckthorn, Japanese barberry and multiflora rose outcompete native species in our forests’ understories and inhibit their ability to regenerate and respond to disturbance. An additional problem apparent across much of Vermont is over-browsing by white-tailed deer. Deer have become an impediment to forest regeneration
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At some point we must consider how much change a forest can tolerate over a short period of time and wonder if we can give our forests a helping hand.
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in Vermont due to habitat changes and decreased hunting and predation. In the wintertime, deer browse heavily on tree seedlings and can effectively steer the future forest towards tree species that they find less palatable, such as invasives and beech. This over-browsing challenges our forests’ ability to regenerate a diversity of tree species and to respond to disturbance with vigor. To add to these problems, forests must cope with habitat loss, fragmentation, climate change, pollution and many other changes in environmental conditions. Forests adapt to change over time; these are the same adaptations that allow species native to our forests to form a functional community. However, at some point we must consider how much change a forest can tolerate over a short period of time, and wonder if we can give our forests a helping hand. By engaging in active management we have the opportunity to help forests remain resilient and to mitigate the effects of these drastic changes. So, what can we do? One of the most important things is to be active in removing invasive exotic plants and controlling their spread. Our forests rely on natural regeneration to respond to disturbance and changing environmental conditions. Invasive plants outcompete
Morse’s Doodles & Jots
Life is experience, not a treasure chest.
Illustration by Jim Morse
native regeneration and only increase in intensity without our intervention. Cutting and hand-pulling these plants is a step in the right direction, but for more established populations of invasives, using herbicide is often the only realistic way to control them. You can find more information on invasive exotic plants and their treatment at VTInvasives.org. Second, we can employ smart harvesting techniques that increase the health of our trees and the diversity of tree species, sizes and ages in our forests. Using harvesting to remove unhealthy trees and favor our highest quality, healthiest stems will increase vigor and decrease stress in our forest, and creating pockets of regeneration will increase diversity, improve wildlife habitat and ultimately make our forests more resilient. Leaving the tops and limbs of trees in the woods and un-lopped during and after logging, while it looks messy, provides great wildlife habitat and protects regeneration from deer browse. Being active in creating regeneration also gives us a chance to overwhelm the browsing ability of our local deer herd. Finally, I would argue that harvesting timber is important in and of itself; it supports our working lands economy and the loggers, truckers, mills and timber processors in our communities, and
Stock image
provides a local source of heat, building materials, paper, electricity and more. It also provides income to forest landowners, helping them pay taxes and providing funds for noncommercial stewardship activities (such as invasive species treatment) and incentives to keep our forested land intact and forested. As I often say to people: We can harvest a local, renewable resource while improving the health of our forest and producing awesome wildlife habitat… Why wouldn’t you want to do that?
Ethan Tapper is the Chittenden County forester. He can be reached at (802)-5859099, ethan.tapper@vermont.gov, or at his office at 111 West Street, Essex Junction. For more information about timber harvesting, please visit VTCutWithConfidence.com.
14 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Sports Edd Merritt CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Mixed Unified Sports is more than just a game Bill Littlefield has a weekly program on NPR called “Only a Game.” In it, he broadens the meaning of sports, often talking about what they aren’t more than what they are. Mixed Unified Sports Basketball at CVU is definitely more than dribbles and hook shots. It is a way of incorporating sports, socialization with peers and increased selfesteem. The Unified program is a combined product of schools in Vermont and Special Olympics. It provides students with and without special needs, including intellectual difficulties, with opportunities to participate meaningfully in sports activities in a variety of settings. The bi-gender Unified teams compete in five sports—soccer, bowling, snowshoeing, basketball and bocce. The Redhawks won the first state Unified Basketball Tournament in 2016. This year’s Unified Redhawk basketball team is off to a winning start with a 5 and 1 record. So far they have played Burlington, BFA-St. Albans, Colchester, Milton, Montpelier and Mount Mansfield, defeating all but MMU. In July, the state Special Olympics will send “Team Vermont” to the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games in Seattle, Washington. The team will include 10 athletes and two coaches from CVU. Over 4,000 competitors from around the country will be there. The Vermont basketball team will be coached by Peter Booth and Anthony Spagnolo. Booth is also a CVU math teacher.
Men’s LAX goes from Vermont to New Hampshire to Maine without a loss CVU men’s lacrosse stands at 5 wins against no losses. The most recent game was at Cape Elizabeth, Maine and proved to be the closest so far. The Redhawks managed to hold on to a 6-4 win, low scoring for a LAX contest. The goals were spread among five players, three of them from Charlotte. Max Gorman had two and assisted on another. The Braun brothers, Walter and Will added a goal apiece with Walter assisting twice. Charlotte’s Andrew Tieso in the net was called upon for five saves. The win in Maine followed two in the home state. On April 16 the Hawks traveled to Rutland and came back victorious by nine goals, 15-6. Again, Charlotters figured heavily in the scoring with Will Braun’s hat trick, Walter’s two netters and Max Gorman’s single tally. Nick Cuttitta led the way with five goals and two assists. Before the snow hit in early April, CVU beat neighboring Hanover, New Hampshire, 10-2, in a game in which Will Braun scored half the team’s goals and Andrew Tieso stopped 12 shots. They then faced South Burlington and collared the Wolves by a 12-4 score.
Rayoma Silverman at the plate.
Photo by Al Frey
Lady LAXers stand at three wins and only one loss Going back to April 10, CVU’s women’s lacrosse won three times before falling short against Mt. Anthony by two goals, 12-10. Seniors Bella Reiley and Lydia Maitland have been effective shooters for the Redhawks, and co-captain Becca Provost has proved to be a leader on the field. That said, however, the Mount Anthony loss was somewhat disheartening after falling to the Patriots in the semifinals of the state tournament for the last two years. It does give the Hawks something to shoot for should the two schools face each other again this year.
“Just to hit the ball and touch ‘em all, a moment in the sun.” John Fogerty Centerfield. Photo by Al Frey three hits, two of them doubles with one leading to an RBI, and Aidan Johnson had two hits while Jake Bortnick brought home two runs with his single.
Baseball team isn’t large, but it’s good CVU tennis topples St. Johnsbury CVU’s hardball team has only 17 players, although coach Tim Albertson is quoted in the Free Press, saying he believes “our depth is our strongest attribute.” The team’s record this season seems to bear that out, as it shows four wins and no losses. On April 24 CVU captured its third win, this one over BFA-St. Albans 3-1. Hank Caswell pitched the complete game for the victory, allowing only three hits. Throwing errors hurt the Bobwhites and allowed the Redhawks to score two unearned runs. Jonah Roberts and Jake Bortnick were offensive leaders for CVU, Jonah hitting a triple before scoring and Jake bringing in a run with a sacrifice fly. The latest victory over Burr and Burton last Saturday had Jonah Roberts blasting a three-run double in a sixth inning that produced four runs for the Hawks. Kyle Rivers was the winning pitcher, going six innings and allowing only two earned runs while striking out six. Liam Reiner had
Both men and women took to the Kingdom courts to play St. Johnsbury Academy in tennis. And both Redhawk teams returned victorious. The women dominated with senior Stephanie Joseph leading off as the number-one singles player who shut down her St. Jay opponent 8-0. Charlotter Jalen Murphy and her doubles partner Ella Kenney won their top doubles match 8-1. The men had a tougher time having to pull out both doubles’ matches, one of them by forfeit, to gain a 4-3 team victory. Josh Ashoon and Oliver Bijur were singles winners, Josh in a close 8-6 match, Oliver with a bit more leeway, winning 8-1.
Softball begins strong but drops its last three games A 30-6 win over Vergennes started the
season with a bang for the CVU softball team. However, the glow of that victory soon dimmed as they lost their next three games to Colchester, St. Johnsbury and BFA-St. Albans. Second-year coach Mike Sullivan sees that he has his work cut out for him. But the season is still young, and he feels there is talent on the team. Riley Canty will be the starting pitcher with Page Niarchos, a senior shortstop, leading the team at the plate. Sullivan says he will be doing some shifting around of players and positions to determine the correct lineup. Charlotte’s Rayona Silverman is among the starters.
Redhawk Alice Larson captures events at Essex Vacational Track Meet As she has been doing all winter, CVU’s Alice Larson won the 1,500- and 3,000-meter races at this year’s Essex Vacational. Her times were just over five minutes and just under 11 minutes respectively.
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 15
From the Archives
1964
16 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Sunny Side Up Life’s inherent beauty Carrie Fenn
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When I told my husband my idea for my latest Charlotte News effort, he said, “Just don’t write anything that will make me throw up.” I’m not offended; I totally get it. A column that searches for the meaning of life has serious potential for barfdom. So, before I send anything to Melissa, it first goes to Pete. He doesn’t hold back. He is a fair and honest critic, and one of the smartest and most eloquent people I have ever met. If it passes the puke test with him, I hit “send”. I got some great responses to my first request for what offers meaning in our readers’ lives, and interestingly enough, they all came from men. I don’t know why. Maybe men don’t think about what gives them meaning as often as women, so having the opportunity to stop and think about it for a minute brought out new perspectives. Or maybe men think about this stuff all the time and thus were more willing to provide input. In any case, the reason why these guys wrote to me isn’t what’s important, but what they wrote is. My favorite exposé comes from a Charlotte dad (He prefers to stay anonymous—“It’s your column, not mine.”). He shared his evolving sense of what provides meaning to his life. “Meaningful in Life? My Plan? For what I’m going to do with my one wild and precious life? Well, I guess that question can be answered in different ways throughout my life. If you had asked me that question in my 20s, I would have said ‘huh?’ and then I would have proceeded to show you that I was doing exactly as anyone would do with a precious, young life. I would party like it was 1999 and that party would never end. I had no goals, no aspirations, no higher calling. I was here to party and that was my calling and I was good at it. The question of meaning didn’t really come up. “As we all know parties come to an end, or maybe not an end just yet but they do shift over into a more quiet, mellow, chit-chatty sort of affair. Welcome to my 30s. I found an awesome girl, we dated for a long time, and we got married. We had a couple of kids and settled down into family life. If you had asked me at this time of my life, ‘What was precious to me? And what was my plan to do with MY precious life?’ I would have said my life was not the precious one anymore. It was the two new precious lives I had helped to bring into this world. Creating new life, feeling the love for another and starting and raising a family was what was precious and so fragile to me then. That was my PLAN even though I didn’t know it. “Taking care of this family was my whole purpose in life, down to the very essence of my being. I had a wife, a house, a car, two little girls. Life was hard but it was still good and felt right. But, as we all know, life likes to throw us curve balls. As the craziness of adulthood took hold, and my plans changed and morphed and I
went down different paths, I didn’t think of myself but rather that precious family I had created. Jobs would come and go, but I’d do anything and everything to make it work. The idea of a career I assumed I’d have went away, and life became more like survival, but it was still good. Sometimes the toddlers, who magically and overnight morphed into kindergartners and what? middle schoolers? (how the heck did that happen?), would ask those kid questions. ‘Why don’t we have what other kids have?’ ‘Why do all our friends go somewhere warm for break but we stay here?’ Why, why, why? From my kids’ perspective, the grass was always greener someplace else. “It’s that moment in time, that perfect kid time, as I watch my girls laugh and cry and I feel their every loss and celebrate their every win, no matter how small, which feels like a good, long time but is so fleeting, so fast, so sand-through-thefingers. I reach out to stop it but I know I can’t, and I realize that period of time is my precious gift—to life, to my family, to me. I didn’t recognize it then, too busy running around and working and trying to make sports games after school, and taking pictures whenever I could before the kids got too old and had to look at every picture and delete the ones they thought weren’t good enough to share. “But just as I reach for that moment in time that, in retrospect, is so perfect and the best time of all, I dive into a new, more meaningful space, with adult girls who forge ahead with their own lives, and I get to watch and wonder and be amazed. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m getting older and I just saw my cousin, who is the same age as I am, get wheeled down the aisle for her daughter’s wedding. She’s dying of cancer, and that’s a hard to thing to see, and maybe that’s what’s brought me around to this new, powerful sense of meaning, of preciousness, of life’s inherent beauty. “When I think about it—I mean, really think about it—as Carrie’s request forced me to do, I would say that finding meaning, embarking on my plan for my one wild and precious life, is elusive. It’s ever-changing. It’s like sand through the fingers, and like sand, when it runs out, I just grab more. Like sand, there’s an infinite amount of meaning in this life, so I’m going to keep reaching for it. We should all literally stop in our tracks— whether we’re running late out the door for work or running off to the store for milk or even running off to some sports game for our kids. We’ll get there, and, yeah, maybe two minutes later if we stop to literally close our eyes, breathe a huge breath in through our mouths and out through our noses and to mentally tell ourselves, I’m OK, my life is OK, whatever my circumstance. Just take a few seconds to stop, to slow down and take a moment to assess where you are and where you’re going and that, no matter what, it’s OK and you are OK.” Breathe in. Breathe out. Enjoy.
Whoo Are You?
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 17
Barred Owl by Lake Segel
Snowy owl taken at Thorps Barn in Charlotte. By Lake Segel
White owl that was overlooking Nordic Farms on Route 7. By Lynn Nurczynski
18 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Health Matters Go ahead, get ready for the great outdoors! But carefully. As we close the door on mud season and approach our state’s beautiful spring and summer months, many Vermonters are Katherine Spencer switching from indoor exercise to DEE PT outdoor activities. Both adults and children are participating in spring sports and early summer activities and looking to take advantage of the longer days and extra hours of daylight that come along with the warmer months. This may understandably entice you to dive head first into the activities you were doing last fall and summer. Doing so, however, may lead to injuries that could be prevented with a little time and preparation. Remember, even professional athletes perform an average of four to six weeks of preseason training before the regular season begins. It is important to train your body in a way that mimics the manner in which the involved muscles are used during a given activity or sport. For example, runners should emphasize strengthening not only the thigh muscles but also include exercises that strengthen the hip and abdominal
muscles; this is also true for hikers and long distance walkers. Racquet sports such as tennis, pickle ball and badminton, require strengthening the rotator cuff and upper back muscles. Strengthening these areas is also beneficial for baseball, softball, paddling sports, volleyball and swimming. In order for golfers to efficiently swing their clubs, they must work on shoulder flexibility and back and hip range of motion. Cyclists should emphasize lower body strengthening and shoulder/neck mobility exercises as these areas are often involved with bicycling injuries. If you participate in a sport that requires good cardiovascular function, it is a good idea to do some form of conditioning and endurance training in addition to strength training. Of course, the examples above do not cover all of the training techniques required to prevent injury and improve performance. Make sure to consult your physical therapist or a health care professional for a more individualized program or for answers to more specific questions and concerns. Take it slowly, slowly With the excitement of warm weather after a long winter, many of us make the mistake of increasing our activity level too quickly. You will reduce your risk of injury
Stock image and increase your body’s ability to adapt by gradually increasing the frequency, intensity, time and type of exercise based on your individual goals. Adjust the number of times you exercise per week to reflect your current fitness level, the time you realistically have available, your other commitments like family and work, and the goals you’ve set for yourself. My general recommendation is begin with exercising three to four times per week and gradually increase the duration and intensity of exercise by 10 percent each week. Remember, your body needs adequate rest between exercise sessions for optimal results. Adjusting the type of exercise you do is also important. For example, if you have not run all winter, start off with walk-run intervals instead of trying to start where you left off. Delayed onset muscle soreness, which typically develops 12 to 24 hours after the exercise has been performed, with the greatest discomfort occurring between 48 and 72 hours, is a normal part of exercise caused by placing unaccustomed loads on the muscle. This type of soreness is different from acute soreness, which is pain that develops during the actual activity. If you are experiencing discomfort that falls outside these general parameters—if, for example, pain lasts than greater than 72 hours after exercise—you may have more serious tissue damage and will need to consider adjusting your program.
before you begin exercising. Consuming eight ounces of water 20 to 30 minutes before exercising or during warm up is also a good idea. Aim to drink seven to 10 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes during exercise and eight ounces no more than 30 minutes after you finish your workout or sport. Prolonged, intense exercise may require a drink that includes electrolytes. Keep in mind, the more you sweat, the more water you lose. Therefore, you must replenish fluids adequately.
Stay hydrated With hot weather, it becomes even more important to stay properly hydrated. General guidelines include drinking 17 to 20 ounces of water two to three hours
Katherine Spencer holds a doctorate in physical therapy and works at Dee PT in Shelburne. She can be reached at katherinespencer@deept.com. She lives in South Burlington.
“
Warm up, cool down A proper warm up and cool down are highly encouraged for both adults and children. A five-to-10 minute warm up that includes dynamic motions such as stretching with movement will significantly reduce your risk of injury. This is because you are moving your muscles in a way that mimics your body’s movement while performing a given sport or activity. Cooling down with static stretching is also essential to lengthen your muscles after they have undergone increased demand and load. Even with the most detailed preparation program, not every injury can be prevented. Having said that, however, injuries can be significantly reduced by focusing on improving endurance and conditioning, muscle strengthening, flexibility and joint range of motion. Pursuing an appropriate exercise program will likely reduce your risk of injury and improve your performance, thereby making your outdoor experiences much more enjoyable!
Remember, even professional athletes perform an average of four to six weeks of preseason training before the regular season begins.
”
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 19
Conservation Current
Grazing on grassroots Stepping up to overwhelming complexity
Amos Baehr CHARLOTTE CONSERVATION COMMISSION
In my work at the Conservation Commission I reviewed a subdivision application in which two state agencies, another town committee, and a not-forprofit all held interests aimed at compliance with federal guidelines. Add to that a concern for global climate stability, and these layers of complexity, while necessary, are frustrating and often counterproductive. So let’s start with necessity. In living systems when conditions are stable, more and more complexity will develop to take advantage of subtle gradations in micro environments. More and more specialized creatures develop, creating an increasingly complex web of life. So it is not surprising that several thousand years of Western civilization have produced highly specialized people skills in ever more complex webs of relationship. We are now in what ecological economics calls a “full world” situation. As Charlotte fills up, in a filled up Vermont, in the filled up hemisphere, on a crowded planet, it is only natural that we would have a sense of
overwhelming complexity. By contrast the original European landowners in Charlotte had relatively naive decision-making concerns. By original, I do not mean the indigenous people who had interest in the land for sustenance. I am referring to land grantees, some of whom never stepped foot on land they held title to for speculative purposes. Grantees made laws and inflated expectations out of their narrow interests. Today we are still constrained by those laws and suffer under those archaic expectations while our circumstances are dramatically different. We live in a full world—by full I mean “of people.” (Sadly in my lifetime the world has become steadily less full in other dimensions.) Daniel Boone had a policy that whenever a European neighbor was within a day’s walk he would move on. Today the relative spaciousness of Charlotte is under pressure from “Daniel Boone syndrome.” The town meeting was an effective community program for dealing with this problem at one stage. But ever more complex institutions and ever more sophisticated understandings are needed to help us fit
ever more interests onto the same land. We are only now appreciating how that includes the interests of plants, animals and life processes that sustain us. Institutional complexity is sometimes counterproductive. One response to complexity is to break it into “manageable” chunks. Let’s take another insight from ecology. Breaking a habitat into mappable/manageable chunks does reduce the complexity. It also reduces the productivity and resilience in that system. This fragmentation favors some species, accelerates some processes and diminishes others. Similarly, dealing with social, political and economic complexity in fragmented “manageable” chunks, we favor certain interests over others with unforeseen consequences to the whole. A party with special interests may see the whole and be confronted with conflicts within their interests or they may just dismiss those conflicts. This has been facilitated by a fundamentalist ideology of the marketplace. Free market fundamentalism is a distortion of underlying elements of truth. It has given rise to faith in the “magic of the market.”
We are enticed to exercise self-interest in blind faith that the market will transform our selfishness into the “common good.” This deceptive “moral” claim by market ministers has undermined institutions that conditioned us to a responsibility to others (unions, churches). Now the emperor has no clothes. The “common good” served by this fundamentalist secular theology is the corporate stockholder. We need to create communities that put the market in its place (it has a place) and force it to recognize our interests in the foundations of life and in each other. Wholeness is complex, but we were made for it. We can build institutions to realize it. Many Charlotte committees and commissions are now or are becoming just such communities of the common good. The social and regulatory complexity that confronts us at the Conservation Commission is frustrating, and we survive by mutual support. Having a shared passion that we pursue with varied skill sets, we persist in a view of Charlotte encompassing hundreds of years and framed by boundaries of watersheds not survey see
CONSERVATION page 21
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20 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
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place like that where it is warm all the time?! What I’m trying to say is why, why did you even invent winter? The driving is dangerous and terrible. It’s so cold that you practically freeze to death, and last but not least, there is no sun. Where does the sun go, huh, huh? I’m waiting for an answer... (one century later...) see, there is no answer! I mean you could say that it hides “behind the clouds,” but do you actually believe that stuff? Now let me lift your human spirit and tell you everything awesome about summer! Summer is way better than winter. I LOVE SUMMER; even the word “summer” is better than just “winter.” You can go to the beach, swim, go for a bike ride. Now in winter... you can only do limited things, but really...nothing. I was born in the summer. I have lived in the summer, and I have lived in the winter as well, but summer is way better than winter. The thing is, who wants winter anyway. Something to Happen Ella Lisle, Grade 6 This story begins with a crisp autumn wind blowing to the east; the wind was in a hurry for there was a rainstorm taking place at the site of a small island. The wind blew in a kind of dancing manner though, for there hadn’t been a rainstorm anywhere
within many miles of the small island in a long time. As the wind stayed on track to the island, it came across a lonely tree in the middle of a valley. The wind blew straight through the branches of the tree, making them dance along with the wind. As the wind went by the lonely tree, the wind did not notice a little bird in a nest at the top of the tree, waiting for something to happen. The little bird’s name was Sweethorn, and he had just hatched from his egg and was waiting for his mother to come home with food. While Sweethorn was waiting, his mother was having a bit of trouble with the WORMS. Sweethorn’s mother, Sheila, had collected two worms: one for her and one for Sweethorn, but she wanted one more for Sweethorn because it was his birthday. Although it was very nice for Sheila to want to get her son a birthday present, she was thinking it was time to go home and say good morning to Sweethorn. When Sheila got home, Sweethorn was NOT happy because nothing was happening. Right when we introduced you to Sweethorn, we did not tell you that he was very impatient, but we did tell you that he was waiting for something to happen. As a little one, everything around you is either amazing, cool, exiting, fascinating or crazy, but nothing around Sweethorn was any of those. Sweethorn started to get upset because nothing was happening, and all of a sudden he felt this thing in his stomach that almost felt like he was hungry. This
made him start to cry, and then he started to whine because he missed his mother, and that is why when Sheila came home, Sweethorn was having a tantrum. Sheila also noticed that all their neighbors had flown over to calm him down, but he did not stop until he saw his mom, and once he did he calmed down. Sheila sat down next to the frazzled Sweethorn and told him that everything would be all right and that it was time for dinner. Days were short for little Sweethorn because he was so young and small he got tired super quickly. Sweethorn smiled, ate his dinner and went to bed, thinking about the amazing something that had just happened. Hello, Spring Sam Haydock, Grade 6 Hello, Spring. Today is the first day of your visit. Winter was a long and cold season. We still have snow waiting for us outside. Every day of winter it lies out there waiting and waiting. I´ve been waiting for this day. Spring, you are the season of my birthday, my favorite season, the season where flowers grow and trees get their leaves back, when sports start back up like baseball and soccer. Thank you, Spring.
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WAGE
continued from page 1
pay for the basic necessities of supporting their families. For single parents making minimum wage, there are repercussions for their children as well. According to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), of all minimum-wage earners in Vermont, 62 percent work full time, 88 percent are at least 20 years old with an average age of 38, 56 percent are women, and 22 percent have children. On average, those with families earn 55 percent of their family’s total income. A person working 40 hours per week at the current minimum wage makes about $21,840 per year, slightly above the federal poverty level for a three-person family. However, according to the EPI study, a modest but adequate standard of living in Vermont for one adult without children costs about $32,000 a year, including housing, food, transportation, taxes and health care. With children necessitating child care, the costs are even higher. At $15 an hour, the 2024 target, a full-time, minimum-wage job would pay $26,500, which would no longer be a poverty-level wage. Objections to raising the minimum wage revolve around the increased costs to business, the potential loss of jobs and economic impacts. Most minimum jobs are in the service sector of the economy. In the first year, a full-time employee’s earnings would increase by $1,250, a cost to the employer. This cost would presumably be passed on to consumers. However, the increased income would also be spent, thereby injecting more money into the local economy. The impact on jobs would be minimal compared to the increase in wages. Moreover, the high turnover rate seen in minimum-wage jobs may be reduced, thereby saving employers training costs. The EPI study estimates that while 2 percent of low-wage jobs would be lost, 98 percent of low-wage workers would benefit. Overall, the economy would benefit from raising the minimum wage gradually over several years while improving the affordability factor for those who need it most. As always, I can be reached by phone (802-233-5238) or by email (myantachka.dfa@gmail.com).
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The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 21
Leavitty
It takes a village
This February I was diagnosed with early stage, highly treatable breast cancer. I will be fine after the treatment, which began in earnest two Josie Leavitt weeks ago. In COLUMNIST my case, cancer comes with an incredible village of friends who want to help me through this. Which is good because I’m not adept at asking for help. It also comes with a menu of side effects and symptoms-thatmight-be-side-effects that left me on an emotional roller coaster. My stomach feels a lot like granite. I coughed. I’ve just washed dishes, why are my hands so red? Bowels can take a lot of strategizing. Cuts do take longer to heal, and I keep cutting myself. I sneezed. Everything was thought about and either discarded or written down for future reference. My doctor told me that days three to five were the worst. I found myself a side-effect overachiever by starting the downward slide the night of day two. I had horrible bone and joint pain that felt like a bad flu. I got a little panicky. I took my temperature and some Tylenol and told myself that, no, I was not getting a fever, which I had been told was bad for folks on chemo. I listened to far too many beeps on my digital thermometer but finally calmed down and went to sleep
when my temperature rose no higher than 98.7 degrees. Day six, that weird feeling I’d been having in my mouth and on my tongue had turned into something that felt wrong, not just irritating. This discovery, of course, took place on the Saturday in April when it was icing up all weekend. I resignedly called the doctor. Within ten minutes I was told I had a fungal infection that’s very common with chemo. Oh, joy, fungus! An hour later the prescription was at the pharmacy. I got in my car in a rainstorm of pure ice and navigated my road very well. I turned left onto Mt. Philo, and it was packed sleet like nothing I’d ever seen in my 22 years of living in Charlotte. I gave up and turned around. I paced the house thinking who could help, and I remembered that my good friend who lives on Greenbush has a son with a pick-up that could climb Everest. I called. He wouldn’t be home till Sunday, and she asked if I could wait that long. Absolutely, I assured her. Sunday morning the weather was actually worse. I was having tea and toast when I heard the roar of a truck. I looked out the window—there was a gleaming, enormous black truck, backing up on the drive to get as close to the house as possible. My friend ran out of the truck, and I could hear the sleet bouncing off her coat, and she handed me the prescription and carefully stepped back into the truck. In an instant they were gone, and I was reminded that sometimes the cavalry does show up.
continued from page 19
markers. We recognize that complexity is natural and that fragmentation is not inevitable. Reducing fragmentation in social and natural communities is a challenge—the market is stacked against us. In a practical way we find the two greatest obstacles to constructive change are distraction and diversion, distraction being the self-imposed and/or obligatory demands of everyday living, and diversion being habits and practices of avoidance that masquerade as productive activities. Diversions also come in blatantly indulgent forms. Complexity fuels these
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conditions by intimidation and frustration, but complexity can be overcome. Change happens to us or it happens with us. Many institutions of 200 years ago offer us firm foundations, while others are founded on sand. In every case the policies of 200 years ago must be recalibrated to meet today’s needs. My invitation to you is to take stock of your busy-ness. Can you identify distraction or diversion? Are you willing to give five hours a month to being part of the change rather than a victim of that change? Grassroots are putting up leaves everywhere. Develop your appetite for community engagement. The Charlotte Conservation Commission meets the fourth Tuesday of each month, and all are welcome.
conservation
2018/19 SEASON PASSES ADULT (40-64) > from $549 FOR30 s (30-39) > $549 FOR20 s (19-29) > $349 YOUTH (7-18) > from $249
22 • May 2, 2018 • The Charlotte News
Charlotte Senior Center News Carolyn Kulik SENIOR CENTER DIRECTOR
So maybe this time, (just maybe) spring has really come. There are actually crocuses outside, and a few folks have reported daffodils. And who could doubt the flowers? Although the weather may be typical for a Vermont almost-spring, let me point out that we are not your run-of-the-mill senior center. This is partly due to the wonderful food, partly the comfy building, but mostly because of the amazing people who come to participate in what the Center has to offer. Folks don’t often talk about their preretirement careers, but they have a wealth of experience in many, many fields. (And this makes them interesting to hang out with.) Here is a first attempt to list some of their work backgrounds: Actor, artist; bookkeeper; business owners; clinical social worker; college professors (chemistry, psychology); comptroller; cartoonist; craftsperson; cross-cultural trainer; decorator; dog whisperers (therapy dog owner, dog trainer, dog rescuer, dog raiser*); teachers of kindergarten through high school (art, history, English, math); engineers; executive secretary; government workers (federal, state and local); grant writer; homemaker; insurance salesperson; lawyer; medical doctors (infectious diseases, pediatrics); medical researcher; musician; museum curator; nurse; pharmacist; poet; professional golfer; professional photographer; psychologist; public health professional; real estate agent; school principal; spice buyer; tech consultant; therapist; university and college administrators; writers. (Any inadvertently left out will be included next time.) *What is a “dog raiser” you ask? Hint: It’s not just anyone with a young dog. It’s a volunteer who raises a puppy that will later be given up to an organization for training as a service dog for people with physical disabilities or mental disorders (such as PTSD). COURSES & ACTIVITIES Acrylic Adventures starts May 8 and still has a few spots left. Instructor Lynn Cummings will focus on layering with several acrylic mediums with iridescent and metallic paints. She says, “We’ll also pour paints to create organic shapes for backgrounds, then finish with representational shapes and objects.” It runs for four sessions from 9 a.m. to noon and is $120 for the course. Registration and pre-payment are required. Road Hike #3 on Tuesday, May 8, goes to Bristol Waterworks with Marty Morrissey. Meet at the Center 10 minutes prior to the 9 a.m. departure with water, good hiking or walking shoes, and a snack or bag lunch. Registration required. No fee. The last Birding Adventure with Hank Kaestner is on Wednesday, May 16. (It is
“I love Pilates. We’ve become a family. It’s good exercise, but I keep coming back because we laugh so much.”
– S.D.
also the first one this year since the other two on the schedule were canceled due to uncooperative weather.) Meet at the Center 10 minutes prior to the 9 a.m. departure to carpool to the location for spectacular bird watching. Good views are guaranteed through Hank’s “Oh My God” telescope. Registration is required in case of changes for any reason. No fee. And don’t forget the many ongoing activities that you can join any week: Pilates, Chair Yoga, Gentle Yoga, Yang Tai Chi Chuan (beginners), Tai Chi Practice (advanced), Step Aerobics, Strength Maintenance, Dance: Moving Better/Living Better, Spanish Conversation, Art Group, Writers Group, Contract Bridge, Mah Jong. Whew! Is anyone interested in chess in May? It will be taught for beginners or as a refresher, with no fee. Coming in summer: French Conversation, Kayaking, Tubing, Poetry. . . and more. PRESENTATIONS/PERFORMANCES Wednesday, May 2, presentation on the Feldenkrais Method® with Mischul Brownstone. This somatic approach uses gentle, mindful movement to bring new self-awareness and improve function. It can increase ease and range of motion, improve flexibility and coordination, and positively influence other aspects of your life. (Introduction to Rolfing® with Liesje Smith will be scheduled in the fall.) Wednesday, May 9, CCS Small Music Ensembles directed by Monica Littlefield. This collection of vocal and instrumental music will include the Ukulele Band originally scheduled in April. Note: Performance time is 1 p.m., not 1:30 as posted in the calendar. Saturday, May 12, Shape Note Performance of acapella four-part harmony. Begun in colonial New England, this traditional singing has haunting melodies, often with dark poetry from early hymnals. There will be an opportunity to learn a couple of songs and sing along. No registration or fee. Light refreshments. Sponsored by the Friends of the Charlotte Senior Center. Note: This Saturday event begins at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 16, Crossing the Himalayas. David Rosenberg will speak about his adventure crossing the mountains on foot with two fellow Peace Corps volunteers in 1964. In their travels
SENIOR CENTER MENUS Monday Munch
Wednesday Lunch
11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. No reservations required.
All diners eat at noon. Reservations required.
May 7 Vegetable beef barley soup Tossed salad with fruits & nuts Magic cookie bars & ice cream
May 2 Smoked sausage & sauerkraut Baked potatoes Birthday cake & ice cream May 9 Chicken cordon bleu Rice pilaf Raspberry cranberry relish Homemade dessert May 16 Pasta & meatballs Antipasto salad Homemade dessert
May 14 Beef & barley soup Green salad Homemade dessert
Thursday - Men's Breakfast 7:30–9 a.m. Reservations required. May 10 Menu and topic TBA Suggested donation for all meals: $5
from central Nepal, to the slopes of the Himalayas, and then to the arid Tibetan Plateau, they observed how people had adapted to a challenging environment while preserving ancient Buddhist traditions. May Art Show This group show features acrylics with ink by Jenny Cole, watercolors by Anne Gordon, waterscapes in oil by Judy Tuttle, pastels by Jill Kleinman and both pastels and watercolors by Beverly Goodman. Note: Art show pieces are hung in the foyer and in the Great Room, which is really quite large. Because this room is utilized for many classes and events, the best times to see the art shows are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons after 12:30 and Wednesdays after 3. Call the Center during the week to check on availability on Sunday afternoons.
pre-ordered buffet lunch in the mansion features a horticultural presentation. If time and energy permit, there will be a short stop at the Northshire Bookstore. Start time is 8 a.m., return arrival time is approximately 5 p.m. All-inclusive trip cost is $80. Registration and prepayment are required no later than May 7. Please note: Some walking is necessary. Stop in to say hello and check us out. No commitment required. Really, we are not your typical senior center—and not your ‘typical’ seniors. As Edith Ann (Lily Tomlin) used to say, “And that’s the truthhh!” See you soon!
Special June Trip to Hildene Friday, June 1, Full-day trip by Premier Coach to Hildene, the estate of Abraham Lincoln’s son in Manchester. If we are very lucky, the peonies will be in bloom in the spectacular setting. A visit to the restored Pullman car on the grounds and a selfguided tour of the home are followed by a private look at the archives collection. The
S.O.S. for MISSING JACKET Gentlemen: Do you have a mystery jacket hanging in your closet??? It’s navy blue, size L. There is one black glove in each pocket and a dark blue visor cap in one sleeve. Did you forget where you mistakenly picked it up—because it was similar to one of yours? It was weeks ago after a Wednesday lunch at the Center. If you have this jacket, kindly call the Senior Center and let us know. No worries, but one of our male friends is looking forward to wearing it again.
The Charlotte News • May 2, 2018 • 23
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Senior Center’s annual Volunteer Dinner
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Victor (left) and Wanda Bean, son and daughter-in-law of Shirley Bean, join Peggy Sharpe, Senior Center volunteer coordinator, and Beth Merritt, board president, at the Center’s annual Volunteer Dinner at The Old Lantern on Thursday, April 26. The dinner honored the more than 100 volunteers who donated many hours of service at the Center over the year. This year the Friends of the Charlotte Senior Center also honored Shirley Bean, whose vision and hard work made the Center possible, by dedicating the Center’s new gardens in her memory. The special dedication plaque will be installed in the Center foyer. Photo by Jim Hyde
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Calendar of Events Saturday, May 5 Hooves and High Rollers: A Kentucky Derby Casino Royale, 5 to 9 p.m., in the atrium of the Double Tree by Hilton in Burlington. AFTER the Track’s annual Kentucky Derby fundraiser combines the thrills of Churchill Downs with the excitement of Las Vegas. All proceeds support AFTER’s programs. Tickets can be purchased at hoovesandhighrollers. evenbrite.com. AFTER the Track, a nonprofit based in Hinesburg, rehabilitates retired thoroughbred racehorses, and its outreach programs provide handson experience to student interns and to veterans. Green Up Vermont 2018 in Charlotte. 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. A day of cleaning up our roadsides. Bags are available now at businesses around town. Sign up for a route and find other information on our website (sites.google.com/view/charlotte-vt-greenup-day/sign-up-for-a-route). Lake Champlain Waldorf School celebrates the magic of spring at Mayfest from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 359 Turtle Lane, Shelburne. A day filled with flowers, crafts for kids and joyful maypole dancing with live music, Mayfest is specially created with young children in mind. There are so many wonderful activities to enjoy but
The Selectboard is looking for interested citizens to fill the following vacancies: • Chittenden Solid Waste District Board—representative and alternate representative with terms ending May 31, 2020. • Trails Committee—three vacancies, one with a term ending in April 2019 and two with terms ending in April 2020. • Recreation Commission—one vacancy with a term ending in April 2020.
without too much noise or bustle—it’s just right for the six-and-under crowd. If Saturday’s weather is unpleasant, event details will be posted on the Lake Champlain Waldorf School website.
Tuesday, May 8 The Shelburne Charlotte Garden Club will meet at the home of Babe Goss at 2 p.m. Please note the change of time. We will enjoy tea and social time as well as a business meeting to plan for next year’s programs. We hope to see everyone! For further information, please call Ann Mead at 985-2657.
Sunday, May 20 The Board of Trustees of the Morningside Cemetery Association wishes to notify all members of the annual association meeting to be held at the Charlotte Town Offices on Ferry Road at 4 p.m. All owners of plots in Morningside Cemetery are association members and are invited to attend. Descendants of people buried at Morningside are also welcome. An election of two of the five members of the Board of Trustees will take place. Other cemetery business will be discussed. Please call President Janice Garen (425-2393) or Secretary/Treasurer Nancy Richardson
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Interested applicants should e-mail, call or stop by the office for more information. Stock image (539-2110) with questions or to RSVP if you plan to attend.
Ongoing Webby’s Art Studio is open Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Come create! Specialized art activities for all ages, inspired by temporary and permanent exhibitions. Webby’s Art Studio activities are offered in the Pizzagalli Center for Art and Education classroom. Free with admission. Shelburne Museum, 6000 Shelburne Road, 985-3346; info@ shelburnemuseum.org.
Dean Bloch, Town Administrator, Charlotte Town Office, P.O. Box 119 Charlotte, VT 05445, E-mail: dean@ townofcharlotte.com, Phone: 4253533.
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