Brooks Library, or Brooks Memorial Library?

I’ve always called our library the Brooks Memorial Library, think that “Memorial” was part of the name. More recently I’ve seen official library announcements in which it is called, simply, Brooks Library.

My question: which is it? Was the name officially shortened? Was it never as long as I thought?

I like to use the right name, but also don’t mind shaving off a few letters from a frequently-typed phrase.

What say ye?


Curious – Why No Carnivals With Rides in Brattleboro?

I was driving by Bondville yesterday and they were having the Bondville Fair, complete with rides such as Tilt a Whirls, Scramblers, giant slides, merry go rounds, and a Ferris Wheel and it got me thinking: Why doesn’t Brattleboro ever hold a carnival, with a midway, rides, food trucks, games, and so on?

No handfuls of tickets, no stepping over power cables, no sound of generators, no sight of colorful lights at the edges of every ride or booth.


Short Distance Moving Around Brattleboro?

Does anyone know of someone  I can hire to move one couch out of my Oak St. place and take it to the dump and move another couch into my house from West Brattleboro. I’m sure there must be somebody in the Brattleboro area who does this kind of thing but I haven’t been able to locate anyone. Any suggestions are appreciated. Thanks!

Kris Alden


Brattleboro Senior Meals Breakfast Menu – September

Brattleboro Senior Meals Breakfast Menu – September Breakfast Menu

September 1st Corned Beef Hash, Scrambled Eggs, Muffin, Fruit, Yogurt, Juice

September 4th Breakfast Sandwich w/ Egg, Cheese & Sausage, Home Fries, Fruit, Yogurt, & Juice

September 8th Eggs Benedict w/Ham on an English Muffin, Potato Pancake, Fruit, Yogurt & Juice


SeVWA’s 2015 E. coli Monitoring of Local River Sites Concluded August 26th

 The Southeastern Vermont Watershed Alliance (SeVWA) had its sixth and final monitoring day for the summer of 2015 on Wednesday, August 26th. All of our sites received significant rain in the day prior to sampling and 20 of our 27 sites tested above the “suitability for swimming” standard set by Vermont and the EPA. It is generally recommended to wait 24-48 hours after a significant rainfall to resume swimming in lakes and streams, so keep that in mind when making weekend plans on the water.

The kids are headed back to school and our monitoring season has come to a close. I want to take this time to extend a gigantic thank you to all of our volunteers who took time out of their Wednesday mornings to collect samples and help transport them to where they needed to go. We would not be able to make this program work without all of our amazing volunteers. So….THANK YOU!!!!!


Ruby Sales on 50th Anniv. of Jonathan Daniels Martyrdom

I wanted all my friends and neighbors here in Brattleboro to have a chance to see this. Ruby Sales, of Atlanta GA, gave this sermon Sunday morning August 23, 2015, at St. James Episcopal Church in Keene, NH, the home congregation of Jonathan Daniels, the 26-year-old white seminarian who was shot and killed, taking a shotgun blast in order to save her life, in white supremacist Alabama on August 20, 1965.


Medicare CGM Access Act of 2015

The first time I knew I was hypo-unaware I understood the danger I was in. Without knowing if my blood sugar is dropping to critically low numbers it was just a matter of time before this peculiar type of Russian Roulette would catch up to me. As vigilant as I am at testing, even I can’t beat those odds.I became a Type I diabetic at the age of 58. Like most Type I diabetics I was born with it. However, I have a rare form of adult onset insulin dependence. For most of my life I enjoyed robust health, unaware that an internal deadly clock was ticking inside of my body.


Groundworks Collaborative to hold Fifth Annual Hike for the Homeless on September 12th 


BRATTLEBORO, VT – 8/26/2015 – Groundworks Collaborative will hold its fifth annual Hike for the Homeless fundraiser on Saturday, September 12 (rain date, September 13th), on Mount Wantastiquet in Hinsdale, NH. There will be two start times, 10am and 12:30pm, each beginning at the Mountain Road trailhead in Hinsdale (an immediate left after the second bridge on Route 119 when coming from downtown Brattleboro).

Registration begins at 9:30 for the 10am start, and at Noon for the 12:30pm start. Whether hiking to the summit or walking the River Trail at its base, participants can anticipate a beautiful late-summer hike and outstanding views of the town of Brattleboro. Hikers may raise funds individually (a minimum of $50 is suggested) or as a team (suggested minimum $250).

All proceeds from the Hike benefit Groundworks Collaborative’s work with families and individuals experiencing homelessness in Brattleboro and surrounding communities.


The Vermont Community Foundation Awards Vermont Partnership Grant to Support the Vermont African American Heritage Trail

Brattleboro. The Vermont Community Foundation has awarded Vermont Partnership for Fairness and Diversity an $11,000 Innovations and Collaborations grant. The grant will support Vermont Partnership’s development of the nearly three-year old Vermont African American Heritage Trail to be more accessible to Vermont school children and families.

The Vermont African-American Heritage Trail includes nineteen sites of importance to black history in the state and brings visitors to Vermont museums and cultural sites where exhibits, tours, and personal explorations illuminate the lives of African Americans for whom the Green Mountain State was part of their identity.


FYI: Brattleboro Freecycle.org

 link.

If , like me and several others, you lost track of freecycle once they quit sending out e mails you can go to the above page and rejoin if you still want to participate. You might have to choose a new user name and password first, as I did, but once you get to the page with the requests and offers, it seems pretty easy to use.


Always a Catch

Skill and perseverance are needed to snare a fish in moving water, even more so if it’s a native variety. Of indigenous locals, brook trout are most prevalent, and arguably the most beautiful. They’re coy and sly creatures, and having had about ten million years to perfect their camouflage only enhances superb stealth. A trout can be underfoot and you might never know it. So, a catch is a delight which brings much satisfaction.

In short, to succeed you need to be a refined stalker and trickster. The trout is the one attuned to and at home in the water, not we terrestrials. Its super-sensitivities must be matched or there’s no chance, one false move and it’s usually game over. Within this critical pursuit, selection and presentation of an artificial fly must so evoke a real morsel, the fish is willing to risk his life chomping it.


Qigong for Healing and Living Fully – Stories from China

Thomas Garbarino license acupuncturist and partitioner of qigong and taiji quan just recently returned from an epic pilgrimage to Wu Dang mountain in China. He will be sharing his experiences and stories as well as presenting new material to deepen our understanding of healing through the practice of qigong. All are welcomed.

You are your best healer! Come learn how each and everyone of us is born with the innate gift to heal ourselves. In this half-day intensive, you will experience simple and profound ways to awaken your body’s innate healing ability while deepening your capacity to relax and enjoy your life more completely. Participants will leave with a renewed and empowered sense of health and well-being. All are welcome; no experience required.


Body Farms: What Really Happens When We Die

All planetary life forms anywhere throughout the universe have an expiration date.

On Earth, the mass production of humans with their built-in obsolescence is no exception, which, akin to our manmade consumer products, the people have a shelf-life of their own. It’s a good thing too. The human population cupboard is full, and, in fact, bursting at the seams.

As a society, the human collective can expect two expiration dates. One is on the daily road of sustainability where individual humans become extinct (aka death). The other is when humans taken as a whole are no longer sustainable on this planet causing the extinction of the species.


Loons Near Brattleboro?

I know this is a loaded question but where can I find some loons near Bratt?  Has anyone heard their calls in Windham County?  I returned last week from camping in the N.E.K. and fell in love with their haunting calls. Just curious if anyone knows or not.


Brattleboro Area Hospice To Hold a 7 Week Bereavement Volunteer Training

Brattleboro, VT. Beginning on Thursday, October 8, 2015 Brattleboro Area Hospice will offer a Bereavement Volunteer Training at its home office at 191 Canal Street in Brattleboro. This 21 hour volunteer training will run on Thursdays from 6:00 – 9:00 PM. The final session will take place on November 19th.

Bereavement Volunteers provide emotional support and companionship to individuals grieving the death loss of a loved one. Applications for the training will be accepted until September 4th, or until the training group has filled. Trained volunteers are asked to commit to one hour per week spent with a bereaved individual.


Dim Sum For Elephants, Sunday Sept. 13

Dim Sum for Elephants

You’re invited to Dim Sum for Elephants at 4:00pm, Sunday, September 13, at Cai’s Dim Sum Teahouse, 814 Western Avenue, West Brattleboro, Vermont, a dim sum buffet, with wine and desert. During the evening there will be a silent auction and an informative talk about the current status of African elephants and what is being done. The price to attend the event is $35.

One hundred percent of the proceeds after costs will go to benefit Wild Aid, an organization working to stem the unprecedented spike in illegal poaching of African elephants for ivory. Wild Aids’ campaign to reduce demand for elephant ivory in Asia is the single largest step that can be taken to save African Elephants from the threat of extinction. To find out more about them go to wildaid.org/elephants.


Reliable Volunteers Needed for Playground Installation

DATE:  SATURDAY, AUGUST 29, 2015 (rain date will be Saturday, Sept. 5)

LOCATION: Lower park of the Canal Street School (next to the basketball court)

We need 4 – 5 Volunteers for the morning shift:  8:15 a.m.  – Noon

We need 4 – 5 Volunteers or the afternoon shift: Noon – 3 or 4 (or when complete)

Experience working with tools will be very helpful. 


What Good Did/Does Decriminalization Do?

When Daryl Pillsbury and I met in March 2010 for the first time the meeting came about after I had seen a photo of him in the Reformer holding a “Legalize Marijuana” sign outside of the polling area during the March town elections. That year I was chafing from the awareness that, while Vermont was surely a significant marijuana consumer state, it was clear that a high percentage of Vermonters were caught up in the criminal justice web.The actual statistics didn’t matter to me. Two consenting Vermont adults being arrested for personal use and possession of marijuana were two too many.

If there was any noteworthy marijuana activism in Vermont at that time it was under the radar. In fact, it seemed as if there was no activism at all, which is why the photo of Daryl holding the legalize sign struck a chord with me.