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BENNINGTON â A Bennington County legislator, a co-owner of Pangaea Restaurant, the pastor of the Mission City Church, the family and community partnership manager at Bennington County Head Start and the events coordinator for the Southwestern Vermont Chamber of Commerce are among the 20 Emerging Leaders of Southern Vermont named by Southern Vermont Young Professionals and the Shires Young Professionals.
Dane Whitman, Lani DePonte-Disorda, Jake Stone, Beth Wallace and Mikaela Lewis were among the honorees recognized on May 12 during the first day of the Southern Vermont Economy Summit. The annual recognition event celebrates young people from the Bennington and Windham regions. Individuals were nominated based on their work as community leaders and volunteers, and for their professional accomplishments and commitment to serving the region.
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NEWFANE â Discussion on a proposal for the town to offer anti-bias or diversity training to town employees, town officials and any interested community members will continue but not without debate on its necessity and whether it is in the municipalityâs purview.
âWe will keep this on the agenda as a working item,â Select Board Chairwoman Angela Sanborn said at the board meeting held in person with remote options Monday. âI think itâs an important topic. I donât think we can mandate anyone to do the training. Iâd like to research it more.â
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SOUTH NEWFANE â Tasked with coming up with a policy proposal for a graduate school class, Juliette Carr originally thought her idea might be too simple. She wanted the Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants and Children benefits to be redeemable at farmers markets in Vermont just like those associated with Electronic Benefit Transfer cards.
âThatâs problematic because WIC is much more broadly available,â she said.
Carr wrote a policy brief with the goal of improving health equity, access to healthy food and health disparities. She also looked at the economic perspective â federal funds from the WIC benefits would go to small family farms largely owned by women or Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community members who are working on small margins. She pointed out rural areas tend to have a lot more farmers markets, which are closer than stores selling food.
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BRATTLEBORO â With Gallery Walk set to reboot today, current and former organizers are reminiscing about the event s rich past â and hope to clear up some confusion about its founding.
The downtown arts event started to take shape in the 1990s, but the specifics around its origins are uncertain. Organizers of early forms of the event remember its founding as an organic process.
Greg Worden, of Vermont Artisan Designs in town, recalls connecting with fellow gallery owners and creative minds in town shortly after opening his business. The town s gallery owners were in the habit of holding monthly openings, and thought it might be fun to coordinate an event with other activities, Worden remembers. Around a half-dozen businesses took part in this early iteration of the event.
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Green Up Day is coming this Saturday, May 1. Continuing a 51-year tradition, this is the day when volunteers from all over the state pitch in to pick up trash along Vermontâs roadways.
How does Green-Up Day work? Fill your bag with paper, cans, and roadside trash. With COVID in mind, volunteers are asked to wear a mask and remember social distancing. Bright clothes and facing oncoming traffic helps cars avoid you. Insect repellent, gloves and boots protect against dirt and ticks. Children should tell adults if they find medical waste. (Use gloves and pliers or tongs to pick up needles and secure in a thick plastic container, ideally marked Medical Waste.)