In-person Bingo back at senior center >Thompson Senior Center Executive Director Deanna Jones, far left, reunites with people who played bingo over the phone during the COVID-19 pandemic. On the last Friday in June, older adults gathered at the center to play together in person for the first time in more than a year. (Deanna Jones photograph) Courtesy photograph
Modified: 7/5/2021 9:06:40 PM
WOODSTOCK Wonderful.
That’s how people who have played bingo over the phone through the Thompson Senior Center in Woodstock described the first game they played in person together the last Friday in June.
Bingo players are a dedicated bunch and during the COVID-19 pandemic, executive director Deanna Jones was determined to find a way to keep them playing. Phone bingo ended up being a fairly easy transition and it had a hidden benefit: People who live farther away could participate, especially in the colder months when bad weather might’ve kept them from making the drive to Woodstoc
Obituary: Richard Colantuono, 1949-2021
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Report highlights Upper Valley housing shortage, calls for solutions
Modified: 5/1/2021 12:17:09 AM
WEST LEBANON About 10,000 new housing units are needed by 2030 to meet increased demand for homes in the Upper Valley, according to a new report.
Area planners say creative solutions will be needed to meet that goal, which is about three times more homes than were built in the region between 2010 and 2020, according to the recently released Keys to the Valley report, which is available online at keystothevalley.com.
“We have a housing crisis, and it is getting worse. It is not a small problem,” says the report, which was produced by the region’s three regional planning commissions the Lebanon-based Upper Valley Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission, the Woodstock-based Two Rivers-Ottauquechee Regional Commission and the Ascutney-based Mount Ascutney Regional Commission.
Jim Hasson On March 7, 2020, Jim Hasson s 94th birthday, Vermont was preparing for an unprecedented shutdown. On Sunday, the Cavendish man s 95th birthday, things were looking up. He d recently gotten his second shot of COVID-19 vaccine, and, under a chilly bright blue sky, he settled into a chair along Main Street. A surprise procession of more than 50 fire trucks, police cars and passenger vehicles cruised by, and those inside waved, honked and yelled birthday greetings. Some, wearing masks, stopped to greet Hasson and deliver cake and cards. Even behind his own mask, Hasson s grin was unmistakable. If I had known 95 was gonna be so much fun, I would have done it years ago, he said, adding: I m not used to being in the spotlight, but this was quite a day.
Our Pandemic Year: A mother’s indomitable spirit
Photograph courtesy of Diane Kemble
Published: 3/3/2021 8:56:32 PM
Modified: 3/3/2021 8:56:29 PM
Editor’s note: In anticipation of the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s arrival in the Upper Valley, we asked Valley News readers to reflect on the last 12 months.
By DIANE KEMBLE
I kept hearing the word “resilient” and thought about how perfectly that word describes my mother, born in 1911. I decided to make a handmade book about her life,
My Resilient Mother.
I made paste papers in a springy pattern, a way of showing resilience as colorful and lively. I worked on the writing a little at a time and selected photographs that set up like a little display in this accordion book, one of my favorite book forms. As I was writing, I kept thinking of all of her sayings, such as “Don’t wish your life away.”
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