Seven Days, December 4, 2024

SUNK COSTS

Burlington water fixes would double bills

VE RMO NT ’S IN DEPE NDEN T VO IC E DECEMBER 4-11, 2024 VOL.30 NO.10 SEVENDAYSVT.COM

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Acts of the Apostles

In Barre, dozens of people have perished in the opioid crisis.

Can a church for the addicted stem the losses?

BY J O E S E X TO N, PAGE 2 4

KEEP CALM AND CARILLON Meet Middlebury College’s bell ringer

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OH HENRY’S

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BTV diner still sizzles

YULE LOVE IT

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Can’t-miss holiday shows

W H AT V E R M O N T TA S T E S L I K E

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WEEK IN REVIEW

necessitated by flooding in July 2023.

NOVEMBER 27-DECEMBER 4, 2024 COMPILED BY SASHA GOLDSTEIN & MATTHEW ROY

WIPED OUT Hometown ski hero Mikaela Shiffrin was injured in a big fall during the Stifel Killington Cup over the weekend.

Get well soon!

MAKING MOVES Sen. Phil Baruth

Gov. Phil Scott

TAXING DEBATE

Burlington native and Olympic rugby player Ilona Maher finished second on “Dancing With the Stars.” Strong and graceful.

PHOTOS: KEVIN MCCALLUM, JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR AND MATTHEW ROY

Property taxes that fund education are forecast to rise an average of 5.9 percent next year unless state leaders intervene during the upcoming legislative session. That’s on top of the 13.8 percent average increase in education property taxes that homeowners are paying this year, which set off a political firestorm in Montpelier.

Tax Commissioner Craig Bolio released the latest forecast on Monday in an annual memo that gives the governor and lawmakers a sense of likely tax rate changes, absent policy adjustments. Republicans said the letter confirmed their concerns that the state is becoming increasingly unaffordable for residents.

“With an already high tax burden, the last thing Vermonters need is yet another property tax increase,” Gov. Phil Scott said in a statement. He noted that the increase is just the latest across multiple years, compounding the pain. The increases, Scott wrote, are a result of “unsustainable costs, an aging demographic, and smaller workforce.”

He urged lawmakers to work closely with his administration to reduce the tax burden.

In a statement, House Speaker Jill Krowinski (D-Burlington) said she was committed to reducing costs “while ensuring our kids have a great education.”

“We are prepared to explore new approaches and consider all options to make sure all of our children have the opportunities they deserve at a price taxpayers can

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afford,” she wrote. “We look forward to the Governor and his administration sharing their plans to achieve sustainability and reduce property taxes.”

Last year’s memo predicted an 18.5 percent increase, citing a number of increases in education spending, including soaring health insurance costs. Legislators ultimately wrestled the average increase down to 13.8 percent, in part by pumping tens of millions of dollars into the education fund.

They also allowed school districts to delay votes or revote their school budgets to rein in costs. The process was tumultuous and left many voters angry. Republicans blamed Democrats for the cost increases. Voters rewarded them with historic wins last month — 18 seats in the House and six in the Senate — which ended the Democratic supermajority in Montpelier.

The VTGOP said it planned to hold a press conference at the Statehouse on Wednesday, December 4, to discuss legislative priorities.

Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth (D/PChittenden-Central) has said he’s “deeply concerned” about another property tax increase. In a statement last week, Baruth committed to giving Scott’s team the entire first week of the session to present their plans for education finance reform.

Read Kevin McCallum’s full story and keep up with developments at sevendayst.com.

COMMUTATION KERFUFFLE

TOPFIVE

MOST POPULAR ITEMS ON SEVENDAYSVT.COM

1. “Skida’s Growing Hat Empire Is Turning Heads in Vermont and Beyond” by Hannah Feuer.

Corinne Prevot started sewing lids in her dorm room at Burke Mountain Academy. Today, she runs a multimillion-dollar company that’s a mainstay of Vermont winter fashion.

2. “10 Vermont Holiday Markets You Can’t Miss in 2024” by Seven Days staff. Explore our picks for seasonal shopping.

3. “Vermont Restaurant Changes: Pico Taco and Majestic Open, Rincon and Birches Close” by Jordan Barry. A Mexican restaurant in Stowe and a new café and bar in Burlington are open for business.

4. “Activists Want to Remake Shelburne Road After Cyclist Is Killed” by Derek Brouwer. After a sixth death since 2020 on the busy road, some are calling for additional safety measures.

5. “Three Questions for Chef-Turned-Bladesmith Narin MacDonald of Narin M. Knives” by Jordan Barry. Our food writer had some pointed queries for the sharp designer.

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said President Joe Biden was “unwise” to issue a pardon for his son Hunter.

Nepotism at work.

NORTHERN ATTITUDE Lauri Berkenkamp, the mother of singer Noah Kahan, is helping to keep Coburns’ General Store open in Strafford.

Giving back.

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THAT’S SO VERMONT

HOUSE RULES

Vermont has a 10-page “catalog of approved events for sports wagering” that includes entities such as the Chinese Professional Baseball League, Olympic sports and even the World Curling Tour. But Vermonters can’t place bets on big horse races such as the Kentucky Derby. The state bans wagering on events that involve the competitive use of animals, according to Sumner.

Regardless, Vermonters are still putting plenty on the line: nearly $156 million in legal sports bets as of the end of October. That’s earned the state nearly $5.2 million in revenue, data show.

Mike Tyson SASHA GOLDSTEIN SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

© ZHUKOVSKY | DREAMSTIME

Last month’s much-hyped boxing match between former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson and YouTube dude Jake Paul was the most wagered-on fight since sports betting was legalized.

But none of those bets were legally placed in Vermont. That’s because the state, which has allowed sports wagering since last January, prohibited wagering on the contest. New York State, Pennsylvania and Colorado were among those that did the same.

The decision, according to Josh Sumner, Vermont’s director of sports wagering and contract compliance, “was centered around the rule changes that were made in order to allow the fight to happen,” which meant it

was “largely viewed as an untraditional boxing match.”

Among the oddities: Paul is a 27-year-old influencer-turned-boxer who’s only had one match with an active professional fighter. Tyson is 58 and far from the feared pugilist once known for his fierceness in the ring.

Also, the fight had eight two-minute rounds instead of the three-minute rounds that are called for in the official rules of boxing. Further, Sumner said, the fighters used heavier gloves: 14 ounces instead of 10-ounce ones.

The format and changes made the spectacle a “stand-alone entertainment match, rather than a traditional boxing event,” Sumner said.

“The fight was not between two professional boxers, but rather one (Tyson) who came out of his long-term retirement specifically for this match,” Sumner said in an email. “These circumstances lead us to view this as an exhibition match. If you saw the fight, it was clear that this was an entertainment event.”

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much it would cost and abandoned the effort.” Is that true?

Shumlin’s description of singlepayer as unaffordable referred to the amount of money that would have to be raised through taxes. It took no account PSYCH OUT of the offsetting savings in eliminatOver the years, I’ve had a few letters ing insurance premiums. Shumlin did published in Seven Days. The following, make one statement that compared in response to [“Advocates Push to Keep the overall “costs” of health care had Berlin Psychiatric Center Open,” Novem- single-payer been implemented: “At a ber 19, online], is one that I never dreamed growth rate of four percent, GMC would I would need to write. yield savings of $378 Million over the I’ve been an RN for first five years of the over 45 years, most program relative to of them serving as a current predicted nurse practitioner, and trends.” And Shumhave spent the past lin acknowledged five years working in that this calculation the fields of addiction had not even taken and mental health. Five account of reducmonths ago, I joined tions in administrathe nursing team on the tive costs under a Central Vermont Medisingle-payer plan. cal Center psychiatric The statement about saving $378 unit and have witnessed firsthand the absolutely million was made in AWAITING GAME STATE OF AFFAIRS VT’S OWN SQUEAKER essential service that the announcement this unit provides for that Shumlin was some of our most fragaborting the singleile citizens. At a time when there are payer plan. It’s a strange world in which “no beds in the inn” (any “inn” — in saving $378 million over five years is too the entire state) for people struggling costly. with psychiatric crises, it’s unimagiLee Russ nable how the closure of this unit will BENNINGTON affect our local emergency room, where more and more patients will need to be housed until a bed is found somewhere. LEARN FROM OTHER STATES? Are other Vermont hospitals prepared [Re “Urgent Scare: The Price of Health to pick up the slack? Very doubtful. Care Plans in Vermont Has Doubled Where will our patients receive care?! in Six Years. The Prognosis for Cost I credit the Seven Days staff, through Containment Is Grim,” November well-researched articles over the past few 6]: What can we learn from the most years, for highlighting the broken mental affordable states for health care, such health system in this state, which so often as Massachusetts, Washington and fails its most vulnerable citizens, landing Michigan? The projected Massachuthem in jail — or worse. We can do better. setts population by age group appears Closing the CVMC psychiatric unit is a to be similar to Vermont’s. According huge step backward in this effort. Keep to a 2015 University of Massachusettsin mind that this is a decision that lacks Amherst Donahue Institute estimate, 23 support from the Green Mountain Care percent of Massachusetts’ population Board. I encourage others to speak out will be 65 or older by 2035. What are the before this is a done deal. We will all pay factors in the most affordable states — the consequences. with similar population projections by Rebecca M. Hill age group — that allow for more affordable health care?

EAST MONTPELIER VOL.30 VOICE NOVEMBER 6-13, 2024

Paula Routly

  Cathy Resmer   Don Eggert, Colby Roberts

VERMONT’S INDEPENDENT

 & --

Vermont has doubled in six years.

The price of health care plans in nt is grim.

The prognosis for cost containme

BY COLIN FL ANDERS, PA GE

PAGE 5

Lt. gov race too close to call

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Vermont seniors look for love

PAGE 38

On the hunt for wild turkey

Bernie Paquette

JERICHO

$378 MILLION QUESTION

[“Urgent Scare: The Price of Health Care Plans in Vermont Has Doubled in Six Years. The Prognosis for Cost Containment Is Grim,” November 6] flatly states that “former governor Peter Shumlin’s yearslong pursuit of a single-payer model imploded in 2014 after he learned how

WHITHER ‘INSURANCE’?

[Re “Urgent Scare: The Price of Health Care Plans in Vermont Has Doubled in Six Years. The Prognosis for Cost Containment Is Grim,” November 6]: Insurance isn’t really insurance

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Give the gift of comfort and joy that lasts all year long.

anymore. Once the government got involved, insurance became a bloodsucking vampire. You have limited choices, especially here in Vermont.

You pay a fair amount for a family policy, and then you still have to pay a lot when you need doctoring.

You are not covered for a number of things and are often restricted to certain hospitals and doctors. You can’t figure out what your insurance will cover or how much of an event your insurance will cover until you get the bill. Plus, no one can explain to you what your insurance will cover.

What is guaranteed is that you will pay money every month. After that, nothing is guaranteed.

Clif Muller

DANVILLE

PROPERTY TAXES ARE TOO HIGH

[Re “Weakened Senate Dems Say Property Taxes Are ‘No. 1 Priority,’” November 16, online]: Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, taxes have gone up for working people while wealthier people got tax cuts. Taxes should be paid based on ability to pay, without exceptions and loopholes helping high-wealth individuals.

Vermonters had double-digit increases in property taxes this year. Huge health insurance increases are coming. No one has offered a good solution — not the governor, not the legislative leadership, not my successor.

The governor has always blamed the problem on the legislature. After eight years in office, it is time for the governor to stop blaming and instead present an affordable solution.

We must fix our education funding system so that everyone pays based on their income, not just those with household incomes under $115,000. Our high-quality schools are key to attracting young people to move here, raise a family and build our workforce.

The governor can close many small schools, drastically increase class size, or cut teachers’ pay and benefits to where we can’t compete for good teachers. Or we can tell the wealthy to pay their fair share and lower the burden on working people. We can get serious about bureaucratic reforms to save money. We can require second-home owners (of expensive vacation homes, not hunting camps) to pay more.

Or the governor and the legislature can point fingers at each other while Vermonters become more bitter, more divided, more angry and less able to afford to live here.

Selection varies by store.

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11/22/24 11:13 AM

David Zuckerman

HINESBURG

Zuckerman is Vermont’s lieutenant governor.

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LOCATION: 139 Pearl St. Essex Junction, VT 05452 Cannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age and older or registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry significant legal penalties in some jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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The Waybury Way

Acts of the Apostles

BY JOE SEXTON

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COVER DESIGN REV. DIANE SULLIVAN • IMAGE JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

NEWS+POLITICS 14 Campus Carillonneur

An octogenarian musician serenades college students with a rare instrument

VTrans to Remove Smugglers’ Notch Chicanes for Winter ‘Borrowed Time’

Burlington’s water systems are failing — and the fixes could cost $225 million

Burlington City Councilor Resigns Following Judicial Appointment

STUCK IN VERMONT

Under new ownership, East Middlebury’s 200-year-old inn stretches its culinary wings

802-863-5100 72 Main St, Burlington mainstreetbarbers.net

42

Heavenly Hash Revisiting Henry’s Diner under new ownership to enjoy an old favorite

STUFF FOR THE STOCKINGS (AND MORE!)

COLUMNS 11 Magnificent 7 13 From the Publisher 39 Side Dishes 52 Movie Reviews 58 Soundbites 64 Album Reviews 93 Ask the Reverend

SECTIONS 44

44

ARTS+CULTURE 44

Fest to Kill

Beyond Scrooge

Yule be glad you caught these Vermont holiday shows that don’t suck

Online Now

Vermont Comedy Festival returns with its largest lineup of regional and national standup acts

Montpelier Is Lit

Hundreds gathered in the Capital City to celebrate the lighting of seven bridges

21 Life Lines 38 Food + Drink 44 Culture 52 On Screen 54 Art 58 Music + Nightlife 68 Calendar 76 Classes 77 Classifieds + Puzzles 89 Fun Stuff 92 Personals

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“Elemental” makes waves at Mad River Valley Arts

Montpelier Alive is shining light into the darkest SUPPORTED BY: days of winter by illuminating seven of Montpelier’s historic downtown bridges with thousands of bulbs.

Hundreds of people carrying glowing lanterns met at the Langdon Street bridge on November 16 for a parade.

Seven Days’ Eva Sollberger was there to record the festivities.

Arista Alanis Brings Ocean Views to Johnson

FOOD+ DRINK 38

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LOOKING FORWARD

MAGNIFICENT

FRIDAY 6

All That Jazz

MUST SEE, MUST DO THIS WEEK

The Vermont Jazz Center Big Band take the stage in Brattleboro with third-generation vocalist Carmen Bradford to mark two decades of the 18piece ensemble’s existence. The program features works by legendary bandleader Count Basie — as it should, considering Bradford just accepted a Grammy for her contribution to the Count Basie Orchestra’s Basie Swings the Blues album.

C OMPI L E D BY RE B ECCA DRISCOL L

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 71

TUESDAY 10

FRIDAY 6 & SATURDAY 7

GAELIC GAIETY

Bright Lights, Little City

There will be kilts! The Seán Heely Celtic Christmas show at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe is a sweeping showcase of Scottish and Irish heritage. Champion fiddler Heely and company use bagpipes, harp, traditional dance and ancient carols to transport listeners to the winter solstice celebrations of the Emerald Isle and beyond.

The annual stage spectacular Broadway Direct returns to Vergennes Opera House for its 19th year. Founded by seasoned Broadway veteran and Vergennes local Bill Carmichael, the perpetually sold-out crowd-pleaser nails the elusive “wow” factor with professional singers from New York City, as well as Vermont student performers Ella Kozak and Lila Brightman.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 71

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 74

SATURDAY 7

Sky’s the Limit Middlebury College’s Mahaney Arts Center hosts the Vermont premiere of Sky Was Possible, a stunning new song cycle composed by music department chair Su Lian Tan, set to the text of four poems from president Laurie Patton’s published works. The cycle features sparkling soprano Kristen Watson and pianist John McDonald, with Tan deftly executing the flute.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 72

SATURDAY 7 & SUNDAY 8

Miracle Makers

COURTESY OF KATIE ROSIN

© JANET HASTINGS | DREAMSTIME

The Good Trade Makers Market at Hula in Burlington spotlights the meticulous craft of more than 90 tradespeople from across the country.

Independent makers unite for a weekend of innovative design — so tell Jeff Bezos “no” this season and tackle that holiday shopping at a oneof-a-kind small business bazaar instead.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 71

ONGOING

Lasso the Moon

Members Only

St. Johnsbury’s Athenaeum Players raise the curtain on Frank Capra’s Christmas Eve tearjerker It’s a Wonderful Life, told in the style of a riveting 1940s radio drama. The iconic characters of the silver screen come to life in this stage adaptation by Joe Landry, which brings the perennial tale of redemption, guardian angels and renewed hope right back into viewers’ hearts.

The 42nd annual Members’ Art Show at the Current in Stowe highlights the creations of 115 local and regional artists. The unjuried exhibition displays a wide array of mediums — sculpture, painting, fiber art, drawing, stained glass, print — and honors the organization’s mission of enhancing the human experience through accessibility to visual art.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 70

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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FROM THE PUBLISHER

Leap of Faith

“What Would Jesus Do in Barre?” That was the whimsical working title of this week’s cover story when Joe Sexton brought the idea to a group of Seven Days editors six months ago. A renowned journalist of New York Times and ProPublica fame, Joe moved his family to Vermont during the pandemic; a mutual friend connected us.

Looking at his new home with the eyes of an experienced journalist, Joe sees stories we don’t. When he spots something, we want to know about it — and, ultimately, to share his view with our readers.

His first Seven Days byline was on a shocking October 2023 exposé about the former Woodside Juvenile Rehabilitation Center. Nearly a year later, Joe authored a deeply researched piece tracking Vermont’s guns-for-drugs trade, which we copublished with the national news site The Trace.

It was only a matter of time before he discovered Barre, perhaps the state’s grittiest and most storied city, and started peeling back its layers. The Granite City was once a multicultural mecca, where immigrants coaxed the rock from the surrounding hills and sculpted it to memorialize the dead.

But Barre’s relationship with mortality has changed.

In 2024 the city of roughly 8,000 has lost nine residents to drug overdoses — more than any other year since the start of the opioid crisis.

Joe was moved by the Sisyphean struggle of the living to save those caught in the lethal spiral of addiction.

We initially cautioned him: Barre is an easy target. Why single it out when so many other Vermont burgs are facing the same challenges?

But Joe kept reporting: He returned to Barre again and again and talked with cops, prosecutors, social workers, medical professionals, undertakers — and, notably, two devoted church planters.

Two months later, he came back to us with a different, sharper story pitch: Barre was getting a new place of worship. “It would not be an ordinary church,” as Joe writes. The plan, “at once radical and rooted in the New Testament, was to organize a church for the addicted ... a church, God willing, that would rescue lives and save souls.”

In a city of churches, Joe had found an unexplored angle on Vermont’s addiction problem: the potential lifesaving power of religion.

We green-lit the project, and he delivered “Acts of the Apostles.” At 10,556 words, it’s twice as long as

most Seven Days cover stories. But Joe’s searing narrative of the men and women called to this work — and the people they serve — is as memorable and artful as the headstones in Hope Cemetery. We hope you’ll make time to read it.

Seven Days rarely writes about faith, not simply because we live in one of the most secular states in the nation. Seventy-five percent of Vermont adults seldom or never attend religious services, according to the Pew Research Center, compared with 66 percent in New Hampshire and Maine.

More likely we avoid the topic because journalists are trained to be skeptical, to concern themselves with verifiable facts and evidence, datasets and test results.

We want proof.

Joe got over that in 2007, working on a yearlong project for the Times about a Pentecostal church in Harlem. He recalled, “All it took was a determination to take believers seriously, to be comfortable writing about the idea of the miraculous, to realize that such churches in fact had their own array of empirical evidence: mouths fed, homes repaired, lives rescued.

“Those hard facts are every bit the equal of the documented good achieved by government programs and modern science.

“So why not tell the story of those faith-driven, honest efforts? For one thing is sure: None of it, the public dollars spent or the simple power of faith, has been enough.”

Preach.

IN BARRE, A CITY OF CHURCHES, JOE SEXTON FOUND AN UNEXPLORED ANGLE ON VERMONT’S ADDICTION PROBLEM:

JAMES BUCK

THE POTENTIAL LIFESAVING POWER OF RELIGION.

Paula Routly If you like Seven Days and can help pay for it, become a Super Reader!

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

13

OUTDOORS CALEB KENNA

news

VTrans to Remove Smugglers’ Notch Chicanes for Winter COURTESY OF KEESE LANE

B Y K E V I N MC C A LLUM kevin@sevendaysvt.com

EDUCATION

George Matthew Jr.

Campus Carillonneur An octogenarian musician serenades college students with a rare instrument B Y A NNE WAL L A CE ALLE N • anne@sevendaysvt.com

E

ighty-nine-year-old George Matthew Jr. clambered up a rough-hewn wooden ladder at the very top of the bell tower in Middlebury College’s chapel to show a visitor the school’s carillon, a set of 48 bronze bells he has been playing for nearly 40 years. Then he descended carefully into a small space below the belfry, seated himself at the carillon’s keyboard and struck one of the rows of levers with his fist. An E note sounded above in the deep, musical voice of a 2,300-pound bell.

“If you ever wondered what the Liberty Bell would sound like, that’s it,” Matthew said.

From this antique arrangement of massive bells, broomstick-like keys and fragile connecting wires, the carillonneur, or bell player, draws music that rings across the campus from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. each weekday during the semester. His repertoire ranges from Johann Sebastian Bach sonatas to Scott Joplin and show tunes.

This year, Matthew is bringing an even 14

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

greater diversity of music to campus: He has set out to play the national anthems of every country represented in Middlebury’s student body — 70 in all — to help those students feel more at home.

Now, at lunchtimes, the campus air is

THE KIDS OFTEN WANT A POPULAR SONG OF SOME KIND.

IF I CAN, I PLAY IT ON THE CARILLON. GE O R GE MAT TH E W J R .

filled with anthems from places such as Bosnia, the Faeroe Islands, Ukraine, Lebanon and Mongolia. He plays them on rotation at a rate of about seven a day.

Matthew was inspired, he said, by a homesick Ecuadoran student who came to hear him play last Christmas Eve. The elderly musician found a book of carols

from Ecuador in his vast collection and began to play.

The student was entranced, according to Matthew: “The biggest smile I’ve ever seen.”

The anthem project comes naturally to a musical omnivore who has played for synagogues, studied South Indian music and enjoys playing traditional melodies from Afghanistan. Matthew, who worked for many years as a teacher and church organist, has played the carillon professionally since the 1960s. He’s been the bell player at Middlebury, where he holds the title of lecturer, and Norwich University since 1985. At nearly 90, he continues to play the organ at St. Thomas & Grace Episcopal Church in Brandon, where he lives, and to offer occasional recitals.

“I’m still busy every Sunday,” he said.

Because it’s an unusual instrument and job, Matthew is well practiced at explaining the carillon. But when it comes to his own life story, Matthew expedites the CAMPUS CARILLONNEUR

» P.16

Closure point on Route 108

Vermont transportation officials have agreed to remove a traffic control device on the north side of Smugglers’ Notch after residents complained that it was preventing them from reaching prime winter recreation areas.

As they do every winter, VTrans crews closed Route 108 over the Notch in late November. But this year, they had to contend with the chicanes they’d installed in the spring on either side of the Notch to prevent trucks from getting stuck on the extremely narrow, sharp curves at the top of the pass.

Crews removed the device from the Stowe side of the Notch — but initially left the chicane in place on the Jeffersonville side and closed the road before it. That prevented residents from accessing winter parking areas used by hikers, ice climbers and backcountry skiers.

“There is a huge amount of community use up there,” Essex climber Keese Lane said.

Many of those recreational users — “dozens, if not hundreds,” according to Lane — called VTrans and Gov. Phil Scott’s office to voice their displeasure.

The Vermont Army National Guard also expressed concern about being able to access the area for winter training, as did first responders who deal with emergencies in the area, according to VTrans spokesperson Amy Tatko.

That prompted the agency to reverse course on Tuesday.

“After internal conversations and hearing from our stakeholders, AOT has made the decision to remove the chicane,” Ashley Atkins of VTrans said in a statement. The move will restore access to the parking areas.

After years of struggling with stuck trucks — and failing to find solutions to prevent the problem — VTrans officials believe the chicanes are the answer. In the past, about eight trucks each year would get stuck trying to navigate the pass, creating major headaches for tow truck crews and members of the public.

This year, with the chicanes in place, just one bus got stuck, according to VTrans. ➆

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Burlington’s water systems are failing — and the fixes could cost $225 million

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BURLINGTON

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he systems that treat both drinking water and wastewater in Vermont’s largest city are obsolete and decaying, and extensive, costly upgrades could be in the works.

After years of patchwork fixes, Burlington public works officials say the solution is two bonds totaling $225 million proposed for the Town Meeting Day ballot in March. The projects could more than double residents’ water bills over the next decade.

I DON’T THINK THIS WILL PASS THE PUBLIC

IF THE NUMBERS ARE THIS HIGH. CO U N C IL OR BECCA B R O WN M CKNIG HT

City councilors say the price tag is too high at a time when Burlington is already facing untenable spending pressures, including another multimillion-dollar budget gap.

“I just don’t see how we can ask voters to support it all,” City Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) said.

Public works officials are looking for ways to tamp down the cost, but they say the price of inaction would be steep.

“Municipal water and wastewater systems are foundational to the operation

Wastewater facilities manager Matt Dow

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of the community,” Burlington Public Works Director Chapin Spencer said.

“Unfortunately, we’re on borrowed time.”

Time hasn’t been kind to the city’s system. A recent tour of the main wastewater plant near Perkins Pier revealed corroded pipes and ancient equipment MacGyvered with parts ordered from eBay. The edge of a concrete pool of bubbling brown water, known as an aerator, had a crack large enough to fit a man’s hand. In the aptly named “sludge room,” where smelly solid waste is carried by a conveyor belt, staff are wary of using certain machines, lest they break one they can’t fix. A big, red button on a control panel labeled “E-Stop,” used in emergencies, already has been rewired once.

The city last issued a wastewater bond in 2018, for $30 million. It paid to fix some equipment, reline century-old pipes and install infrastructure to better handle stormwater runoff in the wake of repeated wastewater overflows.

But public works officials say the money didn’t go far enough. The equipment that wasn’t touched by that bond is 30 years old, earning the plant a C or lower grade on a recent report card assessment performed by city engineers.

‘BORROWED TIME’

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12/3/24 8:31 AM

PHOTOS: CALEB KENNA

news COURTS

Burlington City Councilor Resigns Following Judicial Appointment B Y D E RE K B RO U W E R derek@sevendaysvt.com

Burlington City Councilor Tim Doherty (D-East District) has resigned his seat after Gov. Phil Scott named him as one of four new state judges.

Doherty will serve a rotating judgeship on Vermont Superior Court, the state’s trial court system, according to the governor’s office, which announced the appointments on November 27.

Later that same day, Doherty wrote in a Front Porch Forum post that he would be resigning from the Burlington City Council “effective immediately.”

“I am humbled and profoundly grateful for this opportunity to serve Vermont and look forward to this new phase of my career,” he wrote.

Doherty did not respond to an interview request. He has practiced law for more than 20 years and was working for the prominent Burlington law firm Downs Rachlin Martin.

Previously, Doherty Tim Doherty worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the District of Vermont and clerked for two federal judges.

Burlington voters elected Doherty in 2023 to represent the East District, which encompasses Wards 1 and 8. His two-year term was set to expire this spring.

The seat will remain vacant until Town Meeting Day in March, the mayor’s office confirmed, citing the Burlington City Charter. With Doherty’s resignation, Democrats still retain a narrow effective majority on the council, with five seats and an ally in North District independent Mark Barlow. Progressives hold the other five seats.

Scott announced three other judicial appointments last week: Bonnie Badgewick, president of the Vermont Bar Foundation; Dana DiSano, a criminal prosecutor in the Vermont Attorney General’s Office; and Laura Rowntree, the civil division chief in the Vermont Attorney General’s Office.

Scott’s office touted the governor’s effort to improve gender parity in the judiciary. Half of his appointees have been women, who now account for nearly 40 percent of superior court judgeships in the state, his office said. ➆

16

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Campus Carillonneur « P.14 telling by handing out a three-page written summary.

His love affair with the carillon, it says, started with his first glimpse of the instrument in 1939 at the World’s Fair in Queens, N.Y. He was about 5 years old and was seated on his grandfather’s shoulders.

“I saw an old man dressed in white, pounding away on an instrument of bells that made the most glorious racket,” Matthew wrote.

Almost any sheet music for piano or organ can be interpreted for the carillon, according to Matthew, which is how he learned the anthems. The most fascinating so far, he said, is that of Bangladesh, which was written by poet Rabindranath Tagore, who also authored the Indian national anthem.

“The Bangladesh anthem has an almost magic flow to it, that is hard to describe,” Matthew said in an email. “I’ve never heard anything like that, in vocal or instrumental music anywhere.”

There are more than 700 carillons at work in more than 30 countries, according to the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting the art. But in Vermont, only Middlebury and Norwich have bell carillons, Matthew said.

The University of Vermont has an electronic carillon in 165-foot-tall Ira Allen Chapel, which sits across from the university green. To Matthew, that’s not the same thing at all: “No bells, just loudspeakers.”

He thinks UVM could do better.

“The tower is just perfect and in the perfect location,” he said.

Doug Thornton, Norwich University’s music director, said he recently heard Matthew playing the theme from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera — which stood out from his usual repertoire on that campus.

“A lot of the time, he plays hymns and marches,” Thornton said.

Matthew typically plays at Norwich on festive occasions, such as graduation or alumni weekend. He also plays on Veterans Day or other observances.

His performances are a little more eclectic at Middlebury, where he chooses melodies from all over the world and mixes things up with the pop requests that come in from students. His favorite composer is Bach.

“The kids often want a popular song of some kind,” Matthew said. “If I can, I play it on the carillon.” His wife, Sherri, 56, is a music producer. She converts the pop songs into sheet music for the carillon.

“I have a fantastic wife,” Matthew said.

“If it’s online, she’ll get it.”

The bells in the belfry

George Matthew Jr.

In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Matthew played gospel music, said Pieter Broucke, who is Middlebury’s associate dean for the arts and Matthew’s supervisor. With his music, Broucke said, Matthew expresses the college’s identity as a place that values tradition while striving to honor other cultures.

YOU JUST DON’T KNOW, AS YOU’RE PLAYING,

IF YOU HAVE VERY MANY PEOPLE LISTENING OR NONE. GE O R GE MAT TH E W J R .

“He’s using a very Western and traditional instrument to inspire and engage underrepresented groups,” said Broucke, who is from Bruges, a Belgian city with a strong carillon tradition.

Minutes before ascending the 75 stairs of the bell tower to demonstrate the carillon to a reporter and photographer on November 22, Matthew took a seat in the

chancel to deliver a thunderous pipe organ performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor for some chapel visitors. The small group listened quietly as the organ reverberated around the century-old structure, and they thanked him warmly afterward.

The sociable Matthew doesn’t often see reactions to his live performances. He’s at the keyboard high in the tower while his listeners are walking through campus or sitting on the lawn.

“You just don’t know, as you’re playing, if you have very many people listening or none,” Matthew said. But he said he’s fine with that. “You just do the best you can.”

The carillon is a contradiction in that way — an instrument that’s invisible to most but heard by many. It’s audible all over campus and in town. When the wind is right, Broucke can hear the bells at his house, a mile north of the chapel.

Matthew’s contract with Middlebury runs through 2027, and he doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon. But when he does, Matthew hopes one of the two students he is teaching the instrument will carry on his work. ➆

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news ‘Borrowed Time’ « P.15 A drinking water pump station on Main Street, near University Place, is even worse off. Built in 1867, the station is structurally unsound, and 40 years of deferred maintenance has pushed more than a quarter of its components to the brink of imminent failure. The station serves the city’s east side, including the University of Vermont Medical Center.

With the ongoing Burlington High School rebuilding project, the city has nearly maxed out its ability to issue taxpayer-backed general obligation bonds. But a bond for water projects, which would be repaid by water bills instead of property taxes, is not affected by that debt limit.

The consequences of not upgrading both the drinking and wastewater systems could be dire, Spencer said.

Spills of untreated wastewater containing E. coli bacteria could become more

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common, polluting Lake Champlain and shutting down city beaches. The inevitable breakdown of drinking water pumps would leave the hospital, UVM campus and homes east of Willard Street high and dry.

A $204 million bond would go toward upgrading the wastewater system.

Besides replacing aging machines, the city would build additional tanks to use if existing ones break or need maintenance, creating redundancy that the current system lacks.

A $30 million chunk of the money would purchase a filtration device to reduce the amount of phosphorus flowing into the lake. The plant already discharges very little phosphorus, a mineral that feeds toxic algae blooms that plague city beaches, but a state permit will require even lower levels by 2030. The city would face hefty fines for exceeding those standards, which were created to comply with a mandate from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Another $30 million would be used to close the treatment plant on Riverside Avenue, leaving a pump station there that would be cheaper to maintain. The sewage from that plant would be rerouted to the main plant, work that the bond would pay for.

If nothing is done, the city estimates the main plant could near 80 percent capacity by 2028. That could cause state regulators to limit the number of new customers that connect to the system. The bond would allow the city to expand capacity, which could help Burlington achieve its goal of adding thousands of new housing units, including more than 1,000 in the South End alone.

“We don’t want to be an impediment to that,” Spencer said.

A $21 million drinking water bond would decommission the city’s Victorian-era pump house on Main Street and build a new one on the same lot, among other upgrades. The existing system distributes water from an on-site reservoir that was pumped from Lake Champlain and treated, using pipes that are more than 150 years old. One of the pumps was built from a World War II surplus diesel motor.

“If the pumps don’t work, it’s game over,” said Megan Moir, director of the city’s water division. “People keep asking me, ‘What can we push off?’ and it’s like, ‘Not this one.’”

If all fixes were approved, a typical single-family home that pays about $60 a month for water service would see that bill double by 2030, according to city estimates. The bill, which is based on the amount of water used, would peak at $148 a month in 2035.

Other costs for Queen City residents have also been rising in recent years, and there’s no sign of a slowdown. State legislators are forecasting another large property tax increase.

And having just closed a $14 million shortfall, the city is anticipating another budget gap of up to $12 million next fiscal year, meaning voters may be asked to support a tax rate increase on the March ballot.

Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak will also propose a separate $20 million bond that would pay for various capital projects over the next three years. And councilors are seeking a charter change that would allow the city to borrow up to $10 million without going to a public vote, an increase from its current $2 million bonding authority. Officials will present more details at a January 6 town hall meeting.

Councilors agree the water projects are long overdue. But at a meeting last month, they implored officials to find a way to scale it back.

“I need to see these numbers go down,” Councilor Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6) said, “because I don’t think this will pass the public if the numbers are this high.”

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What’s your home worth?

Corroded pipes at Burlington’s main wastewater treatment plant

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“There’s really no words for the pressure people are feeling,” Councilor Melo Grant (P-Central District) added. “It’s pretty extraordinary.”

Mulvaney-Stanak — who is married to Moir — said the water bond is necessary.

But she also acknowledged that the city needs to contain costs.

“We have to find a middle path forward that’s within what we can afford and, frankly, what we can’t afford to keep deferring,” she said. “The reality is that we do need some level of bonding.”

Council President Traverse wouldn’t say whether he’ll vote to add the water bond to the ballot, a decision the council must make by mid-January. But he did say he can’t support putting every monetary item to voters at once.

If the water bond is the priority, he said, “then, from my perspective, there’s going to have to be some give in some other areas.”

Moir and Spencer are making efforts to reduce costs. They already trimmed $14 million from an earlier bond proposal that would have paid to relocate a sewer pipe that burst in the Winooski River during flooding in July 2023. The city now hopes to get Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to move the pipe to dry land.

Other federal cash, including grants and congressional earmarks, could bring down the total bond amount by as much as $16 million. Financing the loan through a state fund could offer lower interest rates. And housing growth

would bring in more customers to help repay the debt. Moir didn’t include any of those factors in her calculations in order to present the worst-case scenario for water rates, she said.

Moir has also proposed a way to help some residents afford the increases.

While most renters don’t pay water bills directly, their rents could go up.

To offset the cost, the city could opt to offer rebates to lower-income tenants on their electric bills. A council subcommittee is vetting another suggestion to charge certain residential customers lower rates than commercial water users.

“From what I understand [from] the council, that’s what they’re wanting us to do: Turn over every rock,” said Spencer, the public works director. “The unfortunate part is there aren’t easy options,” he added.

Officials have been making the rounds at Neighborhood Planning Assembly meetings and hosting tours at the wastewater plant to drum up support for a bond. During Seven Days’ recent visit, facilities manager Matt Dow said the upgrades would make things easier for his staff.

“Everybody here wants to do the best job that we can,” he said. “When you’re dealing with things that are broken or that you’ve been patching together for a decade already, there’s only so much you can do.”

Shortly after, one of Dow’s employees burst through the plant door and headed to an outbuilding. Something needed fixing. ➆

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

lifelines

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES

Kathleen Blow Clavelle MAY 4, 1954NOVEMBER 17, 2024 JERICHO, VT.

Kathleen Blow Clavelle passed away on November 17,

Robert Francis Polworth Jr. JANUARY 3, 1943NOVEMBER 23, 2024 BURLINGTON, VT.

Robert Francis Polworth Jr., a lifelong resident of Burlington, Vt., passed away peacefully in his sleep on Saturday, November 23, 2024. His friends called him Bob or Bobby. Bob was born on January 3, 1943, to Robert F. Polworth Sr. and Lena Bellino Polworth in Burlington, Vt.

2024, as a result of pancreatic cancer. She accepted the challenge to fight the disease but ultimately chose to continue her journey without enduring the debilitating side effects of the treatments.

Kathy was born on May 4, 1954, in Burlington, Vt., to Thomas J. Blow and Gabrielle Audette Blow.

She loved to dance (at Loretta Sousie’s Dance Studio) and sing. She and her talented friends and schoolmates sang at St. Joseph’s Church for 15 years. Their voices and musical instruments harmonized at weddings, funerals and church masses. She and her friends had such beautiful voices that the priest would let them wander outside the sphere of only religious songs, John Denver being one such exception.

Kathy graduated from Rice Memorial High School in 1972 and from the University of Vermont in 1976 with a degree in early childhood development. She loved the inquisitive nature and positive energy of children, as demonstrated by her work as a nanny, substitute teacher and, most of all, a terrific mother.

She was married to Ray Clavelle Jr. on June 12, 1976.

She worked at Champlain College as assistant housing director from the mid-1970s to the early ’80s but halted her career when her children were born; Adam and Alex were fortunate to have had an at-home Mom. When her sons were in middle school, she wanted to go back to work, and she happily worked at Claussen’s

Bob graduated from Rice Memorial High School in 1961. He was president of his senior class and won the Vermont State High School Track Championship, competing in the 4x100 relay. It was here that he met his wife, Shirley Foss, who he would hold hands with for the next 65 years. He was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. Though Bob could be found bundled up even on a summer’s day, those around him were always warmed by his sense of humor, generous use of winks and knack for fire lighting.

Upon graduating from Rice Memorial, he attended the University of Vermont and graduated in 1966 with a BA in political science. He was an active brother in the Kappa Sigma Fraternity. On June 11, 1966, he married Shirley Foss and soon after started raising a family.

Bob enjoyed working on political campaigns in the ’60s and ’70s. He held various administrative positions at the UVM College of Medicine and worked as a manager

at the local General Electric factory. From 1975 to 1980 he was clerk of the Chittenden County Superior Court in Burlington. He finished his professional career as a licensed real estate agent working for both Lang Associates and Janes and Jacob.

Bob gave back to the community, often volunteering his time for events at Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Burlington.

He was highly active in the Burlington International Games and served as BIG president in 1978. He was a Little League coach and worked on the Rice High School Boosters.

Bob was an active parent and grandparent, attending countless school and athletic events for his kids and grandkids. Bob will be remembered for his encouraging words from the sidelines, the pep talks in the car on the way to athletic events, and the postgame wrap of what went well and where we could improve. He was happiest when the whole family was in the

Perennial Farm, specializing in perennials.

Kathy’s loves in life were her family, singing, gardening and living on her beloved island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas.

Beautiful gardens appeared wherever she lived.

Kathy was preceded in death by her parents, Tom (Jiji) and Gabrielle (Betsy/ Baba) Audette Blow, and her brother Andrew. She is survived by her husband of 48 years, Ray/Raymie; her son Adam, his wife, Katie (Yost), and their two children, Benjamin and Max; her son Alex — who was born on her birthday — and his wife, Molly Gray. She is also survived by her brother Dan Blow and his partner, Larry Wilhelm; sister, Jayne Blow; brother John Blow and his wife, Deanna; niece, Tyra;

same room at the same time.

He was an avid golfer and enjoyed socializing with his best friends at Cedar Knoll Country Club in Hinesburg.

Bob is survived by his sister, Carol Hearne of Piedmont, S.C.; wife, Shirley Polworth, and their two children, Kelley Barlow and Scott Polworth; son-in-law, Mark Barlow; daughter-in-law, Andrea Polworth; six grandchildren, Robert Polworth, Maggie Barlow, Christopher Polworth, Nash Barlow, Olivia Polworth and Owen Polworth; and his nieces and nephews.

Our family would like to thank the numerous friends, neighbors, family members, caregivers and medical professionals who have supported us over the past year.

A celebration of life will occur at a time to be determined in spring 2025 at Cedar Knoll Country Club in Hinesburg, Vt. Please email robertfpolworthjr@ gmail.com if you would like to receive notification of the event. Please visit awrfh.com to share your memories and condolences.

grand-niece, Josephine; nephews, Jake, Ryan, Dylan and Tei; and grand-nephew, Toshi.

She also leaves behind her mother-in-law, Eleanor (Dang) Clavelle; sister-inlaw Anne (Clavelle) Obbagy, married to Tom Obbagy; sister-in-law Betsy (Clavelle) Cain; brother-in-law Peter Clavelle, married to Betsy Ferries; Stephen Clavelle, married to Bonni Clavelle; nine nieces and nephews and their partners; 10 grand-nieces and -nephews; and many cousins and relatives who are the stewards of Camp Overlake in Malletts Bay. Kathy’s grandchildren, Benjamin (Benji) and Max Clavelle, were the best things that ever walked the face of her Earth. The boys loved spending time with their

Grandy, as they referred to her, and their grandfather Raymie.

They especially enjoyed looking at family photos with Grandy, helping her water the flowers at Camp Overlake and preparing her “meals” in their play kitchen.

Kathy would bring a positive energy to any room. She was always asked by friends for gardening advice, which she happily obliged. She was a beautiful, independent and intelligent woman who will be sorely missed.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to the McClure Miller Respite House in Kathy’s name (uvmhomehealth.org/donate/ make-an-online-donation).

A celebration of Kathy’s life will be held in the spring, once the perennials begin to bloom again.

CELEBRATION OF LIFE Barbara Nolfi 1942-2024

Barbara Nolfi’s celebration of life will occur on Saturday, December 7, 2 p.m., in Main Street Landing’s Film House, 60 Lake St., 3rd Floor, Burlington, VT. Please consider testing yourself for COVID-19 before coming. The event will also be live streamed at the following link: youtube. com/playlist?list=PLljLFn 4BZd2NsLyqKvMk2NEtjC tKOc3Oh or at cctv.org.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

21

lifelines

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

OBITUARIES Donald H. Turner Jr.

the Chittenden-9 district from 2006 until 2012 and, subsequently, for the Chittenden-10 district from 2013 to 2019.

His commitment to public service was further highlighted by his role as the minority leader of the Vermont House

of Representatives from 2011 to 2019. In addition to these accomplishments, he was actively involved in local governance as the town manager of Milton and as a member of the Board of Civil Authority.

Don was a real estate broker for Century 21. His passion for community safety was demonstrated through his certification as a fire instructor; his membership in the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the Milton Firefighters Association; and in his roles as rescue chief, forest fire warden and a 14-year tenure as the Milton fire chief, a path he started at the age of 16. In 2017 he took on the role of town manager, contributing significantly to the betterment of Milton and its residents.

His family owned and operated local businesses, including the Milton Bowling Center and Don Turner and Sons Construction. Don was not only a stalwart in his career, but he was also a devoted family man.

He cherished instilling in his children the values he learned from his own upbringing in a close-knit family, prioritizing weekly family time, vacations and holiday events. He particularly enjoyed playing and bonding with his grandchildren.

He is survived by his loving wife of 40 years, Gail; his three daughters, Emily Turner-Frye and her husband, Ben, Hillary Joyal and her husband, Dana, and Erin Turner; his three grandchildren, Thea, Lydia

and Thatcher; and his parents, Donald H. Turner Sr. and Nancy Turner. He leaves behind his siblings, Lisa Lapete and her husband, Chris, and James Turner and his wife, Erin; and his nieces and nephews, Chris, Sam, Nikki, Haley, Owen and Quinn. He is also survived by a large extended family.

Don was predeceased by his sister Tammy Juaire; his mother-in-law and fatherin-law; his aunt, Betty Cross; and his grandparents.

The impact Don had on the Milton community and his family will be felt for years to come. He will be remembered not only for his extensive public service but also for his unwavering love, kindness and commitment to those around him.

His memory will forever be cherished by all who had the privilege of knowing him.

A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, December 7, 2 p.m., at the Donald H. Turner Jr. Public Works Building, 160 Public Works Way, Milton.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the McClure Miller Respite House in his honor. Don’s family would like to thank the care team of the McClure Miller Respite House for their wonderful care. A special thank-you to Sarah, Mara, Debbie, Linsey and Robin. Arrangements are in the care of the Minor Funeral Home in Milton.

For tributes and online condolences, please visit minorfh.com.

to live forever. At the ripe old age of 102, Irene Hartwell finally succumbed to the relentless deterioration of her body and passed away on the morning of November 23.

As befits someone of that advanced age, Irene lived a life containing both eras of bliss and ones of difficulty.

Through it all she displayed a quiet determination and resilience in the face of every obstacle that confronted her. Irene was strong-willed and sometimes cantankerous, but she could always be counted upon to provide support and comfort to her children, as evidenced by her willingness over the years to welcome all of them back to the family home after they experienced difficulties in their lives.

Irene was born on September 9, 1922, in Providence, R.I., to Walter and Augusta Field. She grew up in working-class Providence neighborhoods and attended Catholic schools through high school. She was working on the production line at Frisbie Pies when an NEK transplant delivery driver, Philemon C. Hartwell, noticed her because, as family lore has it, “she had great legs.”

Apparently, the attraction was mutual, and they started to see each other. After World War II ended, they married and moved to Vermont.

The family lived in various towns early on, including Lyndonville, Websterville and Milton. Along the way, Philemon M., David and Marilyn were born. The lure

of the NEK and in particular of the Hartwell stronghold of East Haven led to the purchase of an old farmhouse on five acres in Hartwellville.

The house was once the headquarters of a veneer mill whose stone foundation ruins provided the children with their own personal fort.

The fort, the large barn with hayloft and accessible cupola, the island in the adjacent Passumpsic River and the base of East Mountain provided countless opportunities for imagination and adventure.

Irene started off as a typical 1950s housewife, but she was also the postmaster for East Haven for two years, was on the school board for a number of terms and served as the hot lunch cook for the

East Haven School for years.

The meal was cooked at her house and transported by sled to the nearby school.

Irene was an excellent cook and baker. Slow-simmered beef stew with dumplings, baked beans with salt pork and maple syrup, and roast leg of lamb were some of her signature dishes. She also baked great bread, made excellent pies with flaky crust and made the best chocolate chip cookies ever.

As her husband suffered through his bouts with cancer, Irene once again stepped up and started working as a cook at the Town & Country Restaurant to supplement the family income. She eventually became the primary breadwinner when Phil became unable to work.

She continued to work at the Town & Country until it closed its doors.

Irene is survived by her children, Philemon M. Hartwell of Kissimmee, Fla., David Hartwell of South Burlington, Marilyn Williams of Lyndonville; her grandchildren, Laura (Eric) Berlin, Mark (Vickie) Hartwell, Kevin Sleeper, Matt Sleeper, his girlfriend, Amanda Boyce, and Abigail Lucia; and her great-grandchildren, Abe Berlin, Olivia Berlin, Chase Sleeper and Hunter Sleeper.

Irene was predeceased by her parents, her husband, her sister Estelle and her brother Walter Jr. Per Irene’s wishes, there will be no public calling hours. A private burial service will be held at a later date.

JULY 19, 1964NOVEMBER 30, 2024 MILTON, VT. Donald H. Turner Jr., a beloved pillar of the Milton community, passed away peacefully, surrounded by family, on November 30, 2024, at the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester, Vt., after a short but courageous battle with glioblastoma.

Born on July 19, 1964, in Burlington, Vt., Don exemplified a life dedicated to service, family and community engagement. As a respected figure in the political landscape of Milton, Don served as a state representative for

Irene Hartwell SEPTEMBER 9, 1922NOVEMBER 23, 2024 LYNDONVILLE, VT.

The feisty old broad reluctantly gave up on her quest

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

William A. O’Rourke Jr., MD JUNE 5, 1931NOVEMBER 21, 2024 RUTLAND, VT.

William “Bill” O’Rourke Jr., MD, aka “Bucko,” died peacefully, with his wife by his side, at Rutland Regional Medical Center on November 21, 2024, at age 93. Bill was born in Rutland, Vt., on June 5, 1931, the first child of Mary Hinchey O’Rourke and William A. O’Rourke Sr. Dr. O’Rourke practiced medicine in Rutland for more than 50 years. He retired from private practice, where he specialized in internal medicine and infectious disease until he was 80 years old. He cared for his patients at RRMC and served there as a consultant in infectious disease for most of that time.

After closing his office, he volunteered at the Rutland Free Clinic for nine years, where he was highlighted as a Vermont Super Senior on WCAX-TV. Bill was raised in Rutland, Vt.; graduated from Mount St. Joseph Academy, class of 1949, where he was an honor student and was named the class athlete; and graduated from the College of the Holy Cross, class of 1953, and the University of Vermont College of Medicine, class of 1957.

Following graduation, he interned at Ohio State University Hospitals in Columbus, Ohio (1957 to 1958). After completing his

first residency in internal medicine at UVM (1958 to 1959), he served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force and was the chief medical officer (flight surgeon) at the Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga. He completed his second residency and an infectious disease fellowship at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. (1961 to 1962), then returned to his hometown of Rutland to practice.

He served as president of the Rutland Hospital Staff, the Rutland County Medical Society and the Vermont Chapter of the American Heart Association. He was a member of the Vermont State Medical Society. He was the health officer for the City of Rutland for eight years. Bill proudly served on the board of directors of First Vermont Bank for many years.

Dr. O’Rourke was dedicated to Roman Catholic schools.

He served as a Christ the King School basketball coach. He also served for many years on the CKS board. Dr. O’Rourke may be best known for his work with the Mount St. Joseph Athletic Association.

For 32 years he was the physician for the MSJ athletic program. Dr. O’Rourke served on the MSJ Academy board and helped raise money to build the cafeteria at MSJ, as well as organized the Green Wave Golf Tournament and MSJ Scholarship Program.

He received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Mount St. Joseph Academy in 2015, part of Honor Our Past, and the Service to Medicine and Community Award from the University of Vermont College of Medicine in 2017. Bill was a loyal alumnus of MSJ, the College of the Holy Cross and the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

In 1986 he purchased a condominium in Naples, Fla., and enjoyed vacationing there. He was a longtime member of the Rutland Country Club; Imperial Golf Course of Naples, Fla.; Rutland Elks Club; Post 31

American Legion; and the Knights of Columbus.

Bill, aka “Doc,” greatly enjoyed family, friends, all sports, his patients, staff and his work. He was a wonderful human, selflessly serving his community for so many decades with such honor and dignity. He loved sharing stories that made those around him smile and laugh. He was a treasure.

Bill is survived by his wife, Suzanne Kovacs O’Rourke, and her children, Tammy Whelan (Kevin) and Tracey Lambert; daughter, Julie Foley (Brian), and grandchildren, Matthew, Mickey, Brigid and Kate; son Jim O’Rourke (Cindy); and son Atty. William A. O’Rourke Ill (Sandy). He is further survived by his brother, Atty. R. Joseph O’Rourke (Magill); his sisters Kathleen O’Rourke Valente and Anne O’Rourke Ratkus (Dr. Victor); and his brother-in-law Mike Kovacs (Robin). Bill is survived by many nieces, nephews and cousins who loved him dearly. Dr. O’Rourke was predeceased by his parents; his sister Mary Ellen Griffin (Gerry) in 2021; brother-inlaw Hon. Silvio Valente in 2017; and his sister-in-law Patricia O’Rourke in 1990.

Bill was very appreciative of the support he received, in his later years, from two dear friends, Timothy Collins and Dr. Patrick Keenan.

Memorial contributions may be made to Christ the King School, 60 S. Main St., Rutland, VT 05701, or to Mount St. Joseph Academy, 127 Convent Ave., Rutland, VT 05701.

Calling hours were held on Friday, November 29, 2024, 4 to 6 p.m., at the Clifford Funeral Home, 2 Washington St., Rutland, VT. A mass of Christian burial was celebrated on November 30, 2024, 11 a.m., at Christ the King Church, 66 S. Main Street, Rutland, VT. Interment followed at Calvary Cemetery, 102 Meadow St., Rutland, VT. Arrangements are under the direction of Clifford Funeral Home in Rutland.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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5/7/24 5:44 PM

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

A service at the startup church in Barre

E

arly on a crisp and bright August evening, Chuck Clark stood in the basement kitchen of Enough Ministries, a Southern Baptist church on Washington Street in Barre City. He was dressed casually, in jeans and a fire-rescue T-shirt. But his aim was far from modest. Clark is a “church planter,” and he’d arrived in Barre weeks earlier to start a church from scratch.

It would not be an ordinary church. In a city brutalized by Vermont’s opioid crisis, Clark’s plan, at once radical and rooted in the New Testament, was to organize a church for the addicted, a population of the lost and the hurting who might have come from nothing or squandered riches.

Clark’s vision was as clear as it was unorthodox: The church would not just offer up prayers, a bit of food or temporary shelter to those who were unfortunate or struggling with substance abuse. Rather, it was to be all but wholly made up of people battling addiction and those newly sober. It would be both unpretentious and deadly serious. It would be a church, God willing, that would rescue lives and save souls.

Clark, who himself had wasted too many of his 65 years abusing cocaine, said there is no standard blueprint for how to found a new church, much less one for the sick and marginalized. But he said he’d identified instruction in the fifth book of the New Testament, the Acts of the Apostles: 24

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Acts of the Apostles In Barre, dozens of people have perished in the opioid crisis. Can a church for the addicted stem the losses?

BY J O E S EX T O N

Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

And so for weeks, Clark had walked the streets of Barre, knocked on the doors of its many emergency-use motel rooms, sat among those gathered behind the Good Samaritan Haven shelter on North Seminary Street, made small talk at soup kitchens and set up an information table at the city’s farmers market.

Now, in the basement kitchen, Clark’s early recruits began to drift toward the four rows of white folding chairs. He stood

under the word “COFFEE” spelled out on one of the walls, the sign an offer of a hot beverage and an acronym for Christ Offers Forgiveness for Everyone Everywhere.

Clark spoke to those who came by name.

Timmy wore a sweatshirt inscribed “Half Hood, Half Holy.” Danielle, who had a habit of speaking out of turn, wanted to pray for Rusty, a homeless addict who had not been seen or heard from in days.

Malcolm, a 25-year-old in dirty road crew gear, was both noticeably high and genuinely interested in what Clark had to say.

Clark began with a statement based on a passage from the grandson of the Christian evangelist Billy Graham.

Christ’s church is for alcoholics, control freaks, adulterers, codependents, blame-shifters.

It’s for gossips, shopaholics, liars, narcissists, worrywarts, the selfish, angry, and the arrogant. It’s for the proud, the scared, the unrighteous, the self righteous. It’s for you, it’s for me. Sinners are the only people God gives His grace to, and that means thankfully I qualify and so do you.

It was a bracing welcome for the 10 people in front of him, Clark acknowledged with a smile. Yet no one was offended or so

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

Chuck Clark speaking with churchgoers at Enough Ministries JAMES BUCK

much as winced. To be seen and accepted was rare, and more than enough.

Clark’s preliminary gathering came just weeks after yet another grim casualty of Barre’s opioid threat.

A man had been found dead inside a building site Porta-Potty just before 8 a.m. on July 25. He was on the toilet, his head slumped atop his left arm on the plastic surface next to the seat. He clasped a blue plastic straw in his right hand, and a bit of tinfoil with burn marks lay next to his face.

A police report noted some “purge” had come out of his nose and mouth and been smeared across his forehead.

A small glassine bag used to package drugs was found, too. It bore a smiley face and two words: “Be Happy.”

The man was quickly identified in part because of distinctive tattoos on his neck and chest. His death certificate later captured the bare particulars of his life: 37 years old; born in Burlington; one-time construction worker; dead of a toxic mix of fentanyl, xylazine, cocaine and alcohol.

That man is among at least 56 residents of Barre who perished in the past decade by overdosing. Each death has been a gut punch to a gritty, proud city badly bruised by economic decline, historic flooding, and, day by day, opioids.

State records offer one kind of accounting for the city’s losses: The oldest among the 56 was 78; the youngest, 16. Thirty-seven were male; 19 female. Five were married, but a majority had never had a spouse. Some had been born in surrounding towns, but others had made their way to Barre from Walnut Creek, Calif.; Fort Riley, Kan.; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and Puerto Rico. They had once worked in various professions: landscaper, musician, homemaker, bartender, teacher’s aide, chef, dental hygienist, fingerprint analyst, handyman, software engineer.

Clark’s church, however humble, is meant to stem these human tragedies.

Over an hour that August night, the improvised audio-visual equipment would fail. One congregant’s oxygen tank would crash to the ground. Some would get up and leave without saying a word, while others would arrive late with a quick apology.

Clark would invoke scripture, including a promise from Jesus: “Your sins and iniquities, I’ll remember no more.”

People who’d shown an initial openness to what Clark was preaching delivered impromptu testimony.

“I’m not totally who I want to be,” a man named George said as he stood. “But I’m not who I was yesterday.”

Barre, of course, is not the city it was yesterday, certainly not the place it was decades ago. For much of the 20th century, it was one of the granite capitals of the world; a draw for immigrants from Italy and Scotland, eastern Europe and

The Enough Ministries church building where Chuck Clark’s congregation worships in the basement

I’m not totally who I want to be.

But I’m not who I was yesterday.

GE O R GE

Scandinavia; and a hotbed of labor activism. Built on the strong backs of quarry workers and stone polishers, it became known as a city of churches and banks, and for years it was the livelier sister city to Montpelier, lit up with bars and restaurants, brimming with dancing and brawling. It had an opera house and handsome museums, too.

Today, its foundations are cracking.

Barre has been steadily losing population for 70 years, with fully 10 percent of its residents gone in a single decade, from 2010 to 2020. The granite industry is no longer a robust engine of jobs and stability, shrunk by mechanization and undercut by global competition. It is the drug trade, though, that has taken one of the deepest cuts at the

city’s sense of itself and of its future. Barre has for years now been a distribution hub for out-of-state traffickers, its homes turned into “trap houses,” from which first heroin and now mostly fentanyl and crack cocaine are spread through the city’s streets. That trade has brought guns and crime, from the petty to the violent.

In the face of all that, Barre, a cramped city of just four square miles and just over 8,000 people, has not quit on itself. Its people and institutions have mounted a committed response to the drug menace through education, treatment programs and the dogged work of the city’s police force.

And yet.

At Barre City schools, hobbled by poverty and lagging in overall achievement, some children’s learning is hampered by the drug use of their parents.

One child recently reported to class after administering Narcan to a parent.

Caseworkers with the Department for Children and Families in Barre remain traumatized and fearful after the 2015 murder of one of their own by a woman whose children had been taken from her, at least once because of her drug use. Many of the children taken into state custody in

Barre are removed at least in part because of parental drug use.

Over on Church Street, the People’s Health & Wellness Clinic, a free health care outpost, won’t write painkiller prescriptions out of safety concerns — for patients and staff both.

The police department, meanwhile, continues to make scores of drug arrests, including these from last August: four males apprehended outside 46 South Main Street in an operation that also seized drugs and guns, including an AR-15 style rifle. One of those taken into custody was a 15-year old boy sent up from Springfield, Mass., as a drug courier.

And of course, last July, the young man was found dead in a portable latrine in the center of town. He’s one of nine Barre residents lost in 2024, already the deadliest year of the past decade in the city.

Chuck Clark was hired last spring by Dan Molind, the pastor of Enough Ministries, and it was in that church’s basement that Clark held his makeshift service.

Molind, a son of Barre and a career officer with the U.S. Army, had returned to his hometown upon retirement and become an ordained minister.

Molind’s first project was a soup kitchen that began serving many of the city’s homeless and addicted in 2014. He soon began to hold services in the kitchen, and a startup church there came to attract about 50 members, most of whom struggled with substance abuse. The church was called “Garden of feEden,” and for Molind it proved that a church for Barre’s most vulnerable and troubled could succeed.

A decade later, his own church now firmly established and perhaps too formal for Barre’s dispossessed, Molind tasked Clark with starting again.

Clark concluded that basement service in August with song, his wife Sonia on the guitar. Those gathered had lost children to the state; had been both institutionalized and cast out to sleep in the cold; had once been loved and, too often, forgotten.

Their voices raspy but together, they sang as one and with a vigor worthy of any cathedral: I’m trading my sorrows, I’m trading my shame, I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.

I’m trading my sickness, I’m trading my pain.

I’m laying them down for the joy of the Lord.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

» P.26 25

PHOTOS: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

Acts of the Apostles « P.25 ‘Amen’

Dan Molind was raised in a deeply religious household in Barre. His father was a surgeon who spent chunks of his career doing medical missionary work in countries around the globe. His mother was a motivated Christian, too, and she helped found the faith-based crisis pregnancy center in town.

Molind respected their work and its religious roots. But he didn’t hear God’s call himself until he was in uniform and on a combat tour in Afghanistan.

Molind had done an initial tour in Afghanistan early in the U.S. war on terror and returned in 2006, when he took leave from the Army and accompanied his father on a medical mission to Kabul. In the capital city, father and son made their way to an assortment of underground Christian churches — the secret routes to them marked in Kabul’s streets by a fish symbol.

Both men were struck by the courage and imagination of the 30,000 or so Afghans countrywide who risked their lives to worship Christ. In the U.S., including in their Vermont hometown, rain or snow was enough to keep some from church on Sundays.

Eager to protect such daring displays of faith from the Taliban, Molind volunteered in 2008 to serve a second combat tour. As chief of staff for the joint international forces in western Afghanistan, Molind earned praise from his superiors for his performance in a vast and deadly part of the country with limited resources.

“An absolute must to promote to colonel,” read one evaluation.

Molind said God, too, had plans for him. In the desert of Afghanistan, Molind said, God spoke to him and made clear his wishes: “You have mobilized armies. Can you lead a church?”

Back in Barre, Molind, now 61, first volunteered at Faith Community Church, a Southern Baptist congregation. He then participated in experiments with building smaller worship groups in the city and neighboring towns.

After an inauspicious start at Spaulding High School in Barre, he’d accumulated an array of degrees — in counseling and criminal justice, and in strategic studies from the U.S. Naval War College. All of that learning, it turned out, was of use for creating and leading churches. One other degree, in diplomacy, wound up helping him negotiate with his wife, Cathy. There’s an old line that the hardest job for a wife is to be married to a soldier. The second hardest is being married to a pastor.

Neither is home very much. The pay is 26

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Pastor Dan Molind baptizing Virgil

poor. Cathy had done the first, and now her husband was asking her to do the second.

Cathy agreed to her husband’s pastoral ambitions. As partial repayment, Molind sent her to culinary school, one of her long-delayed passion projects. After her training, the two in 2014 opened a soup kitchen in what had once been side-byside gun and skate shops at 84 Summer Street in Barre. An earlier soup kitchen had been run there by the First Baptist Church on Washington Street. The church’s board gave it over to Molind and his wife.

The place, not far from the city’s homeless shelter, was immediately full. Feeding people was one thing; turning the space into a church would be trickier. But Molind had a working theory for success, a reverse of the “if you build it, they will come” cliché.

If they come, he figured, we can build it.

It would take a bit. Once Molind started to conduct worship services inside — it was to be a Southern Baptist congregation, just like the church where he’d first volunteered — he and his wife and children were often the only attendees.

The uphill fight was not hard to understand. Frightened, wounded people living on the street can be deeply mistrustful, even paranoid. A church, to some, sounded fishy. Even those who were receptive to worship could struggle to be consistent, reliable presences. The notion that those who came would be able to tithe — donate regularly — was not realistic, and so finances would be tight.

But the flame started by free food became a considerable fire, and soon chairs and speakers had to be placed in the street outside the kitchen to accommodate the congregation. The Gospel was straightforward: All of us, whether

Tom Sperry of Williamstown stocking the outdoor food pantry

The Gospel was straightforward: All of us, whether handing out the food or accepting it, are imperfect, even broken, people. handing out the food or accepting it, are imperfect, even broken, people. Your failings don’t define you. The broken still have value. Your former lives are not some imperceptible, irretrievable dream. Saying yes to Jesus can give you a new life.

“Addiction is giving up everything for one thing,” Molind likes to say, borrowing a line from the recovery world. “Sobriety is giving up one thing for everything.”

In the first weeks and months of the church’s life, Molind visited crack houses to talk about Jesus. He drove potential congregants to rehab. He helped people secure supportive housing. While he doesn’t drink alcohol, or even coffee, Molind frequented bars, ordering wings to get a chance at conversation and connection. He met with a couple who called ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

» P.28

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The Undertakers Duffy Ballard and his son Cort, who together run the Pruneau-Polli Funeral Home on Summer Street in Barre, didn’t shy from the chance to sign a contract to drive people found dead of overdoses to the state medical examiner’s office in Burlington. While there isn’t much money in the work, it suits their sense of mission.

Those they pick up were often estranged from their family, if they had one. Care and dignity are needed.

In recent years, father and son have taken calls at all hours. They’ve been out to the Hilltop Inn in Berlin, to the high-rise public housing apartments on South Main Street, to private addresses as far away as Williamstown.

They made at least 11 runs in 2023.

If the bodies Duffy and Cort pick up go unclaimed, the cremated remains are held for three years at the medical examiner’s facility. The hope is someone will turn up. Those families who do claim the bodies often choose to have formal services at a different funeral home. One of the few that paid for a service at Duffy’s was the family of a 7-month-old Barre child who ingested drugs belonging to his parents.

Almost all the families that opt to work with Duffy and Cort choose what’s called direct cremation. There is no service, no obituary, and the ashes are handed over for the family to do with as they wish. The cost is roughly $2,800 — cheaper than a funeral package but still too much for some.

“A lot of time there is no money,” Duffy said of the families of the dead. “And that’s when I say, ‘OK, I’ll just do it for the state money.’”

The State of Vermont pays the home $1,100 or so for accommodating families that have nothing.

Duffy explains the details without judgment. He is not a man of pretensions, although he says with a laugh that people have told him his life story is worthy of a book. It would be a tale of Barre hardship, tragedy and survival.

His father, he said, was a “railroad bum,” killed by a train when Duffy was a boy. His mother, nicknamed Happy, worked for a bit as a cook at a local diner, but in complete truth, Duffy said, she raised him and his siblings on public assistance.

Duffy, now 58, did not make it past eighth grade. He was a father at 15 and had eight children in all. He has already lost three, though none to drug use.

Cort, 26, a former football player at Spaulding High School, is Duffy’s youngest. He’s seen less heartbreak than his dad but plenty all the same. A run out to Williamstown not that long ago still haunts Cort.

The body was on the porch of a home and had been there for a while.

“Kind of hard to recognize,” Cort said of the corpse.

But he worked it out.

“A kid I grew up with,” Cort said. “I went camping with him. We played football together. He was 23.”

The work goes on. There have been eight runs so far in 2024, including to retrieve the young man found in the Porta-Potty.

In late summer, for the third year running, the funeral home’s hearse rolled along in Barre’s Heritage Festival parade.

Duffy and Cort threw Slim Jims and Starburst candy to the crowds.

“Ninety-nine percent of the people thought it was great,” Duffy said.

Not all, though.

“A couple of people didn’t like it,” he said. “It triggered something in them.”

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PHOTOS: JAMES BUCK

Acts of the Apostles « P.26 themselves Satan worshippers and was pleased when, after a chat in their home, they agreed to let him leave a bible behind.

In what he said was a rare pastoral feat, he twice saved the same soul.

One day a frantic woman entered the soup kitchen for help. Another woman had overdosed in a nearby apartment. Molind grabbed a container of Narcan and used it on the woman, who he guessed was in her forties. The woman, who had stopped breathing, came around.

Days later, she turned up at 84 Summer Street. She apologized for any awkwardness or hostility. But she was also frustrated and distraught.

“Why didn’t you let me die?” she asked him. “I’m sick of this life.”

Molind sensed opportunity.

“If you save someone’s life,” he said wryly, “you automatically have a lot of stock.”

And so he answered her: “Jesus came so that none shall perish.”

The woman was later baptized into Molind’s church. She was dunked in water, and she emerged, as Molind put it, remade, or at least far different than when she’d come to after the dose of Narcan.

“Smiling and excited,” Molind said.

That wasn’t the only development that felt like a miracle for Molind’s church. The American Baptist church leaders who had given him use of the building on Summer Street, impressed by what he had created, had a new gift.

In 2019, with First Baptist’s worshippers down to about a dozen people, its leaders asked if Molind wanted his congregation to take over their quite beautiful church on Washington Street, complete with a glorious stained-glass sanctuary. It was theirs for the taking.

Molind and his congregation of roughly 50 moved right in, welcomed by the remaining members of First Baptist. Some adaptation was required.

The church was renamed Enough Ministries, and Molind ran a new version of the soup kitchen out of the basement.

Blue lights were installed in the church bathroom to make it harder for those still actively using drugs to find a vein to shoot up, and people were charged with monitoring how long folks were in there to further guard against overdoses.

Enough Ministries has become a force in the rebuilding of Barre’s damaged housing since the 2023 flooding. It has been a vital player in the distribution of food beyond the soup kitchen, giving out or delivering $500,000 worth in a single year through partnerships with Shaw’s, Walmart and other companies in the area.

28

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Kody Fitzgerald

As I came out of the water, something was different. I can’t explain what it was, but something changed for me there.

I just respect life itself now.

KO D Y F ITZGE R AL D

A sign on a store in Barre

And it has continued to baptize those who, as Molind says, make it up the toughest 10 steps on their journey to Christ — the staircase from the basement soup kitchen to the spectacular sanctuary above. It’s so hard, Molind said, for many to feel they belong, that they are worthy, that they won’t be judged by those in pressed suits and flowered dresses.

But some have made it, with each of those baptized writing their name and their favorite bit of scripture on a wall outside the sanctuary.

Carol, baptized on February 13, 2021,

opted for Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good, to give you a future and a hope.”

Esther 4:14 was Sindy’s inscription on July 20, 2024: “And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?”

Earlier this fall, Virgil, seven months sober, his hair still damp from his christening, got on a ladder and with his tattooed right arm, wrote, simply, “God loves us all.”

He paused, then made a late addition.

“Amen.”

‘Maybe Today Was Good’

The morning of June 24, 2019, was a moment of truth of sorts for Kody Fitzgerald; his partner, Heather; and their baby boy, Kylen.

Fitzgerald, who had abused drugs since his early teen years, had already lost two children to the custody of others. He’d been jailed for theft, lived long winters in abandoned railway cars, seen his own mother struggle with addiction. But he had been sober for more than a year, had a job and felt like this was his last, best chance to be a real father.

Fitzgerald needed Heather to get clean for good, too. She had overdosed during the pregnancy, and after surviving that, and even after the birth of Kylen, she still pestered Fitzgerald to feed her habit. Worried about leaving their boy with her alone, Fitzgerald had lined up a babysitter for the hours when he was away at work.

With Kylen in his arms, Fitzgerald addressed Heather on their porch before work. He wasn’t going to stay if she could not get sober, he told her, and he aimed to take the boy with him if he left. Reflect, he said to her, on what life would be like without her boy. Fitzgerald kissed her on the forehead and let her kiss the baby.

Heather later called Fitzgerald while he was at work. She said she was in Barre and asked him to pick her up after he got Kylen from the babysitter. She sounded upbeat.

“Maybe today was good,” Fitzgerald said to himself.

Fitzgerald was born in Berlin, the grandson of a famous U.S. Navy war hero, William Charles Fitzgerald. His grandfather was posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for his valor in defending both his own men and civilians in the South Vietnamese village of Co Luy in 1967. The USS Fitzgerald, a destroyer that for years was part of the Navy’s vaunted 7th Fleet in the Pacific, was named in his honor.

Kody Fitzgerald’s best childhood memories involve time spent with his widowed grandmother, hearing stories about her legendary husband and taking summer trips to Maine.

But Fitzgerald was only 5 when he sensed there was trouble in his own home.

Before long, he said, his mother had him steal pills from people in the community.

He soon became a skilled burglar and later a high school dropout as he trailed his mother through a series of boyfriends and Vermont towns. He’d get locked up and do time mowing lawns while at prison work camps in St. Johnsbury and Windsor.

Then he tried heroin.

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

» P.30

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The Detective Detective Sergeant Steve Durgin was one of nearly a dozen officers to hit an apartment in East Barre 18 months ago.

Inside, police found a woman in the living room of what felt more like an attic than a residence. Something about the woman suggested she was keeping a secret.

Durgin found the secret in a tiny bathroom — a 13-year-old boy with drugs, cash and a gun. The boy had no identification, and when he answered any questions at all, he gave the officers fake names.

Durgin has been with the Barre City Police Department for 17 years. He’d come on after a deployment to Iraq with the U.S. Army in 2004, a year, he said, when the country was “blowing up” after the seemingly easy toppling of Saddam Hussein. Back home, he was keen for the excitement and purpose of police work, but the shine of the job, as he put it, has faded. The endless combat against drugs in Barre is the cause.

“They change; we adapt; they learn how we’ve adapted,” he said of the cat and mouse with Barre’s drug dealers, many of them from out of state.

The child in the bathroom represented the latest strategic gambit: underage boys from Springfield, Mass., or Hartford, Conn., set up in homes to deal drugs. The out-of-state traffickers know that Vermont doesn’t typically jail juveniles. If they’re busted, the boys are eventually released, though several thousand dollars in cash might be seized.

“The cost of doing business,” Durgin said.

The boys often do not know where they are other than somewhere in Vermont.

They’ve been told to withhold their names from police. They almost never leave the apartments, ordering in food.

Durgin and other investigators tracked down security video and saw the moment the boy, with nothing but a backpack, had been walked into the apartment by three adults. Durgin found Domino’s pizza boxes in the bathroom.

Occasionally, after hours of detention, and maybe threatened with prosecution as an adult, boys such as this one will give up their names on their own. At other times, police work with the Department for Children and Families to determine the identity of the boys and return them to their home states. It is not easy or quick work.

It’s often not clear whether the boys were sent to Barre against their will. They might willingly do it for money or to earn gang membership. If it were clear the boys had been coerced, the police might be able to make a human trafficking case. To date, Durgin said, they’ve been unsuccessful doing so.

Trissie Casanova, who heads up DCF’s human trafficking division, said youths are being stationed in other Vermont communities, too. Of late, she said, most of the boys are Somali immigrants.

A cynical and challenging new wrinkle in Barre’s drug-dealing operations is the last thing Durgin’s department needs. The department, with 21 sworn officers, has five unfilled openings, a staffing problem owing not to a lack of money but a lack of interest.

The street crime unit has been eliminated.

Durgin is one of the department’s two detectives; it once had four.

The uphill fight can wear on officers who have made at least 260 drug arrests in Barre over the past four years. Durgin is resigned to the idea that the job is a way to pay bills, to provide for his son.

“We’re never going to win,” he said. “So you do what you can so the city doesn’t burn.”

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PHOTOS: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

Danielle and Barb during a Sunday service at Enough Ministries

Acts of the Apostles « P.28 “From that moment,” he said, “I fell in love with heroin.”

Fitzgerald said his first two children, a girl then a boy, who he had with different women, were walked away by investigators with the Department for Children and Families after he was caught trying to beat a urine test required by his probation officer.

Things got dark. Fitzgerald spent one winter sleeping in an old railway oil tanker on the outskirts of Barre. He’d wake up not remembering what had happened the day before and organize this new day around the question of how he would get high so that he could later forget what had happened that day.

He wound up for a time at the Good Samaritan Haven shelter, where he met Heather. They could not stay in the shelter all day and had to find ways to kill time until they could return. One day, the two of them walked into the soup kitchen at 84 Summer Street.

It’s where he met Dan Molind. Fitzgerald said Molind was the first person to take him seriously in what felt like forever.

“He straight believed in me,” Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald would listen to the Sunday sermons and get goose bumps. He found himself noticing more richly the tiny good things that might happen in a day. And each of those moments, from feeling the purity and directness of Molind’s interest in him to something as silly as finding a quarter on the floor, were moments when he was not thinking about scoring dope.

Call him crazy, Fitzgerald said, but it became his modest daily goal not to disappoint God. It had been so long since he’d feared letting someone down. It’s hard to disappoint those who’ve long ago given up on you.

In 2018, Fitzgerald told Molind he felt ready to be baptized.

“As I came out of the water,” he said, “something was different. I can’t explain what it was, but something changed for me there. I just respect life itself now. I don’t know the word I want, but just how unique, how important life is.”

That’s why he was so determined in June 2019 for Heather to get sober and to, as he put it, help him “raise a child up the way it should be.” He’d struck out twice on that; Heather, having survived a near-fatal overdose, didn’t have many strikes left, either.

Fitzgerald remembers the exact time he got a second call at work on June 24. It was 3:05 p.m., and it wasn’t Heather this time.

“Heather’s dead,” a friend on the phone said.

Fitzgerald, disbelieving, raced from Northfield back to Barre, taking a call from 30

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Timmy praying during a midweek service

God, Molind believes, and also a testament to Fitzgerald’s own redeeming tenacity.

“The first week after it happened, I was so angry with God,” Fitzgerald said of Heather’s death. “You know, How could you do this to me? I’m staying clean. I’m giving you my all.”

“But after a few months,” he said, “I came to the realization that maybe God wasn’t shunning me, disciplining me for the path I took in my past. Maybe it was his way of testing me. You know, seeing if I was worthy of him.”

‘Talk to Them About Jesus’

Church is family. Families have problems.

Church can have problem families.

C H UC K C L AR K

a number he didn’t recognize as he hit 100 miles an hour. It was the police.

“I’m here with Heather,” the officer said, “There’s been an incident.”

Back in Barre, at an address of a man Heather used to score from, Fitzgerald was out of the car before he’d put it in park, and it slammed into a police cruiser.

The officers there put their arms around him, to restrain him and to comfort him both.

“You don’t want to go in there,” they told him. “You want good memories to be in your head.”

Fitzgerald soon managed to wipe the tears from his face. He had to compose himself. He had to go pick up Kylen.

“I feel like I haven’t properly mourned over her,” Fitzgerald said of Heather. “She was good with Kylen. She loved him very much.”

Fitzgerald, who is 32, now works at Walmart, which recently promoted him to a manager’s position. Kylen is a student at a private Christian school. It’s costly, Fitzgerald said, but worth it. His contact with his first two children is limited, and although he is saddened by that, he understands.

Molind considers Fitzgerald an exemplar of what a church for the addicted can produce — a life of abject desolation transformed to one of simple satisfactions and a sturdy confidence. It’s the work of

Five years after Dan Molind’s soup kitchen church took over the grand First Baptist Church, Molind had begun to worry that the congregation had become a bit too comfortable. Those folks who’d gotten sober had found their way to jobs and homes. The holdouts from the First Can a Baptist congregation had by and large churc stayed, additional anchors to a growing for the Christian enterprise. New arrivals had come, attracted by the music or the addict stained glass, bringing the Sunday totals save s to as many as 80. The tithing was enough in Bar for Molind to consider taking a salary,

BY JOE although he opted not to.

S EX T O N Molind feared that the church had lost X X sight of those it was first formed to serve – Barre’s most alone and at risk.

And so in late spring, Molind hired Clark to breathe life into a second iteration of a church for the addicted. He invited Clark to use the Washington Street church’s basement for his early services, what the two men called the new church’s “soft launch.”

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

» P.32

Moriah Haggett at her son’s grave

BARRE’S BEDROCK

The Recovery Coach

The men in their late teens or early twenties cut Moriah Haggett to the quick.

Haggett, a recovery coach, helps people struggling to shed their addiction, whether to heroin or alcohol or something else. She is most often stationed off the emergency room at Central Vermont Medical Center in Berlin. Overdose victims, once revived and treated, are encouraged to meet with her. The goal is to get them to work on sobriety and safety.

When young men turn up there, she is struck.

“Oh, my God,” she can’t help thinking, “that’s my boy.”

Haggett lost her 19-year-old son, Tyler, on Mother’s Day 2023. He’d come home for the weekend to celebrate, gone out on Saturday night with friends and spent Sunday morning in bed. He’d worked a late shift as a welder in South Burlington, and so she let him sleep late.

“The poor kid’s just tired,” she thought.

When Tyler’s girlfriend called around 3 p.m. looking for him, Haggett went to check. She couldn’t get a response. When she called 911, she was asked to touch her boy.

“He is really cold,” she said into the phone.

She believes that Tyler, who had struggled with a crack cocaine addiction, N, PA G E smoked something laced with fentanyl after arriving back at her home.

It’s an emptier place today.

“My kids have always been my entire world,” Haggett said.

Haggett, 46, spent the later years of her childhood with her grandparents in Barre Town. She had her first child, Jonnah, when she was 17, and she never finished high school. She gave birth to Tyler, battled a cocaine and drinking problem, confronted the challenge of girlhood trauma with therapists, and got sober.

a ch e ted souls rre?

During her own work with psychiatrists and counselors, Haggett said, she was struck by how many of those she’d see in the waiting rooms were alone. She became determined to support people like them, and she got trained and hired as a recovery coach at the Turning Point Center of Central Vermont in Barre. Most coaches are in recovery themselves.

Part of what the coaches do is something Turning Point calls “motivational interviewing,” suspending judgment, building confidence and focus. Haggett loves the work, hard as it can be.

“I wasn’t always easy to deal with, and they aren’t always easy to deal with,” she said of her clients. “And that’s OK.” Haggett found a coach for Tyler when he first confessed his issues with addiction.

“I wasn’t going to be his coach,” she said. “I needed to be his mom.”

As his parent, she’d seen him grow from a shy boy to a varied and competitive athlete. He loved hockey most, even if his mastery of skating wasn’t complete.

“He couldn’t figure out how to stop,” she said with a laugh. “Always hitting the wall.”

His efforts at sobriety would hit walls, too, including the final one.

With his death, Haggett decided to add grief counseling to her portfolio.

She meets with those dealing with loss both individually and in groups. She finds the work easier, in its way, than the recovery coaching. It’s about sitting with people — holding space, as she put it, for people who don’t know what’s going to come next.

Asked what she expected of the future, she would not say. Not being overwhelmed by the now was enough.

“I’m OK,” she said. “I think I’m OK.”

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PHOTOS: JAMES BUCK

Acts of the Apostles « P.30 Clark had grown up in Granby, Conn.

He dropped out of school, took up cocaine, and came close to losing his grip on life and his family. He found Christ, though, and after years in Florida building pools for people with money, he committed himself to building churches, including ones for those with next to nothing.

Clark’s reputation for church planting was expanding among the country’s networks of pastors and congregations, and with his son he’d recently started a church in South Burlington. Molind met with him, was won over and urged him to start reaching out for potential church members door-to-door in Barre.

Early one cool September afternoon with a rumor of autumn in the air, Chuck Clark climbed into his truck behind Enough Ministries on Washington Street.

His destination was the Quality Inn about a half a mile away, one of the motels used to house the indigent.

“Hopefully, I don’t run into people like me,” he said, recalling his own issues with addiction and isolation. “Or maybe I need to run into people just like me.”

Clark got permission from management to go room to room. Each held candidates for his growing church.

He’d have to navigate the scene in the parking lot first. It was full of the young, the ill, the frightened and the scheming.

There appeared to be various factions protecting turf, while others moved from corner to corner in search of a favor, maybe a dollar, maybe a cigarette.

“Dear Quality Inn Guests,” a sign posted on a motel wall read. “There are no visitors allowed in your room at any time. If he/she is not on your voucher and you’re caught with them in your room for ANY amount of time, you will be immediately vacated.”

Clark took it all in.

“Church is family,” Clark said. “Families have problems. Church can have problem families.”

It was slow going.

“I’m busy, and I’m high,” one female resident said. “I won’t go to church high.”

Barre is a complicated mixed blessing of a hometown for those dealing with addiction. Its appeal includes a housing stock that is 50 percent apartments, a rarity in Vermont, and lots of them are government subsidized. Residents can get a degree of free health care at the People’s Health & Wellness Clinic. A variety of nonprofits provide treatment and supportive housing. Public transportation provides critical links.

At the same time, the presence of the county courthouse, and the attendant probation and parole offices, mean those 32

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Pastor Dan Molind

I’m busy, and I’m high.

I won’t go to church high.

QUALITY INN R E S ID E NT

cycling through arrests and incarceration — 66 percent of those locked up in Vermont are taking opioid treatment medications — all but have to stay in Barre to meet the terms of their release.

The city’s surplus of drug operations, many orchestrated by gang members in Springfield, Mass., or Hartford, Conn., thus makes escaping the lure of drugs, and the access to them, deeply challenging.

In short, Barre is where many struggling with addiction have to be, even though they know it’s the last place they should be.

“For every gang member they take out of the city,” a man named Rusty said, “far more arrive.”

Rusty was at a table in the basement kitchen on Washington Street. He said he’d been born in Randolph and once dreamed of being an architect. But after becoming taken with the painkillers he stole from his dad, a telephone lineman, he’d been an addict most of his life. Even the birth of two sons could not shake him into sobriety, much as he loved his boys.

“No matter how high I got,” he said, “I was still their dad.”

No longer. He’d last seen his first son, now 16, when the boy was 4. He’d last seen his 9-year-old when he was just 18 months.

Molind, who oversees the congregation that worships in the church’s upstairs

Downtown Barre

sanctuary, and Clark, who puts together the basement services for the new, as-yetunnamed church for the addicted, have some strategic principles in seeking prospective members.

The military, Molind said, prioritizes mission over man. In building a church, it’s the other way around. He and Clark want to create relationships. Hear people’s stories. Understand the scope of their needs and begin to meet some of them.

Then talk about Jesus.

Molind said his father used to say it took 18 positive encounters with someone before you could have a shot at gaining a convert.

“Don’t invite people to church; talk to them about Jesus,” Molind said of his thinking. “If you invite them to church and they don’t come, nothing good has happened. If you talk to them about Jesus and they don’t ever wind up coming to

church, you’ve at least shared the word of Jesus.”

By this fall, Molind and Clark had been talking with Rusty for quite a while. He’d spent an entire winter under cardboard and blankets on the church porch. He’d been a regular at the food giveaways. But he was a hard sell. Another winter was looming.

That day in the basement, Rusty said of his life, “I always wanted more. I got a whole lot less. Once an addict, always an addict.”

Weeks later, in the same basement, congregants prayed for Rusty’s welfare.

Word was he’d overdosed in Roxbury, left behind by those he was with. No one had heard from or seen him. Still later, some of those at the basement services would hear

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

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JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

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Kristin Gozzi

BARRE’S BEDROCK

The Prosecutor One of the books that most influenced Kristin Gozzi after she took a job with the state attorney’s office in Washington County was The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog. The moving work made clear “how trauma affects everybody,” she said.

Over her 17 years in the job as a prosecutor handling family court matters, she said, she has seen the book’s truths fully realized: families in crisis, fear and agony.

She’s tracked all that trauma in her own set of statistics.

Since 2016, Gozzi has sought protection of one kind or another in family court for hundreds of Barre children, and in a sizable majority of those cases, substance use by parents or children was among the reasons. As of last month, 95 of her cases had led to the termination of parental rights, meaning the mothers and fathers lost any legal standing with regard to a child.

Some of those cases, Gozzi noted, amounted to critical “wins” that removed children from a dangerous situation.

Yet she also views them as defeats of a kind – societal as often as personal failures.

Homelessness, for instance, begets desperation, which can lead to destructive, dangerous decisions.

“Complicated situations that aren’t supportive of sobriety,” is how she puts it. “And I don’t know how we fix that as a community.”

Gozzi, 49, was certain she wanted to tackle the challenges of trauma work before she got to Barre. And for all the heartbreak, she has never regretted coming or ever really thought about leaving. She loves Barre’s working-class culture, the livelihoods of so many made through hard labor with their hands.

As a result, when a case concerning a child’s well-being comes to her, she sees the entire family as her client. The drug use of the parents may be at issue, but that does not make them the enemy.

“I do my very best not to demonize substance use,” she said.

Over the years, Gozzi has worked to make the courtroom environment in downtown Barre as humane and collaborative as possible. Parents are referred to by name, not as father or mother or defendant. When possible, tables and chairs are arranged so that everyone can see each other, not merely be facing a judge.

“If people feel they are heard by the court,” she said, “they are more likely to follow court orders.”

The volume of cases, however, can frustrate the best of efforts. Weeks, even months, can elapse before hearings are held, the timely scheduling of what are at their heart urgent matters feeling like “an impossible task.”

Of course, Gozzi notes, there are “glimmers of hope,” such as a young boy who first showed up in court bent over and nonverbal returning to stand straight and speak for himself; and a mother who ran into Gozzi at Walmart and told her excitedly that she was three months sober.

Recovery and family restoration are possible, she said. “People do it every day.”

When they don’t, though, the losses hit like cataclysms. Gozzi said both a parent and a child on her caseload had died of overdoses within the past year. And they were just the latest.

Addicts, she said, have often blown up relations with families and friends.

The system, meaning in many ways her, is all they have. That system, she knows, is imperfect, even flawed, too often inadequate. And no book about trauma can feel like comfort enough.

Indeed, the past year’s deadly defeats, recorded in Gozzi’s growing ledger, packed a wallop. Feeling a bit unmoored by the losses, she said she’s been wrestling with personal and professional questions about just how effective she was in her long-held goal of limiting trauma for families.

“Struggling,” she said of herself, “with my place in the world.”

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PHOTOS: JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

Acts of the Apostles « P.32 that Rusty had survived and was living in the woods around Montpelier.

A man named Chris did not make it.

Clark had very briefly met the 37-yearold when he came for food. It might have been the start of a conversation, maybe the beginning of a relationship and, who knows, a step toward baptism.

Chris died of an overdose on September 18. A brief online obituary paid tribute.

“Chris was kind, caring, a good listener, and a true gentleman with a youthful personality. He was outgoing, bubbly, energetic, social, funny and determined.

He was a talker and had countless stories that he loved to share with others. In his spare time, he enjoyed watching movies, listening to music, playing cribbage, swimming, biking and coloring pictures ... He loved ice cream and candy, and treats could always cheer him up when he was sad.”

Clark has been undeterred by the setbacks, and he earns the salary Molind is paying him. He’s had to overcome the insecurities of those he encounters, many of whom can suspect outsiders of being cops. One man actually threatened to knock Clark’s teeth out.

Yet there Clark was one day in late October, conducting a prayer walk through the streets of Barre, including up Main Street. To everyone he met, he offered, as he put it, “Jesus without religion.”

“Jesus said there is no sinner worse than me,” Clark said in one of his early services. “And there is no sinner worse than you.”

Fourteen people showed up for the first service back in August, and the number has since fluctuated. In the second week of November, though, 33 filled the seats. Clark has cultivated a core group of members to serve as the backbone of the new church. In late November, after a formal assessment of his project’s progress, a national church planting organization pledged its financial support.

Clark and Molind hope to move the church out of the basement and into its own quarters next spring. The hunt has centered on the city’s north end, the corner of town worst hit by the repeated flooding. They scouted one building out by the railway lines and toyed with the idea of naming the church “The Other Side of the Tracks.” Most recently, Molind and Clark have their eyes on an old garage. It fits Molind’s calculus.

“A place where you might find a dollar store,” he said of the area around the garage. “If there’s a need for a dollar store, there’s a need for the gospel.”

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Police officers making a traffic stop in downtown Barre

‘It’s Not Working’

Three years ago, Dan Molind pulled into an auto repair shop in the city’s south end and was struck by the warmth of the owner who met him. It didn’t take long to sense his despair, too. The man had split with the mother of his children, and he missed his three daughters. Business was slow. Molind would soon hear from others that drug use was a problem.

Molind made it a point to have church vehicles serviced there and gave out the owner’s card to church members.

The man was a bit wary of a pastor, so Molind did not aggressively push Jesus on him. He was also circumspect when asking how the man was doing — noting everyone carried their share of “struggles.”

Over the years, something of a bond took hold, though the man never spoke explicitly of his drug use. Eventually, Molind told the man he’d like to pray for him. The owner hesitated but said OK.

We can’t afford to lose one kid.

MAYO R TH O M L AUZO N

“One day,” Molind recalled, “he came up to me and gave me his private cellphone number. I invited him to church. I thought to myself that we might be getting somewhere.”

The good work preaching the promise of Jesus is far from the only act of care being extended to those battling addiction in Barre. It is a city rich in civic loyalty and personal generosity.

At the emergency department of the nearby Central Vermont Medical Center, Dr. Javad Mashkuri has sought to humanize the care given to those damaged by drug use, offering rapid access to medication and installing what are known as recovery coaches to immediately work on sobriety with those treated for overdosing.

Those recovery coaches are staff members of the Turning Point Center of Central Vermont, based in Barre. Rosemary Rosa, assistant director, said each of those coaches are at work on their own sobriety, as well as caseloads with as many as 40 clients at once.

Inside the Washington County Courthouse on North Main Street, Kimberly Fortier earned the admiration of the judge in charge of what is called Treatment Court for her efforts with defendants who are trying to stay clean and out of prison. As the court’s clinical case manager, she was a fierce advocate and a demanding supervisor for the defendants she supported and cajoled, demanding honesty and showing forgiveness.

At the same time, younger families are moving into the city, priced out of Vermont’s more expensive communities.

They’ve found solid, spacious homes and neighbors of kindness and optimism. New restaurants pop up every once in a while, and longtime stores in the city’s downtown, Nelson Ace Hardware and Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel, are still stubbornly open for business. Locals are quick to point out that other Vermont communities, including Rutland and Brattleboro, face the same issues.

And yet for many who love Barre, it still can feel like a city on the brink. The police, understaffed and always a step behind drug traffickers, are exhausted. Two years of damaging floods have upended lives and sunk morale.

Few people love and worry for Barre more than Thom Lauzon, who served as mayor from 2006 to 2018 and is now back

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

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Will Bennington

BARRE’S BEDROCK

The First Responder Barre firefighter Will Bennington and his colleagues often get handwritten letters or modest gifts from people they’ve helped, whether after a heart attack or just a lift assist into an ambulance.

Bennington, 36, also has revived opioid overdose victims in streets, parking lots, bedrooms and kitchens. When those people come around, they are often angry, embarrassed, afraid or confused. They don’t say thanks. “They have no idea who is standing over them,” Bennington said.

He added, “No one is baking us cookies after that.”

Bennington makes no complaint about this. His feelings aren’t ever hurt. He’s not in the job for thank-yous. In fact, his guess is that, should the person he’s helped later make the long journey to sobriety for a fresh shot at a better life, that moment of revival, however genuinely miraculous, will not be a lasting memory.

“I am not the solution to the opioid crisis,” Bennington said. “Our job is to save people’s lives, and I think we do a pretty good job of that.”

Bennington’s sense of perspective and proportion dates back years. He was a high school senior when he found his older stepbrother unconscious in the bathroom of the family home in New Jersey. He wasn’t exactly sure what to do, and so he closed the door and went to tell his mother. Her “bloodcurdling scream” came next, he said. Bennington’s brother was dead of an overdose.

Barre, whatever its struggles, is not on fire like the Bronx of the 1970s. Emergency medical runs make up the bulk of the department’s work, shift in and shift out.

The department’s preferred treatment is to administer Narcan intravenously. It’s critical to get people breathing on their own because Narcan can wear off and the drugs, heroin or fentanyl, may still be a present danger. As often as not, though, those who have overdosed have been revived by family or friends or passersby before Bennington and others arrive.

The firefighters encourage a trip to the hospital, but they can’t order it.

“Once they are alert,” Bennington said, “they have no interest in going to the hospital.”

They worry they’ll get billed or that cops will get involved, he said. Thus the question of whether these people suffer lasting harm — brain injury because of a lack of oxygen — can go unanswered.

In the latest bit of strategy, the department has been equipped with supplies to leave with those who have overdosed, including a cellphone. Phone numbers for a variety of treatment options have been preloaded.

Some have questioned the utility of giving away phones, suspicious they might just be used to order up more drugs.

Bennington dismisses the concerns.

“People found drugs before cellphones,” he said.

Asked about any fatigue in the face of seemingly endless overdoses — there can be several a shift, half a dozen in a week — Bennington was quietly resilient.

“This job is hard. Always has been, always will be,” he said. “A blue-collar, emotional job. Most of us have pretty tough skin.”

No need, then, for formal thank-yous.

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JAMES BUCK

Acts of the Apostles « P.34 for another stint. He grew up in Barre, and his memories of 1970s boyhood summers are vivid and detailed: kids on bikes everywhere; fishing every afternoon on Gunner Brook; an 8:50 p.m. citywide curfew, signaled each night with a whistle from the Barre firehouse.

Today, Lauzon, 63, misses those scenes. Not so much his lost youth, but the city’s dwindling numbers of young people. Barre, like so much of Vermont, is rich with the old and starved of a youthful labor force.

The toll taken by opioids in the city, then, has implications not only for devastated individual families but also for the economic future of Barre.

“We can’t afford to lose one kid,” Lauzon said.

Yet they are. State records show that eight of the nine Barre residents dead in 2024 of drug overdoses were 45 years old or younger. Some of those lost had worked at one time in just the kinds of jobs that Lauzon was talking about — a cashier, a mechanic, a store clerk.

Lauzon admits that his ability to reverse the onslaught is limited. The mayor’s job in Barre is not a position of great legal authority, the pay just a couple of thousand dollars a year. The work is part cheerleader, part facilitator — a driver of civic conversation more than a kingpin of policy and budgets.

And the job is also to be there in emergencies, be they floods or fires or traffic accidents. So Lauzon answered the phone in 2016 when there were nine overdoses, one fatal, in a single weekend, his initial disbelief turning to despair by the last call from emergency responders.

Back in office years later, Lauzon said the calls haven’t let up.

“We are sincerely trying to do the right thing,” the mayor said. “And it’s not working.”

“It sucks,” he added, “to feel like you are powerless.”

Molind, for his part, believes Jesus is all-powerful. But that doesn’t mean everyone accepts him into their lives, or that those who do will prevail in their struggles with addiction.

The auto shop owner, in the end, never made it to church.

“Perhaps rock bottom is deeper for people who don’t have another hope,” Molind said.

On October 4, at age 41, the repair shop owner died after an overdose.

Molind was sad for the man’s three girls and for the loss of another Barre City businessman.

And he was sad for Thom Lauzon. The shop owner was the mayor’s nephew.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Pastor Dan Molind pointing at scripture passages written by people who have been baptized

‘How Can I Keep From Singing?’

On the morning of October 6, a quiet excitement was palpable inside Enough Ministries. It was the first Sunday of the month, and thus baptisms were in order, including three for people who had been coming to Chuck Clark’s basement services.

A sound check was under way for the musicians. The church’s front door was swinging open again and again with new arrivals. The baptism tub was filled up, and Clark, in jean shorts, was readying himself to step into it.

Just outside the sanctuary, old and newer members mingled over breakfast snacks. Craig Mugford, a former granite shed worker, was one of them.

“There’s something satisfying,” Mugford said, “about making a rough stone shine.”

Mugford had been a member of the old First Baptist congregation and had stayed and joined Molind’s group when they moved in back in 2019. He said the old congregation had not only been thinned out but also had “lost its sense of purpose.”

He was grateful for the people and success stories Molind had brought with him when his congregation took over.

One congregant stood behind Mugford, holding a child’s hand in each of hers, nieces who had lost their mom to an overdose. She was their mother now. The back of her sweatshirt read: “If you are reading

this, know that you are loved. It’s easy to feel alone and invisible, but you being alive is a gift to many. I’m sure of it. So, hang in there and love the person you are the best you can.”

Molind was there, too. He, like the mayor, worries for Barre.

By his count, he’s administered Narcan three dozen or so times; one

basement — did not require sobriety nor promise it. Jesus simply made anything possible, in this life or the next.

The evidence was on the wall in front of him, the names of dozens of people with addictions who’d been baptized: Chris, Ashley, Bill, Sarai, Jeff, Michelle. Three on the wall had later been lost to their addiction.

Molind’s invitation to embrace Jesus, he wants to make clear, is for a church, not a 12-step program. victim required a dozen doses. He’s met a man who overdosed 40 times. A church member lost a son to an overdose and then, on the anniversary of his son’s death, a grandson. The grandson had gotten high to relieve the pain of losing his dad. The irony is piercing.

So, too, Molind said, are the signs that have proliferated around town: “No loitering,” “No public restroom,” “No panhandling.” Molind knows drug users perceive the signs are directed at them and their presumed unworthiness. It can feel, he said, “kind of like Jim Crow.”

But Molind is an optimist. His invitation to embrace Jesus, he wants to make clear, is for a church, not a 12-step program. He is not a drug counselor. His churches — the one he was standing in and the one Clark was helping start in its

One of those names was that of a Spaulding High state champion in football, track and field, wrestling, and powerlifting. His longtime demon was alcohol, and when Molind met him, he told the pastor that the only calories he got every day came from booze. Molind worked with him, and he was baptized.

The man entered a facility to treat his alcoholism. He got through detox but died while in rehab. Giving up alcohol can be more deadly than withdrawing from any kind of drugs. Molind questioned whether the man’s hard work of recovery and spiritual awakening had been worth it. The push toward sobriety appeared to have killed him.

A church member reassured him. The man, the church member said, was going to die, one way or another, sooner than

Where Individuality Shines Bright

Chuck Clark and his wife, Sonia, praying with a churchgoer during a service

11/20/24 4:27 PM

JEB WALLACE-BRODEUR

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later. His life was unsustainable. That he knew Christ through his relationship with Molind was a blessing, both for him and Molind’s church.

In the bustle outside the church sanctuary on October 6, two women were among the three congregants to be baptized.

One of them, Danielle, 40, had survived an itinerant childhood; lost her father, a Navy medic in Vietnam, to complications from exposure to Agent Orange; battled medical issues herself; and contemplated suicide more than once. But she was still standing.

“I can’t get out of this world yet for some reason,” she said with a chuckle.

She had an apartment for $280 a month, and she’d figured out a way to negotiate the city’s dangers.

“The quieter you are, the better it is,” she said of life on Barre’s streets. “You start talking, and that’s when you get a number on your head.”

She said she’d had water sprinkled on her head in church before, but it had felt like everyone, including herself, was just going through the motions. Here, working with Chuck Clark and his wife, preparation involved reading and genuine prayer.

This time, she said, “I know what I’m doing.”

Early in the service, as light streamed through the stained glass, she descended into the tub and met Clark, who was standing thigh-deep with his arms open.

She turned, leaned back into his arms and was gently, fully submerged. She came up wide-eyed and soaking.

Applause erupted.

And then the congregants took up the song “How Can I Keep From Singing?”

Their voices reached the very back of the sanctuary, downstairs where the children were learning, and even beyond the front door, into the streets of Barre.

My life goes on in endless song Above earth’s lamentations, I hear the real, though far-off hymn That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife I hear it’s music ringing, It sounds an echo in my soul.

How can I keep from singing?

Journalist Joe Sexton spent years as a reporter and senior editor at both the New York Times and ProPublica. He lives in Vermont with his family.

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Smoky fried chicken with kale and mashed potatoes

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

The Waybury Way

Under new ownership, East Middlebury’s 200-year-old inn stretches its culinary wings

BY K YMBE R LY BR E C K E NR ID GE

Chef Antonio Petri

DINING INN

PHOTOS: CALEB KENNA

e all love our go-to restaurants, reliable local places that serve good food at a good price. But if you eat there enough times, even a tried-and-true standby can start to feel stale.

Look beyond the beaten path, however, and you might find a new favorite nearby.

The Vermont countryside is dotted with cozy inns, many of which offer dining for guests as well as the public. They often fly under the culinary radar of locals. We think they’re not for us: too fancy, too pricey.

I live near one of those: the 200-yearold Waybury Inn in East Middlebury. It dates back to an era when a trip from Burlington to Middlebury took a day on horseback and most meals outside the home were eaten by travelers stopping overnight at such roadside inns.

In more recent times, the Waybury’s exterior represented a quintessential Vermont country inn in the opening montage of the 1980s sitcom “Newhart,” set at the fictional Stratford Inn. One recent Monday evening, my daughter, husband and I took a short drive from our Cornwall home to see whether the inn could expand our roster of go-to local dining destinations.

In the spring, the inn’s ownership transitioned after a quarter century to Halina and Chas Lyons and chef Antonio Petri.

Now 33 years old, Petri grew up next door to the Waybury and waited for his school bus in front of the inn, he said.

He became executive chef at the Waybury two years ago. Before that, he cooked professionally in Ithaca, N.Y., and Chicago, as well as at the renowned, Israeli-influenced restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia.

In July, Petri told Seven Days that he planned to keep Waybury favorites such as its beefy, mashed potato-crowned shepherd’s pie ($20) while also broadening the menu’s global flavors.

Upon entering the inn, I was disappointed not to spy Larry, his brother Darryl or his other brother Darryl, of “Newhart” fame. But the rustic brick fireplace and warm wood touches immediately established a comforting atmosphere.

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The Waybury offers two menus: one called “fine dining” and one dubbed “tavern.” The fine-dining menu is exactly what you’d imagine, featuring elaborate dishes such as filet mignon with whipped potato and confit of mushroom ($39) and Moroccan-spiced rack of lamb with apricot sauce ($46). They sounded delicious but would bust my normal dining-out budget. I’ll save that menu for birthday or anniversary celebrations.

The tavern menu, meanwhile, offers dishes with lower price tags. The Waybury’s burger ($17), served on a brioche bun with fries, is in the ballpark of what I’d pay at several casual Middlebury restaurants that my family frequents.

But in the spirit of trying new things, we decided to skip the burger and branch out.

Steak frites ($26) silenced my teenage daughter’s usual snarky comments. Her mouth was too full of crisp roasted potatoes and bites of tender steak draped in a silky peppercorn-brandy sauce. She was a little disappointed that the potatoes were not the fries that usually come with this classic.

I opted for the vegetarian Wellington ($24), a generous pastry wrapped around roasted portobello mushroom, spinach, soft chèvre and leeks. It was brightened by a pair of sauces: marinara and basil pesto.

My husband picked the smoky fried chicken leg and thigh ($25), served with mashed potato, braised kale and gravy, then finished with hot honey. The menu said the meat was smoked, something I don’t expect with fried chicken. But the flavor nicely permeated the beer batter and complemented the meat’s sweet, tangy, buzzy marinade of pineapple juice and Aleppo pepper.

I later learned that chef Petri smokes chicken and ribs on-site. Even the eggplant for his eggplant Parmesan ($24) starts in the smoker and ends in a pool of Parmesan cream.

Though not smoked, the surprise hit of the night was the small plate of za’atar carrots ($15) that we all shared. The sweetness of the root vegetable balanced

THE WAYBURY WAY

» P.40

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From left: Danielle Botto and Mike Sands with their toddler, Ember

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SIDEdishes SERVING UP FOOD NEWS

The Cup & Leaf Specialty Coffee Shop Opens in Essex There’s a new café tucked into the Essex Towne Marketplace off Susie Wilson Road. The CUP & LEAF is in the midst of its soft opening, offering coffee and pastries from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. daily.

The cozy café occupies Unit 25 of the shopping center at 1 Market Place, once home to Wicked Wings. It’s the only coffee shop in Vermont using beans from Chicago-based roaster Intelligentsia, a staple of the specialty coffee world.

Co-owner MIKE SANDS, 39, has worked in the coffee industry for a decade, having opened several cafés for a restaurant group in Massachusetts before managing multiple locations of Boston’s Flat Black Coffee. Since he and his wife, co-owner DANIELLE BOTTO, moved to Vermont in 2020, he’s been composing music for film and television.

“That work started to dry up, and it felt like time to do it the way I always imagined in my head,” Sands said of opening his own café. “The universe brought us to this location; it’s a little off the beaten path, but it’s kind of perfect.”

The couple renovated the space and built a new espresso bar. They’re now pouring traditional lattes and cappuccinos, as well as drinks such as the

VISIT OUR TASTING ROOM IN VERGENNES! A latte at the Cup & Leaf

Espresso Spartico: a double shot with lime and brown sugar. Tea, tea lattes, and an extensive hot and iced chocolate menu featuring housemade ganache are also on offer.

“Right now, we’re keeping it whimsical with fun flavored lattes and silly names,” Sands said. “But I’m excited to bring Intelligentsia’s standard and culture here.”

When the kitchen is complete and staffing allows, the Cup & Leaf will serve small plates for breakfast and lunch, including breakfast sandwiches and “northern Scottish comfort food” such as porridge and 12-hour brisket rarebit, Sands said.

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fiancée, HALEY NEWMAN, are working to establish a general store with a deli in their hometown of Johnson. The couple are currently renovating 201 Lower Main Street East, where they hope to open the JOHNSON GENERAL STORE early next year, Mignone, 42, said.

According to Mignone, the loss of Sterling Market has been tough for Johnson. The town’s only supermarket sustained serious damage in the July 2023 floods and never reopened, and discussions with other potential grocery operators have stalled. Although a 3,500-square-foot general store will not replace the larger market, Mignone said it will stock staples, including dairy, meats, produce and household products.

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the kick of spicy feta, citrusy sumac and smoky heat of harissa.

Happily, it was Margarita Monday: We sipped $6 cocktails made with a good shot of tequila and house-squeezed sour mix.

Other nightly deals include $2 oysters on Thursday and Friday, followed by 75-cent wings on Sunday.

As Petri said, the specials are part of

The deli part of the business will “start small,” Mignone said, with premade breakfast and lunch sandwiches and take-and-bake items, such as lasagna, meatloaf and pot pies. Once staffing allows, the store will expand to a full deli with made-to-order sandwiches and possibly an on-site bakery.

Mignone didn’t have a car when he moved to Johnson 21 years ago from Manhattan, where he’d grown up in a restaurant family, he said. He lived across the street from the Johnson General Store location, then DJ’s Corner Store and Deli. Many days, he recalled, “I ate all three of my meals at DJ’s.”

Hangry Mike’s food truck is currently on seasonal hiatus, and Mignone said he expects to sell it. In the meantime, he said, “I want Johnson to have food so quickly, I just might pull the food truck up in front [of the new general store] to cook.”

Melissa Pasanen

CONNECT Follow us for the latest food gossip!

On Instagram: Jordan Barry: @jordankbarry; Melissa Pasanen: @mpasanen.

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The Vermonter hash skillet, housebaked Greek toast and a coffee

Heavenly Hash Revisiting Henry’s Diner under new ownership to enjoy an old favorite

BY M EL I SSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

PHOTOS: DARIA BISHOP

N

either of the customers perched near me at the Henry’s Diner counter on a recent Monday morning knew or cared that the 99-year-old eatery had changed hands earlier this year. And Patricio Ortiz, the downtown Burlington landmark’s new owner, is just fine with that.

Ortiz left a successful engineering career to buy the Bank Street diner in February for $240,000 from Bill and Naomi Maglaris, who had owned Henry’s since 2004 and were ready to retire. First, though, he spent several months poring over the business’ balance sheets.

“We turn 100 next year. The numbers were solid,” Ortiz, 44, said. “Basically, my goal is to keep it running right: I don’t break it, it’s gonna work.”

So far, so good, according to at least two of Henry’s loyal customers — and me — who have all found favorite dishes and the warm, friendly ambience inside the gray stucco walls unchanged.

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Henry’s Diner

resident Charles Olar spooned up the last of his grits and said he visits the diner for breakfast whenever he can fit it around his work schedule. “The food don’t

change,” he said appreciatively. “I like the mom-and-pop feel, the hometown feel.”

Depending on his appetite, the 32-yearold Florida native orders either the Hungry

Henry ($16.95) or the Little Henry ($13.95) which he orders with sausage patties and grits subbed for the home fries. The southern staple, Olar noted, is not easy to find on Vermont menus.

At the end of the counter, Cindy O’Hara, also of Burlington, said she treats herself to a Henry’s breakfast every couple of months. She and I have the same go-to diner order: corned beef hash.

“I sometimes cringe when I see homemade corned beef hash on a menu,” O’Hara, 43, admitted. But the finely ground, house-brined and -braised beef version at Henry’s more than meets her standards. It’s fried up with onions and served on a bed of crunchy home fries topped with a little melted cheddar and two eggs in a sturdy cast-iron skillet.

“It’s the right consistency, chopped correctly with the right seasonings,” O’Hara said, “and I like the skillet with everything in there all together.”

My rock-solid appreciation of Henry’s Vermonter hash skillet ($13.95) grew

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during my recent visit, when “Patricio came in green, but he’s a good learner,” she the diner’s general manager, Kim Smith, recommended said of Ortiz. The hands-on house-baked Greek toast owner mostly works behind for the dish’s carb crown. the scenes — improving processes, doing quality The generously buttered, thickly sliced, cragcontrol and fixing equipgy-textured white bread ment when it goes on the with a sesame-speckled crust fritz — but he’s mastered takeserved beautifully to mop up the runny out orders, Smith said. “My next trick is, he’s going to be serving tables,” she said yolks of my perfectly over-easy eggs.

Smith, 54, is on the roster of seven with a chuckle. diner employees who have stayed Ortiz, an affable strawberry blond through the ownership transition. With- with a thick accent, is willing to jump in out them, Ortiz said, he would be lost. wherever he’s needed, but he’s happiest Nodding toward Smith bustling around keeping a low profile. Parts of Henry’s the diner, he said, “She’s more than my menu reflect the past owners’ Greek heriright hand.” tage — for instance, Ortiz’s favorite SantoPreserving a slice of Americana rini ($10.25), an egg sandwich dressed was never a dream for with spinach, tomato and Ortiz, who came to the feta and served on that NICK PARENT ALYSSA NICK PARENT DEUTSCH ALYSSA JOE DOUD DEUTSCH JUSTIN JOE DOUD WYDRA MORGAN JUSTIN WYDRA WOOLF REBECCA MORGANWILLIAMS WOOLF REBECCA RONNIEWILLIAMS RYAN JOHN RONNIE MALONEY RYAN JOHN MALON U.S. from Argentina as a excellent Greek bread.

Owner/Broker Mortgage Owner/Broker Loan Mortgage Mortgage Loan Loan Mortgage Mortgage Loan Loan Mortgage Mortgage Loan Loan Mortgage Mortgage Loan Loan Mortgage Mortgage Loan Loan Mortgage Mortgage Loan Loan Mortgage Loa Fulbright scholar 17 years Asked if any Argentinean Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer Officer ago. In 2016, he moved to classics might show up on Vermont, where his wife the menu, though, the new As your statewide resource As your statewide for residential resource mortgages, for residential refinances, mortgages, refinances, was completing her PhD. owner demurred. our teamfinancing, has the experience ourresource team has you the experience you and investment property and investment financing, As yourproperty statewide for residential mortgages, can trust for all yourcan home trustfinancing for all your needs, home including financing Conventional needs, including Conventional The couple and their “I don’t push my taste refinances and investment property financing, Financing, FHA, USDA Financing, RD, VA, FHA, Jumbo, USDA andRD, Portfolio VA, Jumbo, loan options. and Portfolio loan options. two children now live in on the diner,” he said. our team has the experience you can trust for all your CHARLE S OL AR Richmond.

“Henry’s has its own idenhome financing needs, including Financing, After working for tity and spirit. I won’t try 802.863.2020 802.863.2020 Burlington Burlington Vermont & Southern Vermont | VermontMortgageCompany.com | VermontMortgageCompany.com | Offices inConventional | Offices&inSouthern others for many years, Ortiz had to put a Patricio Ortiz spin on it. It’s an FHA, USDA RD, VA, Jumbo and Portfolio loan options. resolved to become his own boss and American diner.” ➆ looked for a solid business in which to invest. “It could have been a chocolate “One Dish” is a series that samples a factory. It could have been a factory that single menu item — new, classic or fleeting — at a Vermont restaurant or other makes buttons,” he said.

Unlike her boss, Smith has decades of food venue. Know of a great plate we diner experience, including managing the should feature? Drop us a line: food@ Maple City Diner in St. Albans for a dozen sevendaysvt.com. years. (Rumor has it that she occasionally makes a delectable peanut butter cream INFO 802.863.2020 | Offices in Burlington & Southern Vermont pie with an Oreo crust for the Henry’s Henry’s Diner, 155 Bank St., Burlington, VermontMortgageCompany.com dessert case.)

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culture HOLIDAYS

A Charlie Brown Christmas

Beyond Scrooge Yule be glad you caught these Vermont holiday shows that don’t suck B Y D AN BOL L ES • dan@sevendaysvt.com

And I on the couch, dog in my lap, Had just settled in for some more Christmas crap, When what to our wondering ears should appear But rock-and-roll Santa spreading holiday cheer?

On, Swale! On, Matt Hagen! On, Kat Wright and Brett Hughes!

On, Wizards of Winter ripping metal riffs, too!

Here’s a John Denver tribute, plus Vince Guaraldi.

You love you some Nutcracker? Yeah, we’ve got that, times three.

Away to the box office I flew like a flash, Tore open my wallet and threw down some cash.

What to do this yuletide? Friends, you’re in luck.

Here’s a sackful of holiday shows that don’t suck.

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Holiday music extravaganzas

In the canon of TV Christmas specials, star-studded spectaculars are a rich and varied perennial. Singing celebs have long helped make the season bright, from

SWEETBACK SISTERS COUNTRY CHRISTMAS SING-

ALONG SPECTACULAR at the Stone Church in

Brattleboro on Friday, December 20. Led

by Sweetback Sisters vocalist Zara Bode, the show aims to capture the magic of classic TV Christmas specials with a mix of carols, offbeat original music and funny trivia.

COURTESY OF KAYHL COOPER

T

’

CHRISTMAS STARS

was three weeks before Christmas, and all through Vermont We were so tired of the same Christmas schlock.

From Griswolds to Grinches to another Christmas Carol, TV options were stale as a tin popcorn barrel.

the Rat Pack’s swingin’ Christmases; to Stephen Colbert trading tunes with John Legend, Feist and Toby Keith; to Pee-wee Herman making merry at his Playhouse with Charo, Frankie Avalon and k.d. lang.

The Vermont music scene has its own equivalents. Backed by an all-star collection of locals, musical polymath MATT HAGEN unveils his new original holiday album, Matt Hagen’s Christmas Bath, with a show at Nectar’s in Burlington on Wednesday, December 18. Read more next week about that record, which includes contributions from singer Grace Potter, Phish drummer Jon Fishman and rocker James Kochalka.

Among the longer-running local holiday showcases is A VERY HAIRY SWALEMESS, hosted by local art-rock band Swale since 2017. The quartet performs Christmas tunes both classic and obscure and serves as the backing band for the likes of Craig Mitchell and Francesca Blanchard. (It ain’t Christmas in Burlington until Ryan Ober and Jason Cooley do Run-D.M.C.’s “Christmas in Hollis.”) This year’s Swalemess hits on Sunday, December 22, at the Light Club Lamp Shop in Burlington.

A fresh tradition may be born unto the Capital City this season. On Saturday, December 7, the Montpelier Performing Arts Hub hosts the SLAPHAPPY SANTA CHRISTMAS SPECTACULAR. The benefit for the newly opened community venue features a 14-piece big band, led by trumpeter and bandleader Brian Boyes, playing blues, swing and rock renditions of holiday favorites.

If all that harking and heralding has you jonesing to join the chorus, don’t miss the

Swale

YOUR TEAM DESERVES TO SHINE BLUE CHRISTMAS

TWISTED CHRISTMAS

While Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for some, midwinter can be bleak for others. If you’re away from family, unhappily single or otherwise down at the holidays, your eggnog may be spiked with melancholy — and whiskey. Of course, that all makes for great songwriting fodder, and there’s a whole slumped branch of Christmas music dedicated to sad tidings and wistful nostalgia.

In Vermont, the foremost purveyors of glistening-eyed holiday music are Kat Wright and Brett Hughes. For more than a decade, the KAT & BRETT HOLIDAY SHOW has broadened the seasonal options with sad and sweet Christmas songs, including a few originals. This year, backed by Swale and Rough Francis bassist Tyler

Sure, you can spend your holidays watching Hallmark movies and listening to Mariah Carey. But for braver souls — or damaged ones — there’s another side of Christmas that’s darker, weirder and hornier.

The WIZARDS OF WINTER are an 11-piece rock ensemble composed of former members of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Alice Cooper, Blue Oyster Cult and Def Leppard. As you might infer from the lineup, the band’s take on Christmas music is decidedly glam metal.

The Wizards hit the Barre Opera House on Friday, December 13, performing The Christmas Dream, an original rock opera about searching for the meaning of Christmas. (Spoiler: The meaning of Christmas is finger-tapping guitar solos and octave riffs.)

If heavy metal isn’t heavy enough for your holidays, hit up the fourth annual HARDCORE HOLIDAY SHOW at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington, also on Friday the 13th.

A benefit for Feeding Chittenden, the showcase features a sleighfull of local and regional hardcore bands, including Vermont’s Old North End, Dead Solace, Challenger and Outnumbered, plus western Massachusetts act Concrete Ties.

For an entirely different kind of heavy metal, try TUBACHRISTMAS, a gathering of local tuba, euphonium and sousaphone players on Saturday, December 21. The celebration of yuletide cheer and cumbersome instruments has been running in cities around the world for more than a half-century. In Burlington, players will convene for rehearsal at the Fletcher Free Library at 10 a.m. before marching up the Church Street Marketplace playing holiday favorites at 1 p.m.

If you want to ditch your company Christmas party, we don’t blame you. Instead, check out the ANNUAL

Sad music for happy holidays

Kat Wright and Brett Hughes

Bolles and multi-instrumentalist Will Seeders, Wright and Hughes play 10 intimate holiday shows all over the state.

Their run, which kicked off last weekend in Bennington and includes stops in Burlington, Middlebury and Waitsfield, wraps up at the Richmond Free Library on Saturday, December 21.

Maine singer-songwriter and artist Dan Blakeslee should probably have honorary Vermonter status, given how often he plays here. (Plus, he did the art for the Alchemist’s Heady Topper and Focal Banger beer cans.) Blakeslee has a thing for holidays — his Halloween shows always draw a crowd — and has been writing Christmas songs for nearly two decades. Hear his tunes, which mix childlike whimsy (“To Be an Elf”) with more somber reflections (“The Somerville Lights”), at A DAN BLAKESLEE CHRISTMAS at Radio Bean in Burlington on Tuesday, December 10.

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VCC HOLIDAYGASM PARTY, GIFT SWAP & OPEN

MIC on Wednesday, December 18, at

Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington.

Essentially a holiday party for the local comedy scene, the show is part improv jam and part standup open mic, with a Yankee gift swap thrown in for good measure. It sounds like a blast, but be warned: There’s a good chance everyone involved will end up on the naughty list.

BEYOND SCROOGE

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culture Tim Meadows

obsessed?

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Vermont Comedy Festival returns with its largest lineup of regional and national standup acts

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BY KE N P IC AR D • ken@sevendaysvt.com

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Max Higgins

FILE: LUKE AWTRY

ctor and comedian Tim Meadows, who headlines this year’s Vermont Comedy Festival at the Woodstock Town Hall Theatre, jokes that white people frequently mistake him for fellow actor Don Cheadle. It happens so often that Meadows’ FAQ page includes only one question: “Is Tim Meadows Don Cheadle?”

The Detroit native, known for his 10 seasons on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and such movies as Mean Girls, Wayne’s World 2 and Dream Scenario, also enjoys riffing on his beleaguered hometown.

As he told a crowd recently at New York City’s Gotham Comedy Club, “If you ever get out of New York and go to Detroit for a visit and find yourself in a nice area, I got news for you: You’re in Chicago.”

Meadows is one of about 60 standup comedians who will take the stage this week at the third annual Vermont Comedy Festival, the state’s largest gathering of standup comedians. From Thursday through Sunday, December 5 to 8, comics from across the U.S. and Canada will perform at five Upper Valley venues.

Many of the shows are free, including those at Still on the Mountain in Killington, Long Trail Brewing in Bridgewater Corners and the Ottauquechee Yacht Club in Woodstock.

The lineup features Nadia Quinn, a New York City stage and screen actor, singer, and standup comic who appeared in Steven Spielberg’s 2021 West Side Story, the HBO series “Succession” and

the New York Times. The show, which she performs with her husband, Aaron Quinn, highlights the couple’s many musical talents in songs such as the risqué “Everyone’s a Little Bisexual.”

Also on the bill is Nikki MacCallum, another New York City comic whose solo off-Broadway musical comedy show, Adulting for Idiots, won Best Musical at the 2023 United Solo festival.

Among a few local faves on the festival program is Max Higgins. The bespectacled comic, formerly of Burlington, got his start in comedy while attending the University of Vermont and won the 2023 Seven Daysie for best standup comic in Vermont.

CO UR Though he recently moved to Brooklyn, he’ll be back for midnight shows on Friday and Saturday at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club.

“I was never much of a girl,” Higgins joked about coming out as trans at a show earlier this year at Burlington’s Vermont Comedy Club. “I was about as much a girl as three children stacked in a trench coat are an adult.”

The Vermont Comedy Festival is the brainchild of Collen Doyle and Matt Vita, thirtysomething actors and comedians who’ve run the Woolen Mill Comedy Club in Bridgewater for the past 10 years. The festival, which draws more than 1,000 attendees annually, is considered the unofficial start of Wassail Weekend, a 40-year winter tradition of food, music and holiday revelry in Woodstock.

Following a kickoff party at Ramunto’s Brick & Brew Pizza in Bridgewater, the festival will begin with the head-to-head 1 Minute Stand Up Battle at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club on Thursday. Fifty comedians each perform a one-minute standup act, and the audience decides which of them move on through four rounds. The winner is invited to headline a show at the Woolen Mill at a later date.

Last year’s winner was Dennis Rooney, a staple of Long Island’s comedy scene.

“It’s a super high-energy show,” Vita said. “A lot of people say it’s one of their favorite shows of the festival each year.” ➆

MAX HIGGINS GOT HIS START IN COMEDY

WHILE ATTENDING THE UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT. the ABC sitcom “Black-ish.” On Sunday at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club in Bridgewater, she’ll do a holiday version of the show she performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe show in August, which was critically acclaimed and covered in

INFO Vermont Comedy Festival, Thursday to Sunday, December 5 to 8, various locations.

Free-$45. vermontcomedyfestival.com

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culture

These are a few of our favorite things

Audrey Bernstein

Chris�mas

Bazaar

BAH, HUMBUG

SATURDAY, DEC. 7 10 A.M.-3 P.M.

Keeping holiday traditions fresh

If you had to spend Christmas on a Trinity Episcopal Church desert island with only one Christmas 5171 Shelburne Road, album, what would it be? Probably Shelburne, Vermont Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas, right? The soundtrack CRAFTS • ORNAMENTS • DECORATIONS • BAKED GOODS • to the 1965 TV special may be the JAMS & JELLIESKIDS’ TABLE • RAFFLES most universally beloved holiday KNITTED ITEMS • CROCHETED ITEMS standard, which could explain PINECONE WREATHS • TINY PAINTINGS why Spruce Peak Arts in Stowe WOODEN BOWLS • FUSED GLASS is hosting a nearly two-week run of A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS LIVE IN CONCERT. Running from Thursday, 16T-PCorologos120424.indd 1 11/15/24 11:04 AM December 12, to Christmas Eve, the live-action version features the whole “Peanuts” gang, Guaraldi’s iconic score and one scraggly tree.

If you could have two Christmas albums on that desert island, your second choice might well be a John Denver offering, with or without the Muppets. In that case, the JOHN DENVER CHRISTMAS CONCERT WITH CHRIS COLLINS AND BOULDER CANYON, at the Barre Opera

House on Saturday, December 14, is for you. Despite Collins’ resemblance to the late bespectacled singer, the show is meant not as an impersonation but as a tribute to Denver’s beloved Christmas concerts and specials.

Finally, there is no greater Christmas tale than A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella has been adapted countless times to stage and screen, from the Albert Finney-led musical Scrooge to Bill Murray’s comedy Scrooged. The CO story of Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim and a cadre of spirits is so canonical, it’s easy to overlook how powerful and spooky the original is. In what’s become an indispensable annual tradition, Yankee storyteller Willem Lange performs A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY, a live reading of Dickens’ classic, at Lost Nation Theater in Montpelier on Sunday, December 15, with a live stream available through Tuesday, December 31. No humbugs allowed. ➆

Nutcrackers galore!

Whether you’re catching It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve, caroling through the snow or watching Uncle John get blind drunk on mulled wine, Christmas is nothing without traditions. Among the season’s most cherished annual rites is The Nutcracker, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet set in a child’s imagination on Christmas Eve. Three local theater and dance companies mount the show this month.

At the Flynn in Burlington, the Vermont Ballet Theater

JO

OF

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ES

RT

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VISIONS OF SUGARPLUMS

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LA

From Ella and Louis to Frank and Bing to John Coltrane, some of the most enduring Christmas music comes from the jazz world.

Those wishing to hear holiday classics scatted and swung must have been good this year: Vermont’s jazz scene is bursting with holiday cheer in December.

AUDREY BERNSTEIN has long reigned as one of Vermont’s preeminent jazz vocalists. But she’s taken a hiatus from performing the past few years, focusing instead on teaching the next generation of local jazz singers. The sultry chanteuse, whose voice the Los Angeles Times likened to “cognac over ice,” makes her return to the stage on Friday, December 13, performing a Lane Series holiday program at the University of Vermont Recital Hall, backed by John Denver a crew of ace players including Christmas Concert Evan Allen, Geoff Kim, Jeremy Hill, Patricia Julien and Dan Ryan. Call it a Christmas miracle.

Bernstein isn’t the only local hepcat swinging in the holiday season. The 18-piece BRIAN MCCARTHY JAZZ ORCHESTRA plays a trio of holiday shows this month, on Friday, December 6, at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury; Saturday, December 7, at Vermont State University in Johnson; and Sunday, December 8, at Vermont State University in Lyndon. Ray Vega, renowned trumpeter and host of Vermont Public’s “Friday Night Jazz,” is the featured guest.

Canadian vocalist and trumpeter BRIA SKONBERG scored Spotify fame with her slinky cover of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” in 2017. She’ll perform that tune and other jazzed-up classics Green Mountain at her “Jingle Bell Swing ” Nutcracker holiday concert at Middlebury College’s Mahaney Arts Center on Wednesday, December 4.

VERMONT BYWAYS

BY

A SWINGING HOLIDAY

and School presents VERMONT’S OWN NUTCRACKER at four performances on Saturday and Sunday, December

21 and 22.

That same weekend at the Barre Opera House, Moving Light Dance offers a local spin TUESDAYS > 7:30 A.M. on the show with GREEN MOUNTAIN NUTCRACKER. A cast of 65 professional and community dancers performs this rendition set in Vermont in the 1970s.

For a more traditional interpretation of the show, don’t miss the Dance Factory at Springfield High School on Saturday and16t-vcamWEEKLY24.indd 11/5/24 16t-vcam-weekly.indd 1 1 11/2/20 2:39 3:07 PM Sunday, December 14 and 15, the longest-running local production of THE NUTCRACKER in Vermont.

ZEN

Beyond Scrooge « P.45

Disclosure: Tyler Bolles is the author’s brother.

Cannabis Dispensary

Happy Holidays to One and All!

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802-851-8735 Hours: Mon-Sat 11am-7pm Sunday 11am- 4pm Cannabis has not been analyzed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For use by individuals 21 years of age and older or registered qualifying patient only. KEEP THIS PRODUCT AWAY FROM CHILDREN AND PETS. DO NOT USE IF PREGNANT OR BREASTFEEDING. Possession or use of cannabis may carry significant legal penalties in some jurisdictions and under federal law. It may not be transported outside of the state of Vermont. The effects of edible cannabis may be delayed by two hours or more. Cannabis may be habit forming and can impair concentration, coordination, and judgment. Persons 25 years and younger may be more likely to experience harm to the developing brain. It is against the law to drive or operate machinery when under the influence of this product. National Poison Control Center 1-800-222-1222.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024 GG8v-wildlegacy112724.indd 1

49 11/13/24 12:37 PM

EVA SOLLBERGER

culture

Episode 729: Illuminating Montpelier’s Bridges

Montpelier Alive estimates that 1,000 people were in the parade!

What moments of the evening stood out to you?

There were many cute kids wearing colorful wings and blinking cat ears.

We even met one young man who was celebrating his birthday. It was exciting to be out at night with the moon overhead, following a large crowd of people and listening to the invigorating music of Brass Balagan. Parading over the bridges almost felt like a ritual, hoping for brighter days. And it was fun to see the children’s faces illuminated by the explosive fire performance by Cirque de Fuego.

A crowd in Montpelier for the bridge lighting ceremony

Montpelier Is Lit

Hundreds gathered in the Capital City to celebrate the lighting of seven bridges

T

he Capital City is shining light into the darkest days of winter.

For the first time, the downtown revitalization nonprofit Montpelier Alive has illuminated seven of the city’s historic bridges with thousands of bulbs. Every night through mid-February, and on special occasions, they will stand bright above the Winooski River and its North Branch. After the heartbreaking floods Montpelier experienced in 2023, the lights are a sparkling sign of community spirit and strength.

At a kickoff ceremony in midNovember, hundreds of people carrying glowing lanterns met on the Langdon Street bridge for cookies and celebratory speeches. When the bridges were lit, the lantern parade followed the Brass Balagan street band toward the Main Street bridge. The procession ended near the Taylor Street bridge for a fiery performance by Cirque de Fuego.

Senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger recorded the festivities for the latest episode of “Stuck in Vermont.” She spoke with Seven Days about the filming process.

bridge slowly fill with hundreds of people carrying creative lights. The lanterns were in a variety of interesting shapes: a bridge, the state of Vermont with a heart, a giant butterfly. It was definitely heartwarming to be surrounded by lights as darkness fell.

PARADING OVER THE BRIDGES ALMOST FELT LIKE A RITUAL,

Why did you feature this event?

I love Montpelier and have been amazed by how resilient the community has been after the devastating floods. It is such a unique and funky capital, and I enjoy bringing out-oftown friends for a visit. These dark winter nights can be a bit depressing, so I jumped at an opportunity to be surrounded by people and lights.

Tell us about the drone footage in the video.

I always wish that I had a drone to get a bird’seye view of large events like this. Luckily, Paul Richardson of Storyworkz was willing to share his wonderful drone footage from the evening, which included a really cool shot of the Taylor Street bridge as day turned to night. His footage of the city and bridges all lit up with the moon hovering above was also wonderful.

Covering parades can be difficult, especially when there are a lot of people.

HOPING FOR BRIGHTER DAYS.

What was the scene like?

My friend Kelly Thomas came along on the trip, and we arrived early, before the crowds had gathered. It was cool to see the empty

How is Montpelier recovering from the floods?

It’s hard not to remember those painful images of the downtown engulfed by water and people kayaking down State Street. Montpelier residents and business owners were hit so hard by the 2023 floods. It has been really inspiring to see the community come together to survive this difficult chapter. Many businesses are open and ready for the holiday rush. Now more than ever, we need to shop local to support them.

There is a set of markers at the Langdon Street bridge that really put the past floods into perspective. They show the water levels for the 1927, 1992, 2011 and 2023 floods. The 1927 marker was well above our heads and, at 535 feet relative to sea level, the highest recorded flood in the city. I can’t even imagine what the downtown must have looked like swamped by eight to 10 feet of water. For comparison, the 2023 flood inundated the downtown with three to four feet of water.

There are no easy answers for our small towns, which were built along rivers, but I am confident the residents of Montpelier will find a way forward.

Events such as the bridge lighting show the town’s community spirit and provide hope. ➆

Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger has been making her award-winning video series, “Stuck in Vermont,” since 2007. New episodes appear on the Seven Days website every other Thursday and air the following night on the WCAX evening news. Sign up at sevendaysvt.com to receive an email alert each time a new one drops. And check these pages every other week for insights on the episodes.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Seven Days is one of 12 “Bright Spots” for local news across the country, according to Medill’s State of Local News 2024 report. Help us illuminate Vermont news, food, arts and culture — make a contribution and become a Super Reader. The best way to give is through a monthly recurring donation that will power our reporting all year long.

Go with the glow and donate at:

sevendaysvt.com/super-readers Or send a note (and a check) to: Seven Days c/o Super Readers PO Box 1164 Burlington, VT 05402

Contact Gillian English at 865-1020, ext. 115 or superreaders@sevendaysvt.com.

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12/3/24 4:34 PM

on screen A Real Pain ★★★★★ Memoir of a Snail ★★★★★ COURTESY OF MONGREL MEDIA

A bullied girl finds safety in identifying with a snail in Adam Elliot’s gorgeously quirky stop-motion animation.

G

rief is a difficult subject for movies. It doesn’t tend to fit into a story arc, spiraling out instead into self-destructive coping mechanisms that defy a clear resolution.

It can be amorphous yet persistent, even passing from generation to generation.

And it’s a hard sell to holiday shoppers at the multiplex.

But films that grapple with all the messiness of grief can also be deeply cathartic.

I watched two recent ones that are likely to show up on 2024 award ballots — one live-action, one animated.

Jesse Eisenberg, best known as the Oscar-nominated star of The Social Network, has been making waves as a writer-director. His second feature, A Real Pain (at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier and Majestic 10 in Williston at press time), is far from a vanity project. Though Eisenberg also stars, he’s given himself the “quiet” part, reacting throughout to a much showier performance by Kieran Culkin. Both show great skill, whether portraying emotional explosion or restraint.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

REVIEWS The two play cousins who have drifted apart over the years: While David (Eisenberg) has a career and a family, Benji (Culkin) is still living in his mom’s basement and figuring life out. In the wake of their beloved grandmother’s death, the cousins travel together to Poland to visit her childhood home. First, however, they spend several days on a Jewish heritage tour helmed by a British gentile (Will Sharpe) whose smooth, self-conscious sensitivity rubs Benji the wrong way.

Benji has the kind of big, volatile personality that was made for sitcoms — he’s always stirring up excitement or conflict, as if terrified of boredom. It’s easy to imagine a broadly comic version of this movie in which we’d watch him transform the staid group into free spirits, sleeping with the attractive older widow (Jennifer Grey) and teaching the sober survivor of Rwandan genocide (Kurt Egyiawan) how to laugh again.

But A Real Pain is more drama than comedy. It forces us to look straight at Benji and recognize all the ways he hurts himself and others, even as he entertains them. As

David tells him, “You light up a room, and then you shit on everything in it.”

The film is also a meticulous study of group dynamics and generational trauma. Comparing their hardworking Holocaust survivor grandmother to his aimless stoner cousin, David can’t fathom the disconnect. But Benji feels the weight of the past. When the group visits the Majdanek concentration camp, the music cuts out, and Benji’s chatter gives way to a prayerful silence. On the surface, A Real Pain might look like just an odd couple travelogue, but its currents run deep, and viewers may find themselves pondering its unresolved questions days later.

While A Real Pain faces grief with straightforward realism, Memoir of a Snail (rentable on various platforms) takes a whimsical route. The second feature from Australian Oscar winner Adam Elliot (Mary and Max), this R-rated stop-motion animation tells the colorful story of Grace Pudel (voiced by Charlotte Belsey as a child and Sarah Snook as an adult), who narrates.

Born with a cleft palate, motherless

Grace is bullied at school but thrives at home with her paraplegic dad (Dominique Pinon) and twin brother, Gilbert (Mason Litsos and Kodi Smit-McPhee). The twins collect snails, and their pet of choice — safe in its shell from the cruel world — becomes Grace’s personal icon.

Then tragedy strikes, and Grace and Gilbert are packed off to foster families on opposite sides of the continent. While Grace finds a mentor in her octogenarian neighbor, Pinky (Jacki Weaver), Gilbert lives under the iron hand of evangelical orchardists who consider his very essence — arty, goth, gay — to be a sin. Once protected by her brother, Grace is now powerless to help him.

Memoir of a Snail hinges on simple value judgments: Art, freedom and weirdos are good; repression and patriarchy are bad.

But the film’s retro style and setting (the 1970s) give an air of authenticity to its oldschool progressive values. The paucity of dialogue keeps us focused on the visual storytelling. And the wonderfully bizarre, tactile animation creates a world that feels just removed enough from ours to be a fable, with a whiff of the earnest kids’ Claymation of the pre-digital era.

In press materials, Elliot says he wanted to celebrate the “lumps, bumps and imperfections” of clay, creating figures that look “as if made in a hurry or by someone who was drunk.” He succeeded. Memoir is the antidote to computer-animated blockbusters: Everything looks gritty, grimy, weathered or mossy, and you can almost feel the different textures.

The movie is full of deliciously random moments — as when Pinky’s dead husbands pop up in flashbacks, one of them voiced

by Aussie musical icon Nick Cave. Elliot embraces a pack-rat aesthetic while acknowledging that clutter can also be a symptom of unprocessed trauma. As the adult Grace’s mental health deteriorates, her home becomes a hoarder haven, a metaphorical shell full of snail-themed tchotchkes. But Weaver’s Pinky is a cigarchomping force of nature, and thanks to her influence, Grace eventually finds a path out of grief.

In both these movies, the older generation offers inspiration to sad, floundering young people. Benji in A Real Pain fondly recalls his grandmother’s gumption, although healing evades him. Grief isn’t something we can just purge and forget, these films suggest, but something we need to make our peace with, because it owes its existence to love.

MARGO T HARRI S O N margot@sevendaysvt.com

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COURTESY OF NEON

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NEW IN THEATERS FLOW: This Latvian animation, recipient of many festival awards, follows the fate of a cat who must team up with other animals to survive a natural disaster. Gints Zilbalodis directed. (84 min, PG. Savoy) SOLO LEVELING: REAWAKENING: The South Korean web novel, webtoon and anime continues in animated movie form, directed by Shunsuke Nakashige. (121 min, NR. Essex) SOUNDTRACK TO A COUP D’ETAT: Johan Grimonprez’s documentary explores how two activist musicians crashed the United Nations Security Council during the Cold War. (150 min, NR. Savoy) STANDING ON THE SHOULDERS OF KITTIES: The Trailer Park Boys return in the latest movie based on the cult Canadian series. Mike Smith and Billy Bob Thornton star; Charlie Lightening directed. (111 min, R. Essex) Y2K: It wasn’t the end of the world — except maybe for the characters in this high school horror-comedy set at the turn of the millennium, directed by Kyle Mooney. Jaeden Martell and Rachel Zegler star. (93 min, R. Essex)

CURRENTLY PLAYING ANORAHHHH The Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or went to this drama about the romance between a sex worker (Mikey Madison) and a Russian oligarch’s son from writer-director Sean Baker (Red Rocket). (139 min, R. Majestic; reviewed 11/20) THE BEST CHRISTMAS PAGEANT EVERHHH Six siblings known for making trouble take over the local church’s festivities in this comedy from director Dallas Jenkins, starring Lauren Graham and Judy Greer. (99 min, PG. Capitol)

A REAL PAINHHHH1/2 Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed and stars with Kieran Culkin in this comedy-drama about two estranged cousins exploring their family history in Poland. (90 min, R. Majestic, Savoy; reviewed 12/4) RED ONEH1/2 The North Pole’s head of security (Dwayne Johnson) joins forces with a bounty hunter (Chris Evans) to rescue a kidnapped Santa Claus in this action comedy. (123 min, PG-13. Bijou, Essex, Majestic, Paramount, Star) WICKEDHHH1/2 Gregory Maguire’s subversive take on The Wizard of Oz becomes a musical becomes a movie starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande.

Jon M. Chu directed. (160 min, PG. Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Playhouse, Star, Stowe, Welden; reviewed 11/27) THE WILD ROBOTHHHH1/2 A shipwrecked robot becomes caretaker to an orphaned gosling in this animated family adventure. (101 min, PG. Majestic)

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OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS CRAFT AND ROM COM (Savoy, Wed 4 only) FOR KING AND COUNTRY’S A DRUMMER BOY CHRISTMAS LIVE (Essex, Thu, Sat & Sun only) METROPOLITAN OPERA: THE MAGIC FLUTE, HOLIDAY ENCORE (Essex, Sat only) MOONRISE KINGDOM (Catamount, Wed 4 only) MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (Essex, Sat-Mon & Wed 11 only)

OPEN THEATERS (* = upcoming schedule for theater was not available at press time)

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CONCLAVEHHHH A conspiracy interferes with the selection of a new pope in this thriller starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, directed by Edward Berger. (120 min, PG. Catamount, Majestic)

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15 20 25

MOANA 2HHH The islander heroine (voice of Auli’i Cravalho) must form her own crew and sail unknown seas to break a curse in the sequel to the animated Disney hit, also starring Dwayne Johnson and Alan Tudyk. (100 min, PG. Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Paramount, Star, Stowe, Welden)

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HERETICHHHH1/2 Missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) try to convert the wrong person (Hugh Grant) in this horror film from directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. (110 min, R. Majestic; reviewed 11/13)

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BONHOEFFER: PASTOR. SPY. ASSASSIN: A Lutheran minister (Jonas Dassler) joins a plot to assassinate Hitler in this historical thriller directed

by Todd Komarnicki. (132 min, PG-13. Capitol)

GLADIATOR IIHHH Ridley Scott directed the sequel to his 2000 epic of ancient Rome, in which Maximus’ son (Paul Mescal) is forced to fight for his life just like Dad. With Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington and Connie Nielsen. (148 min, R. Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Stowe, Welden)

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11/18/24 6:00 PM

art

Water, Water Everywhere “Elemental” makes waves at Mad River Valley Arts B Y A M Y L I L LY • lilly@sevendaysvt.com From left: “Champlain Tonglen II (white)” by Cameron Davis; "The Infinite Shapes of Water" by Tina Valentinetti; “Raging River” by Dave King

R

ecent catastrophic flooding in Vermont has cast water as something of a menace, but at Mad River Valley Arts in Waitsfield, a water-themed group exhibition reminds viewers of the element’s inspirational side. Sam Talbot-Kelly, who curates the nonprofit gallery, said the theme for “Elemental” came to her during her daily commute from Montpelier along the Winooski River.

“I flow with the river,” Talbot-Kelly said of her drive, adding that a Winooski tributary, the Mad River, defines the gallery’s own community.

“Elemental” brings together 21 artists from around the U.S., including eight Vermonters. As with recent exhibitions Talbot-Kelly curated with themes of trees and flight, she used an online call-toartists platform to source work. The result, which garnered artists from Louisiana to New Mexico, is equally wide-ranging in experience and media, from emerging to seasoned artists and paint to video installation.

Three large-format color photographs of crashing waves, by Waitsfield resident Tesla Hausman, greet visitors from the gallery’s exterior window displays. For “Bonaire Waves” 1, 2 and 3, Hausman captured the Caribbean island’s translucent crests from beach level, excising any visual information that might put them in perspective. They could be surfing height or ankle dusters; either way, they look dramatically kinetic.

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Inside the gallery, Charlotte artist Cameron Davis’ work dominates the first of two rooms. A longtime senior lecturer in studio art at the University of Vermont who also teaches in environmental studies, Davis contributed several works from her 2017 series “Airs, Waters, Soils (Places)”: four 48-by-60-inch oil paintings and two installations of apothecary jars, etched and filled with water, sand, soil, stones and plants from Lake Champlain and its

tributaries. The earth-toned paintings are dreamlike miasmas of plant life; Davis hints at water through dappling or threading. The luminous white apple blossoms of “Champlain Tonglen II (white)” reference invasive plants in Lake Champlain, according to Davis’ artist statement, compiled in an exhibition pamphlet of writings by all the artists.

Water quality is also a concern of Michale Glennon, an upstate New York

fiber artist who works with scientific research organizations in the Adirondack Park. Her “Wool and Water” project, which integrates scientific data and fiber arts, is currently on view at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier. Glennon’s crocheted and knitted works, draped over pedestals, are visual representations of scientific water-quality measurements and conditions. While the artist has found that her fiber works are “more powerful

ART SHOWS

than graphs, charts and lectures” for of “the beauty and fragility of the ecosysinforming viewers, a legend tems that lie just below the surface,” he showing how to interpret writes. her ridged and cellA variegated cobalt blue threaded like fiber patterns with black characterizes Nancy would have been McCormack’s monotype “Cultivation helpful. no. 4.” The printmaker from Raynham, Bonnie Barnes of Mass., used pochoir, a stenciling Fayston, a board process, to print thin, wavy lines member at Mad over the abstract work’s upper block of swirling color while River Valley Arts, contributed a minia smaller, lower block malist black-andbalances the composition white photograph with calming striations. titled “The Water Runs M. Leuschel’s blueFree.” In her statement, dominated mixed-media Barnes describes the steam work, “Ethereal Ocean,” and melted streams created approaches that body by a hot magma chamber of water metaphorilocated beneath a frozen cally, aligning its “vast caldera, or cratered volcano. mystery” with the In the photo’s calligraphic unseen depths of zigzag on a featureless white consciousness. Water plain, it’s unclear if water exists for the artist or a formation caused by mainly in childhood its absence is pictured, memories of oceans but the inundation reads and lakes; Leuschel lives as natural and even in Santa Fe, N.M. mystical.

It is impossible not to think A video installation of climate change while viewtitled “Puddle Music,” ing “Elemental,” though few of

by Waitsfield resident the artists represented explore Julie Parker, projects the topic directly. Water was intersecting ripples of integral to Dave King’s process blue light into a corner in creating his soft sculpture of the gallery, imitating “Raging River.” The Oak Park, Ill., disturbances on a pond’s artist soaked both the abaca paper to surface. Parker is a Massachushape its crushed-funnel forms and the setts Institute of Technology rattan strips that hold those forms in Media Lab graduate and cofounder of place. King doesn’t talk about climate Creative Micro change as an influence, but both his i n Wa i t s f i e l d , which develops dramatic choice of augmented-reality title and the source SAM TALB OT-KELLY electronics and of his interest in other technologies. Her training emerges disparate materials — his family’s HVAC in the mechanism by which the ripples business — seem connected to a cycle of are produced: a large, rotating music- environmental destruction. box cylinder whose pins dip into a tray Vermont winters are warming, and of water. Blue lights trained on the water we don’t know how many more will be cause the reflection. “There is something cold enough to produce the wondrous intrinsically soothing about the natural ice formations in Moretown resident movement of light,” Parker writes.

Tina Valentinetti’s digital photograph As might be expected, watery blue “The Infinite Shapes of Water,” printed hues recur in “Elemental.” The oil on metal. The image’s dense forest of pigments in Milford, Conn., artist Day stalactite-like ice cones were formed by Moore’s “Surfacing Series: Kaya Deep “water splashed up from a dam, nearly Water” progress from cerulean to freezing in mid-air,” the artist writes. turquoise to a light, dusty blue at the top While “Elemental” may not address of the unstretched canvas. The work’s existential issues, it does inspire appresheer size, at 86 by 72 inches, creates ciation of water itself — a necessary first the illusion of submersion, aided by the step. ➆ painting’s perspective from underwater looking up. Moore bases his paintings INFO on photographs he takes while diving. “Elemental,” on view through December He aims to “evoke a sense of peace and 19 at Mad River Valley Arts in Waitsfield. contemplation” while reminding viewers madrivervalleyarts.org

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

55

11/7/24 2:49 PM

art DEC. 4-11, 2024

From left: “Ocean Sketch #4”; “Traveling hands of time”

EXHIBITION

Arista Alanis Brings Ocean Views to Johnson

BY ALICE DODGE • adodge@sevendaysvt.com

GET YOUR ART SHOW LISTED HERE AND ONLINE!

ALICE DODGE

Need to counter the gloom of early December in Vermont, but can’t get yourself to the warm azure waters of the Mediterranean? Johnson is a viable alternative. That’s where Arista Alanis is presenting “Windfall: Paintings & Monoprints,” through December 11 at Vermont Studio Center’s Red Mill Gallery.

The show combines two main bodies of work: calming little monoprints based on Alanis’ travels to Greece, Costa Rica and the coast of Maine; and abstract paintings bursting with color and energy.

Alanis has worked as a staff artist at Vermont Studio Center going on 30 years. For most of that time, she has run the center’s partnership with local elementary schools, teaching art to generations of Lamoille County kids.

Somehow, she seems to have bottled their joyful chaos and deployed it in her paintings.

“Traveling hands of time,” the largest work in the show at 6 by 5 feet, is a Day-Glo tornado of a composition. A mass of stylized green leaves flows from its center, jockeying for the foreground with blurrier echoes of the same shapes in orange and magenta. Pink and violet are interrupted by apple green, sometimes dripping as though flung at the canvas. Around all this, wide magenta and Indian yellow stripes give the painting structure; patches of variegated deep blues become oceans with tiny bathers floating here and there.

Two paintings from the same series, the 30-by-24-inch “On and on” and 3-foot-square “Wilderness poem,” are smaller but no less feisty. In “On and on,” Alanis’ patterns — pointed ovals and teardrops that read as leaves or fish — sit back, leading the eye toward a horizontally striped sun setting over a striped ocean. Their meditative calm is interrupted by a geyser of paint flung through the middle of the canvas, vertical but flurried, like a clump of seagrass in a strong wind.

“Wilderness poem” is airier, integrating gestural paint with pattern and even offering two versions of yellow leaves: some sharp and regular, standing out against greens and violet; and some brushy, diminishing into a jumbled jungle by the ocean.

That painting looks like a very different version of the scene in “Playa Carrillo” 2, 3 and 4, three black-and-white monoprints. Each presents a view of a distant island, seen through a close thicket of vegetation; from left to right, the plants shift from naturalism toward pattern.

Below them on the wall, five 5-by-4-inch monoprints from the “Ocean Sketch” series trade pattern for color. In each, Alanis has created a base of variegated deep blues and gently wiped the plate to create peaks and reflections on waves. “Ocean Sketch” 4 and 14 situate tiny, barely suggested bathers in the surf, while 2 and 3 offer only ripples on the surface.

PROMOTING AN ART EXHIBIT? SUBMIT THE INFO AND IMAGES BY THURSDAY AT NOON AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT OR ART@SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

56

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

VISUAL ART IN SEVEN DAYS:

Across the room, Alanis continues her experiments with oceans in slightly larger 8-by-6-inch monoprints of the Aegean. Here, bathers float in turquoise expanses framed by rocks or caves. With a few well-placed strokes creating highlights and carefully seen shadows, “Aegean Sea #8” conveys light reflecting off the water onto the roof of a natural tunnel. The hint of a bather in a swimsuit — inferred from the same figure in the rest of the series — offers the viewer a way to dip their toe into that distant sea. ➆

INFO “Windfall: Paintings & Monoprints by Arista Alanis,” on view through December 11 at the Red Mill Gallery, Vermont Studio Center, in Johnson. vermontstudiocenter.org

ART LISTINGS ARE WRITTEN BY ALICE DODGE. LISTINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO ART SHOWS IN TRULY PUBLIC PLACES.

= ONLINE EVENT OR EXHIBIT

FIND ALL ART SHOWS + EVENTS AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/ART

OPENINGS + RECEPTIONS ‘ATTITUDE OF COEXISTENCE: NON-HUMANS IN EAST ASIAN ART’: An exhibition inviting viewers to reflect on relationships with non-humans — deities, mythological beings, animals, natural phenomena and machines — through works from the permanent collection, curated by Haely Chang. Hood Museum, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., through June 29.

Info, 603-646-2808.

KAREN SCHAEFER: “Quiet Spaces,” a collection of winter landscapes by the Vermont artist. Speeder & Earl’s Coffee, Burlington, through February 28. Info, curation@seaba.com.

2024-2025 CURATED PROGRAM: An exhibition program curated by Catherine Ross Haskins and comprising five unique galleries of varying sizes and site-specific commissioned installations throughout the newly renovated 11,000-square-foot historic flour mill on Main Street in Westport, NY. The Mill ADK, Westport, N.Y., ongoing. Free. Info, catherine@ themilladk.com.

BFA EXHIBITION: An exhibition featuring ceramics, paintings, prints and sculpture by graduating artists Emmallie Bailey, Jason Flower and Danielle Hallam.

Reception: Thursday, December 5, 12-2 p.m. Julian Scott Memorial Gallery, Vermont State UniversityJohnson, through December 20. Info, 635-1469.

SHOW 64 AND HOLIDAY SALE: A group show featuring works by all members, accompanied by a seasonal sale of items under $100. Reception: Friday, December 6, 4-8 p.m. The Front, Montpelier, December 6-November 29. Info, info@thefrontvt. com.

PAUL RICHARDSON: “World Wide Wend,” an exhibition of panoramic landscape photographs of Vermont. Reception: Friday, December 6, 4:30-7:30 p.m. Vermont Natural Resources Council, Montpelier, through January 31. Free. Info, 223-2328, aconnizzo@vnrc.org.

2024 MEMBERS HOLIDAY EXHIBITION AND SALE: A show and opportunity to purchase works by members throughout AVA’s galleries. Reception and Holiday Party: Saturday, December 7, 5-7 p.m.

AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, N.H., through December 26. Info, 603-448-3117.

GINGERBREAD OPEN HOUSE: A display of the annual gingerbread contest entries, with award ceremony and holiday activities for all ages during the reception; visitors can vote for the people’s choice award until January 4. Reception and Awards Ceremony: Saturday, December 7, noon-2 p.m.

Chaffee Art Center, Rutland, December 7-January 4.

Info, 775-0356.

ART EVENTS ESSEX ART LEAGUE MONTHLY MEETING: Artist presentations, art making and camaraderie. Essex Art League, Essex Junction, Thursday, December 5, 9-11 a.m. Free for two meetings, then $25 annually.

Info, 318-5220, howekit0@gmail.com.

MIDD NIGHT STROLL: An open evening with free admission, model trains, decorated tree and wreath display with raffle, and museum store. Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Thursday, December 5, 5-8 p.m. Free. Info, 388-2117.

‘10 X 10’ MEMBERS’ EXHIBITION: An exhibition of small paintings, prints, drawings and twodimensional mixed-media works by artist supporters of the gallery. Reception: Friday, December 6, 4-8 p.m. T.W. Wood Gallery, Montpelier, through January 28. Info, 262-6035.

MONTPELIER ART WALK: Venues around downtown Montpelier welcome pedestrian viewers in this bimonthly event. Various Montpelier locations, Friday, December 6, 4-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@cal-vt. org.

‘DECEMBER COLORS’: An exhibition of work by Jessy Park, Edie Fake and Jess Johnson, showcasing the artists’ individual approaches to invented visual languages. Reception: Friday, December 6, 5-8 p.m.

Kishka Gallery & Library, White River Junction, December 6-February 15. Info, info@kishka.org.

‘SEARCHING FOR VERMONT’S LOST SKI AREAS — PART 2’: An exhibition featuring 113 ski areas not included in Part 1 of the exhibition, documented through photographs, interviews, newspaper clippings and memorabilia. Reception: Friday, December 6, 5-8 p.m. Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, Stowe, December 6-October 12. Info, 253-9911.

‘WINTERTIDE’: An annual group exhibition featuring works by 16 Vermont artists, ranging from abstract to landscape, still life, art glass and sculpture.

Reception: Friday, December 6, 5-7 p.m. Furchgott Sourdiffe Gallery, Shelburne, December 6-January 31.

Info, 985-3848.

‘BLACK & BLOOM’: A group exhibition showcasing grayscale floral still lifes by 12 contemporary artists.

Reception: Friday, December 6, 4-8 p.m. Hexum Gallery, Montpelier, December 6-January 17. Info, hexumgallery@gmail.com.

SEABA ART HOP JURIED SHOW WINNERS: An expanded showcase of winning pieces and additional works by Art Hop juried show winners Matt Larson, Pamela Hunt and Jake Barakat and people’s choice winners Lindsay Centracchio and Kristina Pentek.

Reception: Friday, December 6, 5-8 p.m. The Vaults, Burlington, December 6-February 26. Info, 859-9222.

SEAN HEELY CELTIC CHRISTMAS

JASMINE PARSIA AND VISCAYA WAGNER: “Process & Presence,” an exhibition featuring new works by two Burlington artists merging art and design, from furniture and functional objects to printmaking and installation. Reception: Saturday, December 7, 6-9 p.m. K. Grant Fine Art, Vergennes, December 7-January 31. Info, kristen@ kgrantfineart.com.

JANET VAN FLEET: “Movement,” a site-specific installation of creatures, vehicles and conveyances made from found and reclaimed materials. Reception: Friday, December 6, 4-8 p.m. T.W. Wood Gallery, Montpelier, through January 28. Info, 262-6035.

‘COLOR DANCE’: The second annual juried group show, featuring artists chosen from across the country by juror Terry Norton-Wright of Moore College of Art & Design. First, second and third place winners to be announced at the reception. Reception: Friday, December 6, 5-6:30 p.m. Edgewater Gallery at the Falls, Middlebury, through January 7. Info, 989-7419.

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‘CLOWN TOWN’: A one-night exhibition of ceramic sculptures by Small Time Clown and on-site tattoos.

Stranger Still, Burlington, Friday, December 6, 5-9 p.m. Free. Info, 316-8370.

11/12/24 1:40 PM

deadlines

STACY HOPKINS: An opening for “Soul Fire,” a new print series by the artist, combined with holiday celebration and wine tasting with Artisanal Cellars.

Scavenger Gallery, White River Junction, Friday, December 6, 5:30-7 p.m. Info, scavenger.gallery@ gmail.com.

DECEMBER 18 & 26 ISSUES

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE: Functional and sculptural pottery, watercolors and prints by Madeleine Bertrand-Gerndt. Maddy BG Clay Gallery, Morrisville, Saturday, December 7, 11 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, December 8, noon-4 p.m. Free. Info, 760-8175.

Per holiday tradition, Seven Days will not be published January 1, 2025.

The first issue of the year will be published on January 8.

HOLIDAY ARTISAN FAIR: Crafts by North Hero artists and artisans. GreenTARA Space, North Hero, Saturday, December 7, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Info, 355-2150.

Submit your event listings early!

SOCIAL SUNDAY: An opportunity for children and caregivers to stop in and complete a 15- to 30-minute activity during the two-hour workshop.

Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, Sunday, December 8, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 891-2014.

Events taking place December 18 January 8 must be submitted no later than Tuesday, December 10, at noon at: sevendaysvt.com/postevent

VANESSA COMPTON OPEN STUDIO: An open studio with collage and mixed-media works by the Burlington artist. 143 North Ave., Burlington, Sunday, December 8, 2-6 p.m. Info, info@ krinshawstudios.com.

Deadline for classifieds, classes & jobs: Monday noon, 12/16 (in print only) sevendaysvt.com/classifieds

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS FOR ARTISTS: A selection of free online and in-person workshops addressing the most urgent needs, challenges and opportunities facing artists in New England, presented by Assets for Artists in partnership with the Vermont Arts Council. Register online at assetsforartists.org.

Vermont Arts Council, Montpelier, through January 28. Info, assetsforartists@massmoca.org. ➆

Deadline for retail advertising: Friday noon, 12/13 802-864-5684, sales@sevendaysvt.com 4t-holidaydeadlines24.indd 1

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

57

10/28/24 6:17 PM

music+nightlife

Emma Cook

COURTESY OF HAYES

S UNDbites News and views on the local music + nightlife scene B Y CHRI S FARNSWO RT H

A New Morning: Emma Cook Has a Game Plan Rock and roll success stories aside, the vast majority of musicians have to hold down a day job to support their creative endeavors. As music has been progressively demonetized, the need for side hustles and second careers has only increased. Observe English pop star LILY ALLEN’s recent comment on social media that she makes more money from OnlyFans subscribers looking for pictures of her feet than from her 8 million monthly subscribers on Spotify. She’s not alone. Singer KATE NASH recently launched a Butts for Tour Buses campaign, funding her ongoing tour by flashing the goods on OnlyFans.

ANTHRAX drummer CHARLIE BENANTE put it succinctly in an interview with the Irish Times: “There is no music industry,” he said. “You’d probably make more money selling lemonade on the corner.”

Balancing making art with making a living is a conundrum, and many artists are searching desperately for answers.

As Burlington-based singer-songwriter EMMA COOK pointed out when we spoke last week, musicians’ solutions vary.

“There’s no road map anymore 58

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

local bands, the now-defunct EMMA COOK

& QUESTIONABLE COMPANY and her trio with ALAYNA HOWARD and ANDY FELTUS, EMALOU

& THE BEAT. In 2018, she became a full-

Lincoln Sprague (left) with EmaLou & the Beat

— everyone is doing it in their own way,” the 33-year-old told me while discussing recording her forthcoming solo album, Of the Morning, her first since 2011.

Much has changed for Cook between solo records, including having a daughter in 2022. She’s fronted two

time working musician, teaching piano lessons and performing kids’ music with her mentor, early childhood educator CHRIS DORMAN, aka MISTER CHRIS. When she wrote a new batch of songs in 2022, Cook decided to record them as a solo artist and make the folk album of her dreams. Having cut multiple records in her career, she knew that wouldn’t be cheap.

“I made my first record after taking a semester off at [the University of Vermont] and moving back in with my parents,” she recalled. “It was great, making a record in the woods of northern Michigan, a very homegrown kind of experience. But I knew that with this record, I wanted to do something very different.”

Cook linked up with producer and musician KATIE MARTUCCI and headed to the Greenpoint Recording Collective in Brooklyn to begin making Of the Morning, which she hopes to release in May. She estimates the entire

process will cost around $20,000 — not particularly costly for a studio project.

“So much of the work in music is unpaid work,” she said. “My songwriting, my booking, the overall development of entire projects ... it’s all unpaid. I could be doing kids’ music or teaching lessons, where I know I’ll be paid. But I’ve found that I have to keep a balance where I’m accessing my songwriting and expressing myself and taking the opportunity to connect with people listening to my songs.”

To offset the costs of the recording, Cook launched a Kickstarter campaign, the first time in her career she’s tried crowdfunding. While it initially felt strange to her to ask for money, seeing the project halfway funded in the campaign’s first 24 hours gave Cook an immense feeling of gratitude and connection to her fans.

“The theme of Of the Morning is about connection and our shared humanity,” Cook said. “So it’s kind of fitting how something like a fundraising effort brought that home for me. I put out a call for help with making an album, and my community was there — that really makes me emotional.”

Cook hopes to wrap up the campaign in December and, with full funding, finish tracking, mixing and mastering the new LP. In the meantime, she has more than enough other projects to keep her busy.

She’ll teach music and movement classes for kids with local singersongwriter GIOVANINA BUCCI at Bucci’s Marigold Gallery in 2025. And EmaLou & the Beat will host a live holiday album recording on Saturday, December 21, at Burlington’s Tank Recording Studio as part of its TRS Live series.

“The band did a holiday show at the Venetian [Cocktail & Soda] Lounge last Christmas, and it was such a blast,” Cook recalled. “So we decided to record a holiday album live at the Tank with BEN [COLLETTE, producer and Tank owner].”

Show attendees will have access to a free download of the performance a week or so later. The band hopes to put the recording out on vinyl for next Christmas.

It’s shaping up to be a big 2025 for Cook. While she acknowledges the challenges of creating and promoting her music while raising a family and working full time, she said the process also brings plenty of rewards.

“At the end of the day, I’m making the music I want to make, and that’s immensely gratifying,” she said. “And the response I’ve gotten from fans and friends and family, as they see my pursuing a dream I’ve had since I was a kid, just makes me want to keep going.” ➆

GOT MUSIC NEWS? MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

On the Beat

Songwriter, producer, composer and multiinstrumentalist ANDREW DOUGLAS PALEY, who produced music for BRIAN WILSON and wrote songs with and played sessions for the likes of MADONNA, JERRY LEE LEWIS, ELTON JOHN and LITTLE RICHARD, died of throat cancer on Wednesday, November 20, in Colchester. He was 73.

Paley started out in the mid-1970s with the powerpop outfit the PALEY BROTHERS before hooking up with Wilson and producing the BEACH BOYS founder’s debut solo record. Wilson once said Paley was “the most frighteningly talented person that I’ve met and the greatest musical genius I’ve come across in many years … maybe my whole life.”

Among Paley’s other accomplishments were scoring the Oscar-nominated film Dick Tracy, working for Sire Records and writing songs for Nickelodeon’s hit “SpongeBob SquarePants” franchise.

Paley and his family left Los Angeles in 2021 and settled in the Champlain Islands. His brother-in-law TREVOR CRIST and his MAPLE RUN BAND, in which Paley

Andrew Douglas Paley and Brian Wilson

often played the harp, are hosting a celebration of Paley’s life and music on Sunday, December 8, at Radio Bean in Burlington.

Paley summed up his goals as a producer in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in 1990: “I just want the thing to sound good, whatever it takes … That end carries over into everything, even to questions like, ‘Should they order lunch now?’”

South Burlington native CRISTIAN ARHIRI is set to represent Vermont in the Music Teachers National Association Division Junior Piano Competition, starting in mid-January. Arhiri, a seventh grader at Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School

who has studied piano under teacher YIN STEWART for five years, has the chance to win the divisional round and move on to compete in the National Finals later in 2025. ANDREEA BRUMA of Essex has been named the alternate.

Founded in 1876, the MTNA is a nonprofit organization made up of 17,000 independent music teachers. For more information about the organization and the Junior Piano Competition, visit mtna.org.

As live music venues in Chittenden County continue to struggle with and, in some cases, close over insurance worries, it’s always nice to hear about people taking the issue into their own hands and, well, making a space for live music. Enter MAYA SUN ROBEDEE-MOLINO and RORY GOODALE, local musicians who play in the CHAMPLAIN SHOREGASM. The two started hosting open mics and performances at Lily’s Pad — aka their house on North Avenue in Burlington — 12 months ago, booking an assortment of New England talent including JASON BAKER, FISHER WAGG and LOBOTOMOBILE. Robedee-Molino and Goodale celebrate the one-year anniversary of Lily’s Pad on Wednesday, December 4, with performances by a host of local musicians — and yes, there will absolutely be cake. Hop on over to lilyspadvt.com for more info. ➆

188 MAIN STREET BURLINGTON, VT 05401 | TUE-SAT 5PM-1:30AM | 802-658-4771

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All Night Boogie Band NYE Celebration FRI 1.10

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G-Space, 5am Trio w/ Finneh, Mealz, Prolly

Listening In (Spotify mix of local jams) 1. “BROKEN THROUGH” by Gregory Douglass 2. “ONLY IF” by Belizbeha 3. “YONKERS” by Pretty & Nice

Eye on the Scene Last week’s live music highlights from photographer Luke Awtry IN MEMORIAM: LANE GIBSON RECORDING AND MASTERING, CHARLOTTE, SUNDAY, DECEMBER 1:

After a long and celebrated run, Lane Gibson Recording and Mastering in Charlotte closed last month. In the space commissioned more than three decades ago by Vermont keyboardist CHARLES ELLER, only a skeleton of the studio remained. Its arteries — literal miles of cabling — lay coiled in unruly piles. Up until just a few weeks ago, engineers Eller, Gibson and JEREMY MENDICINO — a Burlington-born musician who first came to the studio when working with GREGORY DOUGLASS while in high school — sat on one side of the recording equipment racks. On the other side were musicians such as ANAÏS MITCHELL, “BIG JOE” BURRELL, FRANCESCA BLANCHARD and SETH YACOVONE. The studio’s discography is extensive, and its legacy secured. But the music scene will take no moment of silence — we’ve got more hit records to make.

4. “YOUR FONDER HEART” by Anaïs Mitchell 5. “RADIATE” by Lisa Piccirillo 6. “EVERYDAY” by Aaron Flinn’s Salad Days 7. “HOME IS A CAGE” by Francesca Blanchard

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music+nightlife

CLUB DATES

Find the most up-to-date info on live music, DJs, comedy and more at sevendaysvt.com/music. If you’re a talent booker or artist planning live entertainment at a bar, nightclub, café, restaurant, brewery or coffee shop, send event details to music@sevendaysvt.com or submit the info using our form at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

live music

The PET Project (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

WED.4

Pink Talking Fish, Annie in the Water (tribute) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $25/$29.

FRI.6 // ALI MCGUIRK [INDIE SOUL]

BBQ and Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Pure Joy (rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

Bent Nails House Band (blues, jazz) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Clive (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5/$10.

Reggae Saturdays (DJ, reggae) at the Double E Lounge at Essex Experience, 9 p.m. $10.

Irish Night with RambleTree (Celtic) at Two Brothers Tavern, Middlebury, 7 p.m. Free.

Residual Groove, Scram! (funk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$15.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Something Reckless (rock) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Jazz Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Jeff and Gina (acoustic) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Typhoid Mary (ska, punk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $5/$10.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

Willverine (electronic) at the Wallflower Collective, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

THU.5

The Gallison Hill Band (rock) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Karina Rykman (jam, rock) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. $20/$25.

Kraatz Rumba Quartet (jazz) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Lady Lamb, Fawn (indie) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $25/$30.

The Old Soul House Band (indie) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 8 p.m. Free.

FRI.6

90 Proof (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Ali McGuirk, Thea Wren, Jeremy Mendicino (indie soul) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $15/$18.

Armanodillo, Matthew Linkkila or Lack Thereof (folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Butterfly, the Moonlight Project (funk, rock) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $7.

Carrie Cook (singer-songwriter) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

Dave Mitchell’s Blues Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Duncan MacLeod (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

The Wormdogs (folk rock) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

and guitarist ALI MCGUIRK left Boston and moved

SUN.8

to Burlington in 2021, joining her friends and

Dopapod, lespecial (jam) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 8 p.m. $22/$25.

fellow Massachusetts-to-Vermont R&B/soul devotees Dwight + Nicole. But on the advice of

Live Piano with Paul Lyons (piano) at Kru Coffee, Burlington, 10:30 a.m. Free.

producer and singer-songwriter Jonah Tolchin, McGuirk headed west to record her latest LP, Til

Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

It’s Gone. She cut the album in Los Angeles’ Silver Lake neighborhood, delivering a properly sunny,

Wine & Jazz Sundays (jazz) at Shelburne Vineyard, 5 p.m. Free.

1970s-SoCal-inspired blues-rock record that even

TUE.10

features a cameo from Little Feat guitarist and

Big Easy Tuesdays with Jon McBride (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

mandolinist Fred Tackett. McGuirk is back on the East Coast and hits the stage at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington on Friday,

COURTESY OF BEN COLLINS

The Fabulous Wrecks (Americana) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m.

Free.

Coast to Coast Singer-songwriter

December 6, with support from fellow Burlington acts THEA WREN and JEREMY MENDICINO.

The Full Cleveland (yacht rock) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 8 p.m. $12/$15.

Paul Webb (jazz piano) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Bearly Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15.

Get Up With It (jazz, funk) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Phantom Suns, Keepsake, Black Vinegar, Shiny New Toyz, Sabrehound (metal, rock) at Despacito, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

Bells on Bobtails with Dwight + Nicole and Friends (holiday music) at Double E Performance Center’s T-Rex Theater, Essex, 8 p.m. $25/$30.

Good Morning Gils (indie rock) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 10 p.m. $10.

Green Mountain Swing Band (swing) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $15.

Phil Abair Band (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Rap Night Burlington (hip-hop) at Drink, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5.

Chris Peterman (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Shane McGrath (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

D. Davis, Steve Goldman, Marc Gwinn (jazz) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free.

Josh Panda & Peter Day (Americana) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Soap, Earthshine (jam) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $10/$15.

Dead to the Core (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

Karina Rykman (jam, rock) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 7 p.m. $20/$25.

Them Apples (folk) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 9 p.m. Free.

Dirty Looks Band (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

J.J. Booth (singer-songwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 7 p.m. Free.

Lowell Thompson (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free.

Mean Waltons (Americana) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

Mickey Western’s Lineage Medicine Show (country, folk) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Tim Brick (country) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

SAT.7

The Aaron Audet Band (singersongwriter) at Pickle Barrel Nightclub, Killington, 9 p.m. Free.

Avery Cooper (jazz) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

The Jagaloons vs. the Tsunamibots (surf rock) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Jerborn (acoustic) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Las Brujas Bonitas, Peg Tassey & the Loud Flowers (folk, rock) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 8 p.m. $10.

Left Eye Jump (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Live Music Saturdays (live music series) at Dumb Luck Pub & Grill, Hinesburg, 7 p.m. Free.

Live Piano with Paul Lyons (piano) at Kru Coffee, Burlington, 10:30 a.m. Free.

Lunch (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10/$15.

Dylan Patrick Ward, Ian Galipeau (singer-songwriter) at Stage 33 Live, Bellows Falls, 7 p.m. $15.

MONSOON, Hissy Fit (indie rock) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7 p.m. $12/$15.

Good Gravy (bluegrass) at Shelburne Vineyard, 6 p.m. Free.

Moore & Moore (rock) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 8 p.m. Free.

His/His (indie folk) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $10.

Jaded Ravins (Americana) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

Mr. Moose & Friends (covers) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

A Dan Blakeslee Christmas (singer-songwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10.

Grateful Tuesdays (Grateful Dead tribute) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$20.

Honky Tonk Tuesday with Wild Leek River (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

Jay Southgate (vibraphone) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 5 p.m. Free.

John Lackard Blues Duo (blues) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

WED.11

BBQ and Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Clive (indie) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5/$10.

Elijah Berlow, Vega, Riverbed (indie folk) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10.

Evan Alsop (acoustic) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

Irish Trad Jam (Celtic) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Jazz Night with Ray Vega (jazz) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Jazz Sessions (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

WED.11 SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

» P.62 61

music+nightlife live music WED.11 CONTINUED FROM P.61 Jazz with Alex Stewart and Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Live Jazz (jazz) at Leunig’s Bistro & Café, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

Willverine (electronic) at the Wallflower Collective, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

djs

Santa Rave (DJ) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $18/$20.

WED.11

TUE.10

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.6

open mics & jams

Venetian Soda Open Mic (open mic) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

John’s Jukebox (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Latin Night with DJ JP Black (DJ) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

SAT.7

DJ A-Ra$ (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, midnight. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

WED.4

DJ Mildew (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Wadada Wednesdays: Reggae Dub Night with Satta Sound (DJ) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 6 p.m.

Free.

THU.5

DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

DJ JP Black (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

HAVEN (DJ) at MothershipVT, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m.

Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

What If Something Happened, Two Sev, GAYBAR, NewMantra, Philhaay, Anxiocide, MEGH (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$15.

SUN.8

Mi Yard Reggae Night with DJ Big Dog (reggae, dancehall) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Mildew (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.4

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

The Ribbit Review Open Mic & Jam (open mic) at Lily’s Pad, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.5

Open Mic with Artie (open mic) at Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.6

Red Brick Coffee House (open mic) at Red Brick Meeting House, Westford, 7 p.m. Free.

SUN.8

Olde Time Jam Session (open jam) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, noon. Free.

MON.9

Open Mic (open mic) at Despacito, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Night (open mic) at Drink, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

WED.11

Open Mic (open mic) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 10 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

comedy WED.4

Challenge Wheel (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.5

Sean Donnelly (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $25.

Strapped-In: A Queer Comedy Showcase (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$15.

FRI.6

Comedy Night: Open Mic (comedy open mic) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 8 p.m.

Free.

Pinky Patel, Katie Arroyo (comedy) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $30/$35.

Sean Donnelly (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

Vermont Comedy All Stars 3rd Anniversary Show (comedy) at Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7:30 p.m. $12/$15.

SAT.7

Sean Donnelly (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 & 9 p.m. $25.

TUE.10

The Cafeteria Presents: Hot Lunch Tuesdays (comedy) at ArtsRiot, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Comedy with Levi Silverstein (comedy open mic) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.11

Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

What’s in the Box? (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. $5.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

WED.4

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Drink, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Cam (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

Musical Bingo (music bingo) at the Depot, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Musical Bingo (music bingo) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Dumb Luck Pub and Grill Winooski, 7 p.m.

Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Team Trivia (trivia) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Jim Jeffries (comedy) at the Flynn, Burlington, 7 p.m. $44-$86.

104.7 FM Montpelier | Burlington | Plattsburgh 93.7 FM Middlebury | Burlington | Shelburne 95.7 FM Northeast Kingdom: Essex | Orleans | Caledonia

Vermont Independent Radio pointfm.com 62

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

2H-ThePoint042821 1

4/26/21 3:38 PM

Wave of Mutilation Are you craving a real fight after the dud that SAT.7 // THE JAGALOONS VS. THE TSUNAMIBOTS [SURF ROCK] was Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson? Look no further than the titanic clash between Albany,

N.Y., instrumental surf-rock band the JAGALOONS and their human-hating, cybernetic counterparts from Vermont’s “Bad Liver Valley,” the TSUNAMIBOTS. The staccato guitar riffs might bring to mind swelling ocean waves, sun and sand, but there won’t be anything placid as this surf battle royale pits man against machine for the soul of the cabana club.

Pick your side on Saturday, December 7, at Charlie O’s World Famous in Montpelier.

THU.5

Radio Bean Karaoke (karaoke) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m.

Free.

Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon.

Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Nectar’s, Burlington, 6:30 p.m. Free.

MON.9

FRI.6

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

SAT.7

Spectacular Spectacular (talent show) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 11 a.m. $7/$10.

SUN.8

Karaoke with DJ Coco Entertainment (karaoke) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 5 p.m. Free.

2H-PlaceCreative(VDEC)120424 1

Trivia Monday with Top Hat Entertainment (trivia) at McKee’s Original, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Brain (trivia) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Trivia with Craig Mitchell (trivia) at Monkey House, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

TUE.10

Christmas Villains Trivia (trivia) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m.

Free.

Music Bingo (music bingo) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m.

Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at the Depot, St. Albans, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m.

Free.

WED.11

Karaoke Night (karaoke) at Drink, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Cam (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

Musical Bingo (music bingo) at the Depot, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Musical Bingo (music bingo) at Orlando’s Bar & Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Dumb Luck Pub and Grill Winooski, 7 p.m.

Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Stone Corral, Richmond, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Venetian Trivia Night (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Team Trivia (trivia) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free. ➆

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

63

11/7/24 2:36 PM

GOT MUSIC NEWS? MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

music+nightlife

REVIEW this

According to former Spotify chief economist Will Page, there is now more music released in a single day than in all of 1989. That means it’s harder than ever to sift through the mountain of singles, EPs and full-length records dropping every week — and the Vermont music scene is no exception. Seven Days receives more submissions than a dominatrix, but we do our best to cover as much of the local scene as possible. Inevitably, some records get lost in the shuffle. So as 2024 comes to a close, here’s a look at six albums from Vermont artists that almost slipped through the cracks.

Ruminations, Machine Age Exhibition

About Time, About Time

Caught somewhere between lo-fi shoegaze and progressiveminded synth pop, Ruminations, the project of Winooskibased multi-instrumentalist Greg Bonsignore, is an intriguing paradox. Ruminations’ latest LP, Machine Age Exhibition, is at once raw and slick. Bonsignore builds complex melodies and robot-funk grooves, layering them with stacks of guitar, mellotron and Moog. Yet the record retains the cozy air of a home demo.

As endearing as his ambient and experimental turns are, the quirky indie songwriter inside Bonsignore continually reins in his wilder instincts. The result is a tension between those two modes that propels Machine Age Exhibition toward serious weirdness, in all the best senses of the word.

KEY TRACK: “Divine Disappearance” WHY: Bonsignore leans into free jazz and Syd Barrett-esque psych rock. WHERE: ruminationsmusic.bandcamp.com

On their self-titled sophomore record, Burlington septet About Time hit the sweet spot between jazz and funk.

Whether swinging with a nasty groove on “Neon Pedestal” or flirting with Celtic folk on “For the Time on the Hill,” the band moves from strength to strength. And vocalist Lauren Kelley’s powerful and dynamic range is a treat as she crafts classy, tender melodies.

About Time has big shoes to fill. The band’s 2019 debut, I Don’t Think I Belong Here, received rave reviews, making former Seven Days music editor Jordan Adams’ year-end best-of list. It took five years for About Time to write, record and release the follow-up, but the patient approach was clearly worth it. The band may even have improved on its formula, with effortless shifts from jazz to pop to funk to folk that have only become more impressive.

KEY TRACK: “Back to the City” WHY: Connor Brien and Stephanie Currier’s dueling saxophones give the song a jolt of energy. WHERE: abouttime802.bandcamp.com

(SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

(SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Revolution Robots, tube

and penguin, Paper Route

(SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Vermont-based artist and graphic designer Matthew Chaney’s experimental electronic project Revolution Robots has always been an acquired taste. Chaney tags his genre on Bandcamp as “shitty music,” so the artist is aware of its confrontational sound. Indeed, his 2021 LP Microprocessor might have been one of that year’s hardest records to endure, full of songs awash in digital distortion and abrasive beats.

Yet a wry, cleverly creative heart pumps at the center of the music. It was robotic, sure, but a robot with a self-deprecating sense of humor.

On Chaney’s latest, tube, the artist seems to be focused more on establishing drones and krautrock-esque landscapes than following storylines and song structure. The record’s six tracks are built from more pleasant sounds than Chaney’s previous work, giving tube an almost lo-fi, ambient feel. It’s a slight shift but a welcome one.

KEY TRACK: “Control” WHY: The song is the slowest of slow burns, flirting with a futurist, Detroit-techno turn. WHERE: revolutionrobots.bandcamp.com

The Mountain Says No, SUREFIRE

(SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

There’s a clear progression to Paper Route, the debut album from Burlington’s and penguin, aka singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Philip Roy. The ambitious record is a sort of concept album that tells a life story through the documents that mark our time on Earth. From opener “Birth Announcement” to the closer, “Obituary & Classifieds,” and everything in between — including love, marriage and, inevitably, death — the tale Roy crafts is impressively expansive.

Roy is a gifted songwriter who populates Paper Route with colorful, sometimes desperate characters raw dogging life in a slow-burn montage — like a Bruce Springsteen fable, but with a stoner sheen. Musically, Roy’s songs veer toward power pop played through a Frank Zappa filter; tracks such as “Hit the Light” sound like the Beach Boys on MDMA. Paper Route is as fresh and daring a debut as anything to come out of the Green Mountain indie-rock scene since THUS LOVE’s Memorial or Robber Robber’s Wild Guess.

KEY SONG: “Metaphor in Public” WHY: You have to love a snarling ode to doing drugs in public. WHERE: andpenguin.bandcamp.com

(SELF-RELEASED, CD, DIGITAL)

Enosburg’s the Mountain Says No might just be Vermont’s most consistent rock band. Formed from the ashes of muchloved early aughts band Farm, the Mountain Says No have quietly dropped killer album after killer album for the better part of the past decade. The trend continues with SUREFIRE, released in October.

The band derives its power from the songwriting and vocal team of Ben Maddox and Jedd Kettler, who also happen to be a killer guitar duo. Heavy-hitting power chords, oddball riffs and near-telepathic interplay drive songs such as “Gentle Giant” and the blues-on-mushrooms stomp of “Power of a Dead Man.” Drummer Justus Gaston and bassist Andrew Frappier stay in constant conversation, shifting the dynamics as quick as a jump scare in a slasher film.

The Mountain Says No are a long-toothed beast, an erudite combination of stoner rock and the proggier side of college radio that have held down their own unique corner of Vermont’s music scene for most of the 21st century. Long may they sit atop their mountain.

KEY TRACK: “Do Unto Others” WHY: The last minute of this mazelike rocker is a high point of the record. WHERE: themountainsaysno.bandcamp.com

GET YOUR MUSIC REVIEWED: 64

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

D.FRENCH, All Saints Day (SELF-RELEASED, DIGITAL)

Rapper D.FRENCH started working on his latest album in 2019, when Boston-based producer Louis Mackey sent the St. Albans-based MC an album’s worth of beats. French took his time and worked with Vermont producer Zach Crawford, aka SkySplitterInk, to turn those beats into the nigh-flawless collection of tracks that make up All Saints Day. With its stripped-down, classic boom-bap sound, French keeps All Saints Day wonderfully simple, letting the strength of the beats and his flow carry one of the year’s top local hip-hop releases. The rapper brings along plenty of friends from the 802 scene; the record features memorable turns from Mavstar, Wombaticus Rex and Yung Breeze. But French never takes his hand off the wheel, steering each track with his assured delivery, lyrically heavy verses and shiny, melodic choruses.

KEY SONG: “Solid Gold Necklace” WHY: French and Yung Breeze trade bars over a classic, head nod-inducing beat. WHERE: dfrench.bandcamp.com

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

ARE YOU A VT ARTIST OR BAND? SEND US YOUR MUSIC! DIGITAL: MUSIC@SEVENDAYSVT.COM; SNAIL MAIL: MUSIC C/O SEVEN DAYS, 255 S. CHAMPLAIN ST., SUITE 5, BURLINGTON, VT 05401

with

Frisson SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7

Stowe Community Church, December 12 at 7 pm

11 AM - 3 PM

Nutcracker Suite, Winter from the Four Seasons, Sleigh Ride, Carol of the Bells, White Christmas, a Jazz Holiday Suite, etc and an audience carol sing along!

Celebrate the magic of the season with a festive indoor/outdoor market with music, puppets, unique eats, and good cheer. Warm up by toasty fires, revel in holiday magic and shop local for the holidays from artisans from around the region!

Adults $25 in advance (until 5 pm 12/11) $30 at the door Children $10

stoweperformingarts.com

HIGHLANDARTSVT.ORG • 2875 HARDWICK ST, GREENSBORO 6h-HCA112024 1

11/18/24 5:44 PM

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HOSPITALITY

SPONSOR 12/3/24 8:21 AM

WIN A SHRED & STAY GIVEAWAY! 4 LIFT PASSES PLUS AN OVERNIGHT STAY AT SMUGGS’

REGISTER HERE 23T-BackyardBurlington112724 1

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

65

11/25/24 9:17 AM

1

YOUTH TALENT SHOW FOR

VERMONT’S RISING STARS

December 7, 2024 HIGHER GROUND BALLROOM SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT

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1. Alaia “AJ” Rolfe 11, Jericho/Richmond

Performing original standup poetry

2. Aiden Sherpa 11, South Burlington

Singing “Castle on a Cloud” from Les Miserables

3. Stella Forward

Introducing

10, Burlington

R A L U C A T E TH SPEC

Singing “Rainbow” by Kacey Musgraves

4. Adim Benoit 12, Montpelier

Playing “Jailhouse Rock” by Elvis Presley on the piano

5. Addyson Long 11, Colchester

Lyrical dance to the song “Watershed” by Anaïs Mitchell

6.Calise Valiska

11, Jeffersonville/Cambridge Singing “Deja Vu” by Olivia Rodrigo

O

ur panel of judges had an incredibly difficult time selecting the final lineup for this year’s Kids VT Spectacular Spectacular, but we’re excited to welcome these acts to the stage at Higher Ground!

Among this year’s performers, ages 8 to 16, are singers, dancers, songwriters and a poet. We can’t wait to see them in person so we can say we knew them way back when.

Tickets are $7 in advance and $10 on the day of the show. Scan this QR code to buy them at highergroundmusic.com.

7 & 8. Caroline Clayton 12, Colchester

Norah Canavan 12, Colchester

Playing the ukulele and singing “Riptide” by Vance Joy

9. Eva Tarrant

13, South Burlington Singing an original song titled “Roses”

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SPONSORED BY 25

PRODUCED BY

WITH MEDIA SUPPORT FROM 24

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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10. Piper Hall

18. Addison Minor

Singing an original song titled “Driving Down a Lonely Road”

Playing piano and singing “Stay” by Rihanna

11 & 12 Claire Blais

19. Robin Hart

Emerson Leeuw

Singing “Dead Mom” from the musical Beetlejuice

15, East Hardwick

15, Westford

12, Colchester

13, Jericho

11, Colchester

Dancing to “Friend Like Me” by Robin Williams, from the movie Aladdin

13. Lily Ryersbach 15, Starksboro

Singing “Scars to Your Beautiful” by Alessia Cara

14 & 15. Violet Lambert 12, Monkton

Eva Lambert

11

20. Poutine

a band from Shelburne featuring Eli Bart (14), Jack Blazewicz (13), Frank D’Amore (13), Thomas Schramm (14) Playing the song “White Room” by Cream

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21 & 22. Mira Biggs, 11, Underhill Jaya Heitkamp, 10, Jericho Playing piano and singing “Lost Boy” by Ruth B

8, Monkton

Performing “People Watching” by Conan Gray

16. Charlotte Clark

23. Georgia Kunkel 14, Vergennes

Playing guitar and singing a cover of Phoebe Bridgers’ “I Know the End”

14, Lincoln

Singing “Say You Won’t Let Go” by James Arthur

17. Evan Benoit

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24. Alyce Ayer, 11, Bolton Valley Singing “The Cup Song” from Pitch Perfect

16, Montpelier

Playing “Viva La Vida” by Coldplay on the piano

25. Myla Larmond, 11, South Burlington Performing the first movement of Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E Minor on violin

Visit sevendaysvt.com/talentshow for more details!

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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calendar D E C E M B E R dance

WED.4

DANCE 260 & BUTOH CLASS SHOWING: Students from two classes share their choreography and demonstrate what they’ve learned this semester.

Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 5 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

activism

DISABLED ACCESS & ADVOCACY OF THE RUTLAND AREA MONTHLY ZOOM MEETING: Community members gather online to advocate for accessibility and other disability-rights measures. 11:30 a.m.-noon.

Free. Info, 779-9021.

business

etc.

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: Savvy businesspeople make crucial contacts at a weekly chapter meeting. BCA Center, Burlington, 11:15 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 829-5066.

VERMONT WOMENPRENEURS BIZ BUZZ ZOOM: A monthly virtual networking meetup provides a space for female business owners to connect. 10-11 a.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 870-0903‬.

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: A drop-in meetup welcomes knitters, crocheters, spinners, weavers and other fiber artists.

BYO snacks and drinks. Must Love Yarn, Shelburne, 5-7 p.m.

Free. Info, 448-3780.

4 - 1 1 ,

CHAMP MASTERS TOASTMASTERS CLUB: Those looking to strengthen their speaking and leadership skills gain new tools. Virtual option available. Dealer. com, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, champmasterstm@gmail.com.

ANNUAL WINTER MEETING: The Vermont Council on World Affairs lets loose at a public, catered reception and silent auction. Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 557-0018.

games

CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities test their skills with instructor Robert and peers. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free.

Info, 223-3338.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana

These community event listings are sponsored by the WaterWheel Foundation, a project of the Vermont band Phish.

LIST YOUR UPCOMING EVENT HERE FOR FREE! All submissions must be received by Thursday at noon for consideration in the following Wednesday’s newspaper.

Find our convenient form and guidelines at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

Listings and spotlights are written by Rebecca Driscoll. Seven Days edits for space and style. Depending on cost and other factors, classes and workshops may be listed in either the calendar or the classes section. Class organizers may be asked to purchase a class listing.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

2 0 2 4

Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m.

Free. Info, 244-7036.

holidays

ARTISAN HOLIDAY MARKET: Festive shoppers flock to a onestop gift destination featuring handmade jewelry, ceramics, paintings, fiber arts and household goods. Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, noon-6 p.m. Free. Info, holidaymarket@ chandler-arts.org.

CELEBRATION OF TREES: Merrymakers wander through a sparkling display of decorated trees — and enter a raffle to win one of them. Proceeds benefit ANEW Place. University Mall, South Burlington, 10 a.m. $5.

Info, 862-8871.

HOLIDAY BAZAAR & FOOD DRIVE: The school’s staff council hosts more than 40 vendors composed of faculty, alumni, retirees and students. Donations benefit Feeding Champlain Valley. Davis Center, University of Vermont, Burlington, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Free; nonperishable food donations accepted. Info, 656-4493.

‘JINGLE BELL SWING’: The Bria Skonberg Jazz Quintet brings compelling holiday compositions and arrangements to the stage. Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. $5-25. Info, 443-6433.

discussion led by a Spanish teacher. Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 5-6 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, programs@ damlvt.org.

music

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE: Emily Taubl directs students in a rousing program of classical works.

University of Vermont Recital Hall, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Info, 656-3040.

MICKY DOLENZ: The former vocalist and drummer of ’60s pop legends the Monkees performs the band’s greatest hits and crowd-pleasing tunes from the era. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7-9 p.m. $60-80. Info, 775-0903.

seminars

IMOVIE EDITING: Visual storytellers learn how to hone their craft with a user-friendly computer program. A Q&A follows. The Media Factory, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister; donations accepted. Info, 651-9692.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: Ping-Pong players swing their paddles in singles and doubles matches. Rutland Area Christian School, 7-9 p.m. Free for first two sessions; $30 annual membership. Info, 247-5913.

talks

CHRIS GRAFF: A journalist and historian traces the transformation of Vermont — and its image — from a “red state” to a “blue state.” Virtual option available.

Rutland Free Library, 2-3 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 262-2626.

theater

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: Holiday gift hunters discover unique handmade items crafted by more than 35 Vermont artists. Brandon Artists Guild, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Free. Info, 247-4956.

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: Northern Stage mounts the classic Disney tale as old as time about learning to look beyond appearances. Byrne Theater, Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 11 a.m. & 7:30 p.m. $24-94. Info, 296-7000.

language

words

SPANISH CONVERSATION: Fluent and beginner speakers brush up on their vocabulario with a

FIND MORE LOCAL EVENTS IN THIS ISSUE AND ONLINE: art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/music.

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

JOSEPH LUZZI: ‘MY LIFE WITH DANTE TRANSLATION & TRADITION IN TWO NEW BOOKS’: Phoenix Books and the Vermont Italian Cultural Association present a virtual evening with the award-winning author of Dante’s Divine Comedy: A Biography and Vita Nuova. 8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 872-7111.

THU.5 activism

COMMUNITY FORUM ON HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS: Neighbors come together with local organizations to overcome stereotypes and discuss the realities of unhoused people in Lamoille County. Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 6-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 391-8661.

business

GROW YOUR BUSINESS: Shelburne BNI hosts a weekly meeting for local professionals to exchange referrals and build meaningful connections. Connect Church, Shelburne, 8:30-10 a.m.

Free. Info, 377-3422.

crafts

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of all experience levels get together to spin yarns. Latham Library, Thetford, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

WOODWORKING LAB: Visionaries create a project or learn a new skill with the help of mentors and access to tools and equipment in the makerspace. Hannaford Career Center, Middlebury, 5-8 p.m. $7.50. Info, 382-1012.

dance

FALL DANCE CONCERT: Audience members take in dazzling original choreography by students Leigha Francis, Brys Peralta and Liefe Temple. Dance Theatre, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. $5-15. Info, 443-6433.

etc.

NIGHT OWL CLUB: Astronomers and space exploration experts discuss the latest in extraterrestrial news with curious attendees.

Presented by Fairbanks Museum & Planetarium. 7 p.m. Free. Info, 748-2372.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: Never-beforeseen footage brings audience members to the farthest reaches of the coldest, driest, windiest continent on Earth. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: Andy Serkis narrates the journey of a lifetime into the realm of the world’s largest mammals and the scientists who study them. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under.

Info, 864-1848.

‘FUNGI: THE WEB OF LIFE 3D’: Sparkling graphics take viewers on a journey into the weird, wide world of mushrooms, which we are only just beginning to understand. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.5020; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: Incredible CGI and revelations in tyrannosaur paleontology help to chronicle a remarkable discovery in the badlands of Hell Creek. Northfield Savings Bank 3D Theater: A National Geographic Experience, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $16.50-20; admission free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘BLACK DOG’: Viewers take in Guan Hu’s 2024 neorealist thriller about citizens being left behind by rapid economic development in China. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $6-12. Info, 660-2600.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: Snacks and coffee fuel bouts of a classic card game. Burlington Bridge Club, Williston, 12:30-4 p.m. $6. Info, 872-5722.

WEEKLY CHESS FOR FUN: Players of all ability levels face off and learn new strategies.

United Community Church, St. Johnsbury, 5:30-9 p.m.

Free; donations accepted. Info, lafferty1949@gmail.com.

health & fitness

ART YOGA: Artist Sharon Fennimore combines awareness with a child’s sense of play and curiosity. Waterbury Public Library, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, judi@waterburypubliclibrary. com.

holidays

ANNUAL TREE-LIGHTING: Merrymakers join Gov. Phil Scott for a magical evening ushering in the festive season, featuring live music, animals and wagon rides. An indoor reception follows.

Vermont Statehouse lawn, Montpelier, 4-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 595-4381.

ARTISAN HOLIDAY MARKET: See WED.4.

CELEBRATION OF TREES: See WED.4.

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: Folks stroll through a magical landscape filled with enchanting displays, including a snow shower tower and a whimsical woodland.

Vermont Institute of Natural Science, Quechee, 4:30-7 p.m. $813; free for kids 3 and under. Info, 359-5000.

HOLIDAY HOUSE PARTY: Listeners enjoy a cozy evening of seasonal favorites showcasing singers and instrumentalists from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music. Centaur Theatre, Montréal, 8 p.m. $45-75. Info, 514-971-3454.

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

OPEN STUDIO & HOLIDAY SALE: Locavores browse Middleburymade bags, gear and bicycling accessories. Fifth Season Canvas, Middlebury, 4-8 p.m. Free. Info, fifthseasoncanvas@gmail.com.

WINOOSKI HOLIDAY POP-UP SHOP: Onion City shoppers

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

FAMILY chittenden county FUN Check out these family-friendly events for parents, caregivers and kids of all ages.

• Plan ahead at sevendaysvt.com/family-fun.

• Post your event at sevendaysvt.com/postevent.

burlington

TODDLER TIME: Librarians bring out books, rhymes and songs specially selected for young ones 12 to 24 months.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

BABY TIME: Parents and caregivers bond with their pre-walking babes during this gentle playtime. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

PLAYGROUP & STORY TIME: Little ones and their caregivers listen to stories, sing songs and share toys with new friends.

Richmond Free Library, 10 a.m.-noon. Free.

Info, 434-3036.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TEEN HANGOUT: Middle and high schoolers make friends at a no-pressure meetup.

Waterbury Public Library, 3-6 p.m. Free.

Info, 244-7036.

TEEN QUEER READS: LGBTQIA+ and allied youths get together each month to read and discuss ideas around gender, sexuality and identity. Waterbury Public Library, 6-7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 244-7036.

THU.5

burlington

BABY & ME CLASS: Parents and their infants ages birth to 1 explore massage, lullabies and gentle movements while discussing the struggles and joys of parenthood. Greater Burlington YMCA, 9:45-10:45 a.m. $10; free for members.

Info, 862-9622.

BABY TIME: Pre-walking little ones experience a story time catered to their infant interests. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

GROW PRESCHOOL YOGA: Colleen from Grow Prenatal and Family Yoga leads little ones ages 2 to 5 in songs, movement and other fun activities. Fletcher Free

WINTER LIGHTS: Buildings and gardens glow with multicolored bulbs in a spectacular display for the holiday season. Shelburne Museum, 4:30-8 p.m. $10-30;

PRESCHOOL PLAY TIME: Pre-K patrons play and socialize after music time.

Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

STORY TIME: Little ones ages birth to 5 learn from songs, crafts and picture books.

Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

WED.4

channel the holiday spirit with drink specials, live music, shopping and tastings. See website for full schedule. Downtown Winooski, 5-9 p.m. Free. Info, info@downtownwinooski.org.

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire guides little ones ages birth to 5 in indoor music and movement.

Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

barre/montpelier

POKÉMON CLUB: I choose you, Pikachu!

Elementary and teenage fans of the franchise — and beginners, too — trade cards and play games. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

STORY TIME: Kids and their caregivers meet for stories, songs and bubbles.

Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAYTIME: Caregivers bring kiddos 3 and younger to a new sensory learning experience each week.

Morristown Centennial Library, Morrisville, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 888-3853.

mad river valley/ waterbury

BUSY BEES PLAYGROUP: Blocks, toys, books and songs engage little ones 24 months and younger. Waterbury Public Library, 10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

northeast kingdom

STORY TIME: Youngsters 5 and under play, sing, hear stories and color. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:15-10:45 a.m.

Free. Info, 745-1391.

FRI.6

chittenden county

TEEN ADVISORY GROUP: Students in grades 6 to 12 help plan future library programs while hanging out and enjoying lit-themed games. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier

LEGO CLUB: Budding builders create geometric structures with snap-together blocks. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

STORY TIME & PLAYGROUP: Participants ages 5 and under enjoy themed science, art and nature activities. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

upper valley

STORY TIME: Preschoolers take part in tales, tunes and playtime. Latham Library, Thetford, 11 a.m. Free. Info, 785-4361.

SAT.7

burlington

FAMILY PLAYSHOP: Little ones ages birth to 5 explore a range of themes and rotating activities designed to promote school readiness and foster creativity. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10-11:30 a.m. Free.

Info, 863-3403.

LEGO TIME: Mini makers ages 4 to 11 design and build original, colorful creations.

Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 11 a.m.-noon. Free.

Info, 863-3403.

STORIES WITH GEOFF: Little patrons of the library’s satellite location enjoy a morning of stories and songs. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

mad river valley/ waterbury

SATURDAY STORY TIME: Stories and songs help young children develop social and literacy skills. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

middlebury area

10TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OPEN HOUSE: Families celebrate a decade of the beloved music school with an interactive instrument petting zoo, live youth concerts, and holiday-themed arts and crafts.

Middlebury Community Music Center, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 989-7538.

SATURDAY PLAYGROUP: Folks new to town or to parenting connect while their kids make friends. Vergennes Congregational Church, 9:30-11 a.m. Free.

Info, 877-2435.

upper valley

LEGO ANIMATION WORKSHOP: Kiddos flock to the library to learn basic stop-motion techniques using colorful snap-together blocks. Norwich Public Library, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; preregister.

Info, 649-1184.

SUN.8

burlington

DAD GUILD: Fathers (and parents of all genders) and their kids ages 5 and under drop in for playtime and connection.

free for kids 3 and under. Info, 985-3346.

Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

language

lgbtq

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Semi-fluent speakers practice their skills during a conversazione with others. Best for those who can speak at least basic sentences. Fletcher Free Library,

POP-UP HAPPY HOUR: Locals connect over drinks at a speakeasy-style bar, hosted by OUT in the 802. Lincolns, Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 860-7812.

music

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: Tabletop role-players ages 9 to 18 practice their craft with the library’s newest dungeon master, Andrew. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-4 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, 863-3403.

SENSORY-FRIENDLY SUNDAY: Folks of all ages with sensory processing differences have the museum to themselves, with adjusted lights and sounds and trusty sensory backpacks. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 9-10 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, kvonderlinn@ echovermont.org.

chittenden county

SOCIAL SUNDAYS: Families participate in fun and educational art activities with diverse mediums and themes. All supplies and instruction provided. Milton Artists’ Guild Art Center & Gallery, 1-3 p.m. Free.

Info, 891-2014.

barre/montpelier

GENDER CREATIVE KIDS: Trans and gender-nonconforming kiddos under 13 and their families build community and make new friends at this joyful monthly gathering. Locations vary; contact organizer for info. Various locations statewide, 2-4 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 865-9677.

MON.9

KIDS IN THE KITCHEN: Dietitian Joanne Heidkamp leads families in making a fun recipe from the comfort of their own homes. Hosted by Brownell Library in collaboration with Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 4-5 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 878-6956.

burlington

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Bookworms ages 2 to 5 enjoy a fun-filled reading time.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

POKÉMON CLUB: Players trade cards and enjoy activities centered on their favorite strategic game. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

upper valley

STORY TIME WITH BETH: A bookseller and librarian extraordinaire reads two picture books on a different theme each week. Norwich Bookstore, 10 a.m. Free.

Info, 649-1114.

TUE.10

burlington

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with Linda.

Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

STORY TIME: Youngsters ages birth to 5 enjoy a session of reading, rhyming and singing. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

TEEN BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: Litloving kids in grades 6 to 12 discuss their favorite novels and authors. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

barre/montpelier STORY TIME: See THU.5.

mad river valley/ waterbury

WATERCOLOR FOR KIDS: Artist Pauline Nolte leads little painters in grades 2 to 4 in exploration and expression. Waterbury Public Library, 3-4 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, 244-7036.

WED.11

burlington

ART EXPLORERS: Young creatives ages 5 to 14 learn about art history and self-expression at this homeschooler-friendly program from Davis Studio. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 1-2 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

TODDLER TIME: See WED.4.

chittenden county

PLAYGROUP & STORY TIME: See WED.4.

stowe/smuggs

barre/montpelier

mad river valley/ waterbury

upper valley

ART PLAY: Wee ones ages 1 to 4 and their caregivers enjoy process-based creativity and sensory exploration. The Current, Stowe, 10-11:30 a.m. $5. Info, 253-8358.

TODDLER TIME: Little tykes ages 5 and under have a blast with songs, stories, rhymes and dancing. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

JAZZ GUITAR ENSEMBLE & POST BOP ENSEMBLE: Joe Capps and Ray Vega conduct lively works

by Clifford Brown, John Coltrane and Duke Ellington, as well as two original compositions by students. University of Vermont Recital Hall, Burlington, 7:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 656-3040.

HOMESCHOOL BOOK GROUP: Kids ages 10 to 15 who learn at home bond over books. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

PRE-K STORY TIME: Little ones ages 3 to 5 hear a different farm-themed tale every week. Snacks included. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 9:30-11 a.m. $10-12; preregister. Info, 457-2355. K

MIDDLEBURY WIND ENSEMBLE: Forty local musicians play a diverse program including two Vermont premieres, an homage to Abraham Lincoln and a beloved holiday classic. Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 443-6433.

seminars

NATURAL REMEDIES FOR COLD & FLU SEASON: Naturopathic doctor Tara Pollock sheds light on herbal and homeopathic recipes and hydrotherapy techniques to support the immune system.

Stepping Stones Children’s Center, Burlington, 7-8 p.m.

THU.5 SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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calendar « P.69

Free; donations accepted. Info, 860-1915.

talks

ENGAGING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LAND STEWARDS: Community members tune in to learn about two local programs working with students to foster the skills and passion needed to care for our fields and forests. Hosted by Vermont Land Trust. 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 262-3765.

LEGISLATIVE PREVIEW: VERMONT’S CREATIVE SECTOR ADVOCACY PRIORITIES: A panel shows citizens how they can help ensure state representatives and senators understand the importance of our local creative economy. Presented by Vermont Arts Council. 11 a.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 828-3291.

WATER RHYTHMS: Anglers, scientists, naturalists, conservationists and students come together to reflect on the precious resource.

Light refreshments provided.

Mad River Valley Arts Gallery, Waitsfield, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 496-6682.

theater

‘ANNIE’: The musical story of a plucky orphan’s adventures through New York City charms audience members. Monument Arts & Cultural Center, Bennington, 7 p.m. $25-40. Info, 318-4444.

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: See WED.4, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

words

FRI.6

bazaars

BTV WINTER MARKET: Locavores explore an outdoor market featuring a rotating group of 20 local artists, makers and food vendors.

Burlington City Hall Park, 2-6 p.m.

Free. Info, 865-7166.

WINTER FAIR & ARTISAN MARKET: Attendees marvel at a European-style bazaar highlighting handcrafted items from local makers, as well as nature craft activities, winter games and live music. Lake Champlain Waldorf School, Shelburne, 6-8:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 985-2827.

crafts

FIRST FRIDAY FIBER GROUP: Fiber-arts fans make progress on projects while chatting over snacks. GRACE, Hardwick, 10:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, info@ruralartsvt.org.

dance

FALL DANCE CONCERT: See THU.5.

etc.

ALPHA FILM SERIES: Community members enjoy a meal, watch a brief video and share their perspectives on faith in an informal, friendly environment. St. John Vianney Parish Hall, South Burlington, 6:15-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 864-4166.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.5.

ART & WRITING SHARE GROUP FOR JEWS OF ALL STRIPES: Secular, spiritual or religious, all adult Jewish artists, writers and creators are invited to a monthly virtual meetup, presented by Jewish Communities of Vermont. 7-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister for Zoom link. Info, alison@jcvt.org.

ETHAN TAPPER: The Bolton author discusses his latest book, How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World, which outlines the importance of forestry and stewardship in Vermont. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 6:30-7:45 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

ELLEN PARENT: A Vermont author launches her debut novel, After the Fall, exploring the complexities of family in a postapocalyptic setting. Phoenix Books, Rutland, 6:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 855-8078.

LESLIE SAINZ: Listeners enjoy a Cuban-American poet’s debut collection, Have You Been Long Enough at Table, exploring the realities of inherited exile. A Q&A follows. Adirondack Center for Writing, Saranac Lake, N.Y., 7-9 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 518-354-1261.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

‘FUNGI: THE WEB OF LIFE 3D’: See THU.5.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

food & drink

GIN-TER WONDERLAND: Libation lovers revel in a special cocktail menu filled with holiday cheer, including gingerbread old-fashioneds and Euro-style hot chocolate. Barr Hill, Montpelier, 2-8 p.m.

Free. Info, 472-8000.

DEC. 6 | MUSIC New Wave The University of Vermont Recital Hall hosts Trio Fadolín as part of the school’s dynamic Lane Series concert season. The multifaceted classical ensemble — made up of Sabina Torosjan, Valeriya Sholokhova and Ljova (one name, like Madonna) — formed during the pandemic and spent its inaugural season performing at a mass vaccination site in Manhattan. The unusual start to the group’s career tracks, considering its name honors the equally unusual fadolín: This special six-stringed instrument encompasses the range of the violin, viola and most of the cello — and speaks to the limitless possibilities of acoustic evolution in the 21st century.

LANE SERIES: TRIO FADOLÍN Friday, December 6, 7:30 p.m., at the University of Vermont Recital Hall in Burlington. $5-35. Info, 656-4455, uvm.edu.

games

CELEBRATION OF TREES: See WED.4, 9 a.m.-7 p.m.

MAH-JONGG: Tile traders of all experience levels gather for a game. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 1-3 p.m. Free.

Info, 878-4918.

CHRISTMAS MUSIC NIGHT: Neighbors come together for festive songs, readings and refreshments to usher in the spirit of the season. United Reformed Church, New Haven, 7 p.m. Free.

Info, 989-4139.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.5, 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

health & fitness

GUIDED MEDITATION ONLINE: Dorothy Alling Memorial Library invites attendees to relax on their lunch breaks and reconnect with their bodies. Noon-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@ damlvt.org.

holidays

ARTISAN HOLIDAY MARKET: See WED.4.

70

COURTESY OF TATIANA DAUBEK

THU.5

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See THU.5.

FRIGHTFUL FIRST FILMS: ‘RARE EXPORTS’: Series host Eric Ford presents the 2010 Finnish horror-fantasy flick about unearthing Santa Claus from the depths of the Korvatunturi mountains. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-8:30 p.m. $5-10. Info, 660-2600.

GIFT WRAPPING: Gift givers bring presents of any size and shape to be wrapped by cheerful volunteers. Proceeds benefit ANEW

Place. Center Court, University Mall, South Burlington, 10 a.m.-7 p.m. By donation. Info, 862-8871.

Shelburne Museum, 5-10 p.m. $75-100. Info, 985-3346.

GNOME FOR CHRISTMAS BAZAAR: Community members flock to a sparkling showcase of crafts, baked goods, dolls, jewelry and attic treasures. Bristol St. Ambrose Parish, 1-4 p.m. Free.

Info, 453-2488.

‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’: The Athenaeum Players mount a staged radio drama rendition of Frank Capra’s 1946 Christmas classic about a man saved from despair by his guardian angel. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 4 & 6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

HANDEL’S ‘MESSIAH’: Vermont Philharmonic performs part one of the timeless oratorio, ending with the iconic “Hallelujah Chorus.” St. Augustine Church, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. $5-25. Info, 223-9855.

MCCARTHY JAZZ ORCHESTRA: An 18-piece ensemble brings the holiday vibes with an evening of original arrangements of classic Christmas hits. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 7:30-9 p.m. $40-50.

Info, 382-9222.

HOLIDAY HOUSE PARTY: See THU.5.

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

ICE BAR AT WINTER LIGHTS: The twinkling wonderland transforms into a foodie’s dream with frosty wine and spirits and treats from local food trucks. Ages 21 and up.

TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS WEEKEND: Families visit Stowe for magical festivities including a children’s lantern parade, a Santa stroll and ice skating at the town

arena. Various Stowe locations, 4:30 p.m. Free. Info, abby@ stowevibrancy.org.

VISIT SANTA!: Festive kiddos pop by the snowflake station to take a magical photo and share their holiday wishes. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, 4-8 p.m.

Free. Info, 863-1648.

A WESTON WINTER CABARET: SOLD OUT. Former company members take to the stage for a spirited spectacular. Weston Theater at Walker Farm, 7:30 p.m.

Wait list available. Info, 824-5288.

WINTER WONDERLAND: Folks explore a charming offering of themed displays, hands-on activities and children’s workshops.

Gardener’s Supply Company, Burlington and Williston, 3 p.m.

Free. Info, 658-2433.

YULETIDE CONCERT & CAROL SING-ALONG: Neighbors gather for seasonal music performed by the Cauld Wind Pipers, the Green Mountain Celts and the Good Shepherd Folk Musicians.

Proceeds benefit the JerichoUnderhill Ecumenical Ministries Food Shelf. Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Jericho, 7-8 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

Info, 238-5686.

language

‘ZIEH DEN STECKER RAUS, DAS WASSER KOCHT’: The school’s German Theater Group presents satirist Ephraim Kishon’s hilarious take on the modern arts scene.

Performances in German with English synopses available. Le Château, Middlebury College,

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

7:30-9:30 p.m. Free. Info, bmatthia@middlebury.edu.

lgbtq

RPG NIGHT: Members of the LGBTQ community get together weekly for role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Everway. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:308:30 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

music

DECEMBER VOCAL CONCERT: Voice students cap off a semester of study with a lively program of classical and Broadway songs.

Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

ETHAN SETIAWAN & FINE GROUND: A virtuosic mandolin champion performs commanding original compositions in his bluegrass quintet. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret, 7 p.m. $30. Info, 457-3500.

LANE SERIES: TRIO FADOLÍN: A new classical instrument — the fadolín, or six-string violin — takes center stage at a performance exploring its unique sonority. See calendar spotlight.

University of Vermont Recital Hall, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $5-35.

Info, 656-4455.

VERMONT JAZZ CENTER BIG BAND WITH CARMEN BRADFORD: The center’s own 18-piece ensemble marks 20 years with a dynamic swingdance performance featuring a renowned Grammy-winning vocalist. Vermont Jazz Center, Brattleboro, 7:30 p.m. $40-100 sliding scale. Info, 254-9088, ext. 1.

tech

MORNING TECH HELP: Experts answer questions about phones, laptops, e-readers and other devices in one-on-one sessions.

South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 846-4140.

PHONE & TECH SUPPORT: Perplexed patrons receive aid from library staff on a first come, first served basis. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 10 a.m.-noon. Free.

Info, 863-3403.

theater

‘ANNIE’: See THU.5.

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: See WED.4, 7:30 p.m.

‘BROADWAY DIRECT #19’: Big city talent meets a little city stage in this annual favorite showcasing crowd-pleasing hits. Proceeds benefit the All Access Project.

Vergennes Opera House, 7:30-9 p.m. $10-20. Info, 877-6737.

‘INHERIT THE WIND’: Lamoille County Players stage Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s drama centered on the case of a science teacher accused of the crime of teaching evolution.

Hyde Park Opera House, 7 p.m. $15-20. Info, 888-4507.

‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC’: Lebanon High School’s Wet Paint Players raise the curtain on the classic

Rodgers and Hammerstein musical inspired by Austria’s von Trapp Family Singers. Lebanon Opera House, N.H., 7 p.m. $4. Info, 603-448-0400.

words

BOOK SALE: Community members peruse a wide array of carefully selected, high-quality used books, DVDs and CD audiobooks to benefit the library. Richmond Free Library, 5:30-8:30 p.m.

Free; donations accepted. Info, 434-3036.

SAT.7 bazaars

BTV WINTER MARKET: See FRI.6, noon-6 p.m.

GOOD TRADE MAKERS MARKET: Shoppers delight in a marketplace featuring more than 90 small businesses from across the country. Hula, Burlington, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. $8. Info, hello@ goodtrademakersmarket.com.

WINTER FAIR & ARTISAN MARKET: See FRI.6, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

dance

CONTRA DANCE: Dancers of all ages and abilities learn at a gathering that encourages joy, laughter and friendship. Bring clean, soft-soled shoes. See website for callers and bands. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 8-11 p.m. $5-20 sliding scale. Info, 225-8921.

etc.

SISTERHOOD CAMPFIRE: Women and genderqueer folks gather in a safe and inclusive space to build community through journaling, storytelling, gentle music and stargazing.

Leddy Park, Burlington, 7-9 p.m.

Free. Info, sisterhoodcampfire@ gmail.com.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.5.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

‘DRIVER’: Audiences take in a powerful documentary following truck driver Desiree Wood as she finds purpose within an irreverent group of fellow female truckers. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 3 p.m. $12-15. Info, 457-2355.

‘FUNGI: THE WEB OF LIFE 3D’: See THU.5.

‘THE MAGIC FLUTE’: The Metropolitan Opera’s colorful, kaleidoscopic 2006 production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s masterpiece returns for an encore on the silver screen.

Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 1-3 p.m. $20. Info, 775-0903.

‘QUALITY SKI TIME FILM TOUR’: Snow sports fans gear up for winter with flicks featuring incredible athletes and diverse styles of skiing. Proceeds benefit Vermont Adaptive Ski & Sports.

Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7-9 p.m. $18. Info, 775-0903.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

Your paper.

Your community.

Your choice.

Support the businesses who support our work.

‘THE ADVENTURES OF PRINCE ACHMED’: Viewers of all ages revel in Lotte Reiniger’s visionary 1926 animated feature — the oldest surviving film of its kind. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts 8v-your.indd 2 Center, Burlington, 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. $5-10. Info, 660-2600.

Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

with Chris Collins & Boulder Canyon

Sat., December 14, 7:30 Barre Opera House 802-476-8188 • WWW.BARREOPERAHOUSE.ORG

7/9/248v-BarreOperaHouse120424 5:23 PM 1

12/3/24 12:04 PM

food & drink

BURLINGTON WINTER FARMERS MARKET: More than 40 vendors showcase their finest fresh farm produce, meats, unique crafts and baked goods. Burlington Beer Company, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Free. Info, 560-5904.

December 7-8 Champlain Valley Expo

VERMONT

GIN-TER WONDERLAND: See FRI.6, noon-8 p.m.

FOMO?

John Denver Christmas

NARNIA ADVENTURE DINNER: Fantasy lovers travel through the wardrobe and enjoy a multicourse, family-style feast inspired by the beloved C.S. Lewis novel.

Adventure Dinner Clubhouse, Colchester, 6-9 p.m. $75. Info, sas@adventuredinner.com.

games

CEMETERY COMMITTEE BINGO: Players vie for cash prizes at this weekly event to support cemetery improvements. St. Peter’s Catholic Church, Vergennes, 5-9 p.m. $5 per 10 games. Info, 877-2367.

Holiday Market

Explore over 175 crafters & artisans Visit Santa Free gift wrapping

CHESS CLUB: All ages and abilities face off and learn new strategies. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

D&D & TTRPG GROUP: Fans of Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop role-playing games embark on a new adventure with a rotating cast of game masters. Virtual option SAT.7

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10am - 5pm daily. $10 for adults at the door and kids under 12 are FREE VTGatherings.com 4t-AmandaCashin120424 1

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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calendar « P.71

available. Waterbury Public Library, 1-5 p.m. Free. Info, judi@ waterburypubliclibrary.com.

holidays

AFTERNOON HOLIDAY A CAPPELLA: The Green Mountain Chorus and the Barre-Tones take the stage for an afternoon of holiday favorites sung in fourpart harmony. Hedding United Methodist Church, Barre, 2-3:15 p.m. $10 suggested donation.

Info, info@barretonesvt.com.

ANNUAL HOLIDAY BAZAAR: Treasure hunters peruse craft vendors, “Granny’s attic” and books, then enjoy a luncheon of soup and sandwiches. First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free.

Info, 862-5630.

ANNUAL HOLIDAY SWEATER PARTY: Merrymakers don their tacky, classy, ugly or stylish knits while enjoying games and savory offerings from Pie Empire. Simple Roots Brewing, Burlington, 3-9 p.m. Free; preorder pies. Info, 399-2658.

ANNUAL HOLIDAY TRACTOR PARADE: Families line the streets for an illuminated procession of festive floats, tractors, trailers and machinery. Various Manchester locations, 5:30 p.m. Free. Info, john@manchestervermont.com.

ARTISAN HOLIDAY MARKET: See WED.4.

CELEBRATION OF TREES: See WED.4.

CHRISTMAS AT THE FARM: Folks step back in time for a Victorian holiday experience featuring traditional 19th-century decorations, candle dipping, pie crust making and snow sports. Billings Farm & Museum, Woodstock, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $12-19. Info, 457-2355.

CHRISTMAS BAZAAR: Community members browse a vast array of local goodies including crafts, ornaments, baked goods and pine cone wreaths. Trinity Episcopal Church, Shelburne, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Free. Info, 985-2269.

COMMUNITY HOLIDAY PARTY: Neighbors gather for cookie decorating, card making, gift exchanging and fireside singing led by local musician Coco Kallis.

Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

COMMUNITY TOY SWAP: Attendees save money on holiday shopping and find like-new toys, games and puzzles for the whole family. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Free.

Info, 878-6955.

COOKIE SWAP: Locals embrace the spirit of giving and sharing while adding a touch of sweetness to the holidays. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 387-0102.

A FOREST OF LIGHTS: See THU.5.

GIFT WRAPPING: See FRI.6.

Michael’s College, Colchester, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $5-30 suggested donation. Info, 999-8881.

GNOME FOR CHRISTMAS BAZAAR: See FRI.6, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

HOLIDAY ARTISAN FAIR: Treasure hunters find a wide variety of handmade goods, including pottery, paintings, jewelry and sweet treats. GreenTARA Space, North Hero, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

Info, 355-2150.

COURTESY OF DAHLIA KATZ

SAT.7

OPENS DEC. 8 | QUÉBEC

HOLIDAY ARTISAN SALE: Craft enthusiasts browse the wares of 37 exceptional artisans, including potters, wood turners, painters and weavers. Barrett Memorial Hall, South Strafford, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, kurmacdavid@ gmail.com.

HOLIDAY BOOK SALE: Bookworms find new and like-new titles to take home or gift this season. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free.

Info, 863-3403.

HOLIDAY CONCERT & SINGALONG: Festive folks ring in the season with their voices, led by the Carol Ann Jones quartet.

Proceeds benefit Harbor of Hope.

First Baptist Church of St. Albans, 7-9 p.m. $18. Info, 363-3861.

HOLIDAY MARKET: Shoppers delight in a unique treasure-filled boutique showcasing locally crafted one-of-a-kind items. Viva Marketplace, South Hero, 10 a.m.4 p.m. Free. Info, 373-2321.

‘HOLIDAY POPS’: The Vermont Symphony Orchestra performs a joyful program complete with three sing-alongs and beloved classics by John Rutter, LeRoy Anderson and George Frideric Handel. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $8.35-62.

Info, 863-5966.

HOLIDAY SALE: Folks flock to the museum to peruse wreaths, books and clothing, then take part in a hands-on 19th-century printmaking activity. Rokeby Museum, Ferrisburgh, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 877-3406.

INTERNATIONAL BOUTIQUE: A unique selection of goods from Mexico, India, Nepal and beyond makes for special holiday gifts.

Waitsfield Masonic Lodge, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free. Info, 793-2205.

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

‘MESSIAH’: Eric Milnes directs the Vermont Choral Union in George Frideric Handel’s timeless and sacred oratorio, accompanied by Montréal’s award-winning baroque ensemble L’Harmonie des saisons. Holy Angels Church, St. Albans, 7:30 p.m. $10-70 sliding scale; free for students and kids.

Info, 524-2585.

NORTH COUNTRY CHORUS: Seventy community singers perform seasonal works by Conrad Susa and Benjamin Britten.

United Community Church, St. Johnsbury, 7:30 p.m. By donation.

Info, 274-3644.

RICHMOND HOLIDAY MARKET: ‘GLORIOUS SEASON’: The singers Locavores take in a wide variety of of Bella Voce offer Antonio more than 40 unique crafters and Vivaldi’s timeless Gloria for woma silent auction to benefit Toys for en’s voices, as well as a variety of Kids. Richmond Congregational jubilant holiday compositions.

Church, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, McCarthy Arts Center, Saint 318-5360.

72 SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Strike a Chord

Norwich, 7-9 p.m. $25. Info, 6498828.

Toronto theater company Soulpepper mounts its tribute concert, “The Secret Chord: A Leonard Cohen Experience,” at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts — which happens to be in the titular singer-songwriter’s hometown of Montréal. The production runs through mid-January and showcases the unparalleled artistry, lyricism and introspection for which Cohen was known. Often referred to as “the Bard of Montréal,” Cohen had an uncanny ability to tap into the human experience — especially suffering — that still resonates with audiences today. Using storytelling and fresh arrangements of popular songs, the staged homage continues Cohen’s legacy of profound poetry and evocative melody with heartfelt reverence.

‘THE SECRET CHORD: A LEONARD COHEN EXPERIENCE’ Sunday, December 8, 2 p.m., and Monday, December 9, through Wednesday, December 11, 7:30 p.m., at Sylvan Adams Theatre, Segal Centre for Performing Arts, in Montréal. See website for future dates. $33-80. Info, 514-739-7944, segalcentre.org.

SANTA DAY: Little ones share a special moment with Mr. and Mrs. Claus and their elves while exploring the fire station and sipping hot cocoa. Highgate Volunteer Fire Department, Highgate Center, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Free; donation of unwrapped toys accepted. Info, 868-7722.

woodworkers, artists and other craftspeople. Champlain Valley Exposition, Essex Junction, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. $10; free for kids 12 and under. Info, info@ vtgatherings.com.

VISIT SANTA!: See FRI.6, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

SING OUT, SING BRIGHT: Neighbors gather for a midwinter sing-along celebrating the reasons for the season, guided by local musicians. West Newbury Hall, 7 p.m. Free; donations accepted for VT Warmth. Info, fifthbusinessgigs@gmail.com.

WAITSFIELD HOLIDAY WALKABOUT: Folks explore the charm of an old-fashioned Christmas as the town comes to life with music, crafts and a festive scavenger hunt. See website for full schedule. Various Washington County locations, noon-4 p.m. Free. Info, 496-3928.

TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS WEEKEND: See FRI.6, 8 a.m.

A WESTON WINTER CABARET: See FRI.6.

VERMONT HOLIDAY MARKET: The Blue Ribbon Pavilion hosts more than 175 jewelers, potters,

WINTER LIGHTS: See THU.5.

WINTER WONDERLAND: See FRI.6, 9 a.m.-6 p.m.

WINTERMARKET: Families flock to a Bavarian-inspired, indoor-outdoor artisan extravaganza featuring more than 60 makers, live music, sleigh rides and toasty fires. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 533-2000.

language

‘ZIEH DEN STECKER RAUS, DAS WASSER KOCHT’: See FRI.6.

music

GUY DAVIS: A two-time Grammy nominee performs traditional blues tunes with lyrics that address social injustices. Roots & Wings Coffeehouse at UUCUV,

‘SKY WAS POSSIBLE’: Listeners revel in the Vermont premiere of a song cycle composed by Middlebury College professor of music Su Lian Tan. A reception follows. Virtual option available.

Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

VERMONT FIDDLE ORCHESTRA WINTER CONCERT: String and

FOMO? Find even more local events in this newspaper and online:

art Find visual art exhibits and events in the Art section and at sevendaysvt.com/art.

film See what’s playing at theaters in the On Screen section.

music + nightlife Find club dates at local venues in the Music + Nightlife section online at sevendaysvt.com/ music.

Learn more about highlighted listings in the Magnificent 7 on page 11.

= ONLINE EVENT = GET TICKETS ON SEVENDAYSTICKETS.COM

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

flute players present a fantasia of all things folk, from Scottish jigs to Appalachian reels. Barre Opera House, 7 p.m. By donation. Info, 476-8188.

outdoors

MONTHLY BIRDING OUTING: Avian enthusiasts enjoy a casual morning of observation, facilitated by North Branch Nature Center staff. Berlin Pond, 8-9:30 a.m.

Free. Info, 229-6206.

seminars

MEDIA FACTORY ORIENTATION: Curious creatives and multimedia enthusiasts get a tour of the facilities and check out available gear.

The Media Factory, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free; preregister; donations accepted. Info, 651-9692.

talks

MERCEDES DE GUARDIOLA: A New York author and historian enlightens listeners about the history of Vermont’s eugenics movement. Stowe Free Library, noon. Free. Info, 479-8500.

tech

PHONE & TECH SUPPORT: Perplexed patrons receive aid from library staff on a first come, first served basis. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10 a.m.-noon.

Free. Info, 863-3403.

theater

‘ANNIE’: See THU.5, 2 & 7 p.m.

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: See WED.4, noon & 7:30 p.m.

‘BROADWAY DIRECT #19’: See FRI.6, 3-4:30 p.m.

‘THE GAZA MONOLOGUES’: Southern Vermont for Palestine presents a reading of testimonies written by Gazan youths in 2010.

Proceeds benefit ASHTAR Theater.

Sandglass Theater, Putney, 7-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted; masks required. Info, info@ sovt4palestine.org.

‘INHERIT THE WIND’: See FRI.6.

‘ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW’: Hot patootie! The Ones From the Vaults put a unique spin on a monthly stage adaptation of the 1975 cult-classic film about newly engaged lovebirds who encounter an unconventional

scientist. Bellows Falls Opera House, 10 p.m. $20-25. Info, 4633964, ext. 1120.

‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC’: See FRI.6.

words

USED BOOK SALE: Community members peruse a wide array of like-new books to benefit Ilsley Public Library. Middlebury United Methodist Church, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Free. Info, 388-4095.

BOOK SALE: See FRI.6, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

WRITE NOW!: Lit lovers of all experience levels hone their craft in a supportive and critique-free environment. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 10 a.m.-noon.

Free. Info, 223-3338.

SUN.8 bazaars

ANTIQUES MARKET: Vintage enthusiasts scour unique treasures and timeless finds in a relaxed atmosphere. Canadian Club, Barre, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. $2-5. Info, 751-6138.

BTV WINTER MARKET: See FRI.6, noon-4 p.m.

GOOD TRADE MAKERS MARKET: See SAT.7.

WINOOSKI WINTER FARMERS MARKET: Locavores peruse a variety of vendors’ delicious produce, fine art and other homemade goods. Winooski Senior Center, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, farmers market@downtownwinooski.org.

DANCE, SING & JUMP AROUND: Traditional music enlivens an afternoon of circle and line dances taught and called by Liz Benjamin, Stan Carlson and Alice Smolinsky. Capital City Grange, Berlin, 3-4:30 p.m. $5 suggested donation; free for kids. Info, 223-1509.

‘SNOW QUEEN’: The Grand Kyiv Ballet presents a classic fairy tale told through dance about love, devotion and friendship. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7 p.m. $48.75-69.75. Info, 863-5966.

etc.

BRAVE LADLE STATE: Fans of the “Brave Little State” podcast enjoy an evening of finger foods, mingling and a live voting round for the show’s upcoming episode.

Crooked Ladle, Middlebury, 3-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, jvasquez@vermontpublic.org.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

HUMAN CONNECTION CIRCLE: Locals share stories from their lives and forge deep bonds.

Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3-4:30 p.m.

Free; preregister; limited space.

Info, humanconnectioncircle@ gmail.com.

‘MY DENTIST’S SON’: Neighbors swap mystical experiences at a facilitated storytelling circle.

Ferrisburgh Town Offices & Community Center, 3-4:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 914-953-5707.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.4, 1-3 p.m.

skills in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Hot Yoga Burlington, 6:30-8:15 p.m. Free.

Info, newleafsangha@gmail.com.

materials provided. Burlington Beer Company, noon-4 p.m. $15 per ornament. Info, katie@ crybabyclay.com.

holidays

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

ARTISAN HOLIDAY MARKET: See WED.4, noon-4 p.m.

A CANDLELIGHT SERVICE OF LESSONS & CAROLS FOR ADVENT & CHRISTMAS: Community members enjoy a winter celebration featuring traditional music and seasonal biblical texts. Memorial Chapel, Middlebury College, 4 & 7 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

Info, 443-6433.

CELEBRATION OF TREES: See WED.4.

CHRISTMAS AT THE FARM: See SAT.7.

COMMUNITY CHRISTMAS CONCERT: Locals delight in a seasonal offering of joyful works, showcasing local singers and the town’s own band. The Opera House at Enosburg Falls, 2 p.m.

Free. Info, 933-6171.

HANDEL’S ‘MESSIAH’: See FRI.6.

Barre Opera House, 2 p.m.

Readers of sensitive, character-driven realism will rejoice rej ejoice in this beautiful beautifu fu e f l novel set in a small mountain town in central Vermont. Author Carolyn Kuebler is editor of the N New England Ne w Eng ngl ng gland Review and a resident of Middlebury.

(Melville House, paper, $19.99)

TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS WEEKEND: See FRI.6, 1:30 p.m.

VERMONT HOLIDAY MARKET: See SAT.7.

VISIT SANTA!: See FRI.6, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

WINTER LIGHTS: See THU.5.

KARUNA COMMUNITY MEDITATION: A YEAR TO LIVE (FULLY): Participants practice keeping joy, generosity and gratitude at the forefront of their minds. Jenna’s House, Johnson, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, mollyzapp@live.com.

NEW LEAF SANGHA MINDFULNESS PRACTICE: Newcomers and experienced meditators alike stretch their

HOLIDAY TRAIN RIDES: All aboard the Big Blue Express! Kids — and kids at heart — take a trip around the top block’s towering tree. Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free.

Info, 863-1648.

INTERNATIONAL BOUTIQUE: See SAT.7, noon-6 p.m.

MAKE YOUR OWN ORNAMENTS: Festive families make hanging clay creations for the tree. All

12/3/24 8:20 AM

québec

‘THE SECRET CHORD: A LEONARD COHEN EXPERIENCE’: Audience members delight in a tribute to the Canadian artist’s extraordinary life, music and poetry.

See calendar spotlight. Sylvan Adams Theatre, Segal Centre for Performing Arts, Montréal, 2 p.m. $33-80. Info, 514-739-7944.

theater

‘ANNIE’: See THU.5, 2 & 7 p.m.

‘INHERIT THE WIND’: See FRI.6, 2 p.m.

music

health & fitness

SUNDAY SESSIONS: A variety of musicians share their melodies on the patio at Tavern on the Tee. Ralph Myhre Golf Course, Middlebury, 4-7 p.m. Free. Info, 443-5125.

WORCESTER HOLIDAY CRAFT FAIR: Shoppers encourage local talent and peruse handmade art, food, pottery, jewelry and glass. Doty Memorial Elementary School, Worcester, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. Info, sparkledamour@ gmail.com.

HOLIDAY OPEN HOUSE: Community members visit the festively decorated museum for a day of tasty treats, engaging exhibits, antique toys and kids’ activities. Milton Historical Museum, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 893-1604.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.5, 1-4:30 p.m.

‘MUSICAL JANE’: Pianist Donna Chaff delights with a lively program of music from Jane Austen’s life and written works. Light refreshments provided. Charlotte Senior Center, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, jasnavtregion@gmail.com.

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: See WED.4, 2 p.m.

lgbtq

games

guitar. Richmond Congregational Church, 4-6 p.m. $17.50-25. Info, 557-7589.

WINTER WONDERLAND: See FRI.6, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

HOLIDAY BOOK SALE: See SAT.7, noon-5 p.m.

‘FUNGI: THE WEB OF LIFE 3D’: See THU.5.

CRAFT CLUB: Creative queer folks work on their knitting, crocheting and sewing projects. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 10 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 622-0692.

BLUEGRASS BRUNCH: Longtime local legends Brett Hughes, Pat Melvin, Caleb Elder and Beau Stapleton perform upbeat toe-tappers on the deck. Madbush Falls, Waitsfield, noon-2:30 p.m.

Free. Info, 496-7575.

MICHELLE WILLIS: A Canadian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist harkens back to the days of Carole King with a stirring solo show featuring piano and

‘THE SOUND OF MUSIC’: See FRI.6, 1 p.m.

words

FOOD FOR TALK BOOK CLUB: Cooking enthusiasts gather for a chat about The Snowy Cabin Cookbook: Meals and Drinks for Adventurous Days and Cozy Nights by Marnie Hanel and Jen Stevenson. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3-5 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@ burlingtonvt.gov.

MON.9

community

VERMONT CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE: Neighbors gather to hear more about the 2025 Lake Champlain Action Plan rollout. Light refreshments provided. Virtual option available.

MON.9

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GIFTS OF THE

SEASON! • curated-gift boxes • gift cards for jewelry making workshops & ear-piercing • hand-crafted, Vermont-made jewelry • candles, fragrance, accessories • kids gifts Open Daily 41 IDX Dr. Ste #150, South Burlington elliparr.com • info@elliparr.com

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RANDOLPH SINGERS HOLIDAY CONCERT: A local choir presents a diverse holiday program featuring classical compositions and traditional Christmas tunes, culminating in an audience sing-along.

Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, 4 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 728-9878.

food & drink

‘DRIVER’: See SAT.7.

Great Gifts

May we recommend...

NORTH COUNTRY CHORUS: See SAT.7, 3 p.m.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

Books Make Vermont Book Vermont Book Shop Shop Middlebury, Middlebury, VT Middlebury VT

‘MESSIAH’: See SAT.7. Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, 4 & 7:30 p.m. $10-80 sliding scale; free for students and kids. Info, 238-5434.

HINESBURG ARTIST SERIES HOLIDAY CONCERT: Listeners boost their spirits with an afternoon of notable holiday works including “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” Hinesburg St. Jude Catholic Church, 2 & 4:30 p.m.

Free; donations accepted. Info, 373-0808.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.5.

GIN-TER WONDERLAND: See FRI.6, noon-7 p.m.

community

crafts

dance

8H-elliparr111324.indd 3

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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COURTESY OF DAYTON SHAFER

calendar Susannah Blachly MON.9

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Shelburne Town Offices, 5-7 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 372-2019.

conferences

BRAIN INJURY CONFERENCE: Educator Ali Rheaume and author Nick Prefontaine keynote a virtual conference featuring cerebral workshops for survivors, caregivers and professionals.

9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. $50; free for survivors and their families; preregister. Info, 244-6850.

crafts

COLLAGE COLLECTIVE: Creatives of all experience levels cut, paste and make works of wonder. Virtual options available.

Expressive Arts Burlington, 6:309 p.m. Free; donations accepted.

Info, 343-8172.

FUSE BEADS CLUB: Aspiring artisans bring ideas or borrow patterns to make beaded creations. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.5.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

‘FUNGI: THE WEB OF LIFE 3D’: See THU.5.

‘THE HUNGRY HEART’: Presented through the eyes of Franklin County residents and St. Albans pediatrician Fred Holmes, Bess O’Brien’s 2013 documentary examines prescription drug addiction and recovery. A Q&A follows.

College Street Congregational Church, Burlington, 6:30-9:15 p.m.

Free. Info, 864-7704.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

food & drink

CULINARY MAVERICKS: A MULTICOURSE AFRICAN DINNER: Diners savor delectable dishes that marry traditional African fare with local autumnal bounty.

Cold Hollow Cider Mill, Waterbury Center, 6-8:30 p.m. $80. Info, 800-327-7537.

holidays

INTERNATIONAL BOUTIQUE: See SAT.7, noon-6 p.m.

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

language

ENGLISH CONVERSATION CIRCLE: Locals learning English as a second language gather in the Digital Lab to build vocabulary and make friends. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, noon-1 p.m.

Free. Info, 846-4140.

LANGUAGE LUNCH: GERMAN: Willkommen! Speakers of all experience levels brush up on conversational skills over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

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québec

‘THE SECRET CHORD: A LEONARD COHEN EXPERIENCE’: See SUN.8, 7:30 p.m.

talks

REGULATION REPORT: CHANGES IMPACTING CREATIVE BUSINESSES & NONPROFITS: A panel of experts edify listeners about new state and federal laws that may affect local businesses. Sponsored by the Vermont Arts Council. 11 a.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 828-3291.

WED.11 business

QUEEN CITY BUSINESS NETWORKING INTERNATIONAL GROUP: See WED.4.

VERMONT WOMENPRENEURS BIZ BUZZ MEETUP: Women business owners of Addison County convene for a morning of networking, new opportunities and sharing. lu.lu Ice Cream, Vergennes, 10-11:15 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 870-0903‬.

TUE.10 business

CEDRR DECEMBER MIXER: Chamber and Economic Development of the Rutland Region hosts a night of networking, food, prizes and activities.

Ron Hance Operation Center, Rutland, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 773-2747.

OPENS DEC. 11 | HOLIDAYS

community

CURRENT EVENTS DISCUSSION GROUP: Brownell Library holds a virtual roundtable for neighbors to pause and reflect on the news cycle.

10-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6955.

LAKE CHAMPLAIN MEMORY CAFÉ: Those living with dementia and their caregivers gather to make friends and have fun.

Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 11 a.m.noon. Free. Info, 863-3403.

THE MOTH STORYSLAM: Local tellers of tales recount true stories in an open-mic format. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $17.50; preregister. Info, susanne@ themoth.org.

conferences

BRAIN INJURY CONFERENCE: See MON.9.

crafts

COZY CRAFTING CLUB: Hobbyists gather to hone their skills and make new friends. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5-6:45 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, 846-4140.

dance

SWING DANCE PRACTICE SESSION: All ages and experience levels shake a leg in this friendly, casual environment designed for learning. Bring clean shoes.

Champlain Club, Burlington, 7:309 p.m. Free. Info, 864-8382.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANTARCTICA 3D’: See THU.5.

‘BLUE WHALES: RETURN OF THE GIANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

‘FUNGI: THE WEB OF LIFE 3D’: See THU.5.

‘T. REX: GREATEST OF ALL TYRANTS 3D’: See THU.5.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

POETRY GROUP: A supportive drop-in group welcomes those who would like to share and listen to verse. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-noon.

Free. Info, 846-4140.

December’s dreary days just got a whole lot brighter: Vermont Stage raises the curtain on Winter Tales at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. Now in its 20th year, the annual jubilee puts the spotlight on songwriting and storytelling — harking back to a much simpler time, when families and neighbors united around a hearth to share their souls. This year’s event welcomes local writers Stephen Kiernan, Sen. Phil Baruth, Geoffrey Gevalt and Patti Casey, with musical accompaniment by Casey and Susannah Blachly. The cherished celebration of oral traditions also includes cookies and cider — need we say more?

‘WINTER TALES’ Wednesday, December 11, 7:30 p.m., at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. See website for future dates. $34-64. Info, 862-1497, vermontstage.org.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.5.

health & fitness

COMMUNITY MEDITATION: All levels and ages engage in the ancient Buddhist practice of clearing the mind to achieve a state of calm. First Unitarian Universalist Society of Burlington, 5:15-6 p.m.

Free; donations accepted. Info, 862-5630.

holidays

INTERNATIONAL BOUTIQUE: See SAT.7, noon-6 p.m.

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

‘MERRY MUSIC FOR ADVENT & CHRISTMASTIDE’: Organist Peter Stoltzfus Berton celebrates the season with a program of short works enhanced by a video screen showcasing the player’s hands and feet and aspects of the instrument’s mechanisms.

Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 864-0471.

language

FRENCH CONVERSATION GROUP: Francophones and language learners meet pour parler la belle langue. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 5-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

LANGUAGE LUNCH: ITALIAN: Speakers hone their skills in the Romance language over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

music

TRADITIONAL IRISH MUSIC SLOW SESSION: Beginners of the genre join up to play tunes and share resources in an informal and welcoming setting. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-7:45 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

COMMUNITY ACTION WORKSHOP: MANCHESTER REGION: Concerned locals gather to discuss climate resilience legislation to support our state’s farms. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister.

Info, jessica@nofavt.org.

community

Hearth and Home

SEÁN HEELY CELTIC CHRISTMAS: A champion fiddler and cast of acclaimed performers guide audience members on a magical holiday journey through Scotland and Ireland. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 7 p.m. $50-60.

Info, 760-4634.

climate crisis

québec

‘THE SECRET CHORD: A LEONARD COHEN EXPERIENCE’: See SUN.8, 7:30 p.m.

seminars

FINDING HOUSING WORKSHOP: Prospective renters learn how to build an apartment-search tool kit, presented by the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 660-3455, ext. 205.

theater

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: See WED.4, 7:30 p.m.

words

BURLINGTON LITERATURE GROUP: Bookworms analyze Colum McCann’s 2009 National Book Award winner, Let the Great World Spin, over the course of five weeks. 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@nereadersandwriters.com.

ETHAN TAPPER: See THU.7. North Branch Nature Center, Montpelier, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 229-6206.

CURRENT EVENTS: Neighbors have an informal discussion about what’s in the news. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 878-4918.

LIFE STORIES WE LOVE TO TELL: Prompts from group leader Maryellen Crangle inspire true tales, told either off the cuff or read from prewritten scripts.

Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 2-3:30 p.m.

Free; preregister; limited space.

Info, 878-4918.

conferences

BRAIN INJURY CONFERENCE: See MON.9.

crafts

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHAPTER OF THE EMBROIDERERS’ GUILD OF AMERICA: Anyone with an interest in the needle arts can bring a project to this monthly meeting.

Holy Family Parish Hall, Essex Junction, 9:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Free.

Info, gmc.vt.ega@gmail.com.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.4.

etc.

CHAMPLAIN COLLEGE CAPSTONE POSTER SESSION: Stiller School of Business and School of Social Innovation students present their senior projects, followed by networking and light refreshments.

Miller Center, Lakeside Campus, Champlain College, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 651-5991.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

NXT ROCKUMENTARY FILM SERIES: ‘MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE’: Alek Keshishian’s 1991

LIST YOUR EVENT FOR FREE AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT

documentary offers a closer look at the surprisingly candid “Material Girl.” Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7 p.m. $10. Info, 387-0102.

food & drink

WOMEN’S WHISKEY WEDNESDAY: A BARREL ROOM TASTING: Experts Mallory Graves and Nora Ganley-Roper lead rye-curious ladies on a delightful tasting journey. Barr Hill, Montpelier, 5:30-6:30 p.m. $10.

Info, 472-8000.

games

CHESS CLUB: See WED.4.

CHESS TIME: All ages and abilities partake in the ancient game of strategy. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 5-6 p.m. Free.

Info, 878-6956.

health & fitness CHAIR YOGA: See WED.4.

holidays

ARTISAN HOLIDAY MARKET: See WED.4.

CELEBRATION OF TREES: See WED.4.

INTERNATIONAL BOUTIQUE: See SAT.7, noon-6 p.m.

MERRY & BRIGHT ART MARKET: See WED.4.

‘TWO FOR CHRISTMAS’: Audience members travel back in time to 1479 England with a staged reading of Vermont playwright David Budbill’s wondrous and wacky two-act. Virtual option available.

Lost Nation Theater, Montpelier City Hall, 7-9 p.m. $10-20. Info, 229-0492.

‘WINTER TALES’: Folk singers Patti Casey and Susannah Blachly take the stage with local writers for an end-of-the-year jubilee of local artistry, spirit and storytelling. Ages 13 and up. See calendar spotlight. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $34-64. Info, 862-1497.

lgbtq

QUEER WRITERS’ GROUP: LGBTQ authors meet monthly to discuss their work, write from prompts, and give each other advice and feedback. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Barre, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

music

AMATEUR MUSICIANS ORCHESTRA: A community

ensemble marks 40 years of performances with a dynamic program including works by Johannes Brahms, Franz Schubert and Oscar Hammerstein. McCarthy Arts Center, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 7:30 p.m. Free. Info, mail.amovt@gmail.com.

québec

‘THE SECRET CHORD: A LEONARD COHEN EXPERIENCE’: See SUN.8, 7:30 p.m.

seminars FILMING IN THE STUDIO: Media enthusiasts walk through the process of conducting interviews on set while switching between cameras and utilizing chromakeyed backgrounds. The Media Factory, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free;

preregister; donations accepted.

Info, 651-9692.

sports

GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.4.

talks

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS SPEAKER SERIES: FRANK KNAACK & FALKO SCHILLING: The Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont executive director and ACLU Vermont advocacy director examine a recent pivotal Supreme Court decision. 7-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, 229-4737.

theater

‘BEAUTY AND THE BEAST’: See WED.4, 7:30 p.m.

words

FFL BOOK CLUB: Fletcher Free Library patrons gab about Zadie Smith’s 2023 historical novel, The Fraud. 6:30-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov.

VERMONT HUMANITIES SNAPSHOT SERIES: SARAH STEWART TAYLOR: A Vermont author illustrates how the state’s Cold War history provided inspiration for her 2024 novel, Agony Hill. Virtual option available. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 7-8 p.m.

Free; preregister. Info, 748-8291.

POETRY POTLUCK: Wordsmiths and readers bring a dish and a poem (their own or others’) to share. Whirligig Brewing, St. Johnsbury, 7-9 p.m. Free. Info, acampbell@catamountarts.org. ➆

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

75

11/27/24 10:38 AM

CLASS PHOTOS + MORE INFO ONLINE SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSES

culinary

classes

BUCHE DE NOEL WORKSHOP: Join us for this in-person workshop in our space in downtown Waterbury!

We will make a perfect chocolate sponge rolled up with buttercream to make a beautiful buche de noel to wow on your holiday table. We have a few filling options to make it your own! Tue., Dec. 10, 6-7:45 p.m. Cost: $85. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 203-400-0700, sevendaystickets. com.

THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS FOR AS LITTLE AS $16.75/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE). SUBMIT YOUR CLASS AD AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS.

craft 2025 CRAFT WORKSHOPS: In addition to the regular chairmaking and jewelry workshops, this year we are hosting guest instructors who teach dry stone walling, natural dyes, broom making, Shaker boxes, plant pressing, basket weaving, bowl carving and more. Gift certificates available.

The 2025 schedule is now live at ericcannizzaro.com/classes.

Location: Handmade Charlotte.

Info: Eric Cannizzaro, 360-5281952, ericcannizzaro.com.

PERFUME-MAKING EVENT WITH BLOOM LAB: Discover the art of botanical perfumery at this Bloom Lab perfume-making event while creating your own unique perfume that is blended with intention to reflect your individual personality and style.

For anyone interested in perfumery or simply enjoying good company while trying something new! You’ll leave with one 1.7-ounce bottle of custom eau de parfum. Gosia Meyer Jewelry will have open studio hours from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for holiday shopping, so we encourage folks to come early and get sparkly with their gorgeous permanent jewelry! This is a BYOB event, so feel free to bring something to sip on. Limited spots available; reserve a spot for you and your friend today! Sun., Dec. 8, 3-5 p.m.

Cost: $95. Location: Gosia Meyer Jewelry, 1 Lawson La., Burlington.

Info: sevendaystickets.com.

WOODWORKING CLASSES: Timothy Clark is offering limited-size classes in furniture making and boat building.

Current classes include Shaker

Bench, Cutting Dovetails by Hand, High Work Stool, Intro to Chair Making and Build Your Own Cod Rib 12 Skin-on-Frame Canoe.

Timothy has been building furniture and teaching for 38 years.

Cost: $425/2- and 6-day classes.

Location: Workshop of Timothy Clark, 2111 Green St., Waltham (Vergennes). Info: 989-3204, tim@timothyclark.com, timothyclark.com.

MAKE YOUR OWN HOLIDAY CARDS: Learn how to make your own holiday cards from linoleum blocks! Each person will leave with at least 6 cards and a block to bring home to make more. No prior experience needed! Sun., Dec. 8, noon-3 p.m. Cost: $55.

Location: Standing Stone Wines, 33 Main St, Winooski. Info: standingstonewinesvt@gmail. com, sevendaystickets.com.

HOMEMADE ÉCLAIRS FROM SCRATCH: Learn the classical French pastry techniques you need to make delicious éclairs and other pâté à choux-based dishes. Each participant will get to make their own éclairs from scratch to bring home and enjoy. Thu., Dec. 5, 5:30-8 p.m.

Cost: $65. Location: Richmond Community Kitchen, 13 Jolina Ct. Info: 434-3445, sevendays tickets.com.

DECEMBER COOKIE-DECORATING CLASS: You will learn the basics of royal icing consistency while also utilizing several techniques that will leave you able to create beautiful cookies for your friends and family. Kids are welcome!

Sat., Dec. 7, 10 a.m.-noon. Cost: $75. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 914-6105275, sevendaystickets.com.

GIFT WRAPPING MADE FUN!: No more last minute gift wrapping alone in the dark! This year Red Poppy is offering community gift wrapping sessions so we can have fun doing this task together! Red Poppy Cakery will provide holiday refreshments and treats as well as all of the necessary wrapping supplies: wrapping paper, ribbons, tags, garnishes, tape and scissors.

We will not have gift bags or tissue paper. Just bring your gifts and boxes or bags to carry them in and out of the shop. Each guest will have their own table to work at. Tickets are for hourlong sessions with space for four people per hour. BYOB optional. Tue., Dec. 17, 5-8 p.m. Cost: $25/hour.

Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Suite #1 , Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 203-4000700, sevendaystickets.com.

HOLIDAY HOUSES WORKSHOP: In this workshop, we will get extra creative in decorating a holiday house. You get to decide if it will be a gingerbread or sugar cookie kit. Children must have the supervision of an adult. Please disclose all allergies in the ticket registration. Mon., Dec. 16, 5:306:30 p.m. Cost: $70. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 203400-0700, sevendays tickets.com.

language ADULT LIVE SPANISH E-CLASSES: Join us for adult Spanish classes this winter, using Zoom online video conferencing. This is our 19th year! Learn from a native speaker via small group classes or individual instruction. You’ll always be participating and speaking.

Beginning to advanced levels.

Classes fill up fast. See our website or contact us for details. Group classes begin week of Jan. 13; private instruction avail. anytime.

Cost: $325/10 classes, 90+ mins. each, 1/week. Location: online. Info: Spanish in Waterbury Center, 5851025, spanishparavos@gmail.com, spanishwaterburycenter.com.

ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE WINTER SESSION: The Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain Region offers French classes for adults from beginner through advanced levels.

Our winter session begins on Jan. 13. Visit website for class listings. Location: Online or in person at Alliance Française, 43 King St., Burlington. Info: Marc Juneau, education@aflcr. org, aflcr.org.

martial arts

POLISH POTATO PIEROGI WORKSHOP: In this workshop, we will learn how to make Polish pierogi just like my Babcia taught me! You’ll get the full recipe, as well as the chance to eat your fill for dinner with the class. My family makes these every year around Christmas, and I am so excited to share my family tradition with you! Thu., Dec. 5, 6-8 p.m. Cost: $85. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury Village Historic District. Info: 203-400-0700, sevendaystickets.com.

AIKIDO: THE WATERCOURSE WAY: Cultivate core power, aerobic fitness and resiliency. The dynamic, circular movements emphasize throws, joint locks and the development of internal energy. Join our community and find support in difficult times: inclusive training, gender-neutral dressing room/bathrooms and a safe space for all. Visitors are always welcome to watch a class! Vermont’s only intensive aikido programs. Membership rates incl. unlimited classes

6 days/week. Contact us for info about membership rates for adults, youths & families.

Location: Aikido of Champlain Valley, 257 Pine St., Burlington.

Info: Benjamin Pincus, 951-8900, bpincus@burlingtonaikido.org, burlingtonaikido.org.

sports THE ONE-NIGHT STAND: BIKE-CARE BASICS: Having a basic understanding of your bike and knowing how to care for it is empowering to both you and your ride. It will help you stay safer, keep your bike running longer, and give you confidence in either getting what you need at the bike shop or figuring out how to deal with it on your own.

Wed., Dec. 4, 6-7:30 p.m. Cost: $50. Location: Old Spokes Home, 331 North Winooski Ave., Burlington. Info: 863-4475, sevendaystickets.com.

Find and purchase tickets for these and other classes at sevendaystickets.com.

= TICKETED CLASS

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Post your obituary or in memoriam online and in print at sevendaysvt.com/ lifelines. Or contact us at lifelines@sevendaysvt.com or 865-1020 ext. 121.

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Precious AGE/SEX: 2-year-old spayed female ARRIVAL DATE: November 7, 2024 SUMMARY: This charming girl is ready to make your house a home!

Precious is a true companion – she loves to be around her people, whether it’s curled up by your side or simply sharing some quiet time together. She’s friendly, engaging, and absolutely adores head scratches and gentle pets. While she’s still adjusting to her new surroundings, we know she’s well on her way to blossoming into a fabulous feline friend.

If you’re looking for a sweet kitty who will fill your home with warmth and companionship, come meet Precious at HSCC!

of Chittenden County

DID YOU KNOW?

Shy cats need time to feel comfortable in a new home. We recommend introducing a new cat to your home slowly, starting them off in a small “safe room,” then gradually increasing their access to the rest of the home as they build confidence.

Sponsored by:

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Precious is seeking a home without other cats.

We have no history about Precious with dogs or kids.

Visit the Humane Society of Chittenden County at 142 Kindness Court, South Burlington, Tuesday through Friday from 1 to 5 p.m. or Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

NEW STUFF ONLINE EVERY DAY! PLACE YOUR ADS 24-7 AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM. SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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Incl. pressure sensors, lug nuts, wheel covers. $500. Located in Bomoseen. Email moonorbit@gmail.com.

2-BR, 1-BA, $2,495 Top-floor corner-unit apt. in Winooski. Open layout w/ beautiful views of Burlington city skyline & Winooski River. In-unit W/D, laundry hookups, maple cabinets, wood luxury vinyl plank, ample closet space. AC avail. in unit.

Underground parking, outdoor green space incl. patio/grilling area.

CLASSIFIEDS KEY appt. appointment apt. apartment BA bathroom BR bedroom DR dining room DW dishwasher HDWD hardwood HW hot water LR living room NS no smoking OBO or best offer refs. references sec. dep. security deposit W/D washer & dryer

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY

All real estate advertising in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 and similar Vermont statutes which make it illegal to advertise any preference, limitations, or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, handicap, presence of minor children in the family or receipt of public assistance, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or a discrimination. The newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate, which is in violation of the law. Our

78

housing ads: $25 (25 words) legals: 52¢/word buy this stuff: free online

Avail. storage lockers on-site, bike storage.

Fitness center & other common space. All utils. incl. in rent: electricity, water, sewer, trash & recycling Pet-friendly.

Apt. #410. $1,000 off 1st month’s rent! Apply today at summitpmg. com & contact Sammi.

services: $12 (25 words) fsbos: $45 (2 weeks, 30 words, photo) jobs: michelle@sevendaysvt.com, 865-1020 x121

HOME/GARDEN services

HOUSEMATES

COUNSELING

GREAT NEW NORTH END LOCALE Share NNE Burlington townhome w/ active retired woman who enjoys meditation, swimming, reading.

Furnished BR, private BA, shared kitchen. $600/mo. (utilities incl.) + vacuuming & cooking 2 meals/ week. No pets; NS. W/D, parking, access to tennis/pool. Call 802-863-5625 or visit homesharevermont. org for application.

Interview, refs., background checks req.

EHO.

SUICIDE LOSS SUPPORT GROUP Support for people w/ loss to suicide.

Meetings 1st Wed. of each mo., 6-7 p.m. at the South Burlington Comfort Inn. Contact Bob at 802-922-4283 or Aya at 802-881-3606.

LOVE THE ISLANDS? Share Grand Isle home w/ artistic woman in her 60s who enjoys stainedglass art, horseback riding, British dramas.

Reduced rent of $400/ mo. in exchange for help in the house/yard.

A horse enthusiast welcome! Must be cat-friendly. Call 802-863-5625 or visit homesharevermont. org for application.

Interview, refs. & background checks req.

EHO. SHARE 3-BR HOUSE IN E. WINOOSKI Share nice house w/ two young professionals.

3-BR, 2-BA. Open floor plan, cathedral ceilings, off-street parking.

Room w/ private BA. Incl.: DW, W/D, water, sewer, lawn care, trash/ recycling. Near bus line.

Avail. Dec. 14. Text Chris at 802-578-7526 or email westwick2014@ gmail.com.

readers are hereby informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. Any home seeker who feels he or she has encountered discrimination should contact: HUD Office of Fair Housing 10 Causeway St., Boston, MA 02222-1092 (617) 565-5309 — OR — Vermont Human Rights Commission 14-16 Baldwin St. Montpelier, VT 05633-0633 1-800-416-2010 hrc@vermont.gov

HEALTH/ WELLNESS PERFECT MASSAGE FOR MEN! Men, I’m Mr. G. It’s all about you relaxing. Very private, 1-on-1 moment.

If you feel good, I’m happy. Th e massage is flawless; the sessions are tailored to your needs! Located in central Vermont just off exit 7. Text only now to 802-522-3932 or email motman@ymail.com.

MOVING/HAULING MARKOSKI’S MOVE & HAUL Markoski’s has established a local reputation for being a team of friendly professionals who treat their customers like family. Based out of Chittenden County, we go across Vermont & out of state. Contact Rick at rickmarkoski@ gmail.com, & please browse our reviews & jobs on Facebook & Front Porch Forum.

24-7 LOCKSMITH We are there when you need us for home & car lockouts. We’ll get you back up & running quickly! Also, key reproductions, lock installs & repairs, vehicle fobs. Call us for your home, commercial & auto locksmith needs!

1-833-237-1233. (AAN CAN)

buy this stuff

FURNITURE AMISH/WALNUT WOOD BED FRAME Queen size w/ bunkie board, no tools needed, $450. Queen-size Foster & Stearns mattress, $250. Contact hopefulvt70@gmail.com or 802-495-1954.

HOUSEHOLD ITEMS SHIPPING CONTAINER HOME Custom shipping container home designed for year-round living w/ kitchen, LR, BA & BR. Some work is still needed. $65,000 as is. Email chrissy@ yestermorrow.org or call 802-496-5087.

KID STUFF HO SCALE MODEL TRAIN CARS 33 vintage HO scale model train cars, mint condition in original boxes. $5 each or $100

Your paper.

Your community.

Your choice.

Support the businesses who support our work.

for entire collection.

Avail. immediately in Essex Jct. Contact seller at vthsl@comcast.net.

MISCELLANEOUS 1962 WAIN-ROY BACKHOE 1962 Wain-Roy BR100 Bronco backhoe.

Runs. Diesel, hydraulic steering, 2WD. Approximately 5,270 hours. Weight approximately 8,681 lbs. New battery. Please contact sherrieadams42@ yahoo.com if interested.

WANT TO BUY PORSCHE WANTED Old & rusty OK! Don’t ship to Germany; keep in Vermont!

I’ll buy anything & restore. Parts, panels, engines, cars. Any year, 1950-1998. Contact 802-391-0882.

(1627) Coach Buses & Vehicles Auction Closes: Tues., Dec. 10 @ 10AM Preview: Wed., Dec. 4 from 11AM-2PM

at (3) Morrisville, VT Locations Email helpdesk@thcauction.com for addresses

Over 600 lots of Motor Coaches, Buses, Transit Buses, Commercial Buses, Limousines, Classic Cars, Bus Parts, Automotive Parts, Motor Homes and MUCH MORE! THCAuction.com  800-634-SOLD

TOP CASH FOR OLD GUITARS 12v-hirchakbrothers120424 1 Looking for 1920-1980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico & Stromberg + Gibson mandolins & banjos.

Th ese brands only! Call for a quote: 1-855-4027208. (AAN CAN)

11/27/24 4:06 PM

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GARAGE/ESTATE SALES DEVELOPER LIQUIDATION SALE Log home kits selling for balance owed. Up to 50 percent off. Design plans can be modifi ed!

No time limit on delivery. Call 1-888676-6960, Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (AAN CAN)

ANTIQUES/ COLLECTIBLES

Snack on the BITE-CLUB NEWSLETTER for a taste of this week’s flavorful food coverage. It’ll hold you over until Wednesday.

SUBSCRIBE AT

sevendaysvt.com/enews

ANTIQUES MARKET Sun., Dec. 8, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Canadian Club, 12V-BitClubFiller.indd 1 414 East Montpelier Rd., Route 14, Barre.

Early buyers $5, 8 a.m.; general $2, 9 a.m. Vendors offering antique, midcentury & vintage toys, advertising, clothing, glassware, furniture, tools, jewelry, postcards, early American, paintings, militaria & much more.

Call Don Willis Antiques for info, 802-751-6138, montpelierantique ISO LEAD GUITARIST market.com.

Please email manager@ heartlesstribute.com w/ questions or requests for audition materials.

Info, heartlesstribute. com.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024 16t-your.indd 1

print deadline: Mondays at 3:30 p.m. post ads online 24/7 at: sevendaysvt.com/classifieds questions? classifieds@sevendaysvt.com 865-1020 x115

7/9/24 5:24 PM

music

BANDS/ MUSICIANS

HIRING A MUSIC 12/21/20 6:13 PM DIRECTOR In search of a music director for Daisy and the Wonder Weeds by Jean-Elliot Manning, running Jun. 12-22 at the Grange Hall Cultural Center in Waterbury Center. Paid position!

Info, acrossroads.org/ events/daisy-and-thewonder-weeds. Email, info.acrossroads@ gmail.com.

LEGALS »

Calcoku SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS »

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

2-

7+ 3x

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Show and tell.

Sudoku View and post up to

6 photos per ad online.

Complete the following puzzle by using the numbers 1-9 only once in each row, column and 3 x 3 box.

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crossword

WANT MORE PUZZLES? Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

4 2 7 3

Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test.

Difficulty: Hard

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HHH

Fill the grid using the numbers 1-6, only once in each row and column. The numbers in each heavily outlined “cage” must combine to produce the target number in the top corner, using the mathematical operation indicated. A one-box cage should be filled in with the target number in the top corner. A number can be repeated within a cage as long as it is not the same row or column.

There’s no limit to ad length online.

NEW ON FRIDAYS:

No. 870

SUDOKU

BY JOSH REYNOLDS

Extra! Extra!

Post & browse ads at your convenience.

5

Difficulty - Medium

CALCOKU

8 2 9 4

8 2÷

Open 24/7/365.

See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

Place a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers one to nine. The same numbers cannot be repeated 2 3in a row 1 or4column.

9 6 7

8 5 6 5 4 7 3 8 1 2 9 ANSWERS ON P.80 H = MODERATE7 H8 H = CHALLENGING 9 1 2 5HH4H = 3HOO,6BOY! 5 4 2 6 1 9 3 7 8 1 8 5 7 2 9 6 4 BREEDS ON THE3DECLINE ANSWERS ON P. 80 »9 6 7 3 8 4 2 5 1 4 2 5 9 6 3 8 1 7 8 7 6 2 4 1 5 9 3 1 9 3 8 5 7 6 4 2

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

7/31/24 4:41 PM

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Legal Notices PROPOSED STATE RULES By law, public notice of proposed rules must be given by publication in newspapers of record. The purpose of these notices is to give the public a chance to respond to the proposals. The public notices for administrative rules are now also available online at https://secure.vermont.gov/ SOS/rules/ . The law requires an agency to hold a public hearing on a proposed rule, if requested to do so in writing by 25 persons or an association having at least 25 members.

To make special arrangements for individuals with disabilities or special needs please call or write the contact person listed below as soon as possible.

To obtain further information concerning any scheduled hearing(s), obtain copies of proposed rule(s) or submit comments regarding proposed rule(s), please call or write the contact person listed below. You may also submit comments in writing to the Legislative Committee on Administrative Rules, State House, Montpelier, Vermont 05602 (802-828-2231).

----Vermont Water Supply Rule.

Vermont Proposed Rule: 24P047 AGENCY: Agency of Natural Resources CONCISE SUMMARY: In 2024, EPA promulgated new PFAS regulations, including Maximum Contaminant Levels. States are required to implement these new standards into State regulation and be no less stringent. This rule incorporates the federal regulation but expedites the timeline due to our existing PFAS data and regulation. This will ensure systems in need of PFAS treatment seek and install such treatment while federal funding remains available, through 2027. It also updates state technical standards for PFAS treatment.

We are also seeking updates to the regulation of bottled water in Vermont. EPA also promulgated updated regulations pertaining to Consumer Confidence Reports, a form of public notice providing essential information to be conveyed annually to water systems users. This state rule revision will incorporate those federal changes as well.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Ben Montross, Agency of Natural Resources,

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 121.

Department of Environmental Conservation 1 National Life Drive - Davis 4, Montpelier VT 05620 Tel: 802-498-8981 Fax: 802-828-1541 Email: ben. montross@vermont.gov URL: https://dec.vermont. gov/water/laws.

FOR COPIES: Catherina Narigon, Agency of Natural Resources, 1 National Life, Davis 2, Montpelier VT 05620, Tel: 802-261-5487 Fax: 802-828-1541 Email: catherina.narigon@vermont.gov.

10x10 – Kayla Davis, Penny Butchino & Kerry Prim

WARNING POLICY ADOPTION CHAMPLAIN VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT

The winning bid must remove all contents from the facility by the end of the weekend corresponding with date of bid acceptance at no cost to EZ Access Self Storage. We reserve the right to reject any bid lower than the amount owed by the occupant.

We reserve the right to remove any unit from the auction should current tenant bring his or her account current with full payment prior to the start of the auction.

The Board of School Directors gives public notice of its intent to adopt local district policies dealing with the following at its meeting scheduled on December 17, 2024: E16 - Flag Display Copies of the above policies may be obtained for public review at the Office of the Human Resources Dept. in Shelburne, VT. IN ACCORDANCE WITH VT TITLE 9 COMMERCE AND TRADE CHAPTER 098: STORAGE UNITS 3905. ENFORCEMENT OF LIEN,

Location: 2211 Main St. Colchester, VT Contents: household goods Tyler Mansfield: #832 Auction pre-registration is required, email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com to register.

PURSUANT TO THE VERMONT SELF-STORAGE FACILITY ACT SEC. 2.9 V.S.A CHAPTER 98 UNITS WILL SOLD BY SEALED BID. Viewing by appointment. Call us at 802-891-9374 to schedule.

Appts for viewing and sealed bidding will be 12/12 9:00 AM-4:30 PM

5x10 – Ashleigh Tillson & Israel Holbrook

Storage unit will be sold as one lot.

All winning bidders will be required show valid id & to pay a $200.00 deposit which will be refunded once unit is left empty and broom swept clean.

Storage Unit Address: 387 Route 7 South, Milton, Vermont TOWN OF BOLTON DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD PUBLIC HEARING: DECEMBER 12, 2024

Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC shall host an auction of the following units on or after 12/14/24:

Bid will be opened on 12/12 at 4:45 PM. Winning bidders will be notified by phone.

10x20- James Lachance

The Town of Bolton’s Development Review Board will hold a public hearing on December 12, 2024 at 6:30pm.

Place: Virtual or Municipal Conference Room, 3045 Theodore Roosevelt Highway, Bolton, VT, 05676.

Time: December 12,2024 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting Town of Bolton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Bolton DRB Hybrid Meeting Time: Dec 12, 2024 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84566484038?pwd= Gt2S9lEOb1zgjTaSkeocbAcUBAHhrt.1 Meeting ID: 845 6648 4038 Passcode: 028381 One tap mobile +16465588656,,84566484038#,,,,*028381# US (New York) +16469313860,,84566484038#,,,,*028381# US

PUZZLE ANSWERS FROM P.79 4 6

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Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, fill the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

Calcoku

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

6

80

The following applications will be reviewed: 2024-09-DRB; Applicant & Property Owner: John Devine, 4387 Notch Rd., Subdivide a +/-2.11 acre parcel, Proposed Lot #4, from an existing +/-56.07 acre parcel known as Lot #1. Two parcels were previously subdivided from Lot #1; +/-2.02 acres (Lot #2) and +/-2.00 acres (Lot #3). Lot #1 contains an existing single family home with accessory buildings and Lot #4 is being proposed with a single family home, on-site septic and drilled supply well. (Tax Map #1-0044387) Final Review.

2024-15-DRB; Applicant & Property Owner: Lindsay DesLauriers, President & CEO, BVR, LLC, 4302 Bolton Valley Access Road, Bolton Valley, Five-lot Planned United Development subdivision with a total of 48 residential units at 3969 Bolton Valley Access Road. (Tax Map #07-105/16-000 (Span: 069-021-10090). Preliminary Review.

2024-16-DRB; Applicant & Property Owner: McCain Consulting Inc./Kilpeck, 895 Duxbury Rd., a 3 lot subdivision. Two of the lots will be suitable for single family homes. The third lot will be the balance of the land. (Tax Map #01-036.000) Final Plan Review.

Additional information can be obtained through email by calling 802-434-5075, or by email at zoningbolton@gmavt.net. Pursuant to 24 VSA § 4464 and § 4471, participation in this local proceeding, by written or oral comment, is a prerequisite to the right to take any subsequent appeal.

THE CONTENTS OF STORAGE UNIT 02-0120, 02-00233, Located at 48 Industrial Ave Williston, VT, 05495 will be sold on or about the 12th of December 2024 to satisfy the debt of Kevin Norton. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

CITY OF ESSEX JUNCTION DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD PUBLIC MEETING DECEMBER 19, 2024 6:30 P.M. This meeting will be held in person at Brownell Library, 6 Lincoln Street in the Kolvoord room and remotely. The meeting will be live-streamed on Town Meeting TV. • JOIN ONLINE: Click here to join meeting Visit www.essexjunction.org for meeting connection information.

• JOIN CALLING: Join via conference call (audio only): Dial 1(888) 788-0099 (toll free) Meeting ID: 839 2599 0985 Passcode: 940993 PUBLIC MEETING Sketch plan for a three lot subdivision for one residential lot and two lots for future development; road connection of Taft Street to Meadow Terrace in the R-1 District by Center for Technology Essex, owners.

PUBLIC HEARING Final site plan to construct a triplex with parking at 162 West Street in the R2 District by Franklin South LLC, owner.

This DRAFT agenda may be amended.

Any questions re: above please call Michael Giguere or Terry Hass – 802-878-6944 x1604 STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT CIVIL DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT DOCKET NO.: 24-CV-02714 20 San Remo Drive, LLC v. Frank Giubardo and Flooring Solutions, LLC. SUMMONS AND ORDER FOR PUBLICATION THIS SUMMONS IS DIRECTED TO: Frank Giubardo and Flooring Solutions, LLC 1. YOU ARE BEING SUED. The plaintiff has started a lawsuit against you. A copy of the Plaintiff’s Complaint against you is on file and may be obtained at the office of the Clerk of the Court, County Court House, Chittenden County, Burlington, Vermont. Do not throw this paper away. It is an official paper that affects your rights.

2. PLAINTIFF’S CLAIM. Plaintiff’s claim is for

SEVENDAYSVT.COM/CLASSIFIEDS damages and ejectment arising from a breach of a commercial lease agreement for a property located at 20 San Remo Drive, South Burlington, Vermont.

3. YOU MUST REPLY WITHIN 42 DAYS TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. You must give or mail the Plaintiff written response, called an Answer, within 42 days after the date on which this Summons was first published, which is December 4, 2024. You must send a copy of your Answer to the Plaintiff’s attorney located at: Dinse P.C., 209 Battery Street P.O. Box 988, Burlington Vermont 05402-0988, jdiamond@dinse.com 4. YOU MUST RESPOND TO EACH CLAIM. The Answer is your written response to the Plaintiff’s Complaint. In your Answer you must state whether you agree or disagree with each paragraph of the Complaint. If you believe the Plaintiff should not be given everything asked for in the Complaint, you must say so in your Answer.

5. YOU WILL LOSE YOUR CASE IF YOU DO NOT GIVE YOUR WRITTEN ANSWER TO THE COURT. If you do not send the Plaintiff and the Court your Answer within 42 days, you will probably lose this case.

You will not get to tell your side of the story, and the Court may decide against you and award the Plaintiff everything asked for in the Complaint.

6. YOU MUST MAKE ANY CLAIMS AGAINST THE PLAINTIFF IN YOUR REPLY. Your Answer must state any related legal claims you have against the Plaintiff. Your claims against the Plaintiff are called Counterclaims. If you do not make your Counterclaims in writing in your Answer, you may not be able to bring them up at all. Even if you have insurance and the insurance company will defend you, you must still file any Counterclaims you may have.

»

Show and tell.

View and post up to 6 photos per ad online.

7. LEGAL ASSISTANCE. You may wish to get legal help from a lawyer. If you cannot afford a lawyer, you should ask the Court Clerk for information about places where you can get free legal help.

Even if you cannot get legal help, you must still give the Court a written Answer to protect your rights or you may lose the case.

Passcode: 900159

ORDER

Dial by your location • +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) • +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) • +1 253 205 0468 US Meeting ID: 829 2898 8867 Passcode: 900159

The verified Complaint or Affidavit filed in this action shows that service cannot be made with due diligence by any of the methods provided in Rule 4(d)-(f), (k), or (1) of the Vermont Rules of Civil Procedure. Accordingly, it is ORDERED that service of the Summons set forth above shall be made upon the defendant, Frank Giubardo and Flooring Solutions, LLC , by publication as provided in Rules 4(d)(1) and 4(g) of those Rules.

TOWN OF BOLTON PLANNING COMMISSION NOTICE AND AGENDA FOR HYBRID MEETING TUESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2024 6:00 PM The Planning Commission for the Town of Bolton will meet at the Bolton Town Office, 3045 Theodore Roosevelt Highway, in Bolton, on Tuesday, December 17, 2024, at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will also be accessible remotely by electronic means.

Topic: Planning Commission Hybrid Meeting Town of Bolton is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Planning Commission Time: Dec 17, 2024 06:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82928988867?pwd=F e53ZQVhfaTGBXMbicsc8F5dekaarm.1 Meeting ID: 829 2898 8867

Support Groups A CIRCLE OF PARENTS FOR MOTHERS OF COLOR Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Wed., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org. family-support-programs.

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS FOR SINGLE MOTHERS Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Fri., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS W/ LGBTQ+ CHILDREN Please join our parent-led online support group designed to share our questions, concerns & struggles, as well as our resources & successes!

Contribute to our discussion of the unique but shared experience of parenting. We will be meeting weekly on Mon., 10-11 a.m. For more info or to register, please contact Heather at hniquette@pcavt.org, 802-498-0607, pcavt.org/ family-support-programs.

AL-ANON For families & friends of alcoholics. Phone meetings, electronic meetings (Zoom) & an Al-Anon blog are avail. online at the Al-Anon website. For meeting info, go to vermontalanonalateen.org or call 866-972-5266.

ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Do you have a drinking problem? AA meeting sites are now open, & online meetings are also avail. Call our hotline at 802-864-1212 or check for in-person or online meetings at burlingtonaa. org.

AMPUTEE SUPPORT GROUP VT Active Amputees is a new support group open to all amputees for connection, community & support. The group meets on the 1st Wed. of the mo. in S. Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Let’s get together & be active: running, pickleball & ultimate Frisbee. Email vtactiveamputees@ gmail.com or call Sue at 802-582-6750 for more info & location.

BABY BUMPS SUPPORT GROUP FOR MOTHERS & PREGNANT WOMEN Pregnancy can be a wonderful time of your life. But it can also be a time of stress often compounded by hormonal swings. If you are a pregnant woman, or have recently given birth & feel you need some help w/ managing emotional bumps in the road that can come w/ motherhood, please come to this free support group led by an experienced pediatric registered nurse. Held on the 2nd & 4th Tue. of every mo., 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Birthing Center, Northwestern Medical Center, St. Albans. Info: Rhonda Desrochers, Franklin County Home Health Agency, 527-7531.

BETTER BREATHERS CLUB American Lung Association support group for people w/ breathing issues, their loved ones or caregivers. Meets on the 1st Mon. of every mo., 11 a.m.-noon at the Godnick Center, 1 Deer St., Rutland. For more info, call 802-776-5508.

BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP Vermont Center for Independent Living offers virtual monthly meetings, held on the 3rd Wed.

Open 24/7/365.

Post & browse ads at your convenience.

One tap mobile +13126266799,,82928988867#,,,,*900159# US (Chicago) +16465588656,,82928988867#,,,,*900159# US (New York)

1. Call to Order 2. Additions/Deletions to Agenda 3. Public Comment 4. Approval of Past Minutes • October 15, 2024 5. General Business • CCRPC Utilities & Facilities • Wastewater – BV transformed to non-profit • Economy & Prosperity • Energy Housing & Land Use • Mapping 6. Other Business • Next PC Meeting – January 21, 2025 • Identify Next Agenda • Land Use BLUDRS for Resort • Recreation • Mapping Updates • Mission/Vision • Historic Bolton • Zoning Administrator Update • Other Communications 7. Adjournment

Extra! Extra!

There’s no limit to ad length online.

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT WASHINGTON UNIT FAMILY DIVISION CASE NO.23-JV-1025 In re: W.P. CORRECTED NOTICE OF HEARING TO: Jesse Shaw you are hereby notified that the State of Vermont has filed a petition to terminate your parental rights to W.P. (D.O.B. 07/28/2023) and that a hearing to consider the petition will be held on January 2, 2025 at 9:00 AM at the Vermont Superior Court, Washington Unit, Family Division, at 255 North Main Street, Barre, Vermont 05641.

You are notified to appear in connection with this case. Failure to appear at this hearing may result in the termination of your parental rights. The other parties to this action are the State of Vermont, Department for Children and Families, the child, W.P., and the mother, K.P. The State is represented by the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, 280 State Drive, HC2 North, Waterbury, Vermont, 05671-2080 Date: 11/1/2024 Kirstin Schoonover: Superior Court Judge

CONTACT CLASSIFIEDS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM OR 802-865-1020 EXT. 115 TO UPDATE YOUR SUPPORT GROUP

of every mo., 1-2:30 p.m. The support group will offer valuable resources & info about brain injury.

It will be a place to share experiences in a safe, secure & confidential environment. To join, email Linda Meleady at lindam@vcil.org & ask to be put on the TBI mailing list. Info: 800-639-1522.

BREAST CANCER SURVIVOR DRAGON BOAT TEAM Looking for a fun way to do something active & health-giving? Want to connect w/ other breast cancer survivors? Come join Dragonheart Vermont. We are a breast cancer survivor & supporter dragon boat team who paddle together in Burlington. Please contact us at info@dragonheartvermont.org for info.

BURLINGTON MEN’S PEER GROUP Tue. nights, 7-9 p.m. in Burlington. Free of charge, 30 years running. Call Neils 802-877-3742 or email neils@myfairpoint.net.

PROSTATE CANCER SUPPORT GROUP The Champlain Valley Prostate Cancer Support Group meets online on the 2nd Tue. of the mo., 6-7:30 p.m., via Zoom. Whether you are newly diagnosed, dealing w/ a reoccurrence or trying to manage the side effects of treatment, you are welcome here! More info: Andy Hatch, group leader, ahatch63@gmail.com.

CENTRAL VERMONT CELIAC SUPPORT GROUP Last Thu. of every mo., 7:30 p.m. in Montpelier.

Please contact Lisa Masé for location: lisa@ harmonizecookery.com.

CEREBRAL PALSY GUIDANCE Cerebral Palsy Guidance is a very comprehensive informational website broadly covering the topic of cerebral palsy & associated medical conditions. Its mission is to provide the best possible info to parents of children living w/

the complex condition of cerebral palsy. Visit cerebralpalsyguidance.com/cerebral-palsy.

THE COMPASSIONATE FRIENDS SUPPORT GROUP The Compassionate Friends international support group for parents, siblings & families grieving the loss of a child meets every 4th Tue. of the mo., 7-9 p.m., at St. John Vianney Catholic Church, 160 Hinesburg Rd, S. Burlington. Call/ email Alan at 802-233-0544 alanday88@gmail. com or Claire at 802-448-3569.

DISABILITY PEER SUPPORT GROUP Our group is a space for mutual support, open to anybody who identifies as disabled, differently abled or having a disability. Whether your disability is visible, invisible, physical or cognitive, this group is for you! The group meets every 1st and 3rd Mon. of the mo., 1:15-2:15 p.m., at 279 N. Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT & online on Zoom.

Email us for the Zoom link & more info: pvcc@ pathwaysvermont.org DOMESTIC VIOLENCE SUPPORT Steps to End Domestic Violence offers a weekly drop-in support group for female-identified survivors of intimate partner violence, including individuals who are experiencing or have been affected by domestic violence. The support group offers a safe, confidential place for survivors to connect w/ others, to heal & to recover. In support group, participants talk through their experiences & hear stories from others who have experienced abuse in their relationships. Support group is also a resource for those who are unsure of their next step, even if it involves remaining in their current relationship. Tue., 6:30-8 p.m.

Childcare is provided. Info: 658-1996.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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82 DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO:

JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POST-A-JOB NOON ON MONDAYS (INCLUDING HOLIDAYS) MICHELLE BROWN, 802-865-1020 X121, MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

YOUR TRUSTED LOCAL SOURCE. JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

Woman/LGBT+ owned and operated. Seeking a badass CSR to join our team!

Send resumes to: jessie@ vermontawards.com.

NOW HIRING Join Copley’s Human Resources team!

MULTIPLE POSITIONS OPEN! Are you our next Guest Services Representative? Buyer? Produce Associate?

• Benefits & Payroll Coordinator • HR Project Coordinator We are currently accepting applications for full-time and part-time availability. Apply today and work with a tight-knit team that supports growth and learning.

Scan to see all open positions!

DIRECTOR FULL TIME

For more information visit copleyvt.org/careers or contact Kaitlyn Shannon, Recruiter, at 802-888-8144 or kshannon@chsi.org.

STAFF CURATED BENEFITS Apply online at healthylivingmarket.com/careers

The Hardwick Area Food Pantry (HAFP) is seeking a full time 4t-HealthyLiving020922 1 director who is passionate about the innovative and collaborative work of supporting community resilience through food access. The director will be an executive manager developing and overseeing expanded HAFP operations in Hardwick, Craftsbury, and Albany and leading a team of staff and volunteers. nourishhardwick.org

2/2/224t-Copley112724 4:58 PM 1

PUBLIC WORKS COORDINATOR

The Town of Jericho (VT) is looking for a full-time Public Works Coordinator. Jericho (pop. ~5,080) is a small rural community in 12/2/24 11:15 AM the center of Chittenden County about 30 minutes from Burlington to the west and Mt. Mansfield to the east. The community has 3 small historic village centers surrounded by a quintessential rural landscape and abundant recreational opportunities.

THE GRIND GOT YOU DOWN?

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Perk up!

Browse 100+ new job postings from trusted, local employers.

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The Public Works Coordinator works under the supervision of the Town Administrator and in coordination with the Highway Department and Town Engineer to manage municipal infrastructure, and coordinate permitting and projects. The work of the Public Works Coordinator involves diverse administrative and technical tasks. Organizational, communication, and technical skills are required. The position requires a high degree of independence, initiative, sound judgment and professionalism.

Salary range is commensurate with experience and will be in the range of $50-$65,000 annually.

For a complete job description, visit jerichovt.org, and find the link on our home page. To apply, please email cover letter, resume and 3 references to Linda Blasch, Assistant Town Administrator to: lblasch@jerichovt.gov or mail to: PO Box 39, Jericho, VT 05465. Review of applicants will be ongoing until filled.

The Town of Jericho is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Respiratory Care Practitioners

11/21/24 9:00 AM

$7,500 Sign-on Bonus!

Dartmouth Health is looking for Registered Respiratory Therapists who want to work in a fast-paced critical care environment with a high degree of autonomy using a multitude of respiratory driven protocols.

We are offering the opportunity to work at an academic medical center in a rural environment. Experience incredible facilities, academic rigor, and a commitment to compassionate care in an environment that allows respiratory therapists to thrive in a growing department.

You’ll be impressed at all we have to offer including: • • Work-life Balance Culture • Earned Time Off • 8,000 square foot, state-of-the- • art Patient Safety Training Center • Health, Life, Dental, Short-Term & • Long-Term Disability Insurance • Outstanding Retirement Plan • • Flexible Spending Accounts • Tuition Assistance • • Relocation Assistance • • On-Campus Child Care • • Free On-Site Parking

Free Continuing Education Opportunities On-Site Career advancement opportunities with ECMO, Pediatric and Transport positions 2 person RT/RN air and ground neonatal transport team 50 adult critical care beds (MICU, SICU & Cardiac ICU) Pediatric ICU Level 3 Neonatal ICU Night shift differential: 20%, Weekend: 15%

To apply for this position, please vist: careers.dartmouth-health.org Dartmouth Health is an equal opportunity employer.

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12/2/24 4:37 PM

derness ness Trust ndraising position zational lopment ading our m.

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83 DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Lake Watershed Program Specialist Dental Assistant - Pediatric

Development Director

Join the Orleans County Natural Resources Conservation District team! The primary role of this position will be to work with lakeshore landowners, lake associations and state and local partners in four priority watersheds to address land use impacts to surface waters from sediment and nutrients from individual lakeshore properties, municipal roads, and other high priority areas in a lake’s watershed. The position will be based out of our office in Newport VT. Bachelor’s degree is desired but not required with at least 2 years of work experience in a related field.

Middlebury Pediatric Dentistry is looking for a dental assistant to join our practice. Help us take care of Vermont kids’ oral health! Four day work week. Competitive salary. Benefits include retirement plan, health insurance, 2 weeks paid vacation, licensure, and CE.

Please send your resume to: frontdesk@middleburypediatricdentistry.com

Join our ambitious wilderness team! Northeast Wilderness Trust 2h-MiddleburyPediatricDentistry112724.indd 1 11/21/24 12:42 PM The Orleans County NRCD is an organization that offers staff a supportive work seeks an experienced fundraising professional for a new position environment with a goal of meeting our clients’ need as well as the wellbeing aimed at fueling organizational of our staff. growth, managing development Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital For more info, visit: orleanscountynrcd.org/we-are-hiring to learn more program activities, and leading (NVRH) in St. Johnsbury is looking for a Central about the position, salary and benefits here. Applications are due by the end our philanthropy team.

Clinical Educator (CCE) to help us elevate our of Monday December 30th. To apply please send your cover letter and resume Visit newildernesstrust.org/ nursing education. We want to hear from you if you’re passionate as one PDF to sarah.damsell@vt.nacdnet.net. No phone calls please. about/employment to learn more. about mentoring and supporting healthcare professionals.

Central Clinical Educator (CCE)

Executive Director

What You’ll Do: Manage our mandatory education programs and nursing orientation. Ensure compliance with training requirements.

What We’re Looking For: An RN graduate (BSN required/MSN preferred) with at least 3 years of nursing experience. We offer competitive pay and excellent benefits, such as student loan repayment, and generous paid time off. If you’re ready to make a meaningful impact in your community, apply today! We can’t wait to welcome you to our team!

The Wonderfeet Kids Museum Board of Directors is seeking an individual with a passion Apply now at www.nvrh.org/careers. for children, families and learning, to launch our newly expanded museum into a future with expanded growth 4t-NVRH103024.indd 1 and opportunity for our community.

10/25/24 11:17 AM

For full job description or to apply, send your cover letter and resume to: WonderfeetEvents@gmail. com and in the subject line please write: Executive Director application.

FULFILLMENT TECHNICIAN, FT Shelburne, VT Qualifications: • Process driven, attention to detail

Case Manager/ Clinician Basic Need Support Staff On Call Scan the QR code to view job descriptions & apply.

• Able to lift up to 25lbs, team player Job Summary: The prospective candidate will be responsible for picking and packing orders. Other responsibilities may include but are not limited to cycle counting inventory, data entry, and other administrative tasks. Hours: Monday-Friday, 7:30 am to 4 pm.

Benefits: • Pay: $19.50 per hour (Hourly wage will be increased to $20.00 after probation period of 5 months) • 401(k), Life insurance, Medical, Dental & Vision insurance • Employee discount & monthly gratis product, Paid time off Send resume to amy@tataharper.com.

Join the Jenna’s Promise team in Johnson, Vermont Jenna's Promise provides a unique and whole-life approach to the treatment of substance use disorder by providing sober housing, treatment services, a supportive community, and an innovative work program that provides valuable job skills.

Finance Manager Operations Assistant at Jenna's Promise Roasting Co. Appliance & Maintenance Coordinator Excellent benefits & compassionate work environment Send your letter of interest and resume to: info@jennaspromise.org.

6t-JennasPromise120424.indd 1

12/3/24 11:03 AM

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84 DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

New, local, scamfree jobs posted every day!

Production Chef/Line Cook Deep City is a Foam Brewers project located adjacent to the brewery next to picturesque Waterfront Park. We are looking for an experienced Production Chef/Line Cook with a passion for cooking and career advancement.

Join a fast-paced, high-energy restaurant that values creativity, precision, and a commitment to delivering top-notch culinary experiences. Work with an experienced, creative team led

by Charles Reeves, founder of Penny Cluse. Deep City serves brunch Friday through Monday 8AM-2PM, provides culinary support to Foam Brewers, and caters private events at night.

• Thursdays – Monday, daytime shifts • Full-time and Part-time positions available • Pay and benefits commensurate with experience and hours worked Foam Brewers offers health benefits, IRA, paid time off, employee discounts, and more and is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Send resume to: Charles Reeves charlesreeves@foambrewers.com.

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Manager of Government & Member Relations The Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, located in Waterbury Center, Vermont is seeking a Manager of Government & Member Relations to join our team. In coordination with the General Manager this position is responsible for the development and presentation of the Authority’s positions in legislative and regulatory matters. Overseeing the VPPSA Members’ customerfacing programs under Tier 3 of Vermont’s Renewable Energy Standard in addition to coordinating VPPSA’s communications and education activities.

Essential functions include but are not limited to: • Monitor and participate in regulatory proceedings, and other governmental matters.

• Provide oral and written testimony, comments, and other indications of the Authority’s positions in regulatory forums.

• Manage the research, design, budgeting, and implementation of programs to meet VPPSA’s Members’ requirements under Tier 3 Renewable Energy Standard.

• Plans and delivers educational courses and materials to VPPSA staff, members, and utility staff and coordinates VPPSA sponsored conferences.

• Supervise legislative activities undertaken by staff and lobbyists.

Duties require a four-year college degree or equivalent experience. General knowledge of and significant work experience in the electric utility field. Experience participating in regulatory and legislative proceedings with an ability to manage a diverse workload and tight timeframes.

VPPSA is building a team of professionals who are passionate about helping Vermont towns meet their energy needs. If you are a team player and enjoy a fast-paced collaborative environment we want to hear from you. Please send resume and salary requirements to: Vermont Public Power Supply Authority, PO Box 126, Waterbury Ctr., Vermont 05677 Attn: Amy Parah, or email to aparah@vppsa.com with the subject: Manager of Government & member Relations.

Full job description at: vppsa.com. Position open until filled.

11/25/24 8:55 AM

Vermont Paid Leave Coalition Manager Voices for Vermont’s Children seeks applications for a Vermont Paid Leave Coalition manager to support policy education and advocacy efforts toward creating a universal, equitable paid family and medical leave program.

Working in concert with coalition members, the Paid Leave Coalition Manager will oversee and implement the administration, advocacy, communications, and communitybased organizing efforts to build widespread support for paid leave among legislators, community groups, and other grassroots constituencies.

This position requires a demonstrated commitment to racial and social justice, the ability to work effectively with many different types of stakeholders, and at least two to three years of experience developing and coordinating successful campaigns, including legislative or grassroots advocacy work. The Coalition Manager will be an employee of Voices for Vermont’s Children and be accountable to the campaign plan and decision-making structure developed by the Paid Leave Coalition. Voices is a hybrid workplace, with a small office in Montpelier available for use. The position will be primarily remote, with travel required throughout the state and a regular presence at the Vermont Statehouse from January to May. This is a new, grant-funded position with an initial term of 18 months.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS The pay rate is $31/hr – $34/hr for this 32-hour-per-week fulltime position ($51,580 – $56,576 annually). Benefits include: flexible scheduling, a flexible spending account stipend that can be used for health/dental/vision insurance, dependent care, or cash if you have health coverage elsewhere, a retirement account; generous vacation, holiday, paid family leave, and sick leave.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE To learn more, please review the full job description at voicesforvtkids.org/employment. To apply, email a letter of interest and resume to mfay@voicesforvtkids.org.

jobs.sevendaysvt.com

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6/18/19 1:24 PM

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85 DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Service Coordinator Are you a detail-oriented development professional who thrives in a team environment?

Join our team of professionals providing case management for individuals with intellectual disabilities and autism. In this position you will work with individuals to create and realize goals while supporting them in maintaining a safe and healthy lifestyle.

Compensation package is $51k annually plus a generous on-call stipend, mileage compensation, and $1500 sign on bonus. Position includes comprehensive and affordable health insurance, 20 paid days off plus 12 paid holidays, retirement match, tuition reimbursement and so much more. In addition, CCS has been voted as one of the Best Places to Work in Vermont for six years in a row!

Our collaborative team is growing!

We are seeking a Philanthropy Specialist who is passionate about having a direct impact on Vermont communities.

In this role, you will be responsible for: Development and Fundraising Support Event Coordination

Why not have a job you love? Continue your career in human services in a compassionate & fun environment. Join us today and make a career making a difference. Send resume to Karen Ciechanowicz at staff@ccs-vt.org.

Customer Service and Donor Relations Data and Administrative Assistance

This role supports fundraising development, stewardship, and administrative duties.

ccs-vt.org

Visit vermontcf.org/careers to learn more.

4t-VTCommFoundation112724 1

11/25/24 4:28 PM

TOWN ADMINISTRATOR

Program Manager Program Manager Full-Time Exempt Position Full-Time Exempt Position

The Town of Duxbury seeks a dynamic, team-oriented individual to work You can have a big in close coordination with the Selectboard and other Town employees in The Addison County Solid Waste Management District is seeking a motivated The Addison County Solid Waste Management District is seeking a motivated impact on young the administration of Selectboard and Highway Department priorities. The and experienced individual to join our team in Middlebury, VT as Program and experienced individual to join our team in Middlebury, VT as Program Vermonters!

Manager.

Basic Basic function: To design education, waste reduction, Selectboard Assistant is appointed by a majority of the Selectboard and Manager. function: To designand andimplement implement education, waste reduction,

reuse, recycling, composting, pollution prevention and special waste diversion

is directly accountable to the Selectboard. He/she shall present an open,

Desired skills and experience:

• 5 years' experience in local government planning and administration, or equivalent experience in business or government.

composting, pollution prevention and special waste diversion friendly, cooperative, and neutral attitude toward members of the public, DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS reuse, recycling, programs to help individuals and businesses in member municipalities

programs to help individuals and businesses in member municipalities the Selectboard and all other town officials at all times. effectively reduce and manage waste. To manage the HazWaste Center. To effectively reduce and manage waste.

To manage the HazWaste Center.

To promote District facility and program compliance with state and federal laws. To The selected candidate will exhibit a commitment to the Town's goals and District facility and& program compliance and federal the health safety training of staff andwith assiststate the District Managerlaws. To objectives as determined by its voters, Selectboard, and commissions EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT promotecoordinate in developing policies and procedures promote safe facility To coordinate the health & safety training ofthatstaff and assist the operation.

District Manager and will exhibit initiative and sound judgment in the administration of all PT, remote OK: $20/hr collaborate with other special projectssafe and facility subcommittees. in developing policies andprofessionals proceduresonthat promote operation. To affairs placed in his/her charge.

8:00 a.m.p.m.,projects with flexibility to work collaborateOffice withhours: otherMon-Fri, professionals on4:00 special and subcommittees.

Education, Training and Experience: occasional nights and weekends as programs and projects require.

Learn more: GIV.org/jobs Office hours: Mon-Fri, 8:00 a.m.- 4:00 p.m., with flexibility to work • Bachelor's degree in appropriate discipline. occasional nights and weekends as programs and and projects require.

The ideal candidate is detail-oriented, analytical versatile.

FT, hybrid: $65-75K

2v-GovInstituteofVT112024.indd 1

The ideal candidate is degree detail-oriented, versatile. and stateanalytical officials, facilityand managers, and • Education –Bachelor’s or general public). higher in a biological-life or physical Desired skills and experience:

11/18/24 12:47 PM

science, engineering, planning,

• Ability to obtain 24-hour HAZWOPER

sustainability, social degree science, data and state officials, managers, • Education –Bachelor’s or training, RCRA trainingfacility and DOT training, and or an environmental or natural including ability to bepublic). respirator fitgeneral higherscience, in a biological-life or physical resources field; tested. Ability to read and understand science, engineering, planning, • Abilitywaste to obtain 24-hour HAZWOPER hazardous rules and regulations • High degree of motivation, creativity, sustainability, social science, data High School training, RCRAthem training DOT training, and to apply to dailyand practice. and persistence in developing and science,implementing or an environmental or natural new ideas and in finding including be respirator • A valid VT ability Driver’s to license or ability fitPrincipal resources solutionsfield; to problems. tested. to read and understand to obtainAbility one within the first month of employment, and a reliable personal • Excellent written and verbal hazardous waste rules and regulations • High degree of motivation, creativity, Orleans Central Supervisory vehicle to be usedthem for attending communication skills.and and to apply to dailyevents, practice. and persistence in developing Union seeks qualified inspecting facilities and delivering • Ability to work collaboratively with implementing new ideas and in finding candidates with visionary • A valid VT Driver’s license or ability materials. diverse audiences (staff, haulers, local solutions to problems. to obtain one within the first month of and systemic leadership We offer competitive compensation (salary starts at $59,000) and a full employment, and a reliable personal • Excellent written and verbal capacity to serve as benefits package, including health insurance, employer-paid HRA, Dental, Eye, vehicle to be used for attending events, communication skills.

Lake Region Union Life, and STD/LTD insurance. Generous sick and vacation leave, training and inspecting facilities and delivering High School's • Ability to work collaboratively with retirement contribution match are offered. materials. diverse audiences (staff, haulers, local next Principal.

Scan QR code to apply:

Please submit a letter of interest and résumé to Teresa Kuczynski via

We offeratcompetitive compensation starts atFor $59,000) full email teri@acswmd.org.

OR apply on(salary Indeed.com. a copy ofand theajob benefits package, health insurance, employer-paid HRA, Dental, description, go toincluding www.AddisonCountyRecycles.org.

Open until filled.

E.O.E.Eye, Life, and STD/LTD insurance. Generous sick and vacation leave, training and retirement contribution match are offered.

6t-AddisonCtySWMD112724 1

11/25/24 5:33 PM

• Grant writing, grant administration and grant management experience strongly preferred. Considerable knowledge of municipal operations, intergovernmental relations and Vermont municipal law.

• Experience in Project Management, particularly in the area of construction, is desirable. Management experience in an office environment preferred.

Compensation/Schedule: Commensurate with experience. This is a part-time, hourly position, averaging 20 hours/week requiring a flexible schedule that will include night meetings. This is a "non-exempt" position under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act. For full description go to: bit.ly/DuxburyVTta Please direct all inquiries & resumes to (mailed, dropped off or emailed): Town of Duxbury Selectboard 5421 VT Route 100, Duxbury, VT 05676 Email: pzduxvt@gmail.com For full description go to: bit.ly/DuxburyVTta

YOUR JOBS AT JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM FOR FAST RESULTS, OR ATTENTION RECRUITERS: POST CONTACT MICHELLE BROWN: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

86 DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Seasonal Crew Positions Seasonal Crew Positions Year Round Conservation Year Round ConservationCrew CrewLeaders Leaders AmeriCorps Farm Leaders AmeriCorps Farm Leaders Support crews in in the field.

Support crews the field.Mentor Mentor crew members.

Expand crew members.

Expandyour your professional networks.Gain Gain professional networks. leadership and administrative skills. leadership and administrative skills.

Positions based in Richmond.

Start Positions based in Richmond. Start dates March. dates in in March.

Year Round Staff Positions Year Round Staff Positions Data & Engagement Manager SLESLE Data & Engagement Manager Development and Recruitment Coordinator Development and Recruitment Coordinator Director of Development & Community Engagement Director of Development & Community Engagement

Info & apply: www.vycc.org/positions Info & apply: www.vycc.org/positions

WHERE YOU AND 12/2/24 4:33 PM YOUR WORK MATTER...

4t-VYCC120424 1

GO HIRE.

CLIMATE CHANGE MITIG ATION SECTION LEAD – MONTPELIER This is an exciting leadership position in the Climate Action Office (CAO) that will support crafting and implementing policies and programs that support Vermont in meeting its emission reduction requirements. In doing so, this position will coordinate closely with other State Agencies, as well advance the programmatic work of the CAO including the decarbonization of the transportation and non-energy sectors, the deployment of climate funding, and leadership on relevant rulemaking initiatives. For more information, contact Jane Lazorchak at Jane.Lazorchak@ vermont.gov. Location: Montpelier. Department: Natural Resources. Status: Full Time, Limited Service. Job ID #50560. Application Deadline: December 16, 2024.

C L I M A T E C H A N G E D A T A A N A LY S T – M O N T P E L I E R The Climate Change Data Analyst is an exciting and dynamic position in the state’s Climate Action Office in the Agency of Natural Resources.

The primary responsibilities of this position include the preparation of the state’s annual Greenhouse Gas Inventory and the scoping and development of a new data tool that will measure and track the progress of meeting the state’s climate action goals over time. The position requires strong communication skills and the ability to work independently. For more information, contact Jane Lazorchak at Jane.

Lazorchak@vermont.gov. Location: Montpelier. Department: Natural Resources. Status: Full Time. Job ID #51436. Application Deadline: December 16, 2024.

V T D E P T. O F L A B O R R E G I O N A L M A N A G E R - B U R L I N G T O N & S T. A L B A N S The Vermont Department of Labor (VDOL) is seeking a highly motivated and dynamic individual to join the Workforce Development team as a Regional Manager for Chittenden, Franklin, and Grand Isle Counties. This leadership role is integral to ensuring the success of our employment and training initiatives in the region and plays a critical role in supporting Vermont’s job seekers, career changers, and employers. For more information, contact Danielle Kane at danielle.kane@vermont.gov. Location: Burlington & St. Albans. Department: Labor. Status: Full Time. Job ID #51491.

Application Deadline: December 22, 2024.

Learn more at :

careers.vermont.gov

Job Seekers: Job Recruiters: • Post jobs using a form that includes key info about your company and open positions (location, application deadlines, video, images, etc.).

• Accept applications and manage the hiring process via our applicant tracking tool.

• Set up job alert emails using custom search criteria.

• Save jobs to a custom list with your own notes on the positions.

• Apply for jobs directly through the site.

• Easily manage your open job listings from your recruiter dashboard.

Get a quote when you post online or contact Michelle Brown: 865-1020, ext. 121, michelle@sevendaysvt.com.

jobs.sevendaysvt.com

The State of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity Employer 12-jobsgohire-snowboarder20.indd 1

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• Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type.

12/3/24 11:58 AM

11/30/21 12:37 PM

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Visit jobs.plattsburgh.edu & select “View Current Openings” SUNY Plattsburgh is an AA/EEO/ADA/VEVRAA committed to excellence through diversity and supporting an inclusive environment for all.

12/2/24 11:05 AM

Get Paid Billing Implementation Specialist Join PCC in improving the lives of children and pediatricians nationwide. PCC is the leader in the pediatric software industry with a mission to remove obstacles that keep pediatricians from practicing medicine. As a benefit corporation, PCC is a values-driven, pragmatically irreverent company that prioritizes humanity over profit while promoting independence and knowledge sharing. PCCers solve meaningful problems with an obsessive commitment to customer service and quality of experience, all while having fun.

PCC is looking for a team member to help put our newest clients on the path to billing success. Our ideal candidate loves collaborating closely with our users to ensure that they are trained and ready to begin using all of PCC’s tools for billing and reconciliation of accounts receivable. This position coordinates closely with teammates and with billers to be sure that configuration and training preparations are made in time for a successful launch. Working on the team that provides ongoing day-to-day support for users is also a responsibility of this position.

Experience with medical billing is essential and Pediatric billing experience is preferred. Travel is required.

PCC’s Benefits: In addition to health, dental, vision, 401k, and life insurance for employees, PCC offers medical insurance for domestic partners and civil union couples, as well as reimbursement for home internet, cellular plan, laser eye treatment, fitness and wellness expenses, charitable donation matching, AAA Plus membership, frequent catered lunches, and more. PCC supports families with an adoption assistance program, extended paid holiday time off, and paid family leave options.

PCCers currently enjoy a hybrid workplace model with the options of meeting remotely and on-site at PCC’s office in Winooski, Vermont. Applicants should expect to be based in Vermont, within commuting distance of Winooski.

Send resumes to: jobs@pcc.com Please apply by Thursday, December 19th as we have an extended break beginning on Monday, December 23, 2024 and we will be returning to the office on Monday, January 6th.

No phone calls, please. AA/EOE

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JOBS.SEVENDAYSVT.COM

87 DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

Special Education Lecturer/Senior Lecturer

Academic Success Coach Admissions Technology Assistant

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NEW JOBS POSTED DAILY!

12/2/24 2:22 PM

The University of Vermont’s Department of Education in The College of Education & Social Services seeks to hire two Lecturer/ Senior Lecturers in Special Education for a full-time, 9-month appointment to begin August 2025.

We are hiring expert practitioners in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education and/or K-age 21 Special Education within our Birth-21 Special Education program.

The successful candidate will teach 8 courses per year in the undergraduate and master’s special education programs (inclusive of field supervision). Courses in the program are delivered in hybrid, online, and in-person modalities.

Our nationally accredited Special Education program features innovative coursework and hands-on learning founded on research-based practices, with a commitment to sustainability, inclusion, and social justice, and applied work in the field. Student teaching internships with our community partners provide the opportunity to work in various inclusive learning settings with children and families fully supported by dedicated faculty and experienced mentor teachers.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: • Demonstrated commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and social justice, including experience collaborating with settings and agencies that serve diverse child and family populations • Earned master’s degree in Special Education, or Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education, or a closely related area (degree completion required prior to start) • A minimum of 3 years teaching Special Education in public schools or working in Early Intervention or community agencies • Current knowledge of Special Education legal issues and federal regulation of practices in the U.S. Successful experience supervising or mentoring undergraduate and/or graduate pre-service teachers/ special educators in internship placements desirable • Current or recent license in Early Intervention or Early Childhood Special Education

(Birth-age 6) or Special Education (K-age 21).

• Knowledge and skills to teach in two or more areas: curriculum, assessment, literacy, numeracy, severe disabilities, and inclusion.

• Knowledge and skills to supervise practicum and student teaching internships at the undergraduate and graduate levels which may include Early Intervention/ Early Childhood Special Education and/ or K-age 21 Special Education in school, center, and community-based settings.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS: • Successful college/university teaching or supervision experience • Commitment to university and state service The University of Vermont is especially interested in candidates who can contribute to the diversity and inclusive excellence of the academic community through their teaching, service, research, scholarship or creative arts. We are an educationally purposeful community seeking to prepare students to be accountable leaders in a diverse and changing world. Members of the University of Vermont community embrace and advance the values of Our Common Ground: Respect, Integrity, Innovation, Openness, Justice, and Responsibility.

Apply online: uvmjobs.com/ postings/77720 Any questions or support needs pertaining to the web-based application should be directed to: Julia.Stein@uvm.edu.

The University of Vermont is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other category legally protected by federal or state law.

Bella Voce "Glorious Season" Holiday Concert

The One-Night Stand: A Single-Evening Course in Bike-Care Basics by Old Spokes Home WED., DEC 4 OLD SPOKES HOME, BURLINGTON

SAT., DEC 7 MCCARTHY ARTS CENTER RECITAL HALL, COLCHESTER

Homemade Éclairs From Scratch S OLD THU., DEC 5

Make Your Own Holiday Cards

Polish Potato Pierogi Workshop

Perfume-Making Event with Bloom Lab

SUN., DEC 8 STANDING STONE WINES, WINOOSKI

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RICHMOND COMMUNITY KITCHEN

THU., DEC 5 RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY VILLAGE

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Monte Carlo Holiday Festival- A Festival of Trees Gala

The Kat & Brett Holiday Show 2024

December Cookie Decorating Class

Culinary Mavericks - A Multi-Course African Dinner

FRI., DEC 6 SAINT ALBANS CITY HALL

SUN., DEC 8 RANSOM TAVERN AT KEDRON VALLEY INN, WOODSTOCK

SAT., DEC 7 RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY VILLAGE

Vermont Holiday Market

Holiday Wine Tasting

Honky Tonk Dance

Buche de Noel Workshop

TUE., DEC 10 STANDING STONE WINES, WINOOSKI

SAT., DEC 7 GRANGE HALL CULTURAL CENTER, WATERBURY VILLAGE

TUE., DEC 10 RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY VILLAGE

Guy Davis

THU., DEC 12 WARREN UNITED CHURCH

Handel's Messiah

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

SAT., DEC 7 HOLY ANGELS CHURCH, ST. ALBANS

FRI., DEC 13, SAT., DEC 14 OPERA HOUSE AT ENOSBURG FALLS

Sugar on Tap: Anniversary Show

Flannel & Pajama Holiday Boogie Down

SAT., DEC 7 MAIN STREET LANDING, BURLINGTON

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Brass Quintet and Counterpoint

SAT., DEC 7 ROOTS & WINGS COFFEEHOUSE AT UUCUV, NORWICH

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JEN SORENSEN

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY BY ROB BREZSNY REAL DECEMBER 5-11

other psychological principle. We all benefit from having mischievous fun as we rebel against tendencies we have to be dogmatic and fanatical. That’s why I am authorizing you to celebrate a good-humored Complaint Fest.

For a limited time only, feel free to unleash fantasies in which you uninhibitedly and hilariously castigate everyone who has done you wrong.

TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): What you

SAGITTARIUS (NOV. 22-DEC. 21)

In his song “Voodoo Child,” Sagittarian musician Jimi Hendrix brags, “Well, I stand up next to a mountain / And I chop it down with the edge of my hand.” I encourage you to unleash fantasies like that in the coming days, Sagittarius. Can you shoot lightning bolts from your eyes? Sure you can. Can you change water into wine? Fly to the moon and back in a magic boat? Win the Nobel Prize for Being Yourself? In your imagination, yes, you can. And these exercises will prime you for an array of more realistic escapades, like smashing a mental block, torching an outmoded fear, and demolishing an unnecessary inhibition or taboo. To supercharge your practical power, intensify your imagination’s audacity.

ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): Blaming others for our problems is rarely helpful. If we expend emotional energy focusing on how people have offended and hurt us, we diminish our motivation to heal ourselves. We may also get distracted from changing the behavior that ushered us into the mess. So, yes, it’s wise to accept responsibility for the part we have played in propagating predicaments.

However, I believe it’s also counterproductive to be relentlessly serious about this or any

are experiencing may not be a major, earthshaking rite of passage. But it’s sufficiently challenging and potentially rewarding to qualify as a pivotal breakthrough and turning point. And I’m pleased to say that any suffering you’re enduring will be constructive and educational. You may look back at this transition as a liberating initiation. You will feel deep gratification that you have clambered up to a higher level of mastery through the power of your intelligent love and feisty integrity.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): You are now

about halfway between your last birthday and next birthday. In the prophecy industry, we call this your Unbirthday Season. It is usually a time when you receive an abundance of feedback — whether you want it or not. I encourage you to want it! Solicit it. Even pay for it. Not all of it will be true or useful, of course, but the part that is true and useful will be very much so. You could gather a wealth of information that will help you fine-tune your drive for success and joy in the months to come.

CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): Legend tells

us that the Buddha achieved enlightenment while meditating beneath the Bodhi Tree in Bihar, India. He was there for many weeks.

At one point, a huge storm came and pelted the sacred spot with heavy rain. Just in time, the King of Serpents arrived, a giant cobra with a massive hood. He shielded the Buddha from the onslaught for the duration. Now I am predicting that you, too, will receive an unexpected form of protection and nurturing in the coming weeks. Be ready to open your mind about what help looks and feels like. It may not be entirely familiar.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): In written form, the

Japanese term oubaitori is comprised of four kanji, or characters. They denote four fruit trees that bloom in the spring: cherry, plum, peach and apricot. Each tree’s flowers blossom in their own sweet time, exactly when they are ready, neither early nor late.

The poetic meaning of oubaitori is that we humans do the same: We grow and ripen at our own unique pace. That’s why it’s senseless to compare our rate of unfoldment to anyone else’s. We each have our own timing, our own rhythm. These ideas are especially apropos for you right now, Leo.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): I hope you will hunker down in your bunker. I hope you will junk all defunct versions of your spunky funkiness and seek out fresh forms of spunky funkiness. In other words, Virgo, I believe it’s crucial for you to get as relaxed and grounded as possible. You have a mandate to explore ultimate versions of stability and solidity.

Shore up your foundations, please. Grow deeper roots. Dig down as deep as you can to strengthen and tone your relationship with the core of your being.

LIBRA (Sep. 23-Oct. 22): Every one of us is a hypocrite at least some of the time.

Now and then, we all ignore or outrightly violate our own high standards. We may even engage in behavior that we criticize in others. But here’s the good news for you, Libra.

In the coming weeks and months, you may be as unhypocritical as you have ever been.

According to my analysis of the astrological omens, you are likely to be consistently faithful to your ideals. Your actual effects on people will closely match your intended effects. The American idiom is, “Do you practice what you preach?” I expect the answer to that question will be yes as it pertains to you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Author

George Orwell advised us that if we don’t analyze and understand the past, we are likely to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Alas, few people take heed. Their knowledge of our collective history is meager, as is their grasp of recurring trends in their personal lives. But now here’s the good news, dear

Scorpio: In the coming months, you will have exceptional power to avoid replicating past ignorance and errors — if you meditate regularly on the lessons available through a close study of your life story.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): The

name of my column is “Free Will Astrology” because I aspire to nurture, inspire and liberate your free will. A key component in that effort is to help you build your skills as a critical thinker. That’s why I encourage you to question everything I tell you. Don’t just assume that my counsel is always right and true for you. Likewise, I hope you are discerning in your dealings with all teachers, experts and leaders — especially in the coming weeks and months. You are in a phase of your cycle when it’s even more crucial than usual to be a good-natured skeptic who poses exuberant, penetrating questions. To serve your soul’s health, refine your practice of the art of creative rebellion.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Be like a beautifully made fountain that people love to visit, Aquarius. Not like a metaphorical geyser or stream or waterfall out in the natural world but a three-tiered marble fountain. What does that entail? Here are hints. The water of the fountain cascades upward, but not too high or hard, and then it showers down gently into a pool. Its flow is steady and unflagging.

Its sound is mellifluous and relaxing. The endless dance of the bubbles and currents is invigorating and calming, exuberant and rejuvenating. Be like a fountain.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20): Around this time of year, persimmon trees in my neighborhood have shed their leaves but are teeming with dazzling orange fruits. Pomegranate trees are similar. Their leaves have fallen off, but their red fruits are ready to eat. I love how these rebels offer their sweet, ripe gifts as our winter season approaches. They remind me of the current state of your destiny, Pisces. Your gorgeous fertility is waxing. The blessings you have to offer are at a peak. I invite you to be extra generous as you share your gifts with those who are worthy of them — and maybe even a few who aren’t entirely worthy.

CHECK OUT ROB BREZSNY’S EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES & DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES: REALASTROLOGY.COM OR 1-877-873-4888

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Respond to these people online: dating.sevendaysvt.com WOMEN seeking...

POSITIVE, DOWN-TO-EARTH, STABLE, COMPASSIONATE Hey! Just a girl looking for an honest, fellow compassionate person who loves nature and life in Vermont. I’m looking for a connection that evolves into a long-term relationship. Let’s go hiking together, go on spontaneous day adventures, explore new towns, cook delicious dinners together, go paddle boarding or Nordic skiing. Let’s sit by a fire under starlight.

Silenceandstarlight, 54, seeking: M, l LIONHEARTED LAMB SEEKS COMPANIONSHIP A unique childhood instilled in me an innate curiosity and desire to continue learning and exploring. My adventures included skydiving, motorcycles, trains and cross-country trips. Are you an interesting gentleman who is also financially and emotionally secure, flexible, easygoing and enjoys the outdoors, cooking, art, music, movies, dining out, theater, bookshops, quiet solitude and affectionate companionship? If so, contact me! WyoGal, 75, seeking: M, l ADVENTUROUS OPTIMIST WHO LOVES LIFE I am looking for a man who can make me laugh, enjoys life’s adventures, and values kindness and stability. Someone whose life complements mine, and I theirs. If you’re interested in good conversations, spontaneous adventure and sharing simple moments, let’s connect!

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W = Women M = Men TW = Trans women TM = Trans men Q = Genderqueer people NBP = Nonbinary people NC = Gender nonconformists Cp = Couples Gp = Groups

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CASTING CALL: WHIMSICAL PLAYMATE Ex-professor cum higher-ed administrator by day, community theater nerd by night. Petite woman looking for a costar who is kind, open to new experiences, adventurous, curious, thoughtful, funny and witty. I’ll cook you some amazing Indian food and destroy you in board game competition before we jet off to snorkel the shores of the Big Island. daybor, 44, seeking: M, W, TM, l

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Generous, spirited, joyfully feisty, this (previously) redheaded woman will make your life worth living to the fullest.

You will never be bored. Seeking kind, intelligent man-friend 55 to 70 with belly laugh who is ready to play for keeps. springpeeper, 64, seeking: M, l GOOD VIBES ONLY I am all about my children and positivity. I’m looking to live a happy life around good-hearted, happy people. I appreciate music, art, science and truth.

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I love dancing, but it sucks dancing alone. vtgal204, 58, seeking: W, l

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

MONTRÉAL WIFE WHO VISITS BURLINGTON Anglo Montréaler wife visits Burlington regularly. Would like to have a man-friend to meet, mostly for sex.

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I’ve done my share of traveling; now very happy to listen to my land and share her fruits with special friends who love homegrown food and seasonal chores. Looking for a man with the inner strength to be cheerful, even with eyes wide open, and the spark of mutual recognition.

Soiltender62, 62, seeking: M, l

MEN seeking...

WORKING ARTIST I’m a man who must walk with crutches.

I spend my days painting and walking around town. I like reading, YouTube and Netflix. I am romantic and passionate in my loving and would like to find a similar partner. Looking for my muse to bring some fulfillment to my life. artist56, 68, seeking: W, l

YOUNG AT HEART Looking for that mutual attraction. Some common interests while accepting others’ individual desires that may not be. Laidback, easygoing, culturally adaptable.

Born and raised overseas as a diplomat’s son. Moving to VT soon to care for my parents and start a simpler life. Currently in MD, finishing up a commitment to my employer and selling my house.

Woodsmith60, 60, seeking: W, l

an accomplice: skiing, climbing, bikes, foraging, vinyl records, film photography, sailing, freediving and fly fishing, to name a few. Ideally some shared interest could lead to a lasting partnership and I’m always up for fun along the way. Accomplice, 46, seeking: W, l I LOVE TENNIS AND DOGS I would love to find someone to whom I can relate. I hope that is you. tennispals2315, 58, seeking: W

OLD SOUL, YOUNG HEART Gentle weird with a bit of dry, silly humor. Seeking compatible weirdness, independence, humor and kindness. Plants, animals, music and film light my fire. Here to help others, spread laughter, and create cool art. Any others want the same? lostinthesupermarket, 36, seeking: W

SKIBUDDY Looking for a female to ski with at Bolton night skiing. Please be older, 50 to 65, and intermediate to advanced skier. Let’s use Bolton as our gym. outdoorloverboy, 61, seeking: W

MATURE CONNECTION WANTED I’m a confident, open-minded man looking to connect with an older woman who knows what she wants. I value honesty, fun and mutual respect. I’m here for an exciting, no-strings-attached arrangement where we can explore our chemistry and have a great time together in bed. cub4m1lf, 35, seeking: W

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GENDERQUEER PEOPLE seeking...

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Orwellguy, 59, seeking: W, l

TRANS MEN seeking...

GENDERQUEER, SINGER-SONGWRITER, INTERFAITH MINISTER It’s me, from the “Cherie & Yolanda” show in the '90s. Moved to NYC in 2001; met my husband, Glen; together 20 years; now in Vermont after his death. I am a transfemme genderqueer singer-songwriter and interfaith minister. Youthful looks and attitude, long gray hair, stocky build, funny, compassionate. Looking for a cisgender man who appreciates the femininity and spirituality in me.

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GENDER NONCONFORMISTS

seeking...

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COUPLES seeking...

KINKY COUPLE SEEKS ADVENTUROUS PLAYMATE We have explored each other’s boundaries and fulfilled many fantasies along the way. We are looking for new friends to bring into our sexual circle with new possibilities. Help us fulfill our desires for exploration, and we will all learn together through mutual satisfaction. kinkyvermonters, 48, seeking: M, W, Cp

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PNW TRANSPLANT SEEKS ENTHUSIASTIC ACCOMPLICE(S) Open schedule, graduate degree, 5’10”, athletic. Interested in like-minded people looking to explore their passions with

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i SPY

If you’ve been spied, go online to contact your admirer!

dating.sevendaysvt.com

THE LADY AND THE SAUSAGE I first spied you many years ago — whether it was on a playground or at a turkey luncheon is still up for debate.

Either way, I have been head over heels in love with you pretty much ever since.

I am the luckiest lady in the world to be with you. Happy birthday, Sausage!

Yours forever, AG When: Tuesday, December 3, 2024. Where: Mad River Valley. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916195 BAD NIGHT; KIND PERSON You: Checking IDs at JP’s after 10:30ish on Saturday. Asked me if I was OK. Me: Entered and exited several times, paced all around downtown, went and sat in City Hall Park, left the bar for good having clearly been crying. I said I probably would be OK, and thanks.

Your kindness meant a lot. I’m mostly OK now. When: Saturday, November 9, 2024. Where: JP’s. You: Trans woman. Me: Trans man. #916194 WHAT’S A SOLARA? These are the only words I could think to shout at you from across the gas pumps.

Thank you for educating me on classic Toyota coupes — did you know you’re a handsome devil with an outrageously good-looking smile, and charming banter to boot? How do you sleep at night? I’d sleep better with you next to me! Coffee sometime? When: Thursday, November 28, 2024. Where: Orleans Maplefields.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #916193 BPS I wish I had talked to you more. I’ll marry you in my dreams. Good luck in your new adventure. Maybe I’ll see you again. If I do, I’ll ask you out. I’ll miss seeing you every day. Hopefully our paths will cross again. When: Friday, November 22, 2024. Where: Breakroom.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #916192

RE: GRAND? FAR FROM I told you, when my son came home, your time to mend the bond was over; instead of doing the work, you created chaos everywhere. You have set me so far back, creating problems for your solution.

You have turned any who have shown me love into Schrödinger’s cat. You have proven how heartless you truly are.

Please leave! When: Tuesday, November 26, 2024. Where: They never showed up. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916191 MISSED TWO CHANCES Saw you this summer at the Norwich Bookstore; you bought a book about the NYC music scene in the '70s. We ran into each other again a couple hours later, on your way back home.

I was driving, you were walking, and I realized later I should have offered to drop you off. How was that book? When: Monday, July 15, 2024. Where: Norwich.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916190 TOSCA AT THE PARAMOUNT A rainy Tuesday afternoon. Tosca at the Paramount had just ended. I rushed out to get the car for my mom; you were there to pick up yours. “Is it over?” you asked. “All but the curtain calls,” I replied, putting on my raincoat. By the time I got back, you were gone. When: Tuesday, November 26, 2024. Where: The Paramount Theater, Rutland.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #916189 GRAND? FAR FROM IT, ACTUALLY Everyday I wake up and you’re not next to me is the emptiest of days. We were so close, but now we’re further apart than ever. My heart still yearns for you the same way it has all these years. This was never a hunt or a “sadistic pleasure,” as you put it. I love you, always have, always will. When: Wednesday, October 2, 2024. Where: Same place as always.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916188

Ask REVEREND 

Irreverent counsel on life’s conundrums

Dear Reverend,

My mother is in her fifties, and she’s a real hottie.

She’s always been a little flirty with my boyfriends, but I never thought anything of it — until now. Last week, I came home from work to find her and my current partner cooking dinner together. (She said she just happened to be in the neighborhood.) Ever since, I’ve noticed that they have been texting each other a lot and sending pics. The frequency is making me a little uncomfortable. Would I be wrong to ask them what’s going on?

Momza Milf (WOMAN, 32)

TURKEY TROT IN WESTFORD We chatted a bit after finishing the 10K. I liked talking with you. Afterward I regretted I did not suggest we exchange phone numbers so we could enter a race together. When: Saturday, November 23, 2024. Where: Turkey Trot in Westford.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #916187 HEALTHY BOUNDARIES To the home-wrecker from Gardenside you can have the narcissistic liar, but stay out of my house and off of my turf. When: Saturday, November 16, 2024. Where: my house. You: Man. Me: Man. #916186 THOUGHTFUL ON THE THINKER You were sitting behind me with your friends at the performance of Mauritius and noticed the Thinker statue on the set. I was quite interested in your explanation of what the statue was about and thought I would like to talk more with this person.

When: Sunday, November 24, 2024.

Where: Grange Hall Cultural Center.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #916185 RE: RE: HEARTBROKEN Thank you, I think. Totally reminds me of a song: “It’s all a bit of fun until somebody gets hurt / I’ll take it with a pinch of salt, another bridge is burned / I don’t need to know what’s real or not no more / I don’t need to know what’s real or not no more, yeah.” When: Sunday, November 24, 2024. Where: buying earplugs.

You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916184 ATHENA Upon humble chariot of wheels three / You came seeking your tithe on All Hallows’ Eve / Engaged in Sage wisdom and spoke of the youth / Around fire, forged friendship on the isle of Booth. In a world of parsley, rosemary, and thyme / A bitterness averted when two name align / A grace was granted in the presence of a God / A delightful encounter with an astral nod. When: Thursday, October 31, 2024. Where: Old North End. You: Group. Me: Group. #916183 BABES TRIVIA BABE You were wearing a red dress that swayed with your hips. Your smile could light up any room, and your laughter could brighten any dark day. Ditch those guys and play with me next time? When: Thursday, October 17, 2024. Where: Babes. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916180

Dear Momza Milf,

Do you know what they’re texting about? Maybe they’re sending each other recipes or talking about you and planning a surprise. Have you peeped any of the pics? Is he sending her photos of cucumbers on a tray or his cucumber on display?

If the latter is true, I’d say you ought to chop it right off quick. (Just kidding.

Really.) But I hope that’s not the case.

What makes you distrust their interactions? Do you have any real reason to believe that either of them would do something inappropriate? Your mother and your boyfriend would both have to be real

RE: HEARTBROKEN For the last few weeks you’ve been posting dramatic and irate messages regarding individuals who you thought were friends. Clearly, truth shone through, as it tends to do. You deserve devoted friends who truly care about you, and now you have the space in your life for them. Don’t let people steal your peace.

Try to focus on healing. When: Thursday, November 21, 2024. Where: iSpy. You: Woman. Me: Woman. #916182 I SEE YOU Trans loves, perfect GNCs, magical enbys, powerful two-spirits, beautiful cis-ish people and anyone else who needs to hear this: I see you. I am with you. You are valid exactly as you are. We are here. We will not and cannot be erased.

When: Wednesday, November 20, 2024. Where: everywhere, always. You: Group. Me: Nonbinary person. #916181 SHOUT-OUT REVERB Shout-out on a literal shout-out. Route 2A headed south, Sunday night. You rolled your window down at a red light (I thought I was driving without my lights on). Instead, I received a thoughtful compliment and well wishes for tomorrow. It was unexpected, and I missed responding in kind — so a belated thank-you for making my evening. When: Sunday, November 17, 2024. Where: Route 2A in Williston.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #916179

“CYCLEMEAWAY” ON FITNESS SINGLES To the handsome guy who goes by “cyclemeaway” on Fitness Singles and 50plus club: You liked one of my photos on Fitness Singles back in June — I wasn’t available at the time. Now I am, and I’d like to be in touch. When: Wednesday, November 13, 2024. Where: online.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #916174 JERICHO COUNTRY STORE We talked. Could not help noticing how caring you were with the gentleman who was with you. We talked about the museum and Norwich. I had driven to look at a camper. Might you have any interest in a walk and/or lunch?

When: Wednesday, November 13, 2024. Where: Jericho Country Store.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #916173 MONTPELIER HUNGER MOUNTAIN COOP CUTIE Were you checking me out while we walked side by side to our cars, coincidentally parked next to each other? I think you drive a black Jeep?

I drive a white Subaru. I was wearing Bean boots, black leggings and a black jacket. When: Wednesday, November 13, 2024. Where: Hunger Mountain Coop. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916172 LIGHT EYES You knew I love the GMO, and you suggested the banana pudding. Your energy is like I’ve known you forever, too. Thank you to the Heybud-tender I’ve been lucky enough to smile at once or twice. When: Sunday, November 10, 2024. Where: Heybud.

You: Man. Me: Woman. #916171

HEY DER I’m a history nerd who overthinks but knows how to have a good time. Hit me up. When: Saturday, November 16, 2024. Where: online.

You: Man. Me: Man. #916177 “JOYFUL” FLIRTED WITH “MALEMAN”!

However, you blocked me three months ago. But “you make me want to be a better man”! We’re both dog-loving Shelburners, and winter is a good time to make new friends! Doing so may seem a threat to your joy, but nothing ventured, nothing gained? When: Friday, August 16, 2024. Where: Seven Days Personals.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #916176 GRAZING You were having dinner with a group of girlfriends and passed by the table my friend and I were at while your group was heading out. When: Friday, November 15, 2024. Where: Grazers in Williston.

You: Group. Me: Man. #916175

HARDWICK POST OFFICE You had on an orange dress, with a reddish puff-type jacket. Believe your hair was pulled back. You were getting into a white Subaru Crosstrek. Thanks for putting some fashion in Hardwick. When: Friday, November 8, 2024. Where: Hardwick.

You: Woman. Me: Man. #916170 HEARTBROKEN I thought we’d have a wonderful surprise due to hope in humanity restored. Turned out it was all faked to steal from me once again. Great work, nerds. Thanks for the pain, instead of the love claimed to be there. When: Wednesday, November 6, 2024. Where: They see me more.

You: Group. Me: Woman. #916169

assholes to mess around with each other, so I’m going to bet that you’re making a mountain out of a mole sauce.

All jokes aside, it’s no fun to feel uncomfortable. If you want to clear the air, inquire about the situation — delicately.

You don’t want to make either party feel like you’re seriously accusing them of doing something so terrible. You could bring it up jokingly and see what happens.

If it goes badly, you’re going to need more help than I can give you. But hopefully the three of you will just have a good laugh about it over dinner.

Good luck and God bless,

The Reverend What’s your problem?

Send it to asktherev@sevendaysvt.com.

SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

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I’m an 80-y/o woman seeking a man for companionship and friendship. I am a widow living in Burlington. Love to go out to dinner and movies and have good conversation. #L1809 SWM, bi, seeking guys for fun.

Any race. I’m 6’1, 175 pounds.

Clean, safe and discreet. Love being a bottom. Respond with a phone number. #L1804 58-y/o enjoys the simple things: walks with my dogs, candlelit evenings, window shopping. I don’t have to have someone to complete me but would love to share the beauty of life with a man who also is ready to dance like nobody’s watching. #L1808 I’m a SWF, 71 y/o, seeking a white or black man 50-70 y/o.

I want companionship/sex, movies, warmth; I love music.

Phone calls only. #L1815

GM looking for a man or men for mutual pleasure. Maybe develop into LTR or FWB. Would like regular or semiregular visits. Fun and adventurous. #L1812

CD into fetish? Tight and shiny clothing? #L1814

I’m an 80-y/o man in good health. I own a ranch house on Route 110 in Tunbridge, south of fairgrounds. Never married.

No children, retired. Like going out to eat and riding around.

Looking for a nice lady for a long-term relationship. #L1810

Single woman, 59. Wise, mindful. Seeking tight unit with man, friend, love.

Country living, gardens, land to play on. Emotionally, intellectually engaged. Lasting chats. Appreciation for past experience. Please be kind, stable and well established.

Phone number, please. #L1813

I miss the touch, the flirting, the taste, the smell of a woman. I’m 69, retired and disabled. I also have many facets that make me up. NEK please, thanks. #L1811

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SEVEN DAYS DECEMBER 4-11, 2024

76-y/o male seeking a female.

Widower, Burlington resident, gardener, fisherman and writer wants to meet you for dinner, movies, events and conversation. You: old, kind, no issues. Possible friendship, LTR. I don’t watch football. #L1807 T-girl? Transgender? CD? Gay? I’m a dom, so looking for subs.

Thanks. #L1799 I’m a sweet, fit, busy 48y/o DILF type seeking a 28- to 68-y/o-ish woman who wants some more affection in her life. Let’s have a great evening together every month and share good memories and joyful anticipation in between. #L1806

Internet-Free Dating!

Reply to these messages with real, honest-to-goodness letters. DETAILS BELOW. I’m a SWM seeking a Black couple, both bi. I’m clean, a nonsmoker and don’t drink.

Would like a weekly meet, on weekends. My place is private.

I only date Black men and women. Age no problem. Phone.

Serious. #L1802 Handsome SWM, young-looking 60, yearning for a woman’s connection and intimacy.

Seeking friendly relations with slim-average 45- to 60-y/o, kind, smart, respectful, humorous, playful. Activities indoors and outdoors — dinners, talks, walks, nature, TV, entertainment, day trips, overnights, spontaneity, hobbies, more. #L1803 Mid-60s, SWM, 6’, 175 pounds.

Looking for a forever romance but just meeting with new friends can work, too! Extremely romantic and passionate! I stay active as I run, hike, bike; play golf, tennis and pickleball; and work out at the Edge. Full of spontaneity and love dancing, travel. I will love you snuggling in my arms always as I shower you with love and romance! #L1801

I’m a 54-y/o male seeking a 50- to 60-y/o female. Looking for an honest person. Sex is less important. I enjoy taking walks, soft rock and movies, in or out.

Love to go out to eat. No drugs, no smoking. #L1800 SWM, 69, seeking a SF. I am warm, friendly, clean and respectful, seeking a LTR. Just an ordinary guy looking for same.

Phone number, please. #L1798 SWM, 55, seeking Barbie with brains. FWB/NSA relationship and open to a LTR. Seeking any woman, younger or older, for fun play. Please send a picture and contact info. I’m looking for one woman for a special time together. #L1797 I’m a GM, mid-60s, seeking a SM, 70s, passionate. Enjoy many activities: nature walks, camping.

Let’s talk, hopefully meet. #L1791 Marshmallow enthusiast, wildflower gazer, sort-of seamstress, ex-librarian seeks someone who enjoys literature and going outside. I’m a 37-y/o woman; you: 30s or early 40s.

I’m nerdy but cool. #L1794

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