Seven Days, September 24, 2025 by Seven Days

Put to the Test

Winooski schools superintendent Wilmer Chavarria was detained by U.S. border officials in July. He’d been an advocate for those on the margins long before then.

BY ALISON NOVAK,

PAGE 24

OFF THE EATEN PATH

WEEK IN REVIEW

ISRAEL HOSTS VERMONT LAWMAKERS DURING GAZA INVASION

Five Vermont lawmakers visited Israel last week on a trip sponsored by the Israeli government, even as the state’s Congressional delegation and a United Nations commission accused the country of committing genocide.

Reps. Sarah “Sarita” Austin (D-Colchester), Matt Birong (D-Vergennes), Gina Galfetti (R-Barre), Will Greer (D-Bennington) and James Gregoire (R-Fairﬁeld) were among 250 state legislators from across the U.S. to attend a conference organized by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called “50 States, One Israel,” from September 15 to 18. Israel’s top government ofﬁcials called on the state lawmakers to pass laws barring boycotts, divestments or sanctions against the Jewish state, among other policy discussions.

Conference participants also were invited to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem, travel to the border region near the Gaza Strip and plant trees in the southern city of Ofakim. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs covered air travel, lodging, ground transportation and meals.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described it as the biggest delegation of legislators that has ever visited Israel and lauded the “constancy of American support” for his country.

e conference took place as the Israeli military launched its ground invasion of Gaza City and an independent United Nations commission released a report concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. e day after the report’s release, all three members of Vermont’s federal Congressional delegation referred to

Israel’s military campaign in Gaza as genocide, marking the ﬁrst time the trio has used that term to describe the conﬂict.

“America has a moral responsibility to own our complicity in this genocide and to use our power to stop it,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.) wrote in an op-ed. Her grandfather died in the Holocaust.

Gregoire described his trip as a rare opportunity to learn ﬁrsthand about the region’s history and ongoing conﬂict, while acknowledging that the Israeli government would present a curated agenda.

Gregoire and Galfetti said reactions from their constituents have largely been positive. Both Austin and Galfetti have heard from many other people who have condemned

their decisions to participate, they said. Birong did not respond to requests for comment.

Greer said in a public statement that he went to Israel not to support Netanyahu’s government nor “the genocide taking place in Gaza nor the ground offensive that has taken place as well in the past week.” Rather, he participated to represent and express his Bennington district’s views — without using taxpayer dollars, he emphasized.

“I do not want Vermont to be excluded from having conversations as they relate to our current concerns around, and hopes for, achieving peace in Gaza and e West Bank,” he wrote.

Read Hannah Bassett’s full story at sevendaysvt.com.

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UGLY SITUATION

An art installation meant to hide Burlington’s gra ticovered Memorial Auditorium was taken down after taggers covered it in gra ti. Can’t make this stu up.

TINDER BOX

O cials issued a statewide burn ban while Montpelier and Berlin urged residents to conserve water because of the late-summer drought. Thank God it’s raining.

CATS IN SPACE

UVM College of Medicine grad Dr. Imelda Muller was chosen for inclusion in NASA’s 2025 astronaut candidate class. Out of this world!

LOST ITS SHINE

Spectrum Youth & Family Services put an end to its Detail Works program, which employed young people to clean cars. It ran for nearly a decade.

That’s the new maximum incentive the Burlington Electric Department is o ering people who buy or lease an electric vehicle — up from $3,000.

$5,700

TOPFIVE

1. “Random Holes Keep Opening Up in Yards on a Burlington Street” by Sasha Goldstein. Some Tracy Drive residents have discovered six-footdeep holes — apparently dry wells dug decades ago that were never used.

2. “A New Heyday: How Shelburne Farms Went from a Gilded Age Estate to a Beacon of Sustainability Education” by Melissa Pasanen. Once a private estate, today Shelburne Farms is open to all. After the loss of a founder, the nonproﬁt looks to a sustainable future for itself and the world.

3. “Weenies Hot Dogs Closes in Downtown Burlington” by Melissa Pasanen. e takeout spot opened in November on the Church Street Marketplace. e same owners will open a toy store there.

4. “UVM Health Network CEO to Step Down Amid Mounting Pressure” by Colin Flanders. Sunny Eappen’s departure was announced soon after state regulators teed off on the health network for not responding urgently enough to Vermont’s affordability crisis.

5. “Whizbangs Candy Lab Opens on Burlington’s Church Street” by Melissa Pasanen. e bright new store in the former Dear Lucy shoe shop makes fudge and chocolate confections onsite. It also offers viral hits, retro classics and novelties.

TOWNCRIER

LOCALLY SOURCED NEWS

Norwich Car eft Leads to Party Invitation

After Shelagh Harvard’s car was stolen in the middle of the night from a Norwich farm, the Valley News reported, surveillance footage revealed the thief was an older man in pajamas — who turned out to have dementia. After getting the car back, Harvard invited the man and his caregiver to a fundraiser party for Alzheimer’s research. ey plan to attend.

VERMONT’S BONG TRAIL

To attract tourists, many states have wine or beer “trails,” which lead visitors to local vineyards and breweries.

Now Vermont’s newest industry has one of its own: the “Cannatrail.” The passport-type program encourages people to visit and collect stamps at 23 dispensaries around the state. All are members of the Cannabis Retailers Association of Vermont, an advocacy group. Vermont is home to some 110 dispensaries.

No purchase is necessary to get a stamp, and prizes are available to those — 21 and older

— who ﬁll up their booklets, according to JB Sugar, a member of the group.

Vermont has the Long Trail, Appalachian Trail, Lamoille Valley Rail Trail and, yes, multiple beer trails, Sugar noted. Why not a Cannatrail?

“It’s meant to be fun, and it’s meant to normalize cannabis,” Sugar said. “We’re encouraging people to go out and partake in the diversity of retailers and towns in this great state.”

Sugar doesn’t know of any other states with a similar trail, but he did say regulators signed off on the idea. Unlike at a brewery, Vermont

dispensary visitors can’t legally consume any product on-site.

But it’s a way to showcase a growing industry, Sugar said.

More than 1,200 people are licensed to work in cannabis establishments, on top of the hundreds of other people licensed to work in weed, Sugar noted. e industry has contributed millions in tax revenues to state coffers, and encouraging people to visit different retailers could bring tourists to towns they might not otherwise visit, he said.

“It’s meant to be, like, ‘Hey, if you’re going

to Barre, go check out Forbins,’” Sugar said, referring to a local dispensary. “‘And by the way, they’ve got some pretty good restaurants there, and it’s a beautiful drive.’”

ere have been ups and downs in Vermont’s recreational market since it opened in 2022, Sugar said. Particularly in the northern half of the state, retailers have noted a marked decrease in the number of Canadian customers, he said.

But fall is the right time to launch the trail, said Sugar, who noted that leaf peepers are in town and outdoor growers will be harvesting their product.

“We’ve created a nice little industry,” he said.

SASHA GOLDSTEIN

From left: Vermont Reps. Matt Birong, Will Greer, Gina Galfetti, James Gregoire and Sarah “Sarita” Austin in Ofakim, Israel

Sasha Goldstein

Ken Ellingwood, Candace Page

Hannah Bassett, Derek Brouwer, Colin Flanders, Courtney Lamdin, Kevin McCallum, Alison Novak, Lucy Tompkins ARTS & CULTURE

Dan Bolles, Carolyn Fox

Chelsea Edgar, Margot Harrison, Pamela Polston

Jen Rose Smith

Alice Dodge

Chris Farnsworth

Rebecca Driscoll

Jordan Barry, Mary Ann Lickteig, Melissa Pasanen, Ken Picard

Alice Dodge, Angela Simpson

Isaacs, Martie Majoros

Bryan Parmelee

Rev. Diane Sullivan

John James

Je Baron SALES & MARKETING

Colby Roberts

Robyn Birgisson

Michelle Brown, Logan Pintka, Kaitlin Montgomery

Julia Maguire ADMINISTRATION

Marcy Stabile

Matt Weiner

Gillian English

Sam Hartnett CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Jordan Adams, Justin Boland, Alex Brown, Erik Esckilsen, Anne Galloway, Steve Goldstein, Amy Lilly, Bryan Parmelee, Suzanne Podhaizer, Samantha Randlett, Jim Schley, Carolyn Shapiro, Xenia Turner, Casey Ryan Vock CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS

Luke Awtry, Daria Bishop, Sean Metcalf, Tim Newcomb, Jeb Wallace-Brodeur FOUNDERS

Pamela Polston, Paula Routly

CIRCULATION: 35,000

Seven Days is published by Da Capo Publishing Inc. every Wednesday. It is distributed free of charge in greater Burlington, Middlebury, Montpelier, the Northeast Kingdom, Stowe, the Mad River Valley, Rutland, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury and White River Junction. Seven Days is printed at Quebecor Media Printing in Mirabel, Québec.

DELIVERY TECHNICIANS

Joe Abraham, Harry Applegate, James Blanchard, Joe Bou ard, Pat Bou ard, Colin Clary, Elana Coppola-Dyer, Matt Hagen, Penny Libercent, Nat Michael, Frankie Moberg, Dan Nesbitt, Dan Oklan, Ezra Oklan, Matt LaDuq Perry, Danielle Schneider, Andy Watts, Tracey Young With additional circulation support from PP&D.

SUBSCRIPTIONS

‘OUTSTANDING’ ISSUE

Congratulations on the outstanding August 27 edition of Seven Days! The paper thoroughly covered four very important issues: homelessness [“Is Homelessness a Local Matter?”]; legal orders for compression of school districts and the hopeful, evolving solutions [“A Map for the Future”]; the problems and beneﬁts of Vermont’s dams [“Power Drain”]; and the terror visited on asylum seekers and the supports Vermonters have o ered [“Asylum Angst”].

These stories desperately needed to be told to Vermonters in the comprehensive ways that the paper reported on them. Thank you.

Charlotte McGray SOUTH STARKSBORO

SEARCHING FOR … THE VANGUARD

Congratulations on 30 years of helpful, informative journalism supporting Chittenden County and beyond. Your Birthday Issue [September 3] was very interesting. It made me, a longtime Burlington resident, wonder about the name of the weekly publication prior to you becoming Seven Days. So, I looked to your beginning timeline but found no mention of it, which drove me crazy!

After an extensive online search (why was that so hard?), I can share with other curious readers that the Vanguard Press published a free weekly paper from 1978 to 1990. Phew! Now my brain can move on to something else!

Tina Haase SOUTH BURLINGTON

$250.

Please call 802-865-1020, ext. 132 with your credit card, contact circ@sevendaysvt.com or mail your check to: Seven Days, c/o Subscriptions, 255 S. Champlain St., Ste. 5, Burlington, VT 05401

Seven Days shall not be held liable to any advertiser for any loss that results from the incorrect publication of its advertisement. If a mistake is ours, and the advertising purpose has been rendered valueless, Seven Days may cancel the charges for the advertisement, or a portion thereof as deemed reasonable by the publisher. Seven Days reserves the right to refuse any advertising, including inserts, at the discretion of the publishers.

Editor’s note: Indeed, it should not have been so hard! Seven Days cofounders Pamela Polston and Paula Routly met and worked together at the Vanguard Press, Burlington’s original alternative weekly. That connection was mentioned in the ﬁrst paragraph of a story in the Birthday Issue titled “On the Same Page.” A quick search of the Seven Days website turns up dozens of references to the Vanguard, as well as digitized Vanguard stories — mostly related to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders — that we republished from the paper’s archives with permission from its former publisher, Nat Winthrop. In 1990, Winthrop shuttered the Vanguard and started the weekly Vermont Times, which published until 2007. Routly and Polston both worked there, too, before they left to start Seven Days in 1995.

‘WE CAN DO BETTER’

It is my opinion that we are stigmatizing those with no place to go [“Tent City,” August 13]. I can agree there are bad apples; I agree there is a drug problem. I also know that the drug problem is alive and well among those with housing. We need to stop punching down and give people a bit of stability to heal, or they will continue to become a public nuisance.

Housing first, because it takes you out of survival mode, then recovery and employment. We have trees. We have land. We have carpenters and companies that could help build micro homes, as they are doing in Asheville, N.C. Why not train incarcerated people to build and learn electrical and plumbing while building for the future? Our problem is not money; it is lack of imagination. Vermont has more than 50,000 summer homes empty. Can we tax them more?

Homelessness causes mental health decline and drug use. I have worked while homeless for years. It can be done, but it’s a tall order for the disabled. Before judging, picture yourself homeless and think about it: food, clothing, medical expenses, water, shelter, weather, on and on. I can tell you it’s not a free ride. It is a high price to pay for survival, with usually $1,000 a month to live on.

Nobody wants this — not the shop owners and not the unhoused. We can do better!

Torley Meister BERLIN

THE COST OF HOMELESSNESS

[Re “Is Homelessness a Local Matter?,” August 27]: If municipalities are asking

stunning setting of Burlington is virtually unique. But the experiment in tolerance of decay has been a failure.

Walter Bardenwerper

FERRISBURGH

POWER POINTS

The recent article [“Power Drain: Hydropower Facilities Such as the One at Green River Reservoir Are Being Pressed to Make Waterways Healthier — Which Could Mean Less Green Energy,” August 27] certainly grabbed my attention. Three responses jump to mind.

state taxpayers for more money — aka “help” — to spend on more homeless services, it would be helpful for Seven Days to report how much is being spent per year already, and for what.

Per Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, Burlington alone is already spending $8 million per year on services for the homeless. That’s 8 percent of Burlington’s 2024 budget.

In July this newspaper reported that Chittenden County had 3,386 homeless people as of January 2025. [“Vermont Has Made Little Progress on Homelessness, Report Finds,” July 30]. Assuming all those homeless are in Burlington, Burlington spent $2,363 per homeless person in 2024.

What was it spent on? How much more does the mayor want to spend on the homeless, and for what exactly? How much spending per homeless will be enough?

These are reasonable questions. Burlington and Vermont taxpayers deserve answers from elected officials before any increase in homeless spending.

Chris Harvey ESSEX TOWN

DEVELOPERS HAVE DONE THEIR PART

Kudos to the developers who took the enormous risk to finally make this happen

[“Hope Rises From ‘the Pit’: The Housing and Hotel Project Formerly Known as CityPlace Is Finally Opening — but in a Very Different Burlington,” September 10]. But if the city government doesn’t at long last clean up the drugs, vagrancy, crime and homelessness in the center of Burlington, this entire investment could go bust in spectacular fashion. The

Firstly, the indirect quote attributed to Natural Resources Secretary Julie Moore made me chuckle. She attempts to make tiny Morrisville Water & Light into the boogeyman when it truly is the victim of state government’s regulatory overreach. She claims that had Morrisville collaborated, a compromise “might have been possible.” Might? One should not bet on that. I have to agree with the utility’s general manager, Scott Johnstone, when he said, “The state has decided to regulate Green River out of existence.”

Secondly, powerhouses are meant to be utilitarian, not something from Better Homes & Gardens. The writer compared the one at the Green River dam to an “abandoned home of a deranged hobbit.”

Such a comparison to an imaginary creature is a judgmental departure from objective journalism. One expects better.

Thirdly, kudos to Morrisville Water & Light, one of more than 2,000 public power utilities throughout the U.S. As a community-owned, not-for-profit public power utility, it exists to serve its customers.

According to the American Public Power Association, “homes powered by public power utilities paid 9% less than homes powered by private utilities in 2022.” Contrast public power with for-profit, investor-owned utilities, which exist to pay quarterly dividends to stockholders.

As we move toward carbon-free power generation, hydro power becomes an important part of the equation. Let’s go forward, not backward.

Garland Gates BRISTOL

CORRECTIONS

Last week’s story “Solar Storm” misidentified TJ Poor. He is director of regulated utility planning for the Vermont Department of Public Service.

“Party Music,” about the celebration of composer Erik Nielsen’s 75th birthday, misstated the year he moved to Vermont. It was 1988.

Hello, I am Jacob Lavalley.

I am the manager of the Ben & Jerry’s scoop shop here on the Church Street Marketplace. I started working for Ben & Jerry’s when I was in high school. I love the company and its mission to create a better world with ice cream.

We have a great shop here on Church Street that my dedicated staff and I are very proud of. Of course we have lots and lots of very happy customers! I mean, who doesn’t like ice cream?

For me to be working in downtown Burlington on the Church Street Marketplace is a great gift. There is nowhere I would rather be.

We are here waiting for you, all stocked up with dozens of wonderful ice cream flavors – something for everyone. Come on down to Church Street today.

Stroll around with friends and enjoy our beautiful downtown marketplace. Hope to see you real soon.

BY ALISON NOVAK

Hole Truth In Swanton, Hudak

Standing By

Vermonters who fear deportation are lining up legal guardians for their children

Report: Beta Technologies

Leaders Plan to Take It

Public

Location Unknown Burlington has the money to open an overdose-prevention center. Now comes the hard part: where to put it.

Regulators Green-Light Tower, Solar Farm in Scenic Spots

UVM Health Network CEO to Step Down

Fibershed Moment Vermont textile producers move closer to making a “farm-to-closet” movement a reality

With

Hello, I’m Kylee,

owner of Kylee Boutique on College Street. This is a location close to my heart, overlooking Lake Champlain and surrounded by beautiful mountains.

My shop is a collection of my approach to design. A little rustic, a little modern, and a little bit rock ‘n’ roll! I am an artist and a lover of tiny shiny things. I laugh hard, work hard and adore my dog Rhodes, who is my No. 1 one employee at the shop.

I am your Vermont shopkeeper, searching out bohemian and modern inspired products for you to wear, have in your home or gift to a lucky person. Things that make you happy and feel good to just surround yourself with.

Above all, I am so appreciative of my customers — those who have been friends for years, living in my community, and those who have recently found me. Whether you are new to me or a longtime friend, I enjoy hearing your stories and helping you shop. It’s honestly one of my favorite things.

SUPPORTED BY:

An archaeological dig led by the University of Vermont’s Consulting Archaeology Program searched for Native American artifacts at Sand Bar State Park in Milton. Seven Days’ Eva Sollberger saw the uncovered pottery pieces and stone ﬂakes, which date back 400 to 1,400 years.

THANKS FOR JOINING THE RIDE!

Susan Adams

Debbie Andrews

Carlos Aponte

Kate Baldwin

Daniel Baker

Alison Barges

Lee & Sara Beckwith

Shari Bell

Bart Blaner

Leslie Bouchard

Deborah Bouton

Caitlin Boyle

Laurie Brady

Colleen Brady

Katherine Brandeis

Jeffrey Brown

Philip Brown

Lisa Brown

Elis Brunelle

Louella Bryant

Douglas Cardin

Edward Carroll

Andrea Chandler

Joseph Chase

Deborah Boothby & Gary Chassman

Deb Chisholm

Debra Chisholm

Chelsea Clark

Carole Anne Cleland

Holly Cluse

Bonnie Cluxton

Dan Cohen

Arthur Cohn

Mike Colbourn

Candace Collins

Emily Collins

Carmen Cormier

Grace & Steve

Cothalis

Anne Cramer

Annie Crawford

Celia Cuddy

Donald Cummings

Charles Cyr

Laura Dagan

Moira Daly

John Davis

Betsey Dempsey

Will Dodge

Linda & Brian Donahue

Siobhan Donegan

Michael Early

Margaret Eaton

Barbara Edwards

Lynn Faber

Glynnis Fawkes

Gay Fellows

Carol Fleischman

Michelle Force

Cynthia & Fred Forehand

Linsey Foster-Mason

Susan Fowler

Bill Frank

Eve Frankel

Judy & Ron Frey

Barbara Friedland

Gene Kadish & Karen Fryer

Ruth Fuller

Kris Garnjost

Kim Gates

Diane Elliot Gayer

Linda Gionti

Stephen & Deirdre Gladstone

Melissa Goss

Daniel Gottlieb

Matt Grady

Christine Graham

Sheryl Graves

Randall Graves

Malcolm Gray

Janice Groschen

Kathy Gruber

Bud Haas

Rachel Hadas

Sonja Hakala

Scottie Harrison

Kamran A Hassan

Deana Hawk

Deb Hawkins

Bruce Hiland

Doug Hoffer

Tom Hubbs

Janice Hughes

Nina Jaffe

Mark Johnson

Deanna Jones

James Ralph Jr.

Greg Pierce & Paula Kane

Tom Kastner

Karen Kauffeld

William Keithcart

Mark Kelley

Diane Kemble

Anmari Kicza

Joy Ming King

John Edgar King

Wendy Knight

Betsey Krumholz

Barbara Kurth

Fred Lager

Jane Lawlis

Eileen Lawson

Judith & Frank

Leonard

Michael Levine

Mildred Lewis

Anne Lezak

Jordan Litner

Natacha Liuzzi

Pam Loeb

Kate Logan

C.A. Lowe

Jane Macan

Pamela MacPherson

Marilyn Maddison

Priscilla & Donald

David Maher

Christopher Maloney

Terry Marron

Clairmont Mary

Shelly Masson

Cindy Maynard

Suzie McCoy

Geoff McDonald

Andrew McQueeney

Kate Mesaros

Julie Messenger

Connie Metz

Jesse Metzler

Lisa Meyer

Colin Meyn

Bonard Molina

Victoria Mori

Betty-Ann Morse

Robert Mosher

Melinda Moulton

Julie Mueller

Tom Hudspeth & Ginny Mullen

Susan Murray

Barry Neville

Paul Nolan

Wayne Schneider & Paula Olsen

Mieko A. Ozeki

Christopher Parlin

Bonnie Pease

Marguerite Chovine Pender

Caroline Pepin

Susan & Richard Phillip

Wendy Pierce

Susan Polk

Melanie Pomerantz

Joseph Porcelli

Logan Porter

Diane Post

Alison Pyott

Alan Quackenbush

Mary Jo Reale

Laurie Redel

Allan Reetz

Darcie Renzulli

Marilyn Richardson

Maryanne Roberts

Charles Robinson

Laura Rochat

Molly Roland

Jean Rook

Jess Rubin

Howard Russell

Anna Rutenbeck

Randall Sargent

Elaine Sasser

Robyn Schenck

John Schnader

Avril Schofield

Bill Schubart

Jan Schultz

Wayne Senville

Craig Senzel

Janet Rutkowski & John Sharpless

Lawrence Shelton

Patricia Shine

Edward & Adele Shoop

Susan Shull

Susan Smereka

Meg Smith

Jane Smith

J. Paul Sokal

Karen Sokol

Kristy Spengler

Bill Stephany

Michaela Stickney

Michael Strange

Carol Williams Suich

Kathleen Swanson

Mary Taggart

Linnea Taylor

Janice Solek Tefft

Natalie & John Thanassi

Dan Thorington

Rebecca Todd

Andrea Todd

Erin Tunnicliffe

Lori Valburn

Susan Krauter & Henry Venable

Marcia Waite

Jeffrey Waite

Lisa Walker

William Warren

Douglas Way

Elizabeth White

Brian Williams

Frances Williams

Catherine Willson

Jym Wilson

Georgia Zaveson So

Maddock

Janet Mondlak

Nadine Scibek

Michael Wisniewski

Bruce Wyatt

Lorelle Yee

Barbara York

MAGNIFICENT

MUST SEE, MUST DO THIS WEEK BY REBECCA DRISCOLL

FRIDAY 26

THREE’S COMPANY

e University of Vermont’s Lane Series expands minds with a dramatic musical performance by Yumi Kurosawa Trio at the school’s Recital Hall in Burlington. e Japanese koto master plays alongside violinist Naho Parrini and percussionist Yousif Sheronick in a mesmerizing showcase of brand-new compositions and striking reinterpretations.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 65

SATURDAY 27

American Idol

You’ve no doubt heard his voice, but how often do you get to see his face? At a moment when public radio is in jeopardy, fans show up for Ira Glass in Conversation at Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe. e host and creator of “ is American Life” — and all-around national treasure — chats candidly about his groundbreaking career in broadcasting and journalism.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 68

FRIDAY 26

Grammy’s Gals

Higher Ground Presents brings Grammy-winning singer-songwriters Mary Chapin Carpenter & Brandy Clark to Paramount eatre in Rutland. Between the two country music legends — each a voice of their generation — there’s enough accolades to fill a swimming pool. If you haven’t listened yet, dive in to find out why awards seem to fly onto their shelves.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 65

SATURDAY 27

Culture Shock

To brie or not to brie? at is the question. ( e answer is always to brie.) Cabot Arts hosts dairy lovers for the third annual Cabot Cheese & Culture Festival on the village common. e curd-ﬁlled fête gathers Vermont cheesemakers and fermented food producers — think brewers, bakers and mead makers — for tastings, demos, workshops and talks. Say “cheeeeese”!

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 66

MONDAY 29

No Words

Master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock once asserted that “Silent pictures were the purest form of cinema.” International Silent Movie Day honors the precious art form, beckoning local cinephiles to Burlington Beer’s Lumière Hall for a stacked evening of illuminating talks and screenings, including the 1916 feature A Vermont Romance — the ﬁrst ﬂick shot entirely in the Green Mountain State.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 69

TUESDAY 30

Strength in Sisterhood

e Vermont Women’s Fund Annual Celebration at the Flynn in Burlington marks the beginning of the nonproﬁt’s fourth decade of service. Vermont Public’s Jane Lindholm emcees the female-driven function, which includes a keynote by activist and Girls Who Code founder Reshma Saujani and a performance by singer-songwriter and “Homegoings” host Myra Flynn.

SEE CALENDAR LISTING ON PAGE 70

CLOSES TUESDAY 30

Free Form

Front Four Gallery honors a late German biomorphic painter with a full-scale exhibit titled “Inner Landscapes: Discovering the Lifework of Peter Heller” in Stowe. e show sheds light on the importance of the often overlooked artist’s abstract works — which, the gallery argues, should be considered foremost examples in the canon of 20th-century modernism.

SEE ART LISTING ON PAGE 52

Screen Scene

The other couple buying popcorn at Williston’s Majestic 10 last Wednesday wasn’t there for Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. My partner, Tim, and I had driven 20 minutes in the dark from Burlington to watch the movie in a proper cinema. Like so many fans of the television show set in post-Edwardian England, I couldn’t get enough of the aristocratic Crawley clan and their sometimes-scheming servants. The dresses! The newspapers! I wanted to watch the saga wrap on a big screen and successfully twisted Tim’s arm to come along.

We thought we might be late to the 9 p.m. show but, as it turned out, had no reason to worry. We scurried into a big, beautiful, empty theater and had the entire place to ourselves. Without lowering my voice, I said, “It’s like our living room — only with stadium seating.” True to form, Tim fell asleep in his comfortable chair about two-thirds of the way into the film, right around the time I started getting weepy. Two nights later, it was a different story. A little before 7, under a sunset sky, we walked from our house on Burlington’s Lakeview Terrace down to the waterfront to see an old movie in a little room packed with people. To celebrate our 30th birthday, Seven Days is presenting “Media in the Movies,” a journalism film series, in partnership with the Vermont International Film Foundation. The movies show on Fridays through October 10 in the org’s intimate screening room at Main Street Landing.

The first of four was the 1940 screwball comedy His Girl Friday, with wisecracking Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant in the roles of star reporter and editor, respectively. The two have recently divorced, and she intends to quit the paper to pursue a “normal” life. In his opening remarks for the sold-out film, VTIFF executive director Steve MacQueen, a former journalist, noted that he and his wife met while working at an independent daily in Florida. Then he passed the mic to Seven Days deputy news editor Sasha Goldstein, who gave our paper a shout-out. I was sitting next to cofounder Pamela Polston, happily eating her popcorn.

Pamela Polston and Paula Routly at the “Media in the Movies” film series

‘MEDIA IN THE MOVIES’: A JOURNALISM FILM SERIES

Join Seven Days for the following flicks on the big screen, showing at 7 p.m. at the Screening Room @ VTIFF in Burlington:

His Girl Friday’s opening scene shows female “newspaperman” Hildy Johnson — in a magnificent dress and matching hat — sauntering confidently through a busy, smokefilled newsroom, greeting everyone with tough love. She’s there to inform the boss, her ex, that she is through with journalism and getting married to someone else the next day. With the help of a welltimed breaking story, he successfully manipulates her into changing her plan. Although it gets news-gathering ethics almost entirely wrong — reporters pay sources, hide murder suspects and ask leading questions in interviews — the movie is right about a few things. Inconvenient and stressful as truth seeking can be, the job is often exhilarating and always gratifying. Amazing, too, for a film that depicts an earlier decade in the biz: The best writer in the room is a woman, highly respected by her peers.

Most of the action in His Girl Friday takes place in the “press room” — as opposed to the newsroom. It’s a second-story office next to the courthouse with a clear view of the gallows. Reporters from competing papers are shoulder to shoulder, bent over manual typewriters and “Downton Abbey”-era telephones. There’s a collegiality, even though each one is desperately trying to get the scoop.

When the lights came back on, we realized VTDigger’s northwest reporter, Auditi Guha, was in the audience, wearing a hat in a fashion nod to Hildy. Sasha introduced us — they met taping “Vermont This Week” — and, after some chitchat, the subject moved to dinner and drinks. Warm and sociable, Audi said she and her two friends were getting a bite at Santiago’s, and Sasha, Tim and I followed, thinking we’d get our own table for three. Upon arrival, we found that Audi had arranged one for six. We all talked about the movie — there are three more to come — and got to know each other better, just like in the old days.

Paula Routly

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Medium Cool, September 26

Between the Lines, October 3

Black Box Diaries, October 10

IMMIGRATION

Standing By

Vermonters who fear deportation are lining up legal guardians for their children

BY LUCY TOMPKINS • lucy@sevendaysvt.com

Ever since President Donald Trump took o ce promising mass deportations, immigrant parents have been navigating an aggressive new enforcement landscape that raises a di cult question: If they are detained, what will happen to their kids?

“It would be my worst nightmare in the whole world to be separated from my daughter,” said a Venezuelan woman who came to Burlington as an asylum seeker in 2021. Her daughter is 4 years old. “Just thinking about it causes me anxiety, but I have to be prepared.”

A new program is helping parents do just that. Since January, a team of 20 volunteer attorneys has fanned out across the state to assist immigrant parents in assigning a legal guardian for their child in the event they are detained by immigration authorities. Without it, the kids could

become wards of the state’s overburdened Department for Children and Families, which is not well-equipped to reunite kids with parents who have been deported to other countries.

WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER, AND WE’RE GOING TO TAKE CARE OF EACH OTHER.

MARITA CANEDO

It’s estimated that hundreds of children in Vermont are growing up with parents whose legal status in this country is tenuous.

“The piece the community does not know, the piece that shocks people, is if an undocumented parent is picked up and

BUSINESS Report: Beta Technologies Leaders Plan to Take It Public

BY DEREK BROUWER derek@sevendaysvt.com

Electric aviation startup Beta Technologies plans to go public later this year to raise capital, according to an industry news outlet.

e Air Current, a digital aviation news site, on Tuesday cited unnamed sources with “knowledge of the development.” Beta expects to make a public ﬁling with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by the end of 2025, the outlet reported.

A Beta spokesperson declined to comment. But Seven Days has identiﬁed multiple Beta help-wanted ads in recent months for applicants with experience in public ﬁnancial reporting requirements, including quarterly and annual statements, which public companies must disclose.

Beta, headquartered at the Burlington International Airport in South Burlington, is planning a traditional public offering, the Air Current reported. Several of Beta’s top competitors have already gone public via a special-purpose acquisition company, a shortcut approach that was popular during the pandemic.

their child is a U.S. citizen, that child will not be deported,” said Barbara Prine, an attorney at Vermont Legal Aid.

Prine and her team have held six legal clinics so far this year, meeting with families in offices, churches and private homes to educate them about the program and guide them through the guardianship paperwork. Some 60 families, accounting for more than 100 children, have signed up so far. More call her office every week.

“We’ve had a couple of clinics where so many families have shown up wanting this security, wanting to know that there is a plan for reunification with their children, and terrified if they wouldn’t have it,” Prine said. “You just feel the urgency.”

e move would mark a signiﬁcant shift for one of Vermont’s largest and fastest-growing tech ﬁrms. Founded in 2017, Beta has raised more than $1 billion in private capital, most recently from GE Aerospace, which infused another $300 million into Beta earlier this month.

CEO Kyle Clark told Seven Days in 2021 that going public would bring a “whole boatload of disadvantages,” namely the requirement to communicate with public investors.

“We have the fortunate advantage of only having to convince our customers and the [Federal Aviation Administration] that we have a safe, reliable aircraft that serves our mission,” Clark said at the time. “Not only do you get deposits and down payments from the customers, but you get credibility with alternative sources of funds.”

Since then, however, the path to developing new electric aircraft has grown longer and taken more turns than industry optimists initially estimated. e long process of certifying a commercially viable electric plane has left startups such as Beta hungry for cash. ➆

Beta’s Alia aircraft

Marita Canedo

DARIA BISHOP

Location Unknown

Burlington has the money to open an overdose-prevention center. Now comes the hard part: where to put it.

BY COURTNEY LAMDIN • courtney@sevendaysvt.com

Earlier this month, the City of Burlington accepted a $2.2 million state grant to open the state’s first overdose-prevention center, a place where people would be able to use drugs under supervision.

The next step is deciding where it will go.

The most obvious place to put a “safe consumption” site is downtown, where most overdoses occur. But there’s some fierce opposition to that idea on the city council, which will ultimately vote on the chosen location. Further complicating matters, some councilors are now questioning whether the city should open a center at all.

But higher levels of government have put up roadblocks. In 2017, former U.S. attorney for Vermont Christina Nolan pledged to prosecute operators of over dose-preven tion centers under the so-called “Crack House Statute,” which prohibits “maintaining drug-involved premises.” Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, twice vetoed overdose-prevention center bills, most recently in 2024. Lawmakers were able to override the second veto and pass a bill that gave Burlington $2.2 million in opioid settlement funds to run a two-year pilot program, with oversight from the state health department.

statewide after reaching all-time highs in 2022. But the impact of the drug crisis is evident in Burlington every day. Retail theft rates have skyrocketed, and people routinely use drugs in city parks and other public spaces. Needle litter continues to be a major concern.

The challenge is to find a spot that’s both accessible to those who need it and acceptable to those who fear it. In a city that has struggled to manage the drug crisis with compassion while preserving a sense of public safety, there are no obvious answers.

“This has to be both data-driven and community-driven at the same time,” said Theresa Vezina, the city staffer charged with setting up the center. “Being able to strike that balance is the goal.”

The debate over location is only the latest front in Burlington’s long battle to open a center. Councilors first discussed the idea in 2018 and have since endorsed the concept in several bipartisan votes. Both former mayor Miro Weinberger, a Democrat, and the current Progressive one, Emma Mulvaney-Stanak, have pledged support.

resolution asking police to ticket people for misbehavior in City Hall Park, includ ing for drug use. The governor has offered to help address Burlington’s problems, but he remains opposed to overdoseprevention centers, saying he believes they “enable” drug users and will attract more of them to the city.

get that off the ground,” Scott said of Burlington’s proposed center at a press conference earlier this month. “If they don’t, that would be good news from my perspective.”

overdose-prevention centers are rare in the U.S. More than a dozen states have passed laws allowing them, but only three centers in two states have opened. That includes OnPoint in East Harlem, which Seven Days story.

Regulators

Green-Light Tower, Solar Farm in Scenic Spots

BY KEVIN MCCALLUM kevin@sevendaysvt.com

Vermont utility regulators last week signed off on two controversial projects over the objections of neighbors who sought to preserve beloved landscapes.

The Public Utility Commission approved an 80-acre solar farm in Shaftsbury in southern Vermont. The facility, to rival the state’s largest solar farm in size, is to be built on Holy Smoke Road, which locals say is so named because of the stunning scenery.

The commission also agreed to permit a 140-foot communications tower that will be visible from the shores of Lake Willoughby, a remote Northeast Kingdom attraction.

Both projects had stirred fierce opposition.

The massive solar project won approval despite its size, visibility and the 35 acres of trees that need to be removed to accommodate it.

Connecticut-based Freepoint Solar plans to install 50,000 photovoltaic panels that will cover an area equivalent to about 65 football fields.

Commissioners said the decision was a difficult one that required them to reconcile the need to move toward 100 percent renewable energy with the significant change to the landscape.

And up north in tiny Westmore, several residents tried to block a large communications tower they worry will mar scenic views.

Commissioners agreed that the tower proposed by Massachusettsbased Industrial Tower and Wireless would be visible from parts of Lake Willoughby, which is a National Natural Landmark. But they found the benefits of improving radio service and potentially cellular service outweigh the aesthetic concerns.

“Visibility of the Project from Lake Willoughby will be limited with most areas of potential visibility located more than a mile away,” the commission found.

Westmore resident Donna DzugasSmith said the decision showed that “our state agencies are failing to protect the health and welfare of Vermonters and our great state.” ➆

Standing By « P.14

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “does not separate families or deport U.S. citizens,” a spokesperson told Seven Days in a statement. When parents are deported, they may choose to take their children with them, regardless of the child’s immigration status, the spokesperson said.

Given the history of family separations during Trump’s first term and the unpredictability of current enforcement efforts, parents are taking matters into their own hands.

Vermont Legal Aid launched the guardianship program during the first Trump administration, but few families used it then and Vermont law did not explicitly outline the process for setting up a guardianship in advance.

With Trump’s return to office and a renewed interest among parents, Prine, in partnership with DCF, appealed to state lawmakers to pass legislation last session formalizing the so-called “standby guardianship” program. Prine said Vermont’s policy was modeled on similar programs in New York and New Hampshire. The bill passed with broad support, and Gov. Phil Scott signed it into law in May.

Parents must find a temporary guardian — ideally a U.S. citizen or green card holder within Vermont — who agrees to care for their children if they are detained. The guardian, usually a family friend or relative, also commits to reuniting the children with their parents according to their wishes, in this country or another.

Once the legal paperwork is signed and notarized, it gets set aside and is only filed in probate court when a parent is detained.

“That’s why it’s called a ‘standby guardianship,’” Prine explained. “It’s waiting to stand by until it’s necessary.”

It was initially intended for parents without legal status, Prine said, but as the Trump administration has expanded enforcement — detaining not only undocumented immigrants but also green card holders and asylum seekers — families with a variety of legal statuses have been using it.

A few weeks ago, the Venezuelan woman called Vermont Legal Aid to ask about setting up a standby guardianship for her daughter. The woman, who Seven Days agreed not to name, said even though she and her husband have been granted asylum and have green cards, recent news of Venezuelans being arrested and deported has made them uneasy.

Under other circumstances, the woman’s mother, who also lives in Vermont, would make a great caretaker. But because she is undocumented and

at risk of detention, the woman had to find someone else. She reached out to a close friend she met when she arrived in Vermont four years ago.

“I said, ‘I’m so sorry to ask you for this, but under the current situation, Venezuelans are being targeted. If something happened to us, I would really appreciate if you could take care of [our daughter].’”

IT WOULD BE MY WORST NIGHTMARE IN THE WHOLE WORLD TO BE SEPARATED FROM MY DAUGHTER.

A VENEZUELAN VERMONTER

The friend, who is a U.S. citizen, agreed. They plan to meet with a lawyer soon to make it official.

“Knowing if something happens to me she will still be safe with people that she knows, and that love her, is giving me a sort of peace,” the woman said.

So far, none of the standby guardianships have had to go into effect, Prine said. But immigrant parents have already been detained this year, leaving their children in limbo.

Recently, Prine has gotten two separate calls from DCF about children whose parents were detained by U.S. Border Patrol. In both instances, she rushed to check her files to see whether the children had a standby guardian lined up to take them. None of them did.

“DCF does not want to take children who are not being abused, neglected or exploited,” Prine said. “But if there is not a plan, then they don’t have a choice.”

The hardest part of setting up a guardianship, Prine says, is finding someone who meets all the criteria: a Vermont resident whom the parents trust and who is also a U.S. citizen. That’s especially the case for more recent arrivals who may not know anyone well enough to entrust them with their children or to ask them for such a favor.

Given the demand, some people have agreed to be a guardian for more than one family.

Naomi Wolcott-MacCausland, who works as the migrant health coordinator at the University of Vermont Extension, is one such person. She works directly with migrant workers and their families across Vermont, helping them navigate the health care system.

Through her work, she has noticed a recent surge of newcomers filling workforce gaps in Vermont’s construction and service industries. In many cases, they’re families with children setting down roots

Barbara Prine

KEVIN MCCALLUM

LUCY TOMPKINS

Donna Dzugas-Smith and Ray Lanier

in parts of the state that previously attracted few immigrants.

“There’s been a pretty significant shift in migration patterns to the state of Vermont in the past few years, and the number of families that could potentially benefit from having an emergency family plan has more than quadrupled,” Wolcott-MacCausland said.

During the first Trump administration, she signed on as a guardian for two families she knew through her work who were unable to find anyone else to fill that role, she said. Now she’s a guardian for three. She said her decision to do so came from “understanding some of the worries and challenges immigrant families face.”

“But then also just being a community member myself and wanting to be of support to families that are my neighbors,” she added.

Wolcott-MacCausland has also been personally affected by the changes in the Trump administration’s posture toward immigrants. Her husband is a green card holder, she said, and she has felt a new sense of anxiety any time he travels out of the country.

“That’s a change that’s affecting a lot of people,” Wolcott-MacCausland said, describing the worry that “what we knew to be true about how immigration status would protect us, or protect those people, may not hold up.”

Julia Doucet is the clinical and program director at Open Door Clinic, which offers free care for people without health insurance in Middlebury. She has become the standby guardian for three different families. Some have children as young as 1 year old.

Doucet has three children of her own, but they are all in college now. Some of the families to whom she’s offered help have relatives and friends nearby who would help her care for the kids if their parents were detained. But as a citizen, she is the preferred legal guardian.

“I’m taking full advantage of my citizenship here to make sure everybody’s taken care of,” Doucet said.

Community groups continue to spread the word about standby guardianship.

Marita Canedo, an organizer for the advocacy group Migrant Justice, said many parents have reached out to them for guidance.

“We are having a lot of difficult conversations,” Canedo said. But in the process, families are reminded that they aren’t alone.

“It creates a bigger sense of community and unity and integration,” Canedo said. “We’re all in this together, and we’re going to take care of each other.” ➆

HEALTH

UVM Health Network CEO to Step Down

BY COLIN FLANDERS colin@sevendaysvt.com

The University of Vermont Health Network president and CEO Sunny Eappen will step down amid mounting pressure over the hospital group’s role in driving up Vermont’s nation-leading health care costs.

Eappen, who has held the position since 2022, will give up his titles next month but remain on through December to support the transition, the network announced last week.

Stephen Leffler, president of the UVM Medical Center, will assume Eappen’s CEO duties on an interim basis.

While it’s been a privilege to serve on the team, Eappen said, “I believe –based on everything that’s happening and all of the external pressures on our rural health system – that this organization needs to move forward in a different way.”

A trained anesthesiologist, Eappen was an executive at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston prior to joining UVM. His tenure coincided with a dramatic growth in hospital spending, largely driven by the network’s flagship hospital in Burlington.

Calls to curb costs last year prompted the health network to announce cuts to vital services. Eappen later apologized for the rollout of the cuts, which he said hurt the network’s trust with patients.

The network has also been criticized for paying out millions in executive bonuses while many people can’t afford health insurance. Those payouts included a $600,000 bonus to Eappen during the same year the network announced the closure of an inpatient psychiatric unit.

One final public relations blow came last week. The Green Mountain Care Board voted to slash $88 million from the UVM Medical Center’s proposed budget over concerns about how the health network has been managing its six-hospital portfolio.

The network has been draining the Burlington hospital’s margins to support struggling hospitals in New York at the expense of Vermont’s privately insured patients, regulators said — fueling the debate over whether the formation of the health network has actually benefited Vermonters. ➆

Opponents have argued that the sites legitimize drug use and increase crime, though various studies — including one by former Burlington police chief Brandon del Pozo — have provided evidence to the contrary. City leaders say a center would alleviate public drug use in Burlington, reduce syringe litter and take the pressure off emergency responders who are overburdened by overdose calls.

A nonprofit, Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform, would operate the site. Besides providing “safe consumption” spaces, the center would offer drop-in drug treatment and recovery programs, drugchecking services, and case management, according to Tom Dalton, the nonprofit’s executive director. Johnson Health Center, which has a clinic on Bank Street in Burlington, would provide medical and mental health care, he said.

But first, the center needs a home, and there’s no consensus on the city council about where that should be. Seven Days contacted all 12 councilors to hear their thoughts.

Several suggested pairing the center with a medical facility, such as the University of Vermont Medical Center, noting that the site in Providence, R.I., is across the street from a hospital. That idea was also endorsed by a small contingent of the Ward 3 Neighborhood Planning Assembly, which covers much of downtown.

Other councilors pointed out the center should be easily accessible and that the hospital is not, by foot or bus. Last month, cutbacks at Green Mountain Transit rerouted one of few bus routes that stopped at the hospital.

Downtown is arguably the most convenient location. It’s walkable, close to public transportation and home to a number of vacant buildings that could theoretically be repurposed. Other social services — including a homeless shelter, food shelf and needle exchange — are already located there or close by.

That idea is a no-go for Kelly Devine, executive director of the Burlington Business Association. She pointed to the city’s 2013 downtown master plan, which explicitly discourages expanding social services in the area because having too many can become “unmanageable.”

“Any time we decide to put those kinds of services in close proximity to our economic district, I think we need to be very thoughtful about it,” Devine said.

For some councilors, however, downtown is the only realistic option. “It has to be where the activity is,” said Councilor Melo Grant, a Progressive whose Central District seat covers most of downtown

and the Old North End. Councilor Sarah Carpenter (D-Ward 4) agreed but also floated the hospital idea.

Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak, meanwhile, said she’d support a center downtown but not necessarily in the central business district. She has previously said her own neighborhood in the Old North End is already overburdened by social programs.

Council President Ben Traverse (D-Ward 5) and Councilor Gene Bergman (P-Ward 2) said they would consider downtown but stressed first wanting to hear from experts and see data that suggests it’s the best place. Councilor Marek Broderick (P-Ward 8) said he’s open to locations besides downtown as long as other services, including the bus, are nearby.

Councilors Allie Schachter (D-East District) and Carter Neubieser (P-Ward 1) said it was too early to comment. Councilor Joe Kane (P-Ward 3) didn’t respond to interview requests, and Councilor Evan Litwin (D-Ward 7) declined to comment.

Three other councilors — Becca Brown McKnight (D-Ward 6), Mark Barlow (D-North District) and Buddy Singh (D-South District) — were largely opposed to putting the facility downtown, citing the effect of crime and disorder on local businesses. McKnight added more conditions: A center shouldn’t go near the waterfront or schools. “I recognize that’s a tough map,” she conceded.

McKnight also declined to say whether she’d support a center in her own ward,

In response to questions from Seven Days, acting U.S. Attorney for Vermont Michael Drescher wouldn’t say whether Bondi had directed his office to investigate Burlington’s plans. But he made his position on them clear.

“By passing the Controlled Substances Act, Congress made it illegal to open, lease, rent, use, maintain, or manage a place for others to use drugs,” Drescher wrote in a statement, noting that center operators may be subject to prosecution.

So far, those threats haven’t cowed city councilors, who by and large said the city should move forward with its plans. Mulvaney-Stanak noted that many of Trump’s executive orders have been blocked by federal judges.

“We’re living in very unprecedented times, and we’re proceeding as carefully as one can,” the mayor said.

which covers portions of the South End and Hill Section. Most others said yes in principle or, per Barlow and Singh, that they’d need to speak to constituents or see proof that a location in their districts would work before endorsing it.

The same three councilors also questioned whether Burlington should open a center at all — though all three voted to accept the money to establish it. Barlow said he fears the site would bring more troubled people to Burlington and that the city is already shouldering too much of the state’s drug crisis. Singh, who has a close friend with addiction issues, said recovery programs are the only way to solve the problem. “Harm reduction to me is a Band-Aid,” he said.

Dalton, the VCJR director, countered that harm reduction programs such as overdose-prevention centers can help people get into recovery.

“Hopefully the community will be able to recognize what an asset this is going to be,” he said.

Of course, the debate could become moot if the feds intervene. In July, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that threatened to claw back federal housing funds from entities that operate the centers. It also directed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to consider suing their operators. In 2019, a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney filed suit against a nonprofit seeking to open a center in Philadelphia. That case has been tied up in court for years.

City officials said they are planning a robust process to collect feedback but aren’t ready to announce a timeline yet. People with substance-use disorder will be interviewed about the services they’d like to have at the center and how far they’d travel to use it. Mental health experts and emergency responders will be asked to weigh in, and the public will be invited to attend community meetings and fill out a survey, which will be launched in November. The feedback, including opinions on where the center should go, will be summarized in a report to be reviewed both by the health department and city council.

Vezina, the city staffer charged with setting up the center, says the city will collect feedback before and after the location is decided and again after the center opens.

The decision will also take practical matters into consideration. The ideal building needs to be large enough to accommodate the center’s programs but not cost too much to renovate. The operator, VCJR, will need to rent a building, but the landlord would have to approve of its intended use. And because overdose-prevention centers aren’t yet written into city bylaws, the proposed location would have to survive a rezoning process that introduces more opportunity for opposition.

All of those unknowns mean the center, originally expected to launch this year, isn’t opening anytime soon. Mulvaney-Stanak said she doesn’t have a new target date.

Vezina said discussions about the center will be complex, but she remains optimistic that Burlington will find a solution.

“There’s a lot more conversations to be had,” she said. “We’re all going to, at the end of the day, make some compromises.”

The Mammals The Mammals

lifelines

OBITUARIES

Robert Tyler Willey

JANUARY 2, 1933SEPTEMBER 16, 2025

ESSEX JUNCTION, VT.

Robert Tyler Willey, 92, of Essex Junction, Vt., passed away at the McClure Miller Respite House after a short illness on September 16, 2025.

Bob was born on January 2, 1933, to Giles H. Willey and Alma (Tyler) Willey, who instilled a hard work ethic and the love of family and community.

Bob grew up in Underhill, Vt., moving to Essex Junction in his early years. e Willey Farm was a place of much activity and antics, as one can only imagine, in a household of ﬁve boys. During his early years, he worked hard and often got into mischief with his four brothers: David, Donald, John and William Willey. Bob, being the second eldest, was often the leader of pranks with his brothers and local pals, which in today’s world would have led to major discipline, but in the old days it was harmless entertainment. During this time Bob and his brothers also worked at Camp Kiniya in the stables, where the “Willey Boys” had

Carol A. Langlais

SEPTEMBER 1, 1959SEPTEMBER 17, 2025

BURLINGTON, VT.

Carol A. Langlais, 66, passed away in her Burlington, Vt., home on September 17, 2025, after ongoing health challenges. She was born on September 1, 1959, in Burlington to the late Raoul and eresa (Garrow) Langlais. Carol graduated from Winooski High School in 1978. Soon after, she sought adventure by moving to New York City for a few years, eventually returning home to Vermont, where she became a ﬁxture around the community. Her many passions included a love of photography, dog walking as a side gig,

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

many great times. Bob was quite the equestrian as well, even entering and excelling in a horse show at Madison Square Garden.

Bob graduated from Essex Junction High School and then majored in Animal & Dairy Husbandry at the University of Vermont. He served in the U.S. Army for two years, received an honorable discharge and was subsequently employed at Burroughs Corporation alongside several of his brothers. Following Bob’s early work and military careers, he went on to be a cofounder of BKW in the late ’70s, a banking hardware company located in Bradford, Vt. During this time, his son Giles joined him in the early ’80s, which led him to his greatest pride (other

nurturing her many beautiful houseplants and selling her baked goods at the local farmers market. Carol was known as a person who would make friends with anyone and always spoke her mind when she perceived a wrong. She was a woman of strong conviction who believed in

than his family): cofounding Vermont Systems, Inc. in 1985 with his son Giles, with two of his daughters, Laurie and Kate, following soon thereafter. He proudly served as president and later as chair of the board until the sale of VSI in 2020, retiring at the “young” age of 88.

Bob was the ultimate salesman. He had an extraordinary gift for resolving any concern or hesitation a customer might have, often turning a moment of doubt into lasting trust — and gaining yet another loyal customer in the process. VSI’s early slogan was “Building a business one satisfied customer at a time.” Bob’s salesmanship accounted for much of this, along with the amazing VSI team. Over the years he mentored many employees, and his office was always available for a chat or to dole out the sweets during the holiday, so no one would indulge too much, too quickly! Bob was a father figure to many of his employees. He valued these relationships and cherished his VSI family. Because of Bob’s generosity, 93 employees participated in the sale of VSI, as it was 100 percent employee-owned. An amazing legacy.

Bob met his loving wife, Sandra, in 1952 while

many worthy causes, most notably standing up to authority in the name of human rights and treating everyone in her circles with respect and goodwill.

Carol is survived by her daughter, Jaime Langlais, and her husband, Sergii Iashnyk, of South Burlington, Vt.; brother Michael Langlais and his wife, Celeste, of Burlington; sister, Cathy Langlais, and her partner, Ernest Billings, of Winooski, Vt.; brother Rick Langlais and his wife, Lori, of Winooski; nieces, Sara, Michaela and Taylor; nephews, Tyler, Derrick (wife Cayla) and Michael Jr; great-nephews, Kaleb and Bentley; great-niece, Soﬁa; and her beloved Chihuahua Charlie.

Anyone who truly knew

attending UVM. He was a Sigma Nu fraternity member, and she was a Tri Delta sorority member. ey met in the cafeteria, and it was love at ﬁrst sight. Sadly, Sandy died just a month before Bob. is void in Bob’s life was deep and raw grief, and we know they are reunited again in love.

Bob and Sandy were married for 70 years and lived a long and happy life together rearing their four children: Kim Willey (deceased), Giles Willey, Laurie Valley (Tom) and Kate Mitchell (Greg [deceased]). In 1974 their daughter Kim died, and this tragedy was life-changing for the whole Willey family. With Bob and Sandy’s guidance the family survived, and Kim lives on in all of us.

Being a grandfather was one of Bob’s biggest joys. When they were young — but old enough to help on the farm — Bob was known to manufacture jobs (moving rocks, as an example) just to spend time together and, of course, be able to pay them for a job well done. Bob didn’t believe in handouts; he valued the fulﬁllment and lessons that come from earning your way. To him, it wasn’t just about making money — it was about taking pride in your work and ﬁnding joy in doing it well.

Carol knew that she showered her many dogs, cats and birds with love, receiving much more in return. In lieu of ﬂowers, those wishing to can donate in Carol’s name to the Humane Society of Chittenden County, 142 Kindness Ct., South Burlington, VT 05403, which would surely channel that love forward in a positive way.

A graveside service will be held at the convenience of the family at a later date. A remembrance will be held in Carol’s honor on ursday, October 9, 2025, 3 to 7 p.m., at the St John’s Club, 9 Central Ave., Burlington. Arrangements are in the care of LaVigne Funeral Home. To send condolences to her family, please visit vtfuneralhomes.com.

He is survived by grandchildren Jordan and Taylor Willey, Jessica (Kyle) Damon, David Valley, Jack (Shannon Murtha) Valley, Josh (Jen Cook) Mitchell, and Ryan (Micaela) Mitchell, all of whom hold treasured memories of him as a kind and caring “grampie.”

Bob is also survived by his great-grandchildren: Wesley, Jonathan, Bennett Valley, Avery Mitchell and Tyler Damon.

Bob was a valued community member, serving as past president of what was formerly known as the Essex Junction Village in the 1970s; Lions Club president and running the Lions Club Horseshow during the 1970s; and Vermont Senior Games board member (as of 2010), retiring only a few years ago after years of playing basketball at the Vermont and national levels (from 1990 until his late eighties) and being the sports coordinator for basketball. He also greatly enjoyed his basketball group, called the Golden Rims, at the EDGE, where he made such amazing friends and only this past summer decided it was time to hang up his shoes. Bob also mowed the St. James Episcopal Church lawns for many years,

continuing until just before he died.

Bob will be remembered for his strong work ethic, impressive mowing abilities, devotion to his family, and dedication to VSI and its employees. All of us are better humans for having him in our lives.

Bob was predeceased by his wife, Sandy; daughter Kim; parents, Giles and Alma; brothers David and Donald; and his son-in-law Greg. e family wants to thank UVM Medical Center Baird 3, Palliative Care/Hospice and the McClure Miller Respite House for their care and compassion in Bob’s ﬁnal days. Per Bob’s wishes, there will be no visiting hours. A celebration of life will take place on Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 1 to 4 p.m., at the Farmhouse at Sunset Pond (Essex Resort & Spa). e formal ceremony will begin at 1:30 p.m., lasting under an hour.

In lieu of ﬂowers, please consider donating to McClure Miller Respite House at 1110 Prim Rd., Colchester VT 05446 (uvmhomehealth.org/ give) or to Vermont Senior Games (vermontsenior games.org). Please visit awrfh.com to share your memories and condolences.

IN MEMORIAM

Susan Boucher

1953-2025

Susan Boucher passed away on September 15, 2025, after a long struggle with physical and emotional pain and suffering. She is survived by her son, Benjamin Boucher; sisters, Karen Forbes and Linda Champney; and longtime partner, Steve Matson. ere will be no calling hours, and memorial services will be private.

OBITUARIES

Roger Marceau

DECEMBER 29, 1947SEPTEMBER 6, 2025

BURLINGTON, VT.

Roger A. Marceau, 77, of Burlington, Vt., passed away on September 6, 2025, peacefully at home after battling cancer.

Roger was born on December 29, 1947, to Beatrice (née Urban) and William in Barre, Vt.

Roger joined the Army after attending high school in Barre and served in the Vietnam War from 1967 through 1968. Following his military service, Roger had a successful career

David Patrick Wright

AUGUST 3, 1951SEPTEMBER 4, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C.

David Patrick Wright, 74, of Washington, D.C., died on September 4, 2025, following complications from leukemia.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, 10 a.m., at St. John Vianney Church, 160 Hinesburg Rd., South Burlington, VT. Interment will immediately follow in Resurrection Park Cemetery.

Arrangements have been entrusted to the care of Ready Funeral & Cremation Services. To view a complete obituary or share online condolences with the family, please visit readyfuneral.com.

as a contractor and ran his own business until retiring to Florida. Roger is survived by his

David Joseph Atherton

DECEMBER 10, 1971SEPTEMBER 15, 2025

RUTLAND, VT.

spouse of 28 years, Melody Marceau (née Pratt); his daughter Manrae and her husband; his stepchildren and families (James Kozlowski, his wife, Melissa, and their four children; Adam Kozlowski; and Amber Cheney, her husband, David, and son); his four grandchildren (Evan and his wife, Elizabeth; Jay; Jade; and Sarah); and his two great-grandchildren, Henry and Freya.

Roger is preceded in death by his parents; his daughter Kimberly Martin; his sisters and their spouses, Pauline and Willard Demers and Lorraine and Reil Rancourt;

David Joseph Atherton, 53, passed away unexpectedly in his Rutland, Vt., home on September 15, 2025. He was born to Brian Atherton and Ramona Belanger on December 10, 1971.

Raised in Bristol, Vt., David graduated from Mount Abraham Union High School in 1989. Often called “David Atherton, MD” (for “Music Dictionary”), he will be remembered for his passion for music, his devotion to family and friends, and his remarkable ability to give 110 percent to everything he set his mind to — whether in his work, his community or his many projects.

and his brother and wife, Joe and Jeanette Marceau.

Roger possessed a deep love for his family and friends. He was happiest when surrounded by and laughing with them, especially his beloved soulmate, Melody. He approached life with deep kindness and patience, leaving a mark on all those he encountered. His legacy of love, gentleness and heart will be forever cherished by his wife, children and grandchildren.

We are deeply grateful for the compassionate care and unwavering support the University of Vermont Home

supporting businesses, and serving on the selectboard, both as a member and as the chair. After three years of service, he was hired on as the town manager. He was employed for eight years, and his main focus was to oversee the important Segment 6 Project and revitalization of Brandon.

He was immensely proud of this work and of all he was able to contribute to the town.

Following the completion of Segment 6, David continued his career in municipal leadership, serving as vice chair of Rutland Regional Transportation Council (2019 to present), a board member of VLCT/PACIF (2016 to present) and the State Transportation Board (2024 to present), and town manager in Pittsford and later in Killington, where he worked the last six months of his life.

David earned his associate’s degree in paralegal studies from Woodbury College and began his career with the Addison County Public Defender’s Office. He went on to work with John Kirk as a real estate paralegal before opening his own independent office as a title searcher, establishing a respected career built on integrity and thoroughness.

Prior to his move to Rutland, he and his family resided in Brandon for 15 years. As a proud resident of Brandon, David became deeply involved in the community, attending events,

David will be remembered not only for his professional accomplishments but also for the kindness, dedication and love he shared with those around him. His legacy lives on in the communities he served and in the hearts of all who knew him.

To know David was to hear his opinions, to know that his love and loyalty superseded any momentary disagreement, and to understand that his people mattered to him above anything else. To be his friend meant you could call on him night or day, and he would show up with what

Health & Hospice team provided to Roger and our family during his final journey. Their unwavering commitment and personalized attention made such a difference, and we will forever be grateful for their support.

The family invites friends and loved ones to an open house memorial celebrating Roger Marceau’s life on Saturday, September 27, 2025, 1 to 5 p.m., at the family home of James and Melissa Kozlowski, located at 200 Steven’s Way, Colchester, Vt. Please park on the left side of Steven’s Way.

was needed. He mowed your lawn when you couldn’t, fixed your faucet, brought you a bottle of wine and sometimes just showed up unannounced to fix whatever he noticed was broken last time he was visiting. And he always shared his music, whether you liked it or not.

David loved his family above all else and spent every opportunity with them. He traveled the state to attend his daughter’s high school field hockey games, then later to UConn to see her whenever her schedule allowed. He zealously supported his son’s music and was his band’s No. 1 fan. And his first choice in companions to concerts or other events were his wife and kids.

David was predeceased by his parents, Brian Atherton and Ramona Belanger, and sister-in-law Marie Miller.

He is survived by his wife, Heather Norton, and their two children, Benjamin (22) and Elizabeth (19); siblings, William Atherton and wife Cynthia, Stephen Atherton and wife Rita, Mary Atherton, Laura Griggs and husband Carroll, and Robert Atherton; sisters-in-law Amy Norton, Hilary Norton and partner Matt Lowry, and Ashley (Norton) Vandeweert and husband Joe; father-in-law, Gary Norton; several nieces and nephews; and countless friends, colleagues and music aficionados.

A service to honor David’s life will be held on Sunday, September 28, 2025, 1 p.m., at the Proctor/Pittsford Country Club, with a party to follow.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Dave Atherton’s Music Education Fund by visiting his page on Ever Loved (everloved.com/life-of/ david-atherton-rutland-vt).

Oliver J. Gardner

MARCH 13, 1948JUNE 16, 2025 CHARLOTTE, VT.

Truly a life well lived! To view the complete obituary and send condolences to his family, please visit vtfuneralhomes.com.

David Cooley

NOVEMBER 12, 1924AUGUST 20, 2025

WHITEFIELD, N.H.

After a period of declining health, David Franklin Cooley died peacefully at his residence, the Summit, in Whitefield, N.H., on August 20, 2025; he was 100 years old. A memorial service is planned for Saturday, October 11, 2025, 11 a.m., at the Community Baptist Church in Whitefield, N.H., with a reception to follow. Please visit obits.phaneuf.net/ david-cooley to read David’s full obituary.

lifelines

OBITUARIES

Nancy J. O’Hora

OCTOBER 18, 1937JUNE 8, 2025

BURLINGTON, VT.

Nancy J. O’Hora, 87, of South Cove Road in Burlington, Vt., passed away peacefully on June 8, 2025, at Birchwood Terrace long-term care.

She was born on October 18, 1937, in Milwaukee, the daughter of Daniel L. and Beatrice M. (Gessler) Jacobson. She graduated from West High School in Madison, Wis., in 1956 and from the University of Vermont in 1979 with a bachelor of science degree in housing and design. She married her husband, Dennis E. O’Hora, at Our Lady Queen of Peace in Madison on June 29, 1957. Nancy is survived by her husband of 67 years; her sister and her spouse, Joanna Jacobson and Stuart Richter, of Madison, Wis.; her four daughters and their spouses: Denise and David Webb of Deerﬁeld, Wis., Jeanine and Michael Whyte of Innisﬁl, Ontario, Canada, Sandra O’Hora of Hinesburg, Vt., and Jennifer and David Lawrence of Middletown, R.I.; eight grandchildren, Lauren Webb Secrist, Phillip

Je rey Brown

SEPTEMBER 20, 1961-APRIL 2, 2025 WYOMING, MICH.

Jeff was born in Wakeﬁeld, R.I., in 1961 to Richard and Nancy Brown. Soon after, his family returned to Vermont. Following high school, he took the Marine Corps Oath but was unfortunately injured and thus honorably discharged from the Winter Warfare Unit. is took him to begin his higher education career at Johnson State College; he then ﬁnished at Gannon University. He studied chemistry and graduated with a bachelor of science degree.

His career began when he worked for the General Electric Armaments Division. He then pursued a master’s in finance, became a CFA and held various licenses. He worked for Dean Witter Reynolds and, later, Morgan Stanley and Fidelity Investments.

He and his family relocated to Wheaton, Ill., where he held various

OBITUARIES, VOWS, CELEBRATIONS

Culotta, Julie Watson, Patrick Dennis Fullem, Jade and Justin Jenny, Alanna Lawrence Couillard, and Julia Lawrence; four great-grandchildren, Blain and Reid Watson, and Arlis and Callen Secrist; several Jacobson and O’Hora nieces and nephews; her Hulder and Gessler cousins; and many dear friends. Nancy was predeceased by her father, Daniel, in 1994; her mother, Beatrice, in 2007; and her brother, Richard Jacobson, in 2011.

Nancy’s husband and daughters thank the Birchwood Terrace Rehabilitation and Healthcare staff, especially Mel, Tom and Lynne, and the University of Vermont health providers for the kind and compassionate care they provided Nancy during her threeyear stay at Birchwood Terrace.

A graveside service will be held on September 26, 2025, at Resurrection Catholic Cemetery in Madison, Wis. In lieu of ﬂowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Bright Focus Foundation for Alzheimer’s Disease Research at donate.brightfocus.org.

For more information and to offer online condolences, visit cremation societycc.com.

positions in the Chicago financial market. Jeff remained in DuPage County, Ill., for the next 28 years. Ultimately, he lived his last few months in Wyoming, Mich., which felt like a wink and homage to his love of fly-fishing and all things in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Jeff is survived by his children, Hunter (35), Ian (32) and Grace (26); and grandchildren, Talia, August and Louis. Jeff took great pride in being a parent, passing down his love of the Red Sox, fly-fishing, motorcycles and reading. Jeff was preceded in death by his parents, Richard (2012) and Nancy Brown (2006), and his wife, Deborah (Schaefer) Brown, in 2020.

We rejoice that he is at home with the Lord, out of all pain and suffering. May his life of resilience continue to inspire and provoke us forward. Semper ﬁ.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, September 27, 2025, 1 p.m., at Fairfax Community Center. All are welcome to attend.

Dorothy “Dot” Ruber

MARCH 13, 1932-SEPTEMBER 15, 2025 SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT.

It is with great sadness that the family of Dorothy “Dot” Ruber announces her passing at the age of 93 on September 15, 2025. Dot was a beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother who will be deeply missed by all who were fortunate enough to love her. Dot was born and raised in North Jersey by parents Dorothy and William Mayrer. After graduating from Weehawken High School, she attended Katherine Gibbs Business School. roughout her life Dot embraced many roles, including secretary, homemaker and educator. She had a lifelong love of learning and creativity, keeping her mind active through ceramics, jigsaw puzzles, aquatic ﬁtness and coloring. She also cared deeply about her community, volunteering at a battered women’s shelter in retirement. Her love for her children and grandchildren was legendary. ough she spent the ﬁrst half of her

life in New Jersey, Dot never hesitated to pick up and move to be near her family — first to California, then Florida and finally Vermont — to be close to her granddaughters, Kelsey and Dana. She cherished sharing everyday moments with them, from sewing special outfits to attending school field trips. e only time she left their side was to return to New Jersey for a year to help her son Michael care for her youngest granddaughter, Rebecca. Dot was never alone — her daughters, Dawn and Valerie, were always by her side. She was delighted to be able to attend the graduations and weddings of her granddaughters, and in the last months of her life, her greatest joy came from the birth of her first great-grandchild, Sullivan. Dot’s devotion to her family was the heart of who she was, and the bond she shared with them will be cherished forever.

A celebration of life will be held on October 12, 2025, 2:30 p.m., at the Pines Senior Living Community in South Burlington.

Grace Elizabeth “Betsy” Patten Gardner

MARCH 6, 1939SEPTEMBER 20, 2025

SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT.

Grace Elizabeth “Betsy” Patten Gardner, who made a long career helping people die well, passed away on September 20, 2025, at the McClure Miller Respite House in Colchester. She leaves three children, eight grandchildren, a brother, sistersin-law, nephews, nieces and many dear friends.

Born in New Jersey in 1939, Betsy and her family moved to Cuttingsville, Vt., when she was still an infant, and except for short periods in Connecticut and Virginia, she remained in Vermont for the rest of her life. She deeply loved Shrewsbury, where her parents, Arthur and Peggy Patten, were prominent members of the community. She and her siblings, John, Judy, Joe and Will, went first to a oneroom schoolhouse and then Rutland High School, where she graduated in 1957.

At age 3, while in Connecticut, she contracted polio. She lost the strength in her right leg and gained an intimate knowledge of children’s hospitals. Wearing her brace, and later using canes and a chair, she spent her life striving to not just keep up with her peers but to surpass them.

She graduated from the University of Vermont nursing school in 1961 and went to work in various wards at the DeGoesbriand, including the Psych ward, where she became very good at Ping-Pong. She joined the Visiting Nurse Association in 1976. In 1991 she began working in the hospice program — her favorite nursing experience — and

helped in the early days of Respite House in Williston. She not only touched the lives of hundreds of families, supporting them in the care of their loved ones, but she also mentored and inspired a generation of hospice nurses, physical therapists, home health aides and volunteers. In 1996 Dr. Jim Madison requested Betsy to be his hospice nurse, and her care and integrity inspired him, Dr. Joan Madison and her friend Estelle Deane to create the Madison-Deane Initiative to promote hospice care and support the training of hospice nurses. In 2017 a scholarship through Madison-Deane was named in her honor.

Betsy married William Lawrence Gardner in 1962, and together they raised three children, Kate McDaniel (John), Geoff Gardner (Wendy) and Alex Gardner (Rosario), in St. George.

In 2000 her mother, Peggy, and her ex-husband, Larry, both died, and feeling the need for a break, she retired and moved to Virginia to be near her daughter and three grandchildren. But she missed Vermont too much, so she returned in 2003 and settled at the Pines on Dorset Street in South Burlington. She immediately became active

in the community, joining the Friends of the South Burlington Library, organizing talks through EEE, writing a community newsletter and bringing in speakers to educate her neighbors on what she enjoyed calling pre-death preparations.

She traveled the country with her elder sister, Judy; visited her son Alex in Italy, China, and Tibet; and traveled in England with Alex and his family and again with her nephew Jamie and his wife, Marcia. With Judy she went deep into her Brewster and Patten family archives, typing out letters from the early 19th century and cataloging multiple boxes of documents that will be donated to the Connecticut State Historical Society. She published a book detailing her parents’ marriage based on the weekly letters they both wrote to their families.

When she received a diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer in her left pleura in December 2024, she decided to limit treatment to comfort and pain management and accepted her position on the receiving end of hospice care. Her family and friends helped her remain independent until the end. Special thanks to Jamie and Marcia, her niece Jessie, and brother Will for visiting and running errands when her children were not in town.

She and the family are grateful for the warmth and kindness of her neighbors at the Pines, particularly Diane Coil and Jackie Mastrianni; for the kindness and attention of her nurse Hailey Duquette and the rest of the hospice team; and to Dara Stimpson, who aided her enormously in bringing her life to a close. She died as she lived, with exceptional organization and grace, surrounded by the love of her family and friends.

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Winooski School District superintendent Wilmer Chavarria strode purposefully through the hallways of the Onion City’s modern educational complex, walkie-talkie in hand. The building was quiet, but in less than an hour, a new school year — and all the unpredictability, energy and noise sure to accompany it — would be under way. Chavarria stopped to exchange playful banter with staff members, then headed outside to check out the new arrival procedures.

Chavarria sported a tie patterned with leaves and striped button-down with rolled-up sleeves. His slender frame and tan Nike baseball cap pulled over a thick head of jet-black hair made him appear even younger than his 36 years.

“Good morning!” he chirped to students who wore new sneakers and nervous smiles. “Welcome back!”

The cheery tableau offered little hint of the turbulence surrounding Chavarria this year. A mom with two kids in tow changed the mood.

“Wilmer,” she said, “I’m so sorry about what happened to you.”

“Thank you,” Chavarria replied, then turned back to greeting students.

The mother was referring to an incident five weeks earlier when Chavarria, an American citizen since 2018, was detained by federal agents in Texas on the way home from visiting family in his native Nicaragua. Chavarria said the agents demanded his digital devices and passwords, questioned him for nearly five hours, and denied him access to legal counsel. The encounter left him shaken and frightened. But instead of lying low, he went public, doing hours of media interviews about the ordeal with national outlets, from MSNBC to Univision.

It wasn’t the first time this year that Chavarria had chosen to speak out. During the months after President Donald Trump took office, Chavarria spearheaded passage of a sanctuary schools policy in Winooski aimed at restricting immigration agents’ access to school grounds — the first district in the state to do so. He also pushed back forcefully against Vermont Education Secretary Zoie Saunders when she directed superintendents to comply with a federal order related to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. In June, he was the only one of the state’s 52 superintendents to join public-school advocates at the Statehouse to oppose a sweeping education reform bill that has since been signed into law.

Chavarria’s outspokenness has placed him in the vortex of some of the most contentious issues of the day and, intentionally or not, turned the calm,

Put to the Test

Winooski

schools superintendent Wilmer Chavarria was detained by U.S. border officials in July. He’d been an advocate for those on the margins long before then.

BY

ALISON NOVAK

contemplative Winooski schools chief into a symbol of resistance amid a federal offensive focused on immigrants, public education and so-called “wokeness.”

In the process, Chavarria has become a hot ticket on the speaker circuit, with invitations from the University of Vermont, Addison County School District and Vermont Council on World Affairs to discuss his vision for leadership during a fraught time. Earlier this month, Chavarria, who is gay, served as grand marshal of the Burlington Pride Parade. And next month he’ll travel to Washington, D.C., to testify before U.S. senators about his airport detention.

After Chavarria’s experience in Texas, the Winooski school board and several Vermont education organizations released

• alison@sevendaysvt.com

statements expressing solidarity. Some admirers saw bravery at work.

“There’s no underestimating how much courage it takes, especially right now, to be out in front,” said Chelsea Myers, executive director of the Vermont Superintendents Association.

But Chavarria hardly sounds like a fearless crusader.

“I’m actually very scared all the time,” he said in an interview. The trick, Chavarria said, is to not let that fear keep him from doing what he believes duty to his community demands.

That community — Winooski — is the only school district in Vermont with a majority non-white population. Its roughly 830 students come from all over the world — from Somalia to Iraq, Bhutan

to Myanmar — and collectively speak around 25 languages. Many are resettled refugees. In the school’s atrium, enlarged photographs of smiling kids showcase that mix of cultures and national origins.

Chavarria has much in common with those he serves. Born in a refugee camp in Honduras amid political upheaval in Central America during the 1980s, Chavarria and his tight-knit family returned to neighboring Nicaragua when he was still a baby. He grew up poor, peddling bread in the street, but would find a ticket to a better life through education. His academic success eventually enabled him to study in Canada and the U.S., travel widely, build a career, and support his mother and extended family in Nicaragua. He learned English as a teenager and speaks it with some of the lilt of his native Spanish.

If Chavarria can sound personally invested in the issues he has confronted this year, it’s because he is. Even before his own run-in with immigration authorities, he had to say goodbye to his older brother, sister-in-law and two teen nieces, who had been living with Chavarria and his husband in Williston under what is known as temporary protected status. When the Trump administration announced it would end the program, the family chose to leave voluntarily in April. Champlain Valley Union High School, where the girls were enrolled, awarded them diplomas before their departure.

Vermont Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, has advocated for a more measured response to Trump’s policies, reasoning that it is better to go about one’s business quietly to avoid conflict or possible retribution. And though it might seem prudent for Chavarria to keep his head down, too, he has no plans to shut up.

“As a superintendent, I can’t stop standing for the things I stand for. I can’t stop speaking out for the rights of our families. I’m not going to be one more manager or bureaucrat,” Chavarria said. “This is where we’re tested.”

‘THAT’S

THE JOB FOR WILMER’

In January 2023, Winooski launched a national search to replace superintendent Sean McMannon, who had led the district for a decade amid escalating tensions over race. After George Floyd’s murder, a group of high school students and recent graduates called on the Winooski School Board to accept a list of demands aimed at combating racism. The high school’s sole Black teacher resigned, calling out a “white supremacist culture,” and some of its student athletes spoke out about racist

There’s no underestimating how much courage it takes, especially right now, to be out in front.

CHELSEA MYERS

comments they’d endured during sports competitions.

In hunting for a new superintendent, the district sought an experienced leader adept at working with a culturally diverse student body and able to handle such potentially divisive issues.

The board picked Chavarria, who for two years had been working just a few towns away as the Milton Town School District’s director of equity and education support systems. One of his heaviest lifts in that politically divided community had been the creation of an equity policy, the idea of which drew strong pushback from a small but vocal group of residents who believed it marked a form of “critical race theory,” an approach usually employed in higher education that is a frequent target of the Right.

Chavarria navigated that situation and other complex issues by listening with an open mind to opposing viewpoints and countering misinformation with facts, recalled Milton superintendent Amy Rex. “He modeled for folks how you build bridges versus burn them down.” The school board voted to pass the policy.

When Rex learned that McMannon, a good friend, was planning to leave the superintendent’s post in Winooski, she thought, “That’s the job for Wilmer.”

The Winooski School Board thought so, too. Robert Millar, who heads the board and participated in the search, said he was immediately struck by Chavarria’s life story and its similarities to those of many Winooski students. Millar was also impressed by Chavarria’s wide experience as a teacher and administrator.

That included five years working as a high school English teacher, then as an elementary school principal in northern New Mexico’s Española Public Schools,

his leadership was also tested when, at the beginning of his second year, a 5-yearold student went missing, prompting a massive three-day search. The girl’s body was found in the Rio Grande, and her stepfather was subsequently convicted of her murder.

Gutierrez said Chavarria showed deep empathy toward the girl’s family and the school community.

“He took care of everyone,” Gutierrez said. “I think I knew then, He’s gonna be really great someday.”

In 2020, Chavarria moved to Vermont at the height of the pandemic so that he and his husband, Cyrus Dudgeon, a high school English teacher, could be closer to Dudgeon’s parents, who now live outside of Windsor. Chavarria accepted a position as principal of Readsboro Central School in southern Vermont, thinking that running a school with fewer than 50 students would be low stress and allow him to learn about Vermont’s educational system while he pursued a master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

But the job proved harder than he’d thought. The school district was in the throes of decoupling from a neighboring district, and it was difficult to find qualified teachers willing to work for low pay in what looked like the middle of nowhere. Chavarria wore himself down with constant work and travel, and his physical health declined. His sister, a doctor in Nicaragua, convinced him to resign for the sake of his well-being.

Although he held the post only a year, Chavarria had an outsize impact, said Readsboro School Board chair Cindy Florence, by creating a student council and basketball league and helping boost academic achievement. Florence said Chavarria’s communicative, studentcentered approach won people over in Readsboro, an overwhelmingly white community with a majority of Republican voters.

RISKY BUSINESS

where 95 percent of the student body is non-white. While working at the high school, Chavarria received a state designation as an “exemplary” teacher, based in large part on gains his students had made on standardized tests. His accomplishments caught the eye of Española’s then-superintendent, Bobbie Gutierrez, who became a mentor.

“Kids loved him. He was engaging. He was interesting. He cared about his students,” Gutierrez said.

At 29, Chavarria became principal of the biggest elementary school in Española. He delighted students by rolling down the school’s long hallways on a scooter. But

Chavarria’s first year in Winooski produced little drama. But Trump’s second election in 2024 sent shudders through the heavily Democratic city, which boasts the largest percentage of immigrants and refugees in the state.

“Things since November have been particularly hard for a lot of folks in Winooski,” said Millar, the school board chair. “Every month seems to be a new test.”

Even before Trump took office, Chavarria was thinking about how he could protect Winooski’s immigrant students.

Chavarria visiting Camilla Thomassen-Tai’s sixth-grade social studies class

Chavarria in Nicaragua in 2024

Put to the Test

« P.25

At a January meeting of the liberal-minded school board, he introduced a sanctuary schools policy.

The policy, based on guidance from national legal groups, called for the district to limit sharing student and family information with federal immigration authorities and prevent immigration agents from entering the school without a judicial order. It also would prohibit school staff from collaborating with federal agents without authorization and require the district to provide immigrant families with information explaining their civil rights.

At the time, school board member Nicole Mace, a lawyer, expressed reservations, noting that during Trump’s first administration, jurisdictions that adopted sanctuary policies were targeted for cuts to federal funding and heightened law enforcement.

She was worried now about “shining a light on our community and bringing with it some unintended, unwelcome consequences.” She also didn’t want to give false comfort to students and families over how much protection the school district could provide, given the federal government’s broad authority to enforce immigration law.

Other board members recognized Mace’s concerns but believed Winooski should do whatever it could to protect its residents. One member, Kamal Dahal, noted that Winooski was already a target by virtue of its diverse student body.

Chavarria acknowledged that passing a sanctuary schools policy came with risks, but he favored a targeted response to protect immigrants over simply an expression of solidarity or some “performative” resolution.

Chavarria recounted a mother telling him that she was afraid to send her child to school, fearing she would be taken while he was away.

“This is not hypothetical to me at all,” he told the board. “These are our families. These are our children, and they are afraid.”

Teachers, students and community members came out in force at the board’s next meeting in support of the policy.

“A school is not just a building. It is a sanctuary. It is the last refuge, the last line, the last promise,” recent Winooski High School graduate Nixandy Ferdinand said during public comment. “We are students, and school is our right. Not a favor, not a privilege — a right.”

The board approved the policy that night, prompting thunderous applause and making Winooski the first — and, to this day, only — school district in the state to adopt such an approach. Mace, who

You can’t be an advocate and stand for things without getting in trouble.

WILMER CHAVARRIA

missed the vote because of a death in her family, said she still has concerns about the risks. In neighboring Burlington, which also has a large immigrant population, the school district declined to consider a sanctuary schools policy in part over concerns about attracting unwanted attention, according to a spokesperson.

So far, immigration officials haven’t shown up on Winooski’s campus, and Chavarria concedes he can’t predict how things would unfold if they did.

Still, he said, “people feel a little safer ... because we as a formalized institution have affirmed that there’s a problem, and we’ve taken the time to put a plan in place.”

EVERYDAY STRUGGLE

Chavarria assumed the role of advocate again in April. Education Secretary Zoie Saunders had emailed school leaders and directed them to sign a form affirming that their districts were following Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which bars any program or activity that receives federal funds from discriminating based on race. The Trump administration has said repeatedly that diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are discriminatory

Chavarria marching in the Burlington Pride Parade

Cyrus Dudgeon and Wilmer Chavarria

on those grounds and might violate that law. Saunders encouraged districts to review the form with their own lawyers before signing and returning it to the agency.

Despite being told by the district’s lawyer that signing the attestation was harmless, Chavarria said, he bristled. The next morning, he sent Saunders an email stating that he would not sign and told his staff that he had “requested that the state grow some courage and stop complying so quickly and without hesitation to the politically driven threats of the executive.”

Chavarria also sent Saunders a copy of a letter that New York’s education department had sent to the feds questioning the U.S. Department of Education’s authority to demand that a state agree to its interpretation of the law.

“I encourage our state agencies to support our districts with that level of commitment,” Chavarria wrote to Saunders.

Chavarria shared his reasons for refusing to sign the attestation with Rex, his former boss in Milton, and with several media outlets, explaining why he saw no legal justification for doing so.

Representatives from the Vermont Superintendents Association and other education groups responded by banding together to oppose Saunders’ approach. Within hours of the wider pushback, Saunders walked back the directive, telling superintendents that her agency would send federal officials a single letter certifying Vermont’s compliance with current law and rejecting conditions not supported by law.

“In no way, did the AOE direct schools to ban DEI,” she said in an email to superintendents.

In an emailed statement last week, Saunders said she is “united” with Chavarria in “our commitment to ensuring that every student in Vermont feels safe, supported, and welcomed at school.”

“In a time of increasing federal uncertainty,” Saunders’ statement continued, “the Agency of Education has prioritized being disciplined, thoughtful and factual when evaluating and responding to changes in federal policy to ensure that school leaders receive clear, consistent communication.”

in Vermont. Chavarria later lambasted the process, in which some independent schools were shielded from changes they opposed, as “unethical, shady, lacking in transparency, politically manipulative and extremely exclusionary.”

Chavarria has been more vocal than his fellow school superintendents, but that could change under the intensifying pressures of wider political tumult and threats to public education.

If a school administrators is “up to the task of being [a] public, intellectual and civic leader,” there is an opportunity for them to “really clarify what the basic needs and rights are of the kids in the community,” said Elijah Hawkes, a former principal of Randolph Union High School who now trains school leaders at the Upper Valley Educators Institute in Lebanon, N.H.

But outspokenness also carries risks. Those risks depend on “the vision and values” of the local community, Hawkes said. In addition, “We’re at a time when there are powerful forces outside of the local context who are scrutinizing what’s happening.”

Chavarria understands this.

“You can’t be an advocate and stand for things without getting in trouble ... You’re supposed to be quiet or simply do what the owners of the entity are telling you to do,” Chavarria said in an interview. “It’s a struggle every day.”

Chavarria’s detention at the Houston airport was a terrifying shock. As he waited in the immigration line, Chavarria was directed to go to an officer’s booth, then escorted to an interrogation room, where he was questioned about his marital and work status. Initially, he denied the officers’ request to turn over the password to his work computer because it contained private information on students that is typically protected by federal law. But eventually he relented, and the officers searched the devices out of view; he doesn’t know what, if anything, they downloaded.

Two months after the dustup with Saunders, in June, Chavarria joined a rally in front of the Statehouse as a legislative committee hashed out the final details of a sweeping education reform bill, with a special focus on how independent schools would be protected. He minced no words.

“I am just as energized as many of you are to ... not be apologetic nor polite about calling bullshit when there’s bullshit happening all around us,” Chavarria told the small crowd of public-school advocates who had gathered to protest the bill, H.454. Days later, the legislation passed, setting the stage for major changes to the way education is governed and financed

The agents eventually released Chavarria, but the next day he received an email from U.S. Customs and Border Protection saying his Global Entry, a federal program allowing expedited screening at border crossings for approved, low-risk travelers, had been revoked.

Chavarria chose to speak to the press about the experience, he said, in an attempt to control his own narrative and “so people don’t get used to all this stuff being normal.”

In the wake of his media blitz, Chavarria received letters of support from all over the country, he said, but also “creepy stuff”

Chavarria (in white shirt with red collar) with his family circa 1995

Chavarria at Winooski Middle High School

Put to the Test

— encrypted emails to his official account that insinuated the feds had dirt on him and messages accusing him of being a pedophile or harboring illegal immigrants. To prevent further harassment, his email address was removed from the school district’s website.

Several weeks after the incident, Chavarria received another email from Customs and Border Protection saying his Global Entry status had been reinstated, with no explanation as to why. It was a positive development, Chavarria said, but also mystifying since he hadn’t requested it. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for comment.

PLANTING THE SEEDS

Chavarria’s belief in supporting those on the margins was cultivated long before he arrived in Winooski. In 1983, amid armed conflict in Nicaragua, a pregnant farmer named Petronila Gonzalez was forced to flee her home deep in the rainforest with her four children. She walked north through steep, muddy terrain, praying she and her children would survive. After three weeks, United Nations officials picked up the family and took them to a refugee camp in Honduras.

In the eight years Gonzalez lived there — first in a tent, then a small hut surrounded by plants — her husband, Santana Chavarria, who had been conscripted to fight in Nicaragua, occasionally visited. After one such visit, Gonzalez gave birth in 1989 to her seventh child, a boy she named Wilmer Alfredo.

The following year, as Nicaragua stabilized, Gonzalez and her children were repatriated to the northern city of Ocotal with little more than some plants and seeds she had taken from the camp. They were looked down on as outsiders but eventually secured a plot of arid hilltop land on the outskirts of town. Her older children, some of them teens, built an adobe house, and Gonzalez planted a small garden with sour oranges and lemongrass she’d carried from Honduras in sardine cans, alongside capulin cherries and achiote.

Young Alfredo, the name Chavarria went by as a child, was eager to go to school and tagged along to kindergarten with his sister’s son. He stood out academically but struggled to follow directions, wandered from school and erupted over seemingly minor things. Chavarria ended up at an alternative high school, one “for broken toys,” as he puts it. But the supportive environment reignited his spark for learning. He graduated from high school at age 15 and was named valedictorian of his region,

an honor that carried a full scholarship to the Universidad Centroamericana in Managua, the capital.

Chavarria says he was helped by the compassion of his mother and teachers in the face of his challenging behavior. Through his career as an educator, he said, he’s tried to show the same empathy to students who are struggling.

In his first year of university, Chavarria was picked to study a rigorous interdisciplinary curriculum in British Columbia under an international network called United World Colleges that gathers students from across the globe. Chavarria was eager to go to Canada, even though he knew just a handful of rudimentary English phrases.

While living on a remote campus with 200 teenagers from 150 countries, Chavarria learned English quickly and came to appreciate the human commonalities that supersede national boundaries.

He took it all in with “the most open heart and open mind,” said Margaret Paul, Chavarria’s host mother in Canada.

Chavarria’s global view further expanded at Earlham College, a Quaker school in Indiana, where he studied cinematic arts and spent several summers with Israeli and Palestinian high school friends, working with teens from the occupied West Bank to explore the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. Upon graduating from Earlham, he worked with Indigenous journalists in Bolivia, at local TV stations in Costa Rica, and with independent filmmakers in England, the Netherlands and Italy as part of a prestigious Watson Fellowship.

Chavarria said living and learning with fellow students from all over the world taught him that it’s possible for people to coexist peacefully despite fundamental differences. It also proved solid training for what he’d encounter in Winooski.

Nobody has to tell Chavarria why a prayer room is something to be taken seriously, he said, or why having an annual community iftar matters. He believes that advocating for LGBTQ students is vital but even as a gay man can understand that some of Winooski’s Muslim families fundamentally disagree with homosexuality.

“Living with that tension and knowing how to operate and support everyone through those seemingly conflicting worldviews,” Chavarria said, “that’s been built since my early years.”

LEADING THE CHARGE

On a late Sunday morning, a few weeks after school began, Chavarria stood at the corner of Burlington’s City Hall Park, natty in a glen plaid blazer and skinny tie he’d

Chavarria and his mother at his kindergarten graduation in 1994

Chavarria and his mother, Petronila Gonzalez, in 2022

He modeled for folks how you build bridges versus burn them down.

received as a gift from a well-wisher after the airport episode. He’d been asked by Pride Center of Vermont to lead hundreds of marchers to the waterfront and make a speech — a sure sign of his newfound celebrity.

It was Chavarria’s first Burlington Pride Parade, and he had brought his husband and in-laws to walk alongside. Amid a sea of colorful costumes, Chavarria’s crew stood out for its sartorial reserve. An umbrella topped with a rainbow flag was Chavarria’s only nod to the day’s theme.

Just before noon, members of the percussion group Sambatucada! began beating their drums. A Winooski parent, wearing an outfit stamped with rainbowhued handprints, approached Chavarria to ask if she could march with him. “Of course,” he told her.

Chavarria waved to the clusters of people gathered along Main Street, bobbing his umbrella exuberantly to the music while his father-in-law took photos.

On the grassy shore of Lake Champlain, he hung back with his family under a shady tree as throngs lined up for ice cream and Indian food and browsed

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booths selling LGBTQ-themed merch or promoting organizations such as the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont and the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation.

When he took the microphone, Chavarria mentioned his recent detention and said he still didn’t know why he had been questioned.

“None of us is safe in this country, and we should not pretend otherwise,” he said with some emotion. “But feeling defeated is giving them what they want.”

“We cannot wait for justice,” he told the people sitting on the grass below him. “We have to take matters into our own hands.” That meant taking care of each other, he said, regardless of differences such as country of origin or sexual orientation.

“Let’s be ourselves, and let’s exist loudly,” he implored.

What battles may loom for schools in the weeks and months to come is anyone’s guess. For now, Chavarria is focused on getting the year off to a smooth start for the hundreds of Winooski students and families who depend on him and his staff.

Later this year, he plans to board a plane to Nicaragua to visit his 71-yearold mother. It’ll be his first flight since his summer ordeal, and he is unsure how it will unfold. But the Winooski School Board is taking precautions tailored for a time of uncertainty: It has authorized shipment of a work computer to the family home in Ocotal so that this time, Chavarria doesn’t have to fly with one. ➆

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Chavarria speaking at Burlington Pride

A Fibershed Moment

Vermont textile producers move closer to making a “farm-to-closet” movement a reality

BY MARY ANN LICKTEIG & SUZANNE PODHAIZER

Take a look in your closet. Read the labels in your clothes. What are they made of and where were they manufactured? My go-to garments contain polyester, polyamide, rayon, nylon, acrylic and spandex. Their manufacturing sites include Cambodia, China, Lithuania and Vietnam.

Ninety-seven percent of the clothes sold in the U.S. are imported, meaning my wardrobe has traveled more widely than I have. In some cases, raw material is produced in one country, processed in another and turned into garments in a third. A cotton T-shirt can travel 39,000 miles before it hits a store shelf. What’s more, most clothes aren’t made of a natural ﬁber such as cotton. Sixty to 70 percent of garments produced globally are made from synthetic fabric, much of it derived from fossil fuels: They are plastic.

Those of us who faithfully recycle and religiously reject plastic straws to protect marine life nevertheless release microplastics into the environment every time we do a load of laundry.

It doesn’t have to be this way. A nascent “farm-to-closet” movement appears to be taking shape in Vermont. Like its foodie cousin, farm-to-table, which emphasizes the importance of local food systems, farm-to-closet aims to create a similar

local supply chain for textiles, from clothing to kitchen and bed linens. Among the movement’s proponents are Laura Jacoby and her son Cyrus Brooks. They are the co-owners of Muriel’s of Vermont, a company whose sweaters are knit from wool collected and processed within driving distance of their North Hero shop.

Jacoby and Brooks are key players in Vermont’s “ﬁbershed.” The term refers to a geographical region where natural ﬁber is produced, processed, worn and,

encompasses Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. The independent Vermont Fibershed, a nonproﬁt started by organizers of the Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival, operates with the same goals.

TEXTILES

ultimately, composted. From soil to soil, as proponents say. As with farm-to-table, the beneﬁts of farm-to-closet are manifold: higher quality, less waste, revenue that remains in the region.

A nonprofit called Fibershed was started in California 12 years ago to create such systems and to support sustainable practices there. It now has affiliates around the world, including Northern New England Fibershed, which

While the State of Vermont has provided grants to sheep farmers and to the Vermont

ACROSS THE STATE, FARMERS, SPINNERS, WEAVERS AND KNITTERS STRIVE TO SLOW THE RUNAWAY TRAIN CALLED “FAST FASHION.”

Sheep & Goat Association, it has no formal program in place to develop plant and animal ﬁber production.

Regardless, across the state, farmers, spinners, weavers and knitters strive to slow the runaway train called “fast fashion,” as they produce natural plant and animal ﬁber products, many destined for their neighbors. No one expects to return to the production levels of

A vest knit by Muriel’s of Vermont with yarn containing hemp grown by the University of Vermont Extension and regional wool

Sheep waiting to

shorn at Philo Ridge Farm

1840, when 33 woolen mills operated here and 1.7 million sheep grazed in Vermont pastures — outnumbering people nearly six to one.

Today’s fiber producers and processors are primarily small operators, but they appear to be gaining traction.

Vermont fiber mills have long wait times. At 44-year-old Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, the state’s largest, “We’re busier than we’ve ever been,” marketing and sales employee Kate Salomon said. Two mills have opened in just the past four years, and one of those, Junction Fiber Mill in White River Junction, has had such success producing its own line of yarn that it no longer accepts custom processing jobs.

The Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival has attracted increasingly larger crowds in recent years and has a list of vendors waiting to get in. The 37th annual festival, expected to draw 5,000 visitors, will be held at the Tunbridge Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday, October 4 and 5.

At their latest annual meetings, two agricultural organizations — the Vermont Sheep & Goat Association and the Farm to Plate Network — featured sessions on producing fiber.

While wool is the state’s biggest fiber crop, Vermonters also raise alpacas. Weathersfield, home of the state’s first merino sheep, is now home to New England’s largest alpaca farm. Jennifer and Ian Lutz of Cas-Cad-Nac Farm Alpacas have been raising their awardwinning alpacas to produce prime fleece since 1997.

Plant fibers, too, could thrive in Vermont, proponents say, although they require processing equipment that is not currently available.

Laura Sullivan serves on a team of University of Vermont Extension researchers growing test plots of hemp and flax in Alburgh. They are trying to determine which plant varieties and growing methods will produce highgrade textile fiber here. They grew their first fiber flax crop this year, but they have been growing hemp since 2016 and have produced six yarns that are hemp-wool blends. Muriel’s recently knit some of the yarn into sweaters and vests.

Hemp and flax, referred to as bast fibers, produce soft, woody fiber. Vermont’s climate is well suited to grow both of them, Sullivan said: “All we need is an investor.”

No facilities to process hemp or flax exist in the Western Hemisphere. For now, it all must be processed by hand. That’s what happens in East Barnard, where Robin Maynard Seaver oversees the production of flax, the plant fiber used to produce linen. The owner of Green

Mountain Linen introduces and educates others about the fiber at the company’s annual East Barnard Linen Fair and other events around the state — and soon at her company’s new store in South Royalton.

Natural fiber is the future, according to Andrea Myklebust, another bast fiber educator who grows flax and hemp and raises sheep in Danby. “What drives me is we need to think differently about how we produce cloth,” she said.

As the leaves start to turn, sheep farmer Dave Martin expects to see cars parked along the road near his Underhill farm. Three or four times each year, he said, artists show up to paint en plein air “They’re painting the view of my sheep and Mount Mansfield and my farm,” he said.

What he hopes they understand is that consumers need to buy Vermont meat, vegetables and wool in order to preserve that view. An array of fibershed disciples join Martin in spreading that philosophy.

Read on for a look at two Vermont enterprises leading the way in the state’s budding farm-to-closet movement.

M.A.L.

JUST THE FLAX

Green Mountain Linen, 3135 Broad Brook Road, South Royalton, 547-3252. greenmountainlinen.com

Dirt turned to mud beneath the shoes of folks clad in homespun blouses or dresses — or in thoroughly modern rain gear — as they milled outside the East Barnard Community Hall on a rainy Saturday in early September. Sheltered on the building’s porch, musicians played old-timey tunes, while under a series of pop-up tents, people took turns grabbing bundles of dried flax plants and pulling those bundles through boards studded with spikes to break down the fibers. Nearby, a group gathered around a spinning wheel tossed around the terms “stooking,” “retting,” “scutching” and “hackling.”

These words, rooted in Middle English, French and Dutch, define steps in the process of converting flax into thread and then into linen fabric. Linen, which may be the most ancient textile, was woven in Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt — it’s what mummies were wrapped in — and can last for hundreds of years. The cloth is stain resistant, has properties that make it feel cool in hot weather, and can be sewn into clothing, kitchen items, bed linens and other household goods.

Robin Maynard Seaver, a 64-year-old landscape architect, is a cofounder of the

A Fibershed Moment

East Barnard Linen Fair. A dual citizen of the U.S. and the United Kingdom, she grew up visiting the family farm in East Barnard. Maynard Seaver is also the owner of Green Mountain Linen, which sells goods that are designed by her five-person team and manufactured in India with fabric commissioned from a Belgium-based linen maker.

These products include aprons ($75), kitchen towels in various sizes (a tea towel is $40) and oven mitts ($25), all undyed and checked with indigo blue. Beginning next week, the wares will be available at the company’s new store in South Royalton, just steps from the local co-op.

The folks at the Shepherd’s Hearth, a Plainfield catering company that specializes in cooking over fire, already are sold on Green Mountain Linen aprons. “We source everything we can thoughtfully and locally, so we figured our ‘uniforms’ should be no different,” Shepherd’s Hearth co-owner Lucia Kaufman said. “They’re classy and timeless and really great quality. Plus, [we’re] supporting Vermonters and friends with great values … It’s a no-brainer.”

By the end of November, Green Mountain Linen will offer a new selection of bespoke linen goods, including tote bags, vests, sheets, a bath towel and a kimono. These will be available in a variety of colors and produced at the same overseas plant as their current line. Her company’s ultimate goal, Maynard Seaver said, is to create its products with fabric from plants grown in Vermont.

That aim will not be easy to achieve, although flax was planted statewide during colonial times and is well suited to Vermont soils. The rangy plant, which has long stems and delicate blue flowers, can thrive without irrigation or pesticides, but it takes three expensive pieces of equipment to get the stems harvested and baled.

Maynard Seaver already owns the whole trio, which she purchased in a lot with the help of a Belgian broker. Because of the ins and outs of international trade, getting the machines cleaned, properly coded and through U.S. customs has been a challenge.

Once the machines arrive, other barriers remain. Except for a small pilot project in Nova Scotia, there isn’t a single scutching mill — where baled flax is turned into fiber that’s ready to be spun and woven — in the Western Hemisphere, according to UVM research specialist Laura Sullivan. That’s why Maynard Seaver and her compatriots at Green Mountain Linen are founding members of the North American Linen Association.

Vermont Sheep & Wool Festival, Saturday, October 4, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, October 5, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., at Tunbridge Fairgrounds. $10; $5 for kids under 12; free for toddlers. vtsheepandwoolfest.com.

By working with flax producers across the country and in Canada — “I call them my ‘flax sisters,’” Maynard Seaver said with a chuckle — the association hopes to find a way to get a scutching mill built on American soil. In doing so, they would spin up a new industry that fosters environmentally conscientious farming, ethical manufacturing, and the wearing and use of fabrics that are free of the pesticides and toxins inherent in more contemporary clothing.

Even then, fiber will still need to be spun abroad. Sullivan said there are no “long-line” spinneries, those that can spin long fibers such as flax and hemp, in the Western Hemisphere.

Once there’s a facility that can process flax, Maynard Seaver plans to share her Belgian equipment with Vermont farmers. She hopes they will include flax in their crop rotations and call her when it’s time to harvest so she can send the tools their way. The resulting product would be aggregated, sent out to the scutching mill and, eventually, make its way back to Vermont to become Green Mountain Linen products.

Back at the fair, thoughts seemed far away from the challenges of international commerce and European harvesting equipment. A pair of chestnut draft horses, their coats rain-streaked, picked up linencurious visitors in a vintage cart, ready to transport them to a field where Linum usitatissimum, the Latin name for flax, was being harvested.

COURTESY OF SUE SCHLABACH

Robin Maynard Seaver

A weaving demo at the East Barnard Linen Fair

Laura Sullivan flipping piles of hemp in 2024 COURTESY OF ANDREW CHAMBERLIN

Nearby, Sheila Brown, a weaver, artist and Green Mountain Linen staffer, chased her towheaded 3-year-old son past a picnic table, at which visitors dipped brushes in indigo watercolor paint made on-site by Barre artist Pamela Wilson.

In addition to weaving Green Mountain Linen’s first piece of Vermontproduced linen, which was processed laboriously by hand between the field and the loom, Brown also helps with nearly every other aspect of business operations. That includes creative directing and organizing an artist-in-residence program that pairs a teacher — this year it was Wilson — with people interested in making art from fiber and cloth. “We have a small, tight-knit team,” she noted, pun not intended.

Even though it will be years before there’s enough Vermont-produced linen to use in manufacturing, every step of the flax-to-linen process can already be

SHEAR RESOLVE

Muriel’s of Vermont, 3537 Route 2, North Hero, 730-4715, murielsofvermont.com

When Underhill native Laura Jacoby worked with the Peace Corps, she introduced soybeans to farmers in Africa and helped youths build economic development programs in Bulgaria. With the International Rescue Committee, she hopscotched from war zone to refugee camp to bombed village, dropping into desperate situations to help provide water, sanitation, health care and schools to people who had fled their homes.

In 2016, after 20 years living abroad, she moved back to Vermont, arriving home as she had arrived in Mali, Bulgaria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Uganda: boots on the ground, ready to do her part to improve locals’ lives. Farmers were struggling to earn a living, she observed. The farm-to-table

accomplished on a small scale, at home. Before the Industrial Revolution made fabric widely accessible, many Vermont farmers grew a small plot of flax, which they or family members processed, spun and wove to make the family’s clothes, sheets and towels.

While she’s waiting for her outsize linen dreams to be made reality, Maynard Seaver is focusing on creating and selling high-quality goods using resources that are already available, as well as promoting the art of working with linen on that small, homey scale. As such, the Green Mountain Linen store will offer tools that can be used to process flax at home, as well as classes and seminars to guide the flax-curious. “Along with our [own] cottage industry, we’re teaching people how they can do this for themselves,” she said.

movement was helping, she said. “But I didn’t feel like I had anything to offer in that arena, so I just started researching. I saw farms with sheep, and I thought, Hmm, I wonder what’s going on with that wool.”

Most of it ended up in compost piles, landfills or stashed in barns, she learned, because the 40 cents per pound it would bring wasn’t incentive enough for farmers to find a buyer or to take the extra steps required to keep burdocks and hay out of it every day as the sheep grazed, ate and slept. Wool prices didn’t even cover the cost of shearing.

That, Jacoby decided, was where she could make an impact. By providing a market for wool, she could give farmers an additional revenue stream, help them stay on their farms and help Vermont’s

Sheepshearing at Philo Ridge Farm in Charlotte

A

landscape remain pastoral. With her son Cyrus Brooks, she launched garmentknitting company Muriel’s of Vermont, named for her mother, a hand knitter who grew her own vegetables and bought milk and meat from neighbors.

In this, its sixth year, the North Hero enterprise bought 1,200 pounds of wool from 15 farmers — all but five in Vermont. It uses whole-garment knitting machines that work like 3D printers to produce sweaters and vests from wool, alpaca, and responsibly sourced cotton, linen, Tencel (from wood fibers) and hemp. The company produced 1,000 garments last year and, with the addition last month of a third knitting machine, is on track to make 2,000 next year.

Underhill farmer Dave Martin sold all of his wool to Jacoby this year, earning more for it than he has in 30 years of farming. “She came and picked it up,” he said. “Even better.”

When they started, Jacoby, 60, and Brooks, 27, knew as much about sweater production as they did about farming. “Cyrus and I didn’t know anything about anything,” Jacoby said. “We didn’t know farmers. We didn’t know how to knit.” Their research led them to Shima Seiki, a Japanese knitting machine manufacturer. They bought a refurbished unit and installed it in the basement of their Grand Isle home. Brooks learned the technology, and Jacoby got to know farmers. She remains embedded in their world. On shearing day, she is in their barns: She was at Martin’s farm in early February, at Fools Farm in Tunbridge three weeks later and at Philo Ridge Farm in Charlotte four days after that. In her oversize farm coat, billed wool cap and fingerless gloves, she spreads each fleece onto a table, deftly flicks away poop and pulls off soiled unusable edges — a process called skirting. She packs fleeces into bags, sorted by color and coarseness, and loads them into her Toyota Tacoma pickup truck.

Once she accumulates about 500 pounds, she or her son takes it to Mechanicville, N.Y., to be scoured. Though some Vermont spinneries are equipped to clean small amounts of wool, the state doesn’t have a separate scouring facility to handle large volumes.

Jacoby or Brooks delivers the clean wool to spinneries — this year to Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, Aurora Spinnery in Berlin and Battenkill Fibers in Greenwich, N.Y. Finally, they bring the resulting yarn to North Hero, where Brooks programs sweater patterns into a computer and calibrates the knitting machines to accommodate the various yarns.

Employing hundreds of needles, a machine can produce a sweater in about an hour. Each wool garment uses roughly two pounds of wool and requires an hour of handwork to finish edges and repair any flaws, such as broken yarn or dropped stitches.

Jacoby has become a veritable wool expert. Surrounded by volunteer helpers at the skirting table on Fools Farm in February, she admired the fleece they were working on. “This is not too far from a merino crimp,” she said, showing the others a tuft of white wool that zigzagged like an accordion. “See how small those crimps are and how many and how thick.”

By seeing what Jacoby looks for, farmers have learned how to produce quality fleece, shearer Gwen Hinman said. Those previously focused on meat production now breed for wool as well and have adjusted

their farming practices to keep that wool clean and marketable.

“She’s doing an amazing thing, and hopefully her business works out,” Hinman said, “because people who are used to getting 35 cents a pound are getting $4.”

Jacoby declined to say exactly what she pays — “a fair price,” she said. The amount varies, depending on quality and color. Consumers prefer natural browns and grays, so dark wool fetches more, a reversal from the old days when white wool was prized because it could be easily dyed. “As soon as you’d have a dark lamb, you’d have lamb chops,” Jacoby said. Because wool sweaters don’t sell well in the summer, Jacoby and Brooks also knit with linen and cotton. Their popular woolhemp blend sweaters currently contain European hemp, but, Jacoby said, they will use Vermont hemp if it becomes available.

In June, Jacoby and Brooks moved manufacturing out of the family basement into a building behind Hero’s Welcome general store in North Hero. Their third knitting machine is designed to handle coarse wool, which allows them to buy more Vermont wool — which tends to be coarser — and to support more local spinneries.

The new location gives Muriel’s its first brick-and-mortar retail space. The mother-son team, who offer custom knitting as well, sell their sweaters in North Hero, online and at farmers markets. Wool garments range from the $155 “Classic Vest” to the elaborately stitched $350 “Causeway.” They’ll host an open house at the store this Sunday, September 28, as part of North Hero’s Sweater Weather Block Party.

Jacoby’s last post abroad was in Antakya, Turkey, where the Asi River dried up each year because so much water was used to irrigate crops, including the Turkish cotton prized here in the U.S. Locals lived with the stink of the dry riverbed to send us their cotton. “We don’t think of it as consumers. We have no idea,” Jacoby said. “It’s so cheap to us, but there’s a cost.”

She came home empowered: “You feel like you can still do something to protect the landscape here in Vermont because it’s smaller scale, and that’s why we started Muriel’s.

“We’re not single-handedly saving the family farm,” Jacoby continued. “But if we can help farmers make the numbers work, then that helps, right?”

M.A.L.

INFO

Sweater Weather Block Party, Sunday, September 28, 2 to 5 p.m., at

Muriel’s of Vermont in North Hero. Free.

MARY ANN LICKTEIG

Cyrus Brooks and Laura Jacoby

Laura Jacoby skirting freshly shorn wool at Philo Ridge Farm

See What’s Next.

INSTANT HEADSHOT LOUNGE

Come camera-ready and get a professional proﬁle pic by StoryWorkz. Book by 10/24 for a discounted $15 session. Limited walk-ups.

At this annual career and tech expo, talk with dozens of exhibitors who are looking for locals to help make everything from microchips to medical devices, robotics systems to augmented reality displays, AI tools to electric aircraft. Representatives from Vermont colleges and universities will also explain their many tech-related course o erings.

PANEL: TAKING THE FIRST STEP (11 A.M.)

Vermont robotics teams and local tech companies show o their robots and discuss their winning collaborations which create a unique opportunity for workforce development. Moderated by Jaine Perotti from Greensea IQ and Laura Treers from UVM College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

RÉSUMÉ REVIEW

Drop in at the Targeted Resume and get some free advice from Sue Schlom for your job search. Don’t forget your résumé!

food+drink

Biting Into Bedford

When ceramic artists MarieJoël Turgeon and Jordan Lentink moved from the Laurentians to Bedford, Québec, 12 years ago, “nobody among our family and friends understood,” Turgeon said. The former mill town was not even among the higher-proﬁle country villages of the Eastern Townships.

Turgeon, 44, acknowledged that Bedford is not a top tourist destination but said she and Lentink, 43, “fell in love” at ﬁrst sight with the historic industrial buildings and community of about 2,500.

food and drink producers displayed their wares during an annual Craft Garden festival. The energy was palpable.

Turgeon and Lentink are among a group of newer arrivals to Bedford who have helped infuse it with creative, entrepreneurial spirit: artists and craftspeople, chocolatiers and chefs, brewers and distillers. “We are all original people who had a bit of a crazy idea,” Turgeon said.

Bedford lies four miles east of Route 133 and is just an hour’s drive from Burlington. The ﬁnal new stretch of Autoroute 35 — which opened the ﬁrst week of September — pulls drivers west a few miles before the turno , but for travelers from Vermont headed to Montréal or points north, it can still be a rewarding pit stop for co ee or a meal.

The pair have also become major Bedford boosters. Striking up a conversation with them during my 2024 visit unleashed a torrent of local recommendations, which inspired the itinerary of my return trip this year.

The couple even designed clothing and bags boasting Bedford’s signature water tower landmark.

During my first visit a year ago, we crossed a flower-bedecked bridge and navigated past tidy stone and brick houses to Atelier Tréma, the couple’s ceramic studio, store and café a few blocks away from the town’s main street. It sits across from a converted factory on the Pike River, where we sipped beers at microbrewery L’Autre Brasserie’s outdoor deck over the water. In a grassy area between the factory and the ceramics studio, local artisans and

Mona Beaulac, 64, is thrilled about the newcomers to her lifelong home. The town council member and executive director of the Missisquoi Museum, in neighboring Stanbridge East, appreciates what she called “all the young ones,” who have brought new ideas to Bedford, especially over the past decade or so.

What hasn’t changed, she said, is the warm welcome Bedford has always provided to travelers on the way from here to there.

“We are proud of our hospitality,” Beaulac said. “We like to have people drop in.”

STORY & PHOTOS BY MELISSA PASANEN pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

Jordan Lentink and Marie-Joël Turgeon of Atelier Tréma

e riverside deck at L’Autre Brasserie with a view of the water tower

Zucchini with grilled shishito peppers, mozzarella and herb yogurt at Comptoir Moutarde

BREAKFAST: COFFEE AND A MUG, TOO

ATELIER TRÉMA, 133 rue de la Rivière, Bedford, 450-590-0172, ateliertrema.com/ boutique-cafe

For excellent espresso drinks and locally baked pastries, the café at ATELIER TRÉMA makes a perfect morning stop — and shop. It was close to 11 a.m. when we arrived on a rainy Saturday and settled into the cozy dine-in corner of the ceramics studio store over a macchiato ($3.80) and small latte ($4.75) with a tender apricot-andoat breakfast cookie ($4) and a buttery, savory-sweet cheddar scone ($5). In better weather, the verdant outdoor patio would have called, but then we would have missed the framed 1932 employee photo from the defunct sewing machine needle factory across the street.

The menu also includes sandwiches, such as a baguette with mortadella and

ricotta ($11.50); simple salads; and glasses of wine ($10). Since it was e ectively brunchtime when we visited, we tried a pesto grilled cheese ($11.50). It came oozing with melted cheese and grill marks so perfect they might have been painted on.

Atelier Tréma’s production team of seven can be spied Monday to Thursday through a wall of windows crafting custom ceramic orders for restaurant chefs and corporations, along with a signature line of sturdily elegant, neutralglazed platters, plates, bowls and mugs.

Turgeon said they decided to source their coffee beans from Faro, a Sherbrooke roastery, after Faro’s owner commissioned mugs for the company’s own cafés. I have not yet bought a mug, but, on two visits a year apart, I could not resist a platter and a cake stand.

LUNCH: DUELING POUTINES

LA PATATERIE, 66 rue Cyr, Bedford, 450-248-3263. Note: Cash and debit only.

RESTAURANT BARRY, 92 rue Principale, Bedford, 450-248-7019, on Facebook

Atelier Tréma’s recommended lunch was poutine “at one of Bedford’s true institutions.” The problem was that they suggested two such institutions, aka poutine spots. How to choose?

Everywhere we went until our late lunch, I inquired about people’s preferences, hoping for a conclusive favorite. My hopes were dashed by a decisively indecisive even split — leaving us no choice but to try them both.

At RESTAURANT BARRY, we paid $6.30

Pesto grilled cheese

A latte and pastries at Atelier Tréma

Biting Into Bedford

for a small poutine, which was heavy on super-squeaky fresh curds blanketing appealingly dark fries drenched in a highly seasoned mahogany gravy. The gravy verged on too salty (and I love salt), but the whole mess of mild squeaky cheese, salt and earthy fried potato felt like what poutine is meant to be.

After a brief, damp hike up the new Parc Héritage hill (see sidebar), we headed to LA PATATERIE, where a serving roughly equivalent to what we ordered at Barry (and the second smallest on o er) cost $6.75. The curds were equally squeaky and the fries as dark, though a bit more submerged in similar gravy.

All told, I loved the fresh curds and the well-cooked fries at both spots, though I’m not a huge fan of the strong beef bouillon-cube ﬂavor in the gravies.

During a phone call after our visit, Turgeon admitted that she’s team La Pataterie: “The potatoes are perfect — soft without being squidgy at the end of your poutine — with good color for the sauce. The cheese is fresh.” But if her husband wants a hot dog, too, she said, they head to Barry. Sometimes, the Tréma workshop crew will decide to get poutine for lunch, Turgeon said, “and it’s always, ‘Where do we go?’ It’s not easy.”

DINNER: COUNTER SERVICE

COMPTOIR MOUTARDE, 46 rue Principale, Bedford, 438-519-2243, comptoirmoutarde.com

Our dinner decision, on the other hand, was very easy. I’ve followed COMPTOIR MOUTARDE on social media for well over a year, drooling over the restaurant’s housemade pastas and pristine farm-to-table ingredients.

Chef-owner Marc Proulx moved from his native Montréal during the pandemic and opened his sweet, stylish 25-seat spot on Bedford’s main street in March 2022. Comptoir Moutarde is open Friday and Saturday for lunch and dinner and Sunday and Monday for lunch. Laura Mathieu manages the front of the house with warmth and selects the small but interesting wine list.

Proulx, 32, started working in a long string of city restaurants at age 16 and earned a culinary degree in his early twenties. When the young chef resolved to open his own restaurant closer to the Eastern Townships sources of his ingredients, he settled on Bedford because it was a ordable — with less competition than in established tourist towns such as Frelighsburg or Sutton.

MORE TO EAT AND DO

ATELIER MAISON MARTINE LANGLOIS 49 rue Du Point, Bedford, 514-9463582. Find eclectic small antiques and collectibles including porcelain covered cheese plates. Open weekends only or by appointment.

L’AUTRE BRASSERIE, 110 rue de la Rivière, Bedford, lautrebrasserie.ca. e riverside brewery taproom in the former sewing machine needle factory serves its own beer, local ciders and spirits, and a small food menu.

CAPELINE & CHOCOLAT, 48 rue Principale, Bedford, 450-248-0881, on Facebook. Filled trufﬂes and other chocolate confections, sorbet and gelato — are all made on-site.

DISTILLERIE COMONT, 110 rue de la Rivière, Bedford, 579-537-8484, comont.ca. e small distillery offers tours and cocktail workshops by appointment.

FROMAGERIE MISSISKA, 100 rue Wheeler, Bedford, 579-433-8585, missiska.com. Take home fresh cheese curds and excellent maple yogurt made from the milk of the farmstead cheesemaker’s grass-fed Jersey cows. MISSISQUOI MUSEUM, 2 rue River, Stanbridge East, 450-248-3153, missisquoimuseum.ca; open through October 19. Admission to this small museum ($10; $3 for kids under 12) includes entrance to the wellpreserved Hodge’s General Store that operated for more than a century and the impressive, restored 12-sided Walbridge barn in nearby Mystic that dates back to 1882.

PARC HÉRITAGE 100 rue AlcéeRocheleau, Bedford. e new park built on shale slate left from limestone mining boasts a large playground and small climb to 360-degree views, including of Vermont’s Green Mountains.

LA POINT VISIBLE, 12E rue River, Stanbridge East, 514-303-5310, lepointvisible.com. In the neighboring town, this quilt studio and shop carries creations of several Bedford artisans, such as glassware made by David Frigon-Lavoie of DFL Verre.

The restaurant’s name features the French word for counter, because that intimate, comfortable spirit of eating is “the vibe I wanted to create,” Proulx said, even if guests choose table seating. The restaurant has a casual though polished feel, but the dishes coming out of the kitchen could easily grace a fancier big-city venue.

The lunch menu o ers a seasonal salad, sandwich, soup, and a pair of fresh pasta specials, such as spaghetti with pesto and whipped ricotta with a glass of wine for $20. (Yes, that’s Canadian dollars — and reason enough to get me back there.)

At dinner, our appetizers included a memorable vegetable tart ($16) of

Above: Poutine at Restaurant Barry (left) and La Pataterie

Below: Eggplant ravioli and black cod main dishes at Comptoir Moutarde

caramelized wild and farmed mushrooms, sweet beets, and charred onion in a crisp butter crust dressed with pickled mustard seeds, tarragon and a luminously golden emulsified scallion sauce.

Our mains were as gorgeous in appearance as they were in taste. House ravioli filled with braised eggplant ($26) came in a rich sauce of cherry tomatoes

that channeled roasted sunshine in every bite, with toasty breadcrumbs for textural contrast. Perfectly cooked British Columbian black cod ($34) swam in a silky sweet corn elixir with basil, tiny peeled potato spheres and crunchy yellow string beans. It was so good that the tiny batons of bacon, while delicious, seemed almost superfluous.

For dessert, we shared a pair of nutty

buckwheat cannoli ($8) filled with lightly honeyed whipped ricotta and scattered with toasted buckwheat kernels.

When Proulx picked Bedford for his first solo venture, he said he knew it was not a tourist hot spot or home to a phalanx of gastronomes and so “a little bit of a gamble.”

So far, the chef said, that gamble seems to have paid off. ➆

This article is part of a travel series on Québec. The province’s destination marketing organization, Bonjour Québec, is a financial underwriter of the project but has no influence over story selection or content. Find the complete series plus travel tips at sevendaysvt.com/quebec.

EDGEWATER GALLERY PRESENTS

GALLERY PRESENTS

GALLERY HOURS: Tuesday - Saturday: 10AM – 5PM Sundays: 11AM – 4PM or by EDGEWATER GALLERY ON THE GREEN 6 MERCHANTS ROW, MIDDLEBURY

Buckwheat cannoli

The dining room at Comptoir Moutarde

SIDEdishes

BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

The Elmore Store Brings Back Farm-to-Oven Pizza

The fully renovated ELMORE STORE reopened on July 4 and has gradually added prepared food offerings, culminating in the return of locavore pizza in mid-August. The lakeside general store at 1208 Route 12 is now operated by BECCA and TIM LINDENMEYR, who also own Farm Craft VT, a seed-to-soap producer in Shelburne. They developed the pizza menu in consultation with BLAIR MARVIN, co-owner of ELMORE MOUNTAIN BREAD. She makes the long-fermented, naturally leavened dough from Vermont-grown, freshly milled flour and parbakes the crusts in her bakery’s wood-fired oven to sell to the store, where they are finished for dine-in and takeout. Toppings are sourced largely from local farms and food producers.

The Elmore Mountain Bread crusts make the store’s pizza “a unique new product, not seen anywhere else,” Becca, 55, said.

Marvin, 45, is also board president of the Elmore Community Trust, which owns the town’s general store. She was involved with Fire Tower Pizza, which operated in the store until it shut down in May 2023.

“I love the Elmore Store, and I love Becca and Tim, and I’ll do anything I can to support them,” Marvin said. The small bakery she co-owns with her husband, ANDREW HEYN, also sells bread to the store for retail sale and its sandwich menu. “The more that I can make and sell from the bakery to my community, the happier I am,” she said.

The Elmore Store serves pizza Wednesdays

through Saturdays, 4 to 7 p.m., and Sundays, 3 to 6 p.m. Pies include plain cheese made with Whitney from Greensboro’s JASPER HILL FARM; pepperoni from VERMONT SMOKE & CURE in Hinesburg; the Supreme with locally farmed mushrooms and VERMONT SALUMI fennel salami from Barre; and the rotating Fancy veggie special with a caramelized onion white sauce and seasonal vegetables from farms such as LONG WINTER FARM in Stowe.

The Elmore Store kitchen team also makes breakfast sandwiches, baked goods, salads, and sandwiches featuring local meats, such as roasted chicken salad with basil mayonnaise and arugula on Elmore Mountain

Bread’s whole wheat sliced Pullman loaf. Freshly prepared grab-and-go meals include chicken tikka masala and stuffed peppers.

The store also has a creemee window, although it does not currently offer Vermont’s signature flavor. While the nearby ELMORE SUGARHOUSE’s seasonal creemee stand is open, Becca said, “Out of respect for them, we don’t do maple creemees. It’s a small town.” ➆

CONNECT

The Fancy veggie pizza special at the Elmore Store

The Hole Truth

In

Swanton, Hudak Farm makes exceptional fresh, from-scratch cider doughnuts every fall

BY MELISSA PASANEN • pasanen@sevendaysvt.com

The magical powers of the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny are widely recognized, but far fewer people know of the peculiar Vermont icon who exercises his talents seasonally at Hudak Farm in Swanton.

The bearded, aproned creature plies his magic most Saturdays from the beginning of September through Halloween in a back room of the farm store. His presence is marked by the tempting scents of cinnamon and boiled apple cider.

He introduces himself with glee as “the Hudak Doughnut Ho.”

Off the farm, the 57-year-old goes by the mononym Moretti, “just like the beer.” He has done regular weekend shifts making Hudak’s from-scratch cider doughnuts using a vintage 1960s tabletop fryer for about eight years.

All name jokes aside, Moretti and the farm’s full-time doughnut maker, Sarah Coon, do need special powers to reliably produce the cider doughnuts that may be the best I’ve ever tasted.

Many cider doughnuts produced seasonally around Vermont are fried fresh but start with a prepackaged dry mix. I know this because my husband, who loves cider doughnuts, has a soy allergy, and the commercial mix used by many orchards and bakeries contains soy flour, not a standard from-scratch doughnut ingredient.

By contrast, for the roughly 15 years Hudak Farm has made cider doughnuts, the person in charge has started each batch by whisking together 5.5 pounds of King Arthur Baking flour with spices, sugar, baking powder and baking soda before adding butter, buttermilk, eggs (from the farm’s flock, as supply allows) and cider syrup boiled down from the farm’s fresh-pressed cider.

“These doughnuts are very finicky,” said Coon, 35, noting that the temperature of the ingredients, the room and the lard in the fryer is critical, as is the moisture level of

the batter. “Sometimes they just fail for no reason. They’re sort of famous for [provoking] tears and swear words.”

The old fryer can also be temperamental, she said: “Every morning when I turn on the machine, I say, ‘Oh, God, I hope it works.’”

On the morning of September 13, Moretti was making steady progress through the day’s production run of about 50 dozen. A big stockpot of apple cider simmered on a burner for the next day’s batch. He said he often listens to Pink Martini while working. “The cider and Pink Martini, I think that’s what makes the doughnuts so good,” he quipped.

The fryer, which Moretti described as a Rube Goldberg machine, purred mechanically as it pushed out rounds of doughnut batter into the bubbling fat, moved them along a track, flipped them over and unloaded them into a cooling tray. Next, Moretti dunked some in sugar.

Moretti prefers his doughnuts plain and

a couple of hours old. “When they’re hot, you taste the heat,” he said. The lard makes for a very clean fry and also helps the doughnuts taste good longer, he added. “Even day-old, they’re amazing.”

The labor-intensive process takes time, Moretti cautioned. “We don’t have doughnuts until 10,” he said firmly, “so make sure people don’t come before 10 because they will be sorely disappointed.”

Hudak Farm co-owner Marie Frey (Coon’s mother-in-law) was ringing up customers in the farm store, where fresh vegetables were

selling almost as fast as doughnuts. The baked treats cost $1.25 apiece, $6.50 for six or $12 a dozen.

Asked if he and his wife, Lynda Ulrich, were fans of the doughnuts, Chuck Verderber of Fairfield responded simply, “Oh, God, yes. How can you beat fresh, homemade cider doughnuts?” ➆

INFO

Hudak Farm, 599 St. Albans Rd., Swanton, 527-1147, hudakfarm.com

MELISSA PASANEN

Moretti making cider doughnuts

Hudak Farm

To Lenny, With Love

Opera Company of Middlebury celebrates Leonard Bernstein with new festival

BY AMY LILLY • lilly@sevendaysvt.com

Opera Company of Middlebury founder and artistic director Doug Anderson remembers lying on the living room ﬂ oor of his childhood home in Ohio and watching Leonard Bernstein’s “Young People’s Concerts” on CBS. The ﬁrst internationally acclaimed American-born conductor, Bernstein led the New York Philharmonic in the televised programs from 1958 to 1972. The series was syndicated in more than 40 countries — and represented just a fraction of the music giant’s output.

In a full-circle homage, Anderson, 72, has mounted A Bernstein Festival, a multiweek celebration at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater that he hopes will give “a 360-degree view of [Bernstein’s] talent,” he said by phone. The festival

includes ﬁ lm screenings, preshow talks and musical performances that include a staging of a rarely seen Bernstein short opera.

The fest kicks off on Wednesday, September 24, with a screening of Leonard Bernstein: The Gift of Music, a 1993 documentary that will be introduced by Opera Company of Middlebury music director Filippo Ciabatti. The following night features a showing of the 1961 ﬁlm version of West Side Story, with a prescreening talk by Anderson.

BERNSTEIN IS CRITIQUING OUR SLIDE INTO CONSUMERISM. DOUG ANDERSON

of Bernstein’s Candide , which he directed.

On Thursday, October 2, Anderson will introduce the 2021 film of Opera Company of Middlebury’s performance

The festival’s signature event features performances of famous Bernstein songs followed by his less famous one-act opera about a suburban marriage in crisis, Trouble in Tahiti. Chorus master Nathaniel Lew will introduce the Friday, October 3, performance; Helen Lyons, music manager and classical music host at Vermont Public, will give Saturday’s preshow talk. Danielle Simon, assistant professor of music at Middlebury College, will give Sunday’s. Ciabatti has conducted with the company since 2023 and will lead ﬁ ve

singers and an orchestra of 17 musicians. By phone, he called Bernstein “a towering ﬁgure” and “very interesting American” who was at once a composer, a conductor, a pianist and an educator as well as a closeted gay man and a political activist. “He was a larger-than-life ﬁgure who left a huge legacy,” Ciabatti said.

Trouble in Tahiti is not widely known within that legacy in part because the 40-minute musically hybrid work is among his “saddest and darkest,” the conductor said. Most often seen in college productions because of its small cast — it premiered at Brandeis University in 1952 — the opera will be a rare o ering for Town Hall Theater audiences.

Opera Company of Middlebury’s 2021 production of Candide

‘Let It Be’ Mural Depicts the History of Burlington’s Barge Canal

BY KEN PICARD • ken@sevendaysvt.com

If every work of art tells a story, then the tale told by a new mural that hangs outside BCA Studios on Burlington’s Pine Street spans centuries. It begins before the arrival of European settlers, when wildlife dwelled in a lush landscape beneath a clear, starry sky. It depicts the clear-cut forests of Canada that fed Burlington’s waterfront timber mills throughout the 1800s. And it captures the coal slag that powered the city but poisoned its wetlands, leaving behind a toxic legacy for future generations.

Ultimately, the symbolism in the colorful and dreamlike mural conveys a message of hope: Given enough time and love, nature will heal itself.

“Let It Be: A Cautionary Tale of the Pine Street Barge Canal” is a new, 8-by20-foot mural created by eight student artists in only a month’s time. As part of Burlington City Arts’ Artist Apprenticeship Program, the 16- to 22-year-olds worked with professional muralists from Juniper Creative Arts of Brandon to research the industrial canal’s complex history, then synthesize it into a cohesive work of art. Unveiled on September 5 at the South End Art Hop, the mural looks as though it were created by a single artist — a signature feature of Juniper Creative’s many collaborative projects.

“It’s a really layered story,” said Juniper Creative’s Jennifer Herrera Condry, who oversaw the project with her husband, Will Kasso Condry, and their daughter, Alexa Herrera Condry. Together, the Condrys have created more than 40 public murals throughout Vermont and hundreds more nationwide.

Before the students picked up a paintbrush, they spent two weeks getting to know each other, learning about the collaborative process and researching the canal’s history with “knowledge keepers” from the community, said Ellie TraxlerMenz, a University of Vermont senior and one of the artists. The painting itself took 30 hours, with final touch-ups added just hours before its unveiling.

“Let It Be” also pays tribute to notable Black trailblazers in Burlington’s history, including Harold Holloway, an early 20thcentury entrepreneur who helped develop Battery Street.

The Barge Canal is an artificial waterway created in 1868 by Lawrence Barnes, a businessman who operated mills on Burlington’s waterfront. From the 1850s through the 1890s, the city received Canadian timber carried by boat via the Richelieu River, which was milled into boards and then shipped out by trains, according to the Vermont Historical Society. The Barge Canal helped make Burlington one of the country’s largest timber ports of the 19th century.

However, by 1900 most of the Canadian old-growth timber had been logged, and the Barge Canal fell into disuse. Around the same time, Burlington began converting Appalachian coal into gas, which was pumped throughout the city for cooking, lighting and heating.

“The problem with coal gasification is that you end up with a lot of toxic by-products,” said Steve Perkins, executive director of the Vermont Historical Society. Between 1906 and 1966, when Burlington’s coal gasification plant finally closed, tons of toxic waste were dumped into the Barge Canal wetlands.

In 1983 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency listed the canal as a federal Superfund site due to the presence of 56 “contaminants of concern” in the soil and water, many of which cause cancer. By the 1990s the EPA had excavated and removed 500 cubic yards of coal tar, capped the contamination, covered it with topsoil and reseeded it. The land, a longtime obstacle for all manner of development, has since remained fenced off and largely unused.

In the intervening years, those 38 acres have begun to recover, as evidenced by the return of turtles, rabbits, beavers and water lilies that filter out the heavy metals. The mural portrays eight water lilies, each one representing the student who created it.

As artist Calvin Millham-Berry, a Colchester High School sophomore, put it: “This mural reflects the complex history of the Pine Street Barge Canal, its native impact on the natural environment and the healing that can happen when we let nature be.” ➆

Learn more at burlingtoncityarts.org.

PUBLIC ART

Student artists and the Condrys with the mural

culture

Digging Deep

An archaeological dig at Sand Bar State Park uncovers Native American artifacts

This summer, Route 2 drivers might have noticed a large mound of dirt in the parking lot at Milton’s Sand Bar State Park and a group of people digging beside it. This excavation team, made up of members of the University of Vermont’s Consulting Archaeology Program, uncovered Native American artifacts that date back hundreds of years.

This site on Lake Champlain has changed signiﬁcantly over the centuries. The Lamoille River once emptied here, and the location was likely a seasonal campground for Native people. In the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps added many thousands of yards of ﬁll to the marshy swamp that became the state park — inadvertently preserving the artifacts below.

In 2022, the UVM team conducted a dig at the site and found several large pottery shards exhibiting decoration in the style of St. Lawrence Iroquoians. They were 400 to 600 years old. Also unearthed: stone remnants from the process of making tools. Some of the stone ﬂakes, such as ﬂint and quartzite, were

local; others came from Pennsylvania, Maine and Northern Labrador in Canada, indicating that the Indigenous residents were trading and connecting with people from far-ﬂung places.

This summer’s low water levels made a ﬁnal dig possible, and the UVM folks spent about four weeks meticulously combing the site. They found a large pottery fragment, a glass bead, a piece of a clay smoking pipe, more stone ﬂakes and a smaller pottery shard that dates back 1,000 to 1,400 years. This was their last dig at the site, as a stormwater basin will be built there.

In the latest episode of “Stuck in Vermont,” Seven Days senior multimedia producer Eva Sollberger met the crew members and watched them dig into the past.

She spoke with Seven Days about ﬁlming the episode.

How did you hear about this dig?

THESE POTTERY SHARDS AND STONE FLAKES TELL A VERY INTERESTING STORY ABOUT THE SOCIAL CONNECTIONS NATIVE PEOPLE WERE MAKING.

Consulting Archaeology Program. I was able to catch up with the crew on its ﬁnal week of work.

Why is it important to save these artifacts?

As Crock explained, there are no written documents from Native American history, so archaeological sites are “nonrenewable,” and each “has a story to tell to piece together the Native American past here in the Northeast.” Many items, such as textiles and wood, didn’t stand the test of time. But these pottery shards and stone ﬂakes tell a very interesting story about the social connections Native people were making, often with people from hundreds of miles away.

What was uncovered during your visit?

Like many people, I was driving past on Route 2 to get to the Champlain Islands and wondered what was going on. I found an article online about the 2022 excavation and contacted John Crock, director of the University of Vermont’s

Program historian and research supervisor Kate Kenny found a stone shard while I was filming her. Kenny was using a one-eighth-inch mesh hardware cloth to strain the sand. The ﬂakes are smaller than a dime, and it’s hard to see them among so many water-worn rocks, but Kenny spotted one with sharp edges and bagged it for future study. ➆

750: Digging for Native Artifacts

AWARDS

New Award for ‘Coolest Thing Made in Vermont’

BY ALICE DODGE • adodge@sevendaysvt.com

When most people think of Vermont, a few associations come easily: fall foliage, mountain vistas, cows. Manufacturing is a lot farther down the list. Amy Spear, president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce, would like that to change.

Nearly 30,000 jobs in Vermont — about 10 percent of the workforce — are in manufacturing, contributing up to $2 billion in exported goods annually, Spear said on a recent phone call. “We really wanted to make sure that we were celebrating what was behind those numbers, because they are really remarkable stories: innovation, creativity, resilience.”

That’s why the Chamber has launched a new contest: the Coolest Thing Made in Vermont Awards. Anyone can nominate a Vermont product for the awards, now through October 1.

What kind of thing might be the coolest thing? Spear said anything manufactured here is eligible, “from fuel gauges to ice

cream.” And there’s no requirement for the scale of production — nominees will range from prototypes to mass-produced products.

There are three award categories: Coolest Thing Made in Vermont; Coolest Thing Made by a Career Technical Education (CTE) or Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) program; and Coolest Thing Made by a Neighbor, which relates to the aerospace sector.

Vermont is part of an aerospace corridor that stretches from Ontario and Québec to Connecticut, Spear said, and having an award category for neighbors is one way of recognizing the “cross-border collaborations that we have, whether it’s cross-state or across into Canada.”

At the smaller end of the manufacturing scale, there’s a lot happening in Vermont schools, many of which have set up makerspaces and programs to teach kids how to build whatever they can dream up. In addition to sparking imagination, tech education has a direct impact on Vermont’s economy, Spear said, adding that the Chamber launched the education award category as a way of “shining a light on the students and educators that are shaping Vermont’s future workforce.”

There’s no monetary prize for the Coolest Thing awards, but finalists and

of cheese. “It’s more than just the products that people are making,” she added. “It’s all of the people behind the products.”

The awards are really a way of recognizing the thought and effort that go into every cool thing we make, Spear said, whether it’s a lens or a microchip or a block

Learn more at vtchamber.com.

Sparks (and trash) fly when a street-smart lifer trains a booksmart rookie about the ins and outs of what it takes to be a hauler in the city that never sleeps.

A laugh-packed story about unlikely bonds, the dignity of overlooked work, and the hidden value in what society too easily tosses aside.

Don’t miss this funny and heartfelt Vermont premiere play produced by Vermont Stage, Burlington’s professional theate company! for tix & more info:

winners will be celebrated at the Chamber’s Manufacturing Summit Awards Dinner on November 19.

An employee at Carris Reels in Rutland

Two People. One Truck. Tons of fun.

culture

To Lenny, With Love

It will also appear in the wider context of Bernstein’s works for voice. The first half of the program, which Anderson is calling “The Bernstein Songbook,” features chronological selections from On the Town (1944), Wonderful Town (1953), Candide (1956), West Side Story (1957) and Mass (1971).

Ciabatti notes that Trouble in Tahiti is “not completely pessimistic. The music is wonderful, the psychology is very subtle, and there’s humor in it.” Bernstein based the work on his parents and wrote both the lyrics and the music. It follows one day in the life of married couple Sam and Dinah, with a jazz-singing trio acting as a Greek chorus that comments on their suburban life.

Anderson said the trio will be “ironically costumed” in matching plaid tuxedos but “all sweetness and light and joy” when singing about the suburbs. That postwar phenomenon began with the development of the first U.S. suburb, Levittown, N.Y., in 1947 — only a few years before Bernstein wrote Trouble in Tahiti

Anderson explained that the trio’s cheeriness echoes the advertising of the day. “[Bernstein] was hearing all these jingles on TV and radio with three-part harmony telling us how great [suburban] life is,” the director said. “These two people have everything they’ve ever wanted, but they can’t find happiness. Bernstein is critiquing our slide into consumerism.”

Mezzo soprano Olga Perez Flora, of Albuquerque, N.M., will sing Dinah. The head of voice at the University of New Mexico, Flora established a collaborative program between the college and Santa Fe Opera, a leading U.S. opera company, and cohosts the company’s podcast, “Key Change.”

Company of Middlebury’s

Flora has sung for 20 years in companies throughout the country and has appeared in several Opera Company of Middlebury productions. She first performed Bernstein this spring when she sang Anita in West Side Story with Indianapolis Opera. Born in Louisiana to Cuban refugees, the singer considers the iconic work “a pinnacle in terms of a musical that highlights Latin American culture,” she said by phone.

“Bernstein was a genius,” Flora continued. Specifically, she appreciates how, in Trouble in Tahiti , “he puts the words into the rhythm, sets the words in the tessitura” — the comfortable core of a singer’s range — “and sets the highest notes to vowels that are easy to sing.” He also ingeniously tells the story through both lyrics and music, she added.

In “What a Movie!,” Flora’s biggest aria, Dinah describes to her hairdresser a film she just saw that sounds a lot like South Pacific — which is set in Tahiti. As her dismissive tones gradually turn to longing, the score faintly echoes a melody from the famous musical.

“I feel bad for her,” Flora said of her character. “She struggles to figure out who she is. I wonder, Will this marriage make it?”

Bernstein found an unprecedented way to tell that story, Ciabatti said: “He introduced American pop into classical music. Now, that’s taken for granted. At the time it wasn’t that way.”

Anderson added, “He really believed that all music is for all people. He was very American, very democratic.”

INFO

A Bernstein Festival, presented by the Opera Company of Middlebury, Wednesday, September 24, through Sunday, October 5, at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. Free-$94. ocmvermont.org, townhalltheater.org

on screen

Acertain kind of movie can only arise from an era of turbulence and WTF’ery. As a child in the late ’70s, I wandered into a theater and caught the end of A Boy and His Dog, an apocalyptic coming-of-age tale featuring a climactic slaughter of elders, grotesquely represented in archaic clothing and whiteface. I didn’t understand anything I was seeing on-screen, let alone the ripple e ects of the Vietnam War and Watergate on cinema, but I instantly grasped that the moment I lived in was not a stable or especially sane one.

I shudder to think what kids might take away from Him, a sort-of-horror movie from director Justin Tipping ( Kicks ) that’s basically an extended hallucinatory vision of how football, masculinity, racism, violence and America intertwine.

The deal

Cameron Cade (Tyriq Withers) has spent his life idolizing Isaiah White (Marlon Wayans), legendary quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors. As Cam heads to the National Football League Scouting Combine after a brilliant college career, the media hail him as Isaiah’s likely successor. But an attack from a costumed ﬁgure leaves Cam with a head injury, unsettling visions and new jitters about risking himself on the ﬁeld.

Enter Isaiah as Cam’s savior, inviting him to his palatial desert compound for a week of training designed to put him back in ﬁghting trim. The regimen and the drills

are brutal. The mercurial Isaiah is fatherly one moment and cruel the next, mocking the younger man as he pushes him to his limits. A sinister physician (Jim Je eries) is on hand to give Cam mysterious injections, while Isaiah’s inﬂuencer wife (Julia Fox) teaches him that football is basically just show business with more TBIs.

It all comes down to whether Cam has what it takes to be the GOAT. Or the goat, as in the kind that priests of certain religions are wont to sacriﬁce.

Will you like it?

I understand why Him is being panned. The movie is perhaps 70 percent MTV-style montages and 30 percent campy chaos, like Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis crossed with the last act of The Substance. It doesn’t build dread in the way we expect a horror ﬁlm to do, following the protagonist into a too-good-to-be-true scenario and letting us learn gradually with him that it is too good to be true.

Instead, the screenplay (by Zack Akers, Skip Bronkie and Tipping) gives Cam hallucinations that put him in a bad headspace from the start. While the desert compound couldn’t be creepier, Tipping passes up chances to build subtle unease and release it in jump scares. Instead, he packs the screen with ﬂashy visuals: strobing magenta lights, swirling camera movements, real-time “X-ray” views of football players to show us skull colliding with skull.

This sensory overload makes sense, though, because Him isn’t about being

stalked by unseen, unknowable forces. On the contrary, from the ﬁrst scene, we know exactly what the threat is: expectations.

This is a Faustian bargain horror story in which an entire culture conspires to push Cam to sign away his future by alternately love bombing and punishing him, weaponizing family, patriotism and religion. Forced by his loving dad to recite a credo of manly self-sacriﬁce on the football ﬁeld, then groomed by his coaches, agent (Tim Heidecker) and scouts to be the next Isaiah White, Cam never has more than a token say in his fate. No one heeds the doctors’ warning that another head injury could leave him permanently disabled, and even Cam doesn’t dare cite this danger as his reason to back out of the Combine.

Withers has a fresh-faced, generic quality that suits the blank-slate role. But Cam shows vital ﬂickers of doubt and resistance that keep us interested in him — for instance, in a deftly written scene in which Isaiah directs his protégé to strip down for a humiliating public medical exam, then mocks him for doing so.

Wayans gives a tour de force performance as a wry, self-hating Mephistopheles. He brings so much sly, layered humor and fury to the role that one might wish the story could pivot around a psychological duel between the two men. But Cam and Isaiah are ultimately both pawns, their conflict a distraction from the forces manipulating them.

Him isn’t subtle about its message that football is the all-American cult, recruiting

promising young Black men to serve as fodder for its sacriﬁcial rites. But it illustrates that message with such wild gusto that I found it hard to look away, even when the movie got borderline silly (as it does at the end).

Like so many, Cam has absorbed the hustle-culture notion that the way to excellence is pushing oneself beyond one’s limits. When you put that gospel in terms of ﬂesh and blood and shattered skulls, it’s pretty damn scary. Like the movies of my youth, Him carries a deeper message that none of us is quite well.

MARGOT HARRISON margot@sevendaysvt.com

IF YOU LIKE THIS, TRY…

BLACK SWAN (2010; Disney+, Hulu, rentable): Ballet is another discipline in which the philosophy of “No pain, no gain” is often evoked, and Darren Aronofsky found the horror there.

STARRY EYES (2014; AMC+, Fandango, Philo, PLEX, Pluto TV, Roku Channel, Sling TV, Tubi, YouTube Primetime): In another trippy example of Faustian bargain horror, an actress will pay any price for Hollywood stardom.

THE NEON DEMON (2016; Prime Video): Yet another example: Nicolas Winding Refn went way over the top with this horror satire in which Elle Fanning plays a teenage aspiring model targeted by cutthroat rivals.

Tyriq Withers plays a young quarterback being trained to replace his idol in this chaotic, dark sports satire.

NEW IN THEATERS

ELEANOR THE GREAT: June Squibb plays a nonagenarian who makes an unexpected friend as she weathers loss in Scarlett Johansson’s feature directorial debut, also starring Erin Kellyman. (98 min, PG-13. Capitol, Essex, Majestic)

GABBY’S DOLLHOUSE: THE MOVIE: In an animated spin-off of the Netflix family series, the title character (Laila Lockhart Kraner) road trips to “Cat Francisco” to save her dollhouse from a cat lady (Kristen Wiig). Ryan Crego directed. (98 min, G. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Star, Sunset, Welden)

ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER: Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice) directed this saga of aging ex-revolutionaries returning to fight a common foe, inspired by Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn. (161 min, R. Bijou, Capitol, Essex, Majestic, Marquis, Playhouse, Star, Sunset, Welden)

THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 2: The reboot of the horror series about mysterious, murderous home invaders continues, directed by Renny Harlin. With Madelaine Petsch and Gabriel Basso. (96 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Sunset)

CURRENTLY PLAYING

THE BAD GUYS 2HHH In the sequel to the animated animal adventure hit, a squad of reformed villains gets pulled back into the life of crime. (104 min, PG. Majestic, Sunset)

A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEYHH Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie play a dating couple who step into the surreal in this romantic fantasy directed by Kogonada (After Yang). (108 min, R. Bijou, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Star, Stowe, Sunset)

CAUGHT STEALINGHHH1/2 A former baseball player (Austin Butler) gets embroiled in crime in 1990s New York City in Darren Aronofsky’s dark comedy/thriller. (107 min, R. Stowe)

THE CONJURING: LAST RITESHH Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) investigate one last case of demonic activity in director Michael Chaves’ latest contribution to the horror franchise. (135 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Star, Sunset; reviewed 9/10)

DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA INFINITY

CASTLEHHH1/2 Slayers fight demons in a new venue in the adult animation, directed by Haruo Sotozaki and Hikaru Kondo. (155 min, R. City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Paramount, Welden)

DOWNTON ABBEY: THE GRAND FINALEHHH1/2 In 1930, a public scandal threatens the Crawleys’ social position. Simon Curtis directed the period drama, starring Michelle Dockery. (123 min, PG. Bijou, Capitol, City Cinema, Essex, Majestic, Savoy, Star, Stowe)

HIMHHH1/2 A promising football player (Tyriq Withers) gets the chance of a lifetime to train with a famous quarterback (Marlon Wayans) in Justin Tipping’s sports horror movie. (96 min, R. Essex, Majestic, Paramount; reviewed 9/24)

THE HISTORY OF SOUNDHHH In this drama nominated for the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, World War I soldiers make recordings of their comrades. (127 min, R. Majestic [ends Thu), Savoy)

THE LAST CLASS: Former U.S. Secretary of Labor and political economist Robert Reich gives his final lecture on “Wealth and Poverty” in this documentary from Elliot Kirschner. (71 min, NR. Catamount)

THE LONG WALKHHHH In this adaptation of Stephen King’s novel from Francis Lawrence, young men in a dystopian world compete in a grueling contest. Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson star. (108 min, R. Essex, Majestic; reviewed 9/17)

SPINAL TAP II: THE END CONTINUESHHH The band reunites for a last show in this belated sequel to the beloved 1984 rock mockumentary, directed by Rob Reiner. (83 min, R. Majestic)

TWINLESSHHHH A man grieving his identical twin joins a support group for people like him in this dark comedy-drama from James Sweeney, starring Dylan O’Brien and Lauren Graham. (100 min, R. Savoy)

WEAPONSHHHH The bizarre disappearance of every kid in an elementary school class rips their town apart in this psychological horror film from Zach Cregger (Barbarian). (128 min, R. Sunset; reviewed 8/13)

OLDER FILMS AND SPECIAL SCREENINGS

THE BOY FRIEND (VTIFF, Sat only)

THE CONJURING (Catamount, Fri only)

F1: THE MOVIE (Sunset)

HAMILTON (Capitol)

LA LIGA (Savoy, Sun only)

MEDIUM COOL (VTIFF, Fri only)

OTHER SIDE (Savoy, Sat only)

SILENT MOVIE DAY: A VERMONT ROMANCE (VTIFF, Mon only; free screening at Burlington Beer)

SPIDER-MAN (re-release; Essex, Fri only)

SPIDER-MAN 2.1 (Essex, Sat only)

SPIDER-MAN 3 (Essex, Sun only)

THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (Catamount, Wed 24 only)

TRIUMPH OF THE HEART (Welden, Mon only)

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (Catamount, Wed 1 only)

OPEN THEATERS

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

BIJOU CINEPLEX 4: 107 Portland St., Morrisville, 888-3293, bijou4.com

CAPITOL SHOWPLACE: 93 State St., Montpelier, 229-0343, fgbtheaters.com

CATAMOUNT ARTS: 115 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-2600, catamountarts.org

*CITY CINEMA: 137 Waterfront Plaza, Newport, 334-2610, citycinemanewport.com

ESSEX CINEMAS & T-REX THEATER: 21 Essex Way, Suite 300, Essex, 879-6543, essexcinemas.com

MAJESTIC 10: 190 Boxwood St., Williston, 878-2010, majestic10.com

MARQUIS THEATER: 65 Main St., Middlebury, 388-4841, middleburymarquis.com.

PARAMOUNT TWIN CINEMA: 241 N. Main St., Barre, 479-9621, fgbtheaters.com

PLAYHOUSE MOVIE THEATRE: 11 S. Main St., Randolph, 728-4012, playhouseflicks.com

*SAVOY THEATER: 26 Main St., Montpelier, 229-0598, savoytheater.com

THE SCREENING ROOM @ VTIFF: 60 Lake St., Ste. 1C, Burlington, 660-2600, vtiff.org

STAR THEATRE: 17 Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 748-9511, stjaytheatre.com

*STOWE CINEMA 3PLEX: 454 Mountain Rd., Stowe, 253-4678, stowecinema.com

SUNSET DRIVE-IN: 155 Porters Point Rd., Colchester, 862-1800, sunsetdrivein.com

WELDEN THEATRE: 104 N. Main St., St. Albans, 527-7888, weldentheatre.com

art

Solid State

Studio Place Arts celebrates stone for the 25th time

STORY

PHOTOS BY ALICE DODGE • adodge@sevendaysvt.com

To revise an apocryphal Albert Einstein saying, sometimes the only way to maintain sanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect di erent results. Any practice of craft builds on this idea. You repeat a technique enough to master a skill, and what you make becomes more reﬁned, complex and interesting. Studio Place Arts in Barre has embraced the concept with “Rock Solid XXV,” its 25th annual stone show, on view through October 25.

Executive director Sue Higby said its founders committed to hosting the annual show from the outset. “Sculptors have a very solitary art-making practice, in part because of the dangerous environment in which they work,” she noted. Additionally, many local sculptors “are working on commissioned pieces that are made and then shipped out, so it’s actually pretty unusual for people to know what’s being made,” Higby said. One goal of the annual show is “to honor the talents here in our neighborhood.”

child holding a bowl as a missile falls overhead. The pristine white stone sits on a banged-up piece of sheet metal. It’s a sequel of sorts to Wickenheiser’s 2021 contribution, which featured a child against a backdrop of bullet holes. The sculptures seem less like memorials than they do a form of witness.

Higby’s work supporting local stone carvers is one reason she received the Walter Cerf Medal for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts at the Governor’s Arts Awards on September 17. In addition to curating this annual exhibition, she has advocated for more outdoor stone sculpture in Barre and launched the Stone Sculpture Legacy Program in 2012, complete with a walking guide for visitors.

Christopher Curtis of Waterbury Center also presents a work with political overtones. “The Gilt Sword of Damocles” is a striking vertical shaft of gray slate, which seems wounded by a hollow slash of gold leaf. This could be a perfectly lovely formalist piece — the rough stone contrasts with the polished sides of the obelisk; the bright gold glows and o ers depth against the ﬂat gray surface — but Curtis’ artist’s statement makes clear the piece is about the inevitable demise of all

One reason “Rock Solid” continues to be surprising and relevant is that, besides showcasing the craft for the public, the show allows sculptors breathing room to experiment or express their own ideas in what can be a very commission-driven ﬁeld. Not only does Higby bring in new sculptors each year but, she said, “people who have been in previously know that they can do a sidestep and do some di erent work. There are no boundaries around the show.”

That’s evident in some of this year’s powerful political works, such as Montpelier sculptor Gampo Wickenheiser’s “Harvest.” Wickenheiser was recently pictured in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus working on a major project, a granite monument featuring a life-size, realistic horse.

He took a break from that, Higby said, to complete his piece for this show: a much smaller Carrara marble statue depicting a

THERE ARE NO BOUNDARIES AROUND THE SHOW.

Other works in the show are less narrative but no less intriguing. Taylor Apostol, who lives in Newton, Mass., but works in Barre with sculptor Sean Hunter Williams, uses a very unusual technique in her “Shrinking Mass, Spreading Mass 9.” Gouged ridges encircle a biomorphic, organic form whose attached lobes seem to be pulling apart. Apostol has painted the ridges with magenta ink, which contrasts with the white marble to produce an e ect a lot like a cut purple cabbage. It’s weird and lovely and pairs very well with East Montpelier painter Tracey Hambleton’s “Confetti Quarry” on the wall nearby. Cut slabs of rock in the dramatic landscape meet their own reﬂections in a quarry pool, whose deep shadows seem to borrow their hue from Apostol’s sculpture. Kerry Furlani uses color to great e ect as well, showing o a range of slate in her reliefs. The Poultney sculptor’s deep brown “Secrets of Her Heart” looks like

“Spill Your Guts” by Zahra Dana

worn leather. “Fatal Noise Upstairs” is a dynamic composition. Its blotchy purple and gray surface, smooth curves, and pointy shapes come together like some kind of abstract shark.

Randolph sculptor Zahra Dana is another newcomer — at 27, she is one of Heather Milne Ritchie’s apprentices in the show, along with Arielle Edelman. (Ritchie also contributed several works.)

Cecchinelli’s son, Giuliano Cecchinelli II, learned from his father and has likewise participated in many “Rock Solids.” This year, he contributed “Cattail Redux,” displayed in the front window, which combines a strange, holey rock with two types of granite, giving the e ect of cattails growing from a frothy bog.

Dana’s “Spill Your Guts” is a powerhouse of a sculpture: On one side, the carved limestone undulates like intestines, while on the other, a raw, broken surface roils even more. It’s visceral and fantastically ugly.

At the other end of the career spectrum is Barre’s Giuliano Cecchinelli, 82; the 2016 “Rock Solid” was entirely devoted to a retrospective of his work. Higby has described Cecchinelli as the last of Barre’s Italian immigrant stonecutters. One of his small granite ﬁgures, “Relaxed,” shows o those skills. Its head is bent, and its folded knees look so light that the body seems to levitate from the rock below.

INFO

“Looking for Venus,” his other piece, is a lamp shaped like a rocket ship.

The lamp might seem out of place, but it’s one of several lighthearted works, including Charlotte sculptor Bruce Hasse’s interactive “Teeter Totter,” which places two rocks on a steel seesaw, instantly giving them personality as well as weight.

Though “Rock Solid” changes with each iteration, the breadth of approaches represented is one factor that, after 25 stone shows, Higby has come to expect. “There’s always a mix of social commentary and just plain gorgeous,” she said. ➆

“Rock Solid XXV,” on view through October 25 at Studio Place Arts in Barre. studioplacearts.com

From top: “Secrets of Her Heart” by Kerry Furlani; “Confetti Quarry” by Tracey Hambleton

EXHIBITION

‘Fracture

Point’

Looks at Old Labor

From New Perspectives

STORY & PHOTOS BY ALICE DODGE

adodge@sevendaysvt.com

All the artists in the show incorporate research into their art practice, learning about an issue or historical event and then creating something to articulate a story or point of view. After settling on the broad idea of looking at labor and digging into the museum’s online archives, ﬁve of the artists participated in a residency this summer. In addition to touring the Adams manufacturing plant, stone monuments at Hope Cemetery and the former quarry sites at the Millstone Trails, they tried their hands at stone carving in a workshop with Heather

e Vermont Granite Museum is known for showcasing the history and craft of central Vermont’s stonecutting industry. Dating back to 1895, the vast, 28,000-squarefoot granite shed houses plaster models of monuments, hands-on carving displays, tools and archival photos, as well as small shows of sculpture by local stone carvers. But until now it hadn’t mounted an exhibition of contemporary art from outside that tradition.

“Fracture Point,” on view until the museum’s season ends in October, brings together 10 artists whose projects grapple with the labor, history and social effects of the stonecutting industry and touch on its future as well. All the artists, who range in age from late thirties to early sixties, are recent alums of the MFA in Visual Art program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. ey include Patty Meriam of Barre, who also curated the show.

Since graduating in 2024, Meriam and her cohort, as well as a few alums from 2023 and 2025, have been organizing shows around social justice themes in their various cities. (Because VCFA’s program is long-distance, students live all over the U.S. and abroad.) Meriam, a historic preservationist, has been involved with the museum since about 2002, serving on its board and for a couple of years as executive director.

When she joined, she said, “we had dirt ﬂoors and no exhibits at all.” Since then, the museum has made steady progress with the installation of luxuries such as concrete ﬂoors and bathrooms. It now brings in busloads of tourists and educational groups, hosts resident stone-carving artists, and runs programs such as last Saturday’s annual Granite Festival. In terms of contemporary art, Meriam said, “I’ve been wanting to do something here for a long time.”

OPENINGS + RECEPTIONS

PETER HELLER: An exhibition of abstract, biomorphic paintings, many of them at monumental scale, by the late artist, who survived the Holocaust as a child and died in 2002. Front Four Gallery, Stowe, through September 30. Info, 279-8240.

SETH NEARY: “Fall Down, Get Up,” a show of works in typography, collage and design by the former snowboarder who cofounded Driven Studio. Reception: ursday, September 25, 5-8 p.m. Safe and Sound

None of the exhibiting artists had ever worked in the medium before, Meriam said, and it informed their other work through a visceral experience of “the feeling and the hardship on the body when you’re carving, and the dust.”

Bodily impact is a theme of several works. Naomi Even-Aberle’s “Body and Breath of Labor” combines archival photographs on chunks of stone with a soundtrack of shop noises, coughing and labored breathing, referencing the widespread lung damage suffered by stone workers. Jamie Zimchek’s “When the Dust Settles” uses screen-printed reproductions of granite-industry newspapers, folded into the same kind of paper hats workers made daily to protect their scalps from the ﬁne dust.

Several pieces focus on the experience of women and families, including Jessie Keating’s “We Want Our Bread and Roses,” a painting that recalls the 1912 “Children’s Exodus,” when 35 kids of striking immigrant workers in Lawrence, Mass., came to live

Gallery, Burlington, September 25-November 22. Info, vip@safeandsound.gallery.

‘DISCOURSE’: An exhibition of works by AVA faculty and staff, including Paula Allen, Jennifer Brown, Natalia Callaghan, Samantha M. Eckert, Emmie Foster, Nicholas Gaffney, Claire Geno, Roff Harroff, Michael Hillinger and others. Reception: Friday, September 26, 5-7 p.m. AVA Gallery and Art Center, Lebanon, N.H., September 26-November 15. Info, 603-448-3117.

TODD KOSHAREK: “Roots,” an exhibition of paintings in appreciation of the Vermont community’s

GET YOUR ART SHOW LISTED HERE AND ONLINE!

PROMOTING AN ART EXHIBIT? SUBMIT THE INFO AND IMAGES BY THURSDAY AT NOON AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTEVENT OR ART@SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

with sympathetic workers in Barre. Meriam’s piece is a gumball machine that instead delivers facts about child labor, a practice she warns is again on the rise. Two works imagine the impact of AI on workers. Susan Snipes’ “Uncertain Futures” is a series of paper shooting targets printed with clip art of different workers, including a stone carver, in reﬂective gold. Renée Jett’s stop-motion animation “Sarjena and the Eaters” is a powerful little allegory about how human connection and an embrace of labor will help us prevail against the all-consuming machines. In this setting, it’s easy to believe. ➆

INFO

“Fracture Point,” on view through October 31 at Vermont Granite Museum in Barre. vtgranitemuseum.org

relationship with the land. Reception features a dance performance choreographed by Kate Kosharek. Closing reception: Friday, September 26, 5-7 p.m. Emile A. Gruppe Gallery, Jericho, through September 28. Info, 899-3211.

‘DO WE SAY GOODBYE? GRIEF, LOSS, AND MOURNING’: A group exhibition exploring grief, loss and mourning — universal experiences often considered taboo subjects in contemporary society. Featuring photography, painting, video and installation by Peter Bruun, Jordan Douglas, Mariam Ghani, Lydia Kern, John Killacky and Nirmal

VISUAL ART IN SEVEN DAYS: ART LISTINGS ARE WRITTEN BY ALICE DODGE. LISTINGS ARE RESTRICTED TO ART SHOWS IN TRULY PUBLIC PLACES.

Raja. Reception: Friday, September 26, 5-7 p.m. BCA Center, Burlington, September 26-January 24. Info, 865-7554.

LYNN NEWCOMB: “Life is Short, Art is Long,” an exhibition of sculpture and prints with strong formal relationships between how the work looks and how it is made. Reception: Saturday, September 27, 5-7 p.m.; artist remarks, 6 p.m. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, September 27-November 9. Info, 533-2000.

‘S.L.U.A.T.H.’: An annual crowdsourced exhibit of art rescued from yard sales, free piles, estate clean-

Above: “When the Dust Settles” by Jamie Zimchek; right: “Stone Carver” from “Uncertain Futures Series” by Susan Snipes

From “Body and Breath of Labor” by Naomi Even-Aberle

outs, junk stores and flea markets. Most pieces up for auction. Espresso Bueno, Barre, September 30-November 13. Info, 479-0896.

‘ANIMATION LOOPS’: Short animations by Vermont and New Hampshire artists, including Delfi Strazzolini, Sierra Carson, James Underwood, Margaret Bone, Miranda Matthews and Ellie Liota, among others. Junction Arts & Media, White River Junction, October 1-31. Info, info@uvjam.org.

‘THE VOICE OF HUMAN INSTINCT’: An open-call exhibition showcasing works by local artists that explore inner landscapes and the subconscious, curated by Newton Gallegos. Reception: Friday, October 3, 5-7:30 p.m. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, September 26-November 22. Info, 222-0909.

JUANCARLOS GONZÁLEZ: “Vermont Female Farmers,” a series of photographs celebrating the women behind Vermont agriculture. Reception and artist talk: Friday, October 3, 4-6 p.m. Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, October 1-January 3. Info, 388-2117.

FRANCES KORNBLUTH: “Paintings of the 1950s,” a show of rarely seen early abstract expressionist works on canvas by the painter, who is known for gestural paintings of Monhegan Island, Maine. Reception: Friday, October 10, 5-7 p.m. J. Kenneth Fine Art, Shelburne, October 1-December 31. Info, 540-0267.

LYNN IMPERATORE: “Remembering Lynn,” a memorial installation in the Nuquist Gallery of works by the late artist curated by Sabrina Fadial and Janet Fredricks. Imperatore’s work engaged questions of how art-as-process can enhance and expand our understanding of perception. Memorial Reception: Saturday, November 22, 3 p.m. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, September 26-November 22. Info, 222-0909.

CALLS TO ARTISTS

‘ANIMATION LOOPS’: Seeking animators to display their work in “Animation Loops,” on view through October. Junction Arts & Media, White River Junction. Deadline: October 31. Info, info@uvjam.org.

‘BUILDING BLOCKS’ COMMUNITY PAINT: Seeking community members to join Mission Murals in painting a new mural by Clark Derbes on the building across from Edmunds Elementary and Middle School. Paint, rollers and guidance will be supplied. Kids under 10 are welcome with an adult. 266 Main St., Burlington, Saturday, September 27, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., and Sunday, September 28, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Info, jillbadolato@gmail.com.

“SHADOW WORK” PERFORMANCE ART

SALON: A curated event for artists to process all things that live in the shadows. Artists present their work in a casual, salon-style format with five- to 10-minute works in progress in any logistically feasible format or medium. No deadline; event is September 27. Grange Hall Cultural Center, Waterbury Center, Saturday, September 27. Info, s.vogelsang@hotmail.com.

ART EVENTS

OPEN STUDIO: A guided meditation followed by an hour of art making in any medium and concluding with a share-and-witness process. Many art materials available. In person and online. Expressive Arts Burlington, Thursday, September 25, 12:30-2:30 p.m. By donation. Info, 343-8172.

CURRENTLY SPEAKING: ‘BLACK BOX’: A discussion with photographer Dona Ann McAdams, featured in the “It Often Rhymes” exhibition; curator Rachel Moore; and filmmaker John Killacky, who shares his documentary on McAdams. The Current, Stowe, Thursday, September 25, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 253-8358.

LIFE DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event for artists working with the figure from a live model. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Thursday, September 25, 7-9 p.m. Free; $10 suggested donation. Info, 262-6035.

EXHIBITION TALK: ‘WHAT HAS QUANTUM MECHANICS DONE FOR US?’: A talk by scientist Ray Parker to accompany the exhibition “Stardust” currently on view. The University of Rochester researcher discusses the strange predictions of quantum mechanics and how they have shaped our lives. Register at madrivervalleyarts.org. The Gallery at Mad River Valley Arts, Waitsfield, Friday, September 26, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, 496-6682.

STUDENT SATURDAYS: Free museum admission for college students every Saturday in September, including access to the museum’s temporary exhibitions, permanent collection, 39 historic buildings and 45-acre grounds. Shelburne Museum, Saturday, September 27. Free. Info, 985-3346.

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, September 28, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 891-2014.

PORTRAIT DRAWING AND PAINTING: A drop-in event where artists can practice skills in any medium. T.W. Wood Museum, Montpelier, Monday, September 29, 10 a.m.-noon. Free; $10 suggested donation. Info, 262-6035. ➆

VERMONT’S CHARM

GRAMMY NOMINATED BATON ROUGE

music+nightlife

S UNDbites

News and views on the local music + nightlife scene

BY CHRIS FARNSWORTH • farnsworth@sevendaysvt.com

Something in the Water: Acqua Mossa Dive In

The sidewalk outside the Monkey House was cluttered with the overﬂow from a sold-out show last Friday, and pulsating waves of synths and trancelike beats washed out of the Winooski club’s open windows and onto the street. Burlington indie-soul act ACQUA MOSSA had just launched into “THIS IS REAL,” the opening track from their freshly released debut LP. As keyboardist DEREK RICE and drummer TIM HEAGHNEY laid down a head nod-inducing groove, vocalist STEPHANIE WILSON stepped to the microphone and sang a haunting melody as gorgeous as it was foreboding.

“This is so insane,” she sang of melting glaciers and nature under assault. “When she’s gone, she won’t come back again / This is real / This is real.”

The band, which formed in 2020 after its members performed in groups such as SMALLTALKER and JUPTR, has ﬁnally completed work on its ﬁrst record. It was a yearslong process with multiple challenges, both musical and in real life, from postproduction headaches to Wilson’s 2022 breast cancer diagnosis.

After five years of toil and heartache, the band has emerged with Acqua Mossa , an emotionally

dense self-titled record on which Wilson writes about everything from her illness to the Black Lives Matter movement to the climate crisis. That heaviness is set to a sound that blurs EDM, soul, indie rock, hip-hop and futuristic R&B into one cohesive album with startling clarity and vision. With the record now out in the world, the band is closing a long chapter and focusing on the next one.

“We’ve been working on this record for years now,” Wilson told me a few days before the show, when I met up with her, Rice and Heaghney, who are in their midthirties and early forties, at their AQM studio in Burlington’s Old North End.

Wilson’s cancer obviously had a lot to do with the record’s long gestation period. She got a call from the University of Vermont Medical Center in October 2022 following an ultrasound of a lump in her breast. A little over a month later, she was getting a double mastectomy in Los Angeles.

It was a long road to recovery for Wilson, a lifelong dancer as well as a musician. That journey threads through the new record.

“Feeling a little stress / I’m feeling everything,” she sings in a sensuous, ethereal voice on “RUNNING OUT OF TRICKS,” an indie-pop banger with a bubbling synth bass line from Rice and a funky, shu ing beat from Heaghney.

Despite its heavy themes, the record also represents a wonderfully cathartic release, the sound of a band determined not only to persist in the face of hardship but also to sing and dance through it. Not all of those di culties revolved around Wilson’s health.

“Frankly, all the work you do after you ﬁnish a record has been more challenging than the actual writing and recording process,” Rice said from where he sat on a studio couch with Wilson and Heaghney, who are married.

The record has been in the can for a while now, but as Rice admitted, the band members spent a lot of time and money ﬁnishing it. They were unhappy with the ﬁrst mastering job and had it redone. Then they discovered it would need to be remastered again for vinyl.

“It was honestly a nightmare pulling it all together,” Rice said. “We had multiple moments where we almost pulled all of our music from streaming services and just said, ‘Hey, if you want it, just buy a record.’”

Heaghney was quick to point out that, for all the turmoil of ﬁnishing the record, there were many moments of celebration.

In some ways, she said, “what I wrote in 2021 still really applies to my life, so it was sort of like my past self was giving me advice.”

But in other ways, her relationship with the music evolved. “A lot of what I wrote lyrically morphed and grew as I grew as a person,” Wilson said. “I’ve deﬁnitely tweaked the lyrics to update how my emotions have changed over the years. I might have a song like ‘TO BLAME’ that’s centered on forgiveness, and when I sing it years later I realize, You know what? I’m actually still mad, and it’s really hard to sing this song because I don’t feel that way anymore. It’s a little surreal.”

“The ﬁrst time we listened to the mix, the ﬁrst time we got the mastered version we liked, then getting the actual vinyl in our hands … those were all big moments for us,” he recalled. “It’s hard to describe how satisfying it feels to hold your own record.”

“Yeah, we’re all millennials; we still love the format of a full record,” Rice added.

From its conception, the full-length LP was meant to be listened to from opener “THIS IS REAL” to ﬁnal track “CAUGHT UP.” That kind of ﬂow is often di cult to achieve, as if the band has presented a 41-minute piece of music that just so happens to be split into 10 tracks.

From left: Derek Rice, Stephanie Wilson and Tim Heaghney

Acqua Mossa at the Monkey House

On the Beat

New music podcast alert! The folks over at Stage 33 Live, a 40-seat nonproﬁt listening room in Bellows Falls, have launched a podcast. The hourlong episodes air on the third Thursday of every month in both audio and video formats, available on YouTube and most major streaming services.

The series — titled, fittingly enough, “Stage 33 Live Podcast” — is centered on live clips of artists playing at the venue. Each episode gathers multiple performances from local, regional and nationally touring musicians around a loose theme. The first episode is titled “Food” and features singer-songwriter IAN GALIPEAU ’s “Cotton Candy,” TOUSSAINT ST. NEGRITUDE ’s “Just One Bowl of Love” and NINJA MONKEY ’s “Juice.”

It’s a great window into the world of Stage 33 Live, a unique venue in a former industrial factory on an island in the Connecticut River. Check it out at stage33live.com.

Listening In

(Spotify mix of local jams)

1. “I DON’T NEED NOBODAY” by COOP

2. “TOWN HIGHWAY 57” by Marsh Lights

3. “WORLD ON FIRE” by Heady Betty

4. “HEARTFELT” by Tom Pearo

5. “NASHVILLE” by the Eyetraps

6. “FLOWERS FOR LORELEI — LIVE” by the Champlain Shoregasm

7. “RUNNING OUT OF TRICKS” by Acqua Mossa

Scan to listen sevendaysvt. com/playlist

Eye on the Scene

Last week’s highlights from photographer Luke Awtry BURLINGTON BAROQUE FESTIVAL, COLLEGE STREET CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BURLINGTON, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21: It would usually be deemed an act of God or identity theft if I, a heathen, were to be seen crossing the threshold of a place of organized worship on a Sunday afternoon. Yet there I was last weekend, perched in the balcony of the College Street Congregational Church for the finale of the Burlington Baroque Festival. As late-afternoon light cast long colored beams through stained-glass windows, every pew in the room was filled for the start of “ e Splendor of Versailles!” — the last of the four festival events this week. Adorned in all black and playing period-appropriate instruments such as the flauto traverso and 14-string lute, the ensemble of 33 vocalists and 21 instrumentalists, led by director Eric Milnes on organ and harpsichord, played through four long compositions from the time of King Louis XIV. e hour passed quickly, and as I exited I looked up, ready for the bolt of lightning in response to my heresy. Instead the sun shone down on me mercifully, as if to say, “See you next year, Luke.”

Kerrey Bursey at the Burlington Baroque Festival

On the Beat « P.55

The record pulses with Wilson’s gorgeously powerful voice and the band’s space-age funkiness. It is a slick, gloriously analog-sounding collection of lovingly crafted compositions, aided by producer and Burlington DJ SNAKEFOOT , aka ROSS TRAVIS . Live, the trio is more than capable of reinterpreting the songs, a force of new-age soul, throbbing funk and genre-blurring electronica. But its members admit that without Travis, the record might have been well shorter than its 10 tracks.

policies. For more information, visit migrantjustice.net.

“Ross saved us a few times, for sure,” Rice said. “We would hit walls on some of the songs and get really frustrated, but then he’d send the tracks back with little bits of added percussion or some synth samples and

The Monkey House in Winooski is hosting a beneﬁt for Migrant Justice on Saturday, September 27. Featuring Burlington indie-rockers PEG TASSEY & THE , Boston singer-songwriter and new local act EMO , the show puts all proceeds directly toward the nonproﬁt advocacy organization for migrant workers.

Tassey has been a ﬁxture of the Burlington scene since the ’90s. She and her new band the Loud Flowers are set to record their debut LP with producer BENNY YURCO at his Little Jamaica studio. Following that, they’ll kick o a Beautiful Old Halls Tour, performing at town halls across the state, starting with the Wolcott Town Hall next spring.

The sixth annual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Rocks! celebration takes place on Saturday, October 4, at the Shelburne Farms Coach Barn. The one-day fest is organized by Abenaki Helping Abenaki, a nonproﬁt that addresses health disparity among Vermont’s Native people.

The org was formed after 2009 when a young immigrant worker named José Obeth Santiz Cruz was killed working on a Vermont dairy farm. The tragic incident exposed the number of farmworkers in Vermont toiling without the protections of labor laws or workers’ rights. Lately the organization has been focused on supporting Vermont’s migrant community as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carries out President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration

The show is headlined by Baton Rouge, La.’s KENNY NEAL, a Grammy-nominated bluesman. He’s joined by Washington, D.C., blues singer CARLY HARVEY and Vermont’s own DAVE KELLER BAND. Visit ipdrocks.com for more information. ➆

ambient sound swells, and suddenly we were dancing around the studio.”

It’s a record the band is immensely proud of but simultaneously ready to move beyond. There won’t be a big supporting tour this year, as Rice will be in Japan for most of October and Wilson and Heaghney often travel south in the winter in their converted camper van.

That doesn’t mean Acqua Mossa aren’t planning a big 2026. A follow-up EP is already “75 percent done,” by Rice’s estimation, and they’ve started writing songs for their sophomore LP, both of which they hope to release next year.

“When you’re 18 years old and have endless energy, it’s easier to just jump in a van and hit the road,” Wilson said of touring. “But where we’re at now, I really like it. We have so much creative juice; we just want to focus on recording more. We’re so ready to go!”

Prior to the Monkey House show, the band had

played only sporadic shows, including a secret set at the most recent Otis Mountain Get Down festival in the Adirondacks. But in front of a packed house in Winooski, all the years of health scares and postproduction drudgery melted away as Acqua Mossa stepped into their magnetic power. Wilson commanded the stage, and Heaghney and Rice crafted a shu ing beat and subtle stabs of synth, respectively, as the band moved into the slow-burn funk and soul of “GET OVER YOU.”

“When will I get over you?” Wilson sang, the light show playing across her face.

As I left the club, I was a little sad there wouldn’t be more opportunities to catch the band live again soon — Acqua Mossa put on a hell of a show. But it’s clear that Wilson, Heaghney and Rice are putting their creative energies where they belong. And after spending the ﬁrst ﬁve years of their existence battling their way to a brilliant debut record, they’re intent on picking up the pace.

LOUD FLOWERS GIRLS KISSING

Dave Keller

Peg Tassey & the Loud Flowers

Soundbites « P.54

MEDIUM COOL — SEPTEMBER 26, 7 P.M.

Media in the MOVIES

A Journalism Film Series

With its mix of ﬁctional storytelling and cinema vérité, Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1968) depicts the working world and romantic life of a television cameraman. It’s a cinematic snapshot of an era of U.S. social upheaval, climaxing with an extended sequence shot in the middle of the riots surrounding the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. A commentary on the pleasures and dangers of wielding a camera, Medium Cool is as prescient a political ﬁlm as Hollywood has ever produced.

INTRODUCED BY CATHY RESMER, DEPUTY PUBLISHER

BETWEEN THE LINES — OCTOBER 3, 7 P.M.

60 Lake St., 1st Floor, Burlington

From director Joan Micklin Silver (a Village Voice writer before her Hollywood career), Between the Lines (1977) spotlights the offices of a fictional Boston alt-weekly before it’s sold to a major publishing company. Supposedly based on the Boston Phoenix — where screenwriter Fred Barron worked — the film features an all-star cast, including a very young Jeff Goldblum.

INTRODUCED BY DAN BOLLES, CULTURE COEDITOR

BLACK BOX DIARIES — OCTOBER 10, 7 P.M.

Shiori Ito directs Black Box Diaries, a 2024 Oscar-nominated documentary about her own sexual assault — and the fallout from her very public accusation, which rocked Japanese society and changed the country’s antiquated sexual assault laws. As both victim and journalist investigating her own case, Ito captures her tumultuous and ultimately triumphant journey, going behind the headlines to reveal what it has been like to walk in her shoes.

INTRODUCED BY DEREK BROUWER, NEWS REPORTER

music+nightlife

CLUB DATES

live music

WED.24

BBQ and Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Gay4Disco (disco, funk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

Jazz Cafe Returns: New Kanon

Jazz Trio (jazz) at Stone Valley Arts, Poultney, 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.

Lucero, Jessica Lea Mayfield (rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 6 p.m. $36.73.

Lunar Static, John Wyman (indie rock) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10.

Matt Hagen (acoustic) at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, 5:30 p.m. Free.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

YAIMA, James Bird (indie) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $42.84.

THU.25

Alex Stewart & Friends (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Autumn Grooves: Tim Comings (singer-songwriter) at American Flatbread, Stowe, 6 p.m. Free.

Copilot, High Tea, Audrey Pearl (indie rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $19.84.

Devon McGarry Band (folk rock) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 6 p.m. Free.

Drumstick Bossman (reggae) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free.

Eric George (folk) at the Skinny Pancake, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Familiar Faces Funk Jam (funk, jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Frankie & the Fuse (indie pop) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

La Securité, Appalled Eagles (punk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15.

Milton Busker & the Grim Work (Americana) at Shelburne Vineyard, 6 p.m. Free.

Phillips, Grier & Flinner (bluegrass, folk) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m.

$29.75/$34.91.

Scott Tournet, Troy Millette (singer-songwriter) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. $20.

Young Laidy (indie rock) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

FRI.26

90 Proof (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Oh, My Darlings

Hailing from Memphis, Tenn., LUCERO have been a particularly difficult group to pin down since forming in 1998. With a sound that encapsulates indie rock, alt-country, punk and good ol’-fashioned heartland blues rock, Lucero have evolved over the years and are always willing to indulge their own sonic obsessions, whether Southern rock or Stax Records-era soul. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of their classic record Nobody’s Darlings, Lucero are performing the album in its entirety on their current tour. That includes a stop at the Higher Ground Ballroom in South Burlington on Wednesday, September 24, with Ohio singer-songwriter JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD

Asa Skinder (bluegrass) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free. Avi Salloway and Friends (indie) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

BastardBastardBastard, Violet Crimes, No Son of Mine, Lake City All Stars, WratChit (thrash, punk) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 8 p.m. $10.

Bent Nails House Band (rock, blues) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Breanna Elaine (singersongwriter) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

Chris & Erica (acoustic) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 5 p.m. Free.

Dan Parks (acoustic) at Gusto’s, Barre, 6 p.m. Free.

Dancin’ in the Streets: Alligator Wine (Grateful Dead tribute) at the Skinny Pancake, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

Dave Mitchell’s Blue’s Revue (blues) at Red Square, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free.

Dirty Looks (rock) at the Old Post, South Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

The E-Block, Small Talk (R&B) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10/$12.

Freeway Clyde (jazz) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10/$15.

The Jeff Salisbury Band (jazz, blues) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7 p.m. Free.

Joe Agnello (jam) at Vermont Cider Lab, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

The Lloyd Tyler Band (Americana) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6 p.m. Free.

Panchiko, Glizen, sundots (rock) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $37.24.

Power of Tower (Tower of Power tribute) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

Rap Night Burlington (hip-hop) at Drink, Burlington, 9 p.m. $5.

Reid Parsons (singer-songwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free.

Sabouyouma (Afro-funk) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $10.

Slightly Used (rock) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9 p.m. Free.

Steve Ellis (jazz) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Swell (acoustic) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free.

SAT.27

A Band of Brothers (Allman Brothers tribute) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $32.06.

Bella Joan (jazz) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 8 p.m. $10.

The Bressetts (bluegrass, folk) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Cheddar (jam) at the Alchemist, Waterbury, 5 p.m. Free.

D Davis & Marc Gwinn (jazz, blues) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 7 p.m. Free.

Diamond Special (rock) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Grace Palmer (singer-songwriter) at Bleu Northeast Kitchen, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. Free.

GuitFiddle (rock, country) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9 p.m. Free.

Honey & Soul, Ryder the Eagle (indie folk) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15.

Japhy Ryder (funk, jam) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Justice 3 (covers) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 9 p.m. Free.

Meghan Dowlen (singer-songwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 11:30 p.m. $10.

Mike Mac (singer-songwriter) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Monachino, Jarrett & Stats (jazz) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7:30 p.m. Free.

Neighbor, Tom Hamilton (jam) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $32.06.

Owl Stars Live (bluegrass) at Vermont Cider Lab, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

Peg Tassey & the Loud Flowers, Stace Brandt, Emo Girls Kissing (indie rock, punk) at Monkey House, Winooski, 8 p.m. $10.

Sarah Bell (singer-songwriter) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

The Stragglers (Americana) at Jericho Café & Tavern, 7 p.m. Free. Talib Kweli, Skyzoo, Landon Wordswell, Mister Burns (hiphop) at Afterthoughts, Waitsfield, 8:30 p.m. $40.

SUN.28

Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country (rock, country) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $32.06.

Good Gravy (bluegrass) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 3 p.m. Free.

Jesse Taylor (acoustic) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 1 p.m. Free.

Mark Mandeville & Raianne Richards, Luminous Crush (acoustic) at Stage 33 Live, Bellows Falls, 6 p.m. $20.

Seth Yacovone (acoustic) at the Alchemist, Waterbury, 4 p.m. Free. Sunday Brunch Tunes (singersongwriter) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 10 a.m.

MON.29

Mipso, Oshima Brothers (indie) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7 p.m. $32.06.

TUE.30

The 502s, Arts Fishing Club (folk) at Higher Ground Ballroom, South Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $35.17.

Big Easy Tuesdays with Jon McBride (jazz) at the 126, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Bluegrass Jam (bluegrass) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

Dead Is Alive with Dobbs’ Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 8 p.m. $15.

Feeble Little Horse, Kassie Krut (indie rock) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 7 p.m. SOLD OUT. Honky Tonk Tuesday with Pony Hustle (country) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 9 p.m. $10.

Sprezzatura (jazz) at Original Skiff Fish + Oysters, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Troy Millette & the Fire Below (folk rock) at Lawson’s Finest Liquids, Waitsfield, 5 p.m. Free.

WED.1

BBQ and Bluegrass (bluegrass) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Groove Is in the Hearth: Olivia Lurrie (singer-songwriter) at American Flatbread Burlington Hearth, 6 p.m. Free.

Irish Night with RambleTree (Celtic) at Two Brothers Tavern, Middlebury, 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.24 // LUCERO [ROCK]

Fall Cozies!

Tues-Fri 10-5, Sat 10-4 1140 Williston Rd., S. Burlington joyofhomevt.com • (802) 488- 9037 25-75% oﬀ most pillows, lamps, pumpkins, frames and other sustainable decor

9/18/25 3:45 PM

Seasonal, mostly-furnished cottage, plus mainland boat launch, dock and two-story, two-car garage, on 0.19+/- acres with 97’ lake frontage! Pontoon boat, kayaks, tools and paddle boat included.

Open ﬂoor plan with stone ﬁreplace. Camping on the island is surprisingly civilized with electric lights (solar with batteries and generator), refrigerator, gas range/oven and even a microwave!

Greenwood Lake, Woodbury, is a minimally-developed, 96-acre lake, popular for paddling, ﬁshing and power-boats (with restrictions). Less than 5 miles to general services. $699,000

REVIEW music

Scott Tournet, Home

(SELF-RELEASED, CD, VINYL, DIGITAL)

Scott Tournet got something of a late start to his music career. The singersongwriter, guitarist and producer didn’t pick up a six-string until he was a student at Goddard College in Plainﬁeld. But, boy, did he make up for lost time. Not long after, Tournet joined up with Grace Potter and formed Grace Potter and the Nocturnals in 2003, playing an important role in the band’s meteoric rise.

Disillusioned by opening big stadium shows for pop and country stars, he quit the band in 2015 and moved to California. Tournet delved into new styles, particularly his love of Afrobeat and psychedelic music, and formed the band Elektric Voodoo, releasing several albums. He moved back to the East Coast in 2023 and dropped the solo LP Rock & Roll Stories, a return to his blues-rock guitar ways.

new-music sampler. But for the most part, Home doesn’t come o as contrived or mailed in, which can often be the case when rockers make a “roots” record — aka try to make some money from the folk and bluegrass crowd.

Tournet ﬂirts with the acoustic era of the Grateful Dead on “Island,” a tune that would have been at home on Workingman’s Dead. He channels Jerry Garcia with tasteful guitar licks and a tender, softly sung melody. The sun-streaked instrumental “Perfect Breeze” is a little more experimental, layering the sounds of birds, insects and children’s whispers over keening pedal steel guitar.

“The Door” and “When We Were Young” are total singer-songwriter fare. The raw focus on Tournet’s songwriting and singing voice might be a gamble for an artist better known for his guitar prowess, but he inhabits the troubadour role with casual ease.

His latest record, Home, is a departure from all that. Tournet goes full co eehouse-style singer-songwriter on the 10-track album. There’s not much in the way of guitar heroics or side forays into jazz here; this is purely a dude and his acoustic guitar singing about his feelings.

Tournet handles the transition pretty well, all things considered. He’s accessing terrain traveled by the likes of Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen, going for a heartland, salt-of-the-earth style of songwriting. It’s hardly the most revolutionary of acts from a middleaged guitar guy, and there are certainly moments when Tournet overplays his hand — the title track could have come straight from an early 2000s Starbucks

The album drags a little when the subject matter gets both too cliché and autobiographical. “The Circle” is a catchy slice of dad-rock but has a paint-bynumbers feel: With lyrics about “hitting the road” and “picking up the guitar,” it’s a tad overdone. Home is strongest when it indulges its central conceit, that of Tournet as a folkie. “Lonely Road” and the bluegrass-ﬂavored “Sylvia” are shining examples of tender, evocative songwriting.

Home is available on major streaming services. Tournet plays the Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge in Burlington on Thursday, September 25, with support from singer-songwriter Troy Millette.

CHRIS FARNSWORTH

Scott Tournet

live music

Lily Mae, Hannah Roberts, Jonny Hugh (singer-songwriter) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6 p.m. $5/$10.

Wednesday Night Dead (Grateful Dead tribute) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 7 p.m. $10.

djs

WED.24

DJ Blaine (DJ) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 5 p.m. Free.

DJ Chalango, DJ Tarzana Salsa Night (salsa) at Hugo’s, Montpelier, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.25

DJ JP Black (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

DJ Paul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

DJ Two Sev (DJ) at Red Square, Burlington, 11 p.m. Free.

Local Dork (DJ) at Foam Brewers, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Lucas, DJ Chaston (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 9 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Night with Ken (DJ) at Poultney Pub, 6 p.m. Free.

Vinyl Thursdays (DJ) at Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

FRI.26

DJ Taka (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10/$15.

DJ Two Rivers (DJ) at Gusto’s, Barre, 9 p.m. Free.

Friday Dance Party with NasteeLuvzYou (DJ) at the Alchemist, Waterbury, 4 p.m. Free.

Now That’s What I Call a Rave (DJ) at Higher Ground Showcase Lounge, South Burlington, 8:30 p.m. $19.84.

SAT.27

Crypt Goth Night (DJ) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

DJ Raul (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Matt Payne (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 10 p.m. Free.

Molly Mood (DJ) at Red Square Blue Room, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

PRIDE + JOY DANSE (DJ) at the Phoenix, Waterbury, 8 p.m. $15/$20.

Roost.World (DJ) at Light Club Lamp Shop, Burlington, 11 p.m. $10.

TUE.30

Bashment Tuesday (DJ) at Akes’ Place, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

open mics & jams

WED.24

Open Mic with Danny Lang (open mic) at Poultney Pub, 7 p.m. Free.

Moving Sounds

Formed eight years ago, the Burlington indie-folk act HONEY & SOUL garnered local attention with intimate, tender songwriting and soaring vocal harmonies. Their 2023 full-length debut album, Lady King, established them as one of the most exciting and original folk acts in the Vermont scene. Sadly, the band is calling it quits as vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Hannah Hausman is leaving the Green Mountains. Fans will have one last chance to catch Honey & Soul as they play a farewell show at Radio Bean in Burlington on Saturday, September 27, with singersongwriter RYDER THE EAGLE opening.

THU.25

Old Time Jam (open jam) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic Night (open mic) at Parker Pie, West Glover, 6 p.m. Free.

Open Mic with Artie (open mic) at the Whammy Bar, Calais, 7 p.m. Free.

SUN.28

Olde Time Jam Session (open jam) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, noon. Free.

VT Synth Society Meetup (synth open jam, discussion) at Community of Sound, Burlington, 5 p.m. Free.

MON.29

Bluegrass Etc. Jam with Ben Kogan (bluegrass jam session) at Ottauquechee Yacht Club, Woodstock, 6:30 p.m. Free.

WED.1

Open Mic (open mic) at Moscow Mill Studios, East Calais, 6 p.m. Donation.

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.

comedy

WED.24

$5 Improv Night (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5. Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

THU.25

Logan Guntzelman (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $23.

Stand-Up Comedy Night at the Hub (comedy) at Montpelier Performing Arts Hub, 7 p.m. $15.

FRI.26

Robby Hoffman (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. SOLD OUT.

SAT.27

Good Clean Fun (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 5:30 p.m. $11.99. Robby Hoffman (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7:30 & 9:30 p.m. SOLD OUT.

SUN.28

Kevin James (comedy) at Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 5 p.m. $57-$109.50.

TUE.30

Open Mic Comedy with Levi Silverstein (comedy open mic) at the 126, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.1

$5 Improv Night (comedy) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 7 p.m. $5.

Standup Open Mic (comedy open mic) at Vermont Comedy Club, Burlington, 8:30 p.m. Free.

trivia, karaoke, etc.

WED.24

Karaoke After Dark (karaoke) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 7 p.m. Free.

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Autumn (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Parker Pie, West Glover, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Dumb Luck Pub & Grill, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

THU.25

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Line Dancing & Two-Step Night (dance) at Zenbarn, Waterbury Center, 6 p.m. Free.

Music Trivia (music trivia) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Four Quarters Brewing, Winooski, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Bent Nails Bistro, Montpelier, 8 p.m. Free.

Trivia Thursday (trivia) at Einstein’s Tap House, Burlington, 8 p.m. Free.

FRI.26

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Late Night Queer Karaoke with Goddess (karaoke) at Radio Bean, Burlington, 11:30 p.m. $10.

SAT.27

Queeraoke with Goddess (karaoke) at Standing Stone Wines, Winooski, 9 p.m. Free.

SUN.28

Family-Friendly Karaoke (karaoke) at Old Soul Design Shop, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 5 p.m. Free.

Sunday Funday (games) at 1st Republic Brewing, Essex, noon. Free.

Venetian Karaoke (karaoke) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

MON.29

Retro Game Night (gaming) at the Den at Harry’s Hardware, Cabot, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia Monday (trivia) at Black Flannel Brewing & Distilling, Essex, 6 p.m. Free.

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.30

Karaoke with DJ Party Bear (karaoke) at Charlie-O’s World Famous, Montpelier, 9:30 p.m. Free.

Taproom Trivia (trivia) at 14th Star Brewing, St. Albans, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Tuesday (trivia) at On Tap Bar & Grill, Essex Junction, 7 p.m. Free.

WED.1

Karaoke Friday Night (karaoke) at Park Place Tavern & Grill, Essex Junction, 8 p.m. Free.

Karaoke with Autumn (karaoke) at Monopole, Plattsburgh, N.Y., 9 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Two Heroes Brewery Public House, South Hero, 6 p.m. Free.

Trivia (trivia) at Alfie’s Wild Ride, Stowe, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Parker Pie, West Glover, 6:30 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Dumb Luck Pub & Grill, Winooski, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Rí Rá Irish

Pub & Whiskey Room, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free.

Trivia Night (trivia) at Venetian Cocktail & Soda Lounge, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. ➆

SAT.27 // HONEY & SOUL [INDIE FOLK]

calendar

SEPTEMBER 24-OCTOBER 1, 2025

WED.24

activism

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM FOR JUSTICE-INVOLVED WOMEN:

Mercy Connections facilitates a five-week training for prospective mentors seeking to provide guidance, encouragement and support to women affected by the criminal justice system. Mercy Connections, Burlington, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-7063.

business

SEPTEMBER MIXER: Franklin County Regional Chamber of Commerce hosts an evening of networking, refreshments and community engagement. Champlain Country Club, Swanton, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free; $17 for dinner; cash bar; preregister. Info, 524-2444.

community

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

DESK: Neighbors connect with representatives from the Turning Point Center and learn about its addiction-recovery services. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 2-4 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

CURRENT EVENTS: Locals have an informal discussion about what’s in the news. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 878-4918.

conferences

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE SUMMIT: The Vermont Council on World Affairs brings together community members to explore pathways to a more unified world. Hula, Burlington, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. $25-125; preregister. Info, info@vcwa.org.

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.

dance

‘FIREBIRD’: Dutch arts collective Touki Delphine presents an immersive and otherworldly reimagining of Igor Stravinsky’s famous work, featuring 500 recycled car taillights. Daryl Roth Studio Theater, Hanover, N.H., 7:30-8:15 p.m. $15. Info, 603-646-2422.

environment

‘THE GLOBAL STRUGGLE FOR FORESTS: FROM CHILE TO VERMONT & BEYOND’: Two longtime activists, photographer Orin Langelle and Global Justice Ecology Project executive director Anne Petermann, dive deep into global and local struggles at this illuminating presentation and book signing.

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.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: Waterbury Public Library instructor Diana Whitney leads at-home participants in gentle stretches supported by seats. 10 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

Fletcher Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6:308 p.m. Free. Info, anne@ globaljusticeecology.org.

etc.

A BERNSTEIN FESTIVAL

OPENING NIGHT: Opera Company of Middlebury invites folks to enjoy a prosecco toast and a preshow talk by music director Filippo Ciabatti, followed by a screening of the acclaimed 1993 documentary Leonard Bernstein: The Gift of Music Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Free. Info, 382-9222.

TOASTMASTERS OF GREATER BURLINGTON: Those looking to strengthen their speaking and leadership skills gain new tools. Virtual option available. Generator Makerspace, Burlington, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 233-4157.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING: Helping hands join up with the nonprofit’s staff and volunteers to make a yummy meal for distribution. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 777-8691.

VEGAN IN VERMONT: Folks following a plant-based diet connect with others, explore recipes and listen to guest speaker Melanie Narciso. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

games

BOARD GAME NIGHT: Players enjoy an evening of friendly competition with staples such as Catan, Dominion, chess and cards. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

language

ELL CLASSES: Fletcher Free Library invites learners of all abilities to practice written and spoken English with trained instructors. 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov.

music

ALEXIS P. SUTER BAND: A powerful five-piece ensemble artfully blurs the lines between blues, soul and rock. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $25. Info, 5403018.

JAZZ CAFÉ: Fans of the genre savor live tunes performed by professional and up-and-coming Vermont musicians in an intimate setting. Stone Valley Arts, Poultney, 7 p.m. Free. Info, stonevalleyartscenter@ gmail.com.

MUSIC ON THE HILL SUMMER

CONCERT SERIES: Outdoor music lovers revel in unforgettable performances at this weekly celebration of community. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret, 6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 457-3500.

REMEMBER BAKER: A local band performs a scrumptious blend of folk, Americana and bluegrass with tight vocal harmonies and energetic playing. The Tillerman, Bristol, 5-8 p.m. Free. Info, 643-2237.

SANDEEP DAS & RAJIB

KARMAKAR: A Grammy Awardwinning tabla player and a renowned sitarist lead an engaging demo and discussion on Indian music, history and performance. Casella Theater, Vermont State University-Castleton, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 864-5741.

TUVERGEN MUSICIANS: A combination of live performances and lectures transports listeners to the interconnected soundscapes of Mongolia, Tuva and Inner Mongolia. Robison Concert Hall, Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

outdoors

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

Vermont Corn Maze, Danville, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. $15-30; free for kids 4 and under. Info, 397-8574.

seminars

STUDIO PRODUCTION

WORKSHOP: Media enthusiasts walk through the process of conducting interviews on set while switching between cameras and utilizing chroma-keyed backgrounds. The Media Factory, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. 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.

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS OF FRANKLIN COUNTY GOLF

TOURNAMENT: Local business leaders and community members hit the course for a day of networking and friendly competition. Champlain Country Club, Swanton, 1 p.m. $500 for four players; preregister. Info, ypfranklinco@gmail.com.

talks

‘TOY STORY: THE ETHICS, ECONOMICS & PROFESSIONAL OPPORTUNITIES IN THE TOY INDUSTRY’: A panel of the college’s alumni and local business reps discusses career trajectories and other topics relating to the industry. Dion Family Student Center, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 5 p.m. Free. Info, 654-2588.

theater

‘COME FROM AWAY’: Northern Stage mounts the Tony Awardwinning musical telling the stirring true story of a small Newfoundland town that hosted 7,000 stranded travelers on 9/11. Byrne Theater, Barrette Center for the Arts, White River Junction, 7:30 p.m. $10-100. Info, 296-7000.

words

BOOK DISCUSSION SERIES:

meaningful connections. Connect Church, Shelburne, 8:30-10 a.m. Free. Info, 377-3422.

community

COMMUNITY PARTNERS DESK: Neighbors connect with representatives from the Burlington Electric Department and get illuminating info about its services. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

FAMILY VETS TOWN HALL: Immediate relatives of veterans share stories about their experiences while community members listen in. Holley Hall, Bristol, 7 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, vermont@vetstownhall.org.

STORY JAM: Tellers of tales recount an unrehearsed, five-minute-long true story from their lives. Junction Arts & Media, White River Junction, 6-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 295-6688.

crafts

KNIT FOR YOUR NEIGHBORS: All ages and abilities knit or crochet hats and scarves for the South Burlington Food Shelf. Materials provided. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 2-5 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

KNITTING GROUP: Knitters of every experience level 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 makerspace tools and equipment. Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center, Middlebury, 5-8 p.m. $7.50. Info, 382-1012.

dance

‘FIREBIRD’: See WED.24. environment

BTV CLEAN UP CREW: Good Samaritans dispose of needles, trash and other unwanted

FOMO?

BEHIND THE SCENES LOOK: ACCESSIBLE TRAIL BUILDING & MANAGEMENT: Attendees learn about design, equipment, materials and site conditions from area experts. Pratt Forest, Duxbury, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 262-3765.

CABOT CHEESE-E-BIKE TOUR: Cyclists roll through a pastoral 20-mile trail ride, then enjoy artisan eats, including Vermont’s award-wining cheddar. Lamoille Valley Bike Tours, Johnson, noon4 p.m. $120. Info, 730-0161.

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: With a new design every year, this sprawling labyrinth presents a fresh challenge for fall revelers. See calendar spotlight. Great

Concerned community members share thoughtful dialogue about homelessness — and society’s response to it — at this four-part analysis of Kevin Adler and David Burnes’ When We Walk By. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 4-5:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, bshatara@burlingtonvt.gov.

IVY SCHWEITZER: A local poet reads selections from her new collection, Dividing Rivers, digging deep into themes of Jewish identity, feminism and class. The Norwich Bookstore, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

THU.25

business

GROW YOUR BUSINESS: Shelburne BNI hosts a weekly meeting for local professionals to exchange referrals and build

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

objects. BYO gloves encouraged. Top of Church St., Burlington, 7:30-10 a.m. Free. Info, 863-2345.

etc.

ASTROLOGY MEETUP: Beginners and advanced practitioners parse the rapidly changing landscape of our times through the lens of celestial bodies. Proceeds benefit Pathways Vermont. Bristol Village, 5:30-7 p.m. $5 suggested donation; preregister. Info, welcome@home-body.co.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: Audience members are guided through an exploration of stunning animal worlds, from frozen snowy forests to the darkest depths of the ocean. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, noon, 2 & 4 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

BERNSTEIN FESTIVAL: ‘WEST

SIDE STORY’: Songs such as “I Feel Pretty” pepper this 1961 musical retelling of Romeo and Juliet, starring Natalie Wood. Town Hall Theater, Middlebury, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $10. Info, 382-9222.

‘GONE GUYS’: The eye-opening documentary spotlighting the struggles of young men draws on Richard V. Reeves’ 2022 nonfiction book, Of Boys and Men. A panel discussion follows. Latchis Hotel & Theater, Brattleboro, 6-8 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 254-6300.

HIRSCHFIELD INTERNATIONAL FILM SERIES: ‘LOVE’: Dag Johan Haugerud’s 2024 dramedy follows a pragmatic doctor and a compassionate nurse seeking intimacy beyond the bounds of convention. Dana Auditorium, Sunderland Language Center, Middlebury College, 7-9:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

MOVIES ABOUT CHANGING THE WORLD SERIES: Cinephiles file in for a four-week showcase of Vermont-made documentaries

centered on activism. Stay for post-screening discussions with the filmmakers. Bellows Falls Opera House, 6:30 p.m. $18-54. Info, 463-3964, ext. 1120.

‘OCEAN PARADISE 3D’: Viewers travel to the far reaches of the Pacific Ocean for a glimpse into the pristine environments vital to our planet’s health. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11 a.m., 1 & 3 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: Footage of paleontological digs from around the globe tells a compelling story of scientists working as detectives to answer questions about an ancient and mysterious ocean world. Dealer. com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10:30 a.m., 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER 3D’: Astrophiles witness history in the making — from launching rockets without fuel to building the Lunar Gateway — in this 2024 documentary narrated by Chris Pine. Dealer.com 3D Theater, ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 11:30 a.m., 1:30 & 3:30 p.m. $3-5 plus regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

food & drink

VERGENNES FARMERS MARKET: Locavores delight in handmade products, live music, hot food and a new beer tent. Vergennes City Park, 3-7 p.m. Free. Info, vergennesfm@gmail.com.

games

BRIDGE CLUB: A lively group plays a classic, tricky game in pairs. Waterbury Public Library, 12:304:30 p.m. Free. Info, 522-3523.

CHESS FOR FUN: Players of all abilities select an opening gambit, go on the attack and protect their king in friendly competition. Cobleigh Public Library,

FAMI LY FU N

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.

WED.24

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: Museumgoers embark on an immersive journey to create

SEP. 26 & 27 | MUSIC

Around the World

The Vermont Symphony Orchestra’s fall season launches with back-to-back performances of “East Meets West” at the Flynn in Burlington and Paramount Theatre in Rutland. Grammy Award-winning Indian tabla player and composer Sandeep Das and acclaimed sitarist Rajib Karmakar headline the culturally rich concert, exploring parallels and contrasts between Eastern and Western music. The program deftly blends genres spanning baroque to modern electronica while shining a light on the idiosyncrasies and universality of musical traditions across the globe. “Incorporating a diverse range of works,” music director Andrew Crust said of the unique lineup, “helps to broaden the impact and imagination of the VSO.”

VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Friday, September 26, 7:30-9:30 p.m., at the Flynn in Burlington. $8.35-62. Saturday, September 27, 7:30-9:30 p.m., at Paramount Theatre in Rutland. $10-40. Info, 864-5741, vso.org.

Lyndonville, 5-8 p.m. Free. Info, lafferty1949@gmail.com.

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: Snacks and coffee fuel bouts of a classic card game. Burlington

stories using techniques such as storyboarding, sketching and stop-motion moviemaking. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: Curious minds dive into the science and history of Vermont’s most iconic legend at this family-friendly exhibit featuring interactive games, a design studio, multimedia displays, a 30-foot sculpture and photo ops. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Regular admission, $17-23; free for members and kids 2 and under. Info, 864-1848.

‘MRS. DOUBTFIRE’: Everyone’s favorite Scottish nanny comes to Burlington! Viewers delight in this internationally

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,

acclaimed hit musical based on the beloved ’90s film starring Robin Williams. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $36-100. Info, 863-5966.

LIBRARY LITTLES: A weekly program brings babies, toddlers and their caregivers together for songs, stories, play and community building in a nurturing environment. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:45 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

BABY TIME: Infants and their caregivers enjoy a slow, soothing story featuring songs, rhymes and lap play. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

CONNECT & PLAY: A Theraplay-inspired drop-in group strengthens parent-child

St. Johnsbury, 5:30-9 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, lafferty1949@gmail.com.

bonds through joyful structured activities. Brownell Library, Essex Junction, 10-10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

GAME ON!: Kids take turns collaborating with or competing against friends using Nintendo Switch on the big screen. Caregivers must be present to supervise children below fifth grade. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5-6 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

HAFTY CRAFTY DAY: Kiddos ages 6 and up partake in a fun-filled hands-on activity by practicing weaving on small, round looms. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

barre/montpelier

BABY & CAREGIVER MEETUP: Wiggly ones ages birth to 18 months play and explore in a calm, supportive setting

health & fitness

COMMUNITY

MINDFULNESS: Volunteer coach Andrea Marion guides attendees in a weekly practice for stress reduction, followed by a discussion and Q&A. 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, andreamarion193@gmail.com.

language

ITALIAN CONVERSATION GROUP: Parla Italiano? Language learners practice pronunciation and more at a friendly gathering. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

music

FEAST & FIELD: EQUINOX HARVEST FESTIVAL: A luminous night of art-rock and global grooves by Avi Salloway, Rob Morse and Anthony Lafond closes out BarnArts’ summer

while adults relax and connect on the sidelines. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

FAMILY CHESS CLUB: Players of all ages and abilities test their skills with instructor Robert and peers. KelloggHubbard Library, 2nd Floor, Children’s Library, Montpelier, 3:30-5 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

THU.25

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

Sandeep Das

music series with a bang. Fable Farm, Barnard, 6 p.m. $5-25. Info, 234-1645.

MOIRA SMILEY’S VERMONT

GARDEN SINGS: A singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist leads community members in a program of joyful, accessible songs. Tourterelle, New Haven, 6:30-8 p.m. $10-25 sliding scale. Info, 818-259-4460.

PETER BERTON: “Basically Bach” pairs the richness of the North German keyboard tradition with the cathedral’s 1973 Karl Wilhelm organ. Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 861-0244.

THURSDAYS BY THE LAKE:

MANGO JAM: An energizing zydeco band takes the stage for a fall foliage show, marking the end of this annual summer series.

Union Station, Burlington, 5:307:30 p.m. Free. Info, 540-3018.

‘TUNES AND TASTES: DUELING PIANOS FOR ROCK POINT

SCHOOL’: A lively performance by Joshua Glass and Andriana Chobot blends indie-pop, rock, neo-soul and blues through enchanting harmonies and wild improvisation. Copper at Dorset, South Burlington, 5:30 p.m. $40150 sliding scale; cash bar. Info, 863-1104.

outdoors

E-BIKE & BREW TOUR: Pedal lovers cycle through scenic trails and drink in the views with stops at four local breweries. Lamoille Valley Bike Tours, Johnson, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. $85. Info, 730-0161.

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24.

seminars

FAMILY-TO-FAMILY: NAMI

Vermont hosts an informative weekly seminar for individuals with a loved one who is struggling with mental health. 6:30-9 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 876-7949, ext. 100.

SCORING YOUR STORY:

CREATING DEPTH WITH SOUND EFFECTS & MUSIC: An in-person workshop examines the techniques and resources used to build realistic scenescapes in postproduction. The Media Factory, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free; donations accepted; preregister. Info, 651-9692.

talks

DR. JOHN MARCIARI: In “Piranesi: ‘Extraordinary Fellow,’ ‘Madman,’ ‘Sublime Dreamer,’ ‘Inventive Genius,’” the Morgan Library & Museum director of curatorial affairs paints a picture of the 18th-century Italian artist’s influence on neoclassical design. Mahaney Arts Center, Middlebury College, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

RED BENCH SPEAKER SERIES: ‘THE LOST, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, SKI AREAS OF UNDERHILL’: A panel of experts kicks off the museum series with a metaphorical schuss through Vermont’s snowy

Still from “Tales of Harsh Gruder”

From the Heart

Sometimes it’s hard to know how to help; sometimes it’s hard to know how to ask for help. In recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month, community members settle in for a special screening of “Tales of Harsh Gruder” at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center in Burlington. The darkly comic short film — backed by a soundtrack featuring legendary local punk bands — follows a recovering addict who receives an unexpected visit from an old friend, setting in motion a night of necessary revelation. The poignant fiction was inspired by the loss of a childhood friend of Burlington-born writer and filmmaker J. Paul Preseault, who is traveling from Chicago to attend.

‘TALES OF HARSH GRUDER’

Saturday, September 27, 2 p.m. (with a Talk Saves Lives presentation by Terri Lavely of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) and 7 p.m., at the Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, in Burlington. Free-$10. Info, 540-3018, sevendaystickets.com.

past and present. Vermont Ski and Snowboard Museum, Stowe, 6 p.m. $10. Info, 253-9911.

TALKING ARCHAEOLOGY: ‘EXPLORING THE ABANDONED VESSELS OF BURLINGTON’S SHIP GRAVEYARD’: Experts share details about Lake Champlain’s history and dive deep into the discoveries, artifacts and unique stories they’ve uncovered. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Vergennes, 7-8 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 475-2022.

theater

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.24. ‘THE GARBOLOGISTS’: Vermont Stage mounts Lindsay Joelle’s heartfelt comedy about finding

common ground in unexpected places. Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $34-54 sliding scale. Info, 862-1497.

words

‘CALLING ALL AUTHORS: FIND OUT HOW TO GET BARNES & NOBLE TO CARRY YOUR BOOK’: Authors of all stripes get their publishing questions answered by the store’s lead booksellers. Barnes & Noble, South Burlington, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 864-8001.

EVENING BOOK GROUP:

Bibliophiles share their read on Dara McAnulty’s 2020 memoir Diary of a Young Naturalist,

chronicling a year spent observing the wildlife of Northern Ireland. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 6-7 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

TIM WEED: The Putney fiction author reads from The Afterlife Project, his riveting new novel about a last-ditch experiment to save humanity. The Norwich Bookstore, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

FRI.26

dance

‘FIREBIRD’: See WED.24.

LINE DANCING: Instructor Patti Bourbeau gets bodies in sync

to the beat of pop and country songs. BYO water bottle. Gihon Valley Hall, Hyde Park, 6 p.m. $10. Info, gihonvalleyhall@gmail.com.

MICHAEL BODEL: ‘THE INSTITUTE FOR FOLDING’: Viewers take in an interdisciplinary work that explores our human relationship to knowledge through movement, language, live sound and 30 sheets of cardboard. Next Stage Arts, Putney, 7-8 p.m. $20. Info, 387-0102.

etc.

QUEEN CITY GHOSTWALK: DARKNESS FALLS TOUR: Paranormal historian Holli Bushnell highlights haunted happenings throughout Burlington. 199 Main St., Burlington, 8 p.m. $25. Info, mail@ queencityghostwalk.com.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS OPEN HOUSE: Before a performance of The Other Mozart the lost story of the composer’s brilliant sister, theatergoers browse the college’s archival materials relating to history’s other “forgotten sisters.”

Davis Family Library, Middlebury College, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 443-6433.

WRUV 70TH ANNIVERSARY

CELEBRATION: The University of Vermont’s own radio station marks seven decades with a school dance-themed birthday bash. Burlington City Hall Auditorium, 5-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 656-2010.

fairs & festivals

CELEBRATE CRAFT QUECHEE

ART FESTIVAL: Locavores flock to

three full days of artisan displays, from glass works to knitwear to pottery — plus specialty foods, demos and live music. Quechee Polo Field, Hartford, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 734-6332.

OKTOBERFEST: Get ready, ’cause it’s time for Bavarian food, live tunes, beer demos and all things autumnal at this annual celebration. Idletyme Brewing Company, Stowe, 5-9 p.m. Free. Info, 253-4765.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.25.

‘GONE GUYS’: See THU.25. Manchester Community Library, Manchester Center, 5-7 p.m. Free. Info, events@mclvt.org.

MEDIA IN THE MOVIES: ‘MEDIUM COOL’: Cinematographer Haskell Wexler’s 1969 thriller follows a news reporter who finds himself unwittingly involved in violence during the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The journalism film series celebrates Seven Days’ 30th anniversary. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-8:50 p.m. $6-12. Info, 660-2600.

‘OCEAN PARADISE 3D’: See THU.25.

‘OTHER SIDE’: This 2025 documentary follows a terminally ill woman’s groundbreaking legal battle. A Q&A with the filmmakers follows. Film House, Main Street

Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9 p.m. $15; preregister. Info, 540-3018.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A

PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.25.

‘SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER 3D’: See THU.25.

‘A STRANGER IN THE KINGDOM’: Jay Craven’s award-winning 1999 drama, set in a small Vermont town in the 1950s, is based on the novel by Howard Frank Mosher. A Q&A with the director follows. Bennington Museum, 7-9 p.m. $12-15. Info, 447-1571.

food & drink

RICHMOND FARMERS MARKET:

An open-air marketplace complete with live music connects cultivators and fresh-food browsers. Volunteers Green, Richmond, 3-6:30 p.m. Free; cost of goods. Info, rfmmanager@gmail.com.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.25, 10 a.m.-1:30 p.m.

health & fitness

THE ARTHRITIS FOUNDATION

EXERCISE PROGRAM: Anne

Greshin leads participants in a low-impact, evidenced-based program that builds muscle, keeps joints flexible and helps folks stay fit. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 241-4840.

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.

MINDFULNESS MEDITATION:

Community members gather for an informal session combining stimulating discussion, sharing and sitting in silence. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 1:15-2:15 p.m. Free. Info, 777-8691.

language

FRENCH SOCIAL HOUR: The Alliance Française of the Lake Champlain Region hosts a rendez-vous over cocktails. Hilton Garden Inn Burlington, 5:30-7 p.m. Free; cash bar. Info, bbrodie@aflcr.org.

lgbtq

FOOD & ART FRIDAY: QUEER

DANCE PARTY: An end-of-season outdoor shindig features live music by Burlington’s Gay4Disco and made-to-order wood-fired pizzas from Fat Dragon Farm. Sable Project, Stockbridge, 5:30-8:30 p.m. $5-20 suggested donation. Info, bex@thesableproject.org.

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

ANA GUIGUI: An acclaimed pianist and vocalist entertains listeners with a wide variety of

styles and genres. The Brandon Inn, 7-8 p.m. Free. Info, 747-8300.

FRIDAY NIGHT MUSIC: New vinos, hopping live tunes, tasty food truck provisions and picnic blankets make for a relaxing evening among the vines. See lincolnpeakvineyard.com for lineup. Lincoln Peak Vineyard, New Haven, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 388-7368.

HIGHER GROUND PRESENTS:

MARY CHAPIN CARPENTER & BRANDY CLARK: Two esteemed Grammy-winning singer-songwriters put on a dynamo performance. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7-9 p.m. $69129. Info, 775-0903.

LANES SERIES: YUMI

KUROSAWA TRIO: A master of the Japanese koto performs new compositions and striking reinterpretations alongside violinist Naho Parrini and percussionist Yousif Sheronick. The University of Vermont Recital Hall, Burlington, 7:30 p.m. $5-35. Info, 656-4455.

LUKE BULLA: A seven-time National Fiddle Contest winner plays mesmerizing tunes in an intimate setting. Valley Stage Productions, Weybridge, 9-10:30 p.m. $25; preregister. Info, 557-7589.

MATTHEW ODELL & LESLIE STROUD: A pianist and a flutist join forces for a scintillating program of works by Franz Schubert, Guillaume Connesson, Mieczysław Weinberg and Maurice Ravel. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 457-3500.

MIDDLEBURY CARILLON SERIES: Bells ring out across the campus in weekly performances by a rotating cast of extraordinary carillonneurs. See middlebury.edu for lineup. Middlebury Chapel, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 443-3168.

VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: Grammy

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

Award-winning tabla player Sandeep Das and renowned sitarist Rajib Karmakar join forces with the local ensemble in a mesmerizing program titled “East Meets West.” See calendar spotlight. Flynn Main Stage, Burlington, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $1062. Info, 864-5741.

outdoors

CABOT CHEESE-E-BIKE TOUR: See WED.24.

E-BIKE & BREW TOUR: See THU.25.

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24.

talks

EDUCATION & ENRICHMENT FOR EVERYONE FALL LECTURE SERIES: MIRO WEINBERGER: The former Burlington mayor and executive chair of Let’s Build Homes gives an illuminating talk, “Vermont Housing Abundance: Why We Need It and How We Build It.” Faith United Methodist Church, South Burlington, 2-3 p.m. $8 cash or check; free for members. Info, 395-1818.

theater

‘CLUE’: Mystery and mischief await at Boddy Manor in the Borderline Players’ stage version of the 1985 cult-classic flick featuring murder, blackmail and one sinister dinner party. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 7 p.m. $10-25. Info, 748-2600.

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.24.

‘THE GARBOLOGISTS’: See THU.25.

HUB’S GOT TALENT: ‘MISCAST NIGHT’: Theatergoers revel in a hilarious and quirky showcase that encourages local performers to sing tunes originating from musical roles for which they are unlikely to be cast. Montpelier Performing Arts Hub, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $10-20. Info, 798-6717.

‘THE OTHER MOZART’: An award-winning play tells the true, forgotten story of Nannerl Mozart, a keyboard virtuoso and composer — and sister to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — whose work was lost to history. Wright Memorial Theatre, Middlebury College, 7:30-9:30 p.m. $5-30. Info, 443-6433.

‘THE TWELFTH NIGHT SHOW’: Mistaken identities and romantic misadventures abound in this new play following four band members tasked with staging a one-of-a-kind production to save their theater. Weston Theater at Walker Farm, 7:30 p.m. $25-88. Info, 824-5288.

‘WATERSHED’: Dirt Road Theater raises the curtain on an original drama by Vermont playwright Susan Palmer, exploring the narratives we construct to feel safe in a changing world. The Gray Space, Northfield, 7 p.m. $20. Info, dirtroadtheater@gmail.com.

FIBER IS SUPERIOR!

SAT.27

bazaars

MAKERS MARKET: Shoppers discover unique, handmade goods and meet the talented people behind them at a weekly showcase of local artists, bakers, distillers and crafters. Addison West, Waitsfield, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 528-7951

community

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.

conferences

WOMEN’S ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY CONFERENCE:

U.S. Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) hosts a day packed with workshops and presentations for businesswomen, with keynote addresses by runner Mirna Valerio and Welch himself. Vermont State University-Randolph, Randolph Center, 9 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-2525.

crafts

ALL HANDS TOGETHER COMMUNITY CRAFTING GROUP: Marshfield spinning maven Donna Hisson hosts a casual gathering for fiber fans of all abilities to work on old projects or start something new. Jaquith Public Library, Marshfield, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

dance

CONTRA-CEPTION: All experience levels get jiggy with it at this contraceptive-themed dance with calling by Nils Fredland and tunes from Frost and Fire. Partial proceeds benefit Planned Parenthood. Mann Hall, University of Vermont Trinity Campus, Burlington, 6:45-9:30 p.m. $5-15 suggested donation. Info, uvmcontra@gmail.com.

‘FIREBIRD’: See WED.24, 2-2:45 p.m.

etc.

2025 CALCUTTA: An evening of camaraderie, libations and succulent fare is made even merrier by the chance to win $2,500. Proceeds benefit the museum. Saint Albans Museum, St. Albans, 5-9 p.m. $100-125; preregister. Info, 527-7933.

FRIGHT BY FLASHLIGHT:

Adventurous attendees become experts in vintage ghost-hunting techniques and scholars of paranormal lore. Ages 12 and up. Lakeview Cemetery, Burlington, 6 p.m. $25; preregister. Info, 413426-7572.

HOME & HEARTH

REENACTMENT: History buffs get a glimpse at everyday life on the frontier. Ethan Allen Homestead Museum, Burlington, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. $7-15; free for Vermont

residents and kids under 5. Info, 865-4556.

JESSE STRONG PATRIOTS DAY: A celebration honoring Vermont heroes fills up community members’ cups with moments of remembrance, unity, pride and support. Creek Hill Barn, Irasburg, 3 p.m. $20 suggested donation. Info, 262-5307.

MINGLE AT THE MUSEUM: Rehab Roadhouse lend their musical stylings to an evening of food, drink and dancing. Proceeds support museum operations. Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, 5-7 p.m. $50; free for kids. Info, 388-2117.

TWILIGHT BLOCK PARTY:

Locavores shop, sip and soak in the energy at a market replete with unique makers, area food purveyors and live music by crowd-favorite acts. Burlington City Hall Park, 4-8 p.m. Free. Info, 829-6395.

fairs & festivals

BRISTOL HARVEST FESTIVAL: Autumn’s bounty inspires an arts, food and crafts party, accented by live music at the bandstand, kids’ activities and wagon rides. Bristol Town Green, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 388-7951.

CABOT CHEESE & CULTURE

FESTIVAL: A cheesy celebration brings together Vermont cheesemakers with producers of fermented foods and beverages for tastings, workshops and demos. Cabot Village Common, noon-5 p.m. Free. Info, 793-3016.

CELEBRATE CRAFT QUECHEE ART FESTIVAL: See FRI.26.

OLD-FASHIONED HARVEST

MARKET: Fall is in full swing at a two-day community fair featuring tasty treats, art, crafts and live entertainment. United Church of Underhill, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, hmchair@ underhillharvestmarket.com.

PEACHAM FARMERS MARKET: BEETS, BIKES & BOUNTY: A vibrant showcase of the autumnal harvest fills the green while attendees enjoy front-row seats to the annual Fall Fondo gravel ride. Peacham Farmers Market, noon. Free. Info, 309-1947.

ROCKTOBERFEST: Live acts take the stage for a fall fête featuring themed games, an auction, kids’ activities, and local bites and brews. Various Morrisville locations, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Free. Info, 888-6375.

SOUTH BURLINGTON ENERGY FESTIVAL: There’s something for everyone at this environmentally focused jubilee of activities, local bites, raffle prizes, sustainable energy tips and seminars. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, climate@southburlingtonvt.gov. film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.25.

‘THE BOY FRIEND’: Ken Russell’s 1971 musical comedy zooms in on an unsuspecting understudy’s

CLOSES OCT. 13 | OUTDOORS

Corn Fusion

There are places you do not want to get lost (think a multitiered parking lot in the middle of the night). Other places, however — such as the Great Vermont Corn Maze — you do. Danville’s autumnal labyrinth is the largest of its kind in New England and boasts a new design each year, presenting a fresh fall adventure for revelers of all ages. This year, options include the Big Maze — a sprawling two- to three-hour hike with more than 100 feet of bridges and an underground tunnel — and the much shorter Scenic Maze, which affords accelerated access to all the same features. Shuck, yeah!

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE

Wednesday, September 24, through Monday, September 29, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., at the Great Vermont Corn Maze in Danville. See website for future dates through October 13. $15-30; free for kids 4 and under. Info, 397-8574, vermontcornmaze.com.

overnight rise to stardom. The Screening Room @ VTIFF, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7-9:30 p.m.

$6-12. Info, 660-2600.

‘LOST NATION’: History buffs watch local filmmaker Jay Craven’s Revolutionary War drama about Ethan Allen and Lucy Terry Prince, set in the early upstart Republic of Vermont. Maple Corner Community Center, Calais, 7 p.m. $15. Info, 748-2600.

‘OCEAN PARADISE 3D’: See THU.25.

‘OTHER SIDE’: See FRI.26. Savoy Theater, Montpelier, 7 p.m. $8.5012. Info, 229-0598.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.25.

‘SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER 3D’: See THU.25.

‘TALES OF HARSH GRUDER’: In recognition of National Suicide Prevention Month, community members gather for a screening of this darkly comic yet deeply moving short film. A reception follows. See calendar spotlight. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. $10. Info, 5403018.

food & drink

BURLINGTON FARMERS MARKET: Dozens of stands overflow with

seasonal produce, flowers, artisanal wares and prepared foods. 345 Pine St., Burlington, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 560-5904.

CABOT FALL FOLIAGE TURKEY

DINNER: Neighbors rub elbows at a succulent feast with all the fixings, including stuffing, rolls, gravy and cranberry sauce. United Church of Cabot, 5-6:30 p.m. $15. Info, 426-3783.

CHAMPLAIN ISLANDS FARMERS

MARKET: More than 35 vendors showcase their farm-fresh veggies, meats, eggs, flowers, honey and other goodies, backed by sets of live local music. Champlain Islands Farmers Market, Grand Isle, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info,

champlainislandsfarmersmkt@ gmail.com.

CHILI COOK-OFF: Hot stuff! This mouthwatering annual affair offers live tunes by EnerJazz Big Band, activities for kiddos and, of course, samples of the

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

tasty titular dish. Downtown Poultney, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, poultneyrotaryvt@gmail.com.

NORTHWEST FARMERS MARKET: Locavores stock up on produce, preserves, baked goods, and arts and crafts. Taylor Park, St. Albans, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, 242-2729.

ST. JOHNSBURY FARMERS

MARKET: Growers, bakers, makers and crafters gather weekly at booths centered on local eats. Pearl St. & Eastern Ave., St. Johnsbury, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, cfmamanager@gmail.com.

games

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 available. Waterbury Public Library, 1-5 p.m. Free. Info, judi@ waterburypubliclibrary.com.

MAH-JONGG: Tile traders face off in the ancient Chinese game often compared to gin rummy and poker. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, judi@ waterburypubliclibrary.com.

lgbtq

FIRE TRUCK PULL: Teams use all of their strength to haul a fully loaded vehicle up the Marketplace while community members cheer from the sidelines. Proceeds

benefit Outright Vermont. Top of Church St., Burlington, noon. Free; preregister to pull. Info, 865-9677.

music

ANA GUIGUI: See FRI.26.

BANDWAGON SUMMER SERIES: HAZMAT MODINE: A high-energy eight-piece plays genre-busting originals with tremendous range and soul. The Putney Inn, 4 p.m. $22-25; free for kids under 12. Info, 387-0102.

DAVE STAMEY: A Western Music Hall of Famer brings out the yeehaw in local listeners at a high-octane performance of country tunes. Highland Center for the Arts, Greensboro, 7:30 p.m. $10-22. Info, 533-2000.

DISCOVERY CONCERT SERIES:

BEN GAGE: An Ohio musician plays songs inspired by his

deep roots in the countryside bordering Lake Erie. Unitarian Church of Rutland, 7 p.m. $15. Info, 775-0850.

GAMELAN SULUKALA: A dynamic orchestra featuring instruments ranging from gongs to tiny flutes highlights delightful Javanese and contemporary works. Plainfield Town Hall Opera House, 3-5 p.m. $20 suggested donation. Info, sulukalagamelan@ gmail.com.

GREEN MOUNTAIN CHORUS: Vermont’s premier barbershop ensemble treats listeners to renditions of familiar numbers in “Lost in the ’50s.” Waterbury Congregational Church, 2 & 7 p.m. $12-20; free for kids under 12. Info, 244-6606.

LIVE IN THE ORCHARD CONCERT SERIES: THE SPRING CHICKENS:

An old-time string band plays hard-driving traditional Appalachian songs and danceable, upbeat tunes for all ages. Shelburne Orchards, 3-5 p.m. Free. Info, 985-2753.

RINGO MATSURI: Beats echo through the orchard at a lively performance by spectacular Taiko drummers. Shelburne Orchards, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 985-2753.

TOM STAMP & FRIENDS: Outdoor music lovers gather in the backyard for a high-octane performance of time-tested classics and under-the-radar gems. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 1-2 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

VERMONT SYMPHONIC WINDS:

The ensemble invites listeners to “An Evening of Joy & Contemplation,” a program of peaceful works by Percy Grainger,

Haydn Wood, Brian Balmages and other influential composers. Elley-Long Music Center, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 7:30-9 p.m. $10-15. Info, vermontsymphonicwinds@ gmail.com.

VERMONT SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA: See FRI.26. Paramount Theatre, Rutland. $10-40.

outdoors

CABOT CHEESE-E-BIKE TOUR: See WED.24.

E-BIKE & BREW TOUR: See THU.25.

FALL OUTING: The Green Mountain Audubon Society invites avian enthusiasts to observe autumnal feathered friends.

Saxon Hill Trails, Essex, 8-10 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, 434-3068.

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24.

GUIDED NATURALIST HIKES

AT STARK MOUNTAIN: Wildlife guru Gene O. Desideraggio leads participants on a trek to explore local plant and animal life. Ages 5 and up. Mad River Glen, Waitsfield, 2-4 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 583-3536.

MOUNT ABE VIA BATTELL

HIKE: Adventurers join up with the Green Mountain Club for a challenging ascent to the summit for stellar views. Call for start time. Mount Abraham, Bristol. Free; preregister. Info, davidmccolgin@yahoo.com.

SEPTEMBER BIRD MONITORING

WALK: Early risers stroll the grounds to observe flying friends and bask in the beauty of the surrounding trails and forests. BYO binoculars. Birds of Vermont Museum, Huntington, 8-9 a.m. $10-15 suggested donation. Info, 434-2167.

SOUTH HERO TRAILS DAY: Outdoorsy folks embark on an epic eight-mile hike spanning the areas trails. Leashed dogs welcome. Tracy Woods Community Trail, South Hero, 9 a.m. Free. Info, nora@shlt.org.

sports

FALL CLASSIC WIFFLE BALL

TOURNAMENT: Players step up to the plate to benefit the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and SLAMT1D. Little Fenway Park, Essex, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, danp@ slamt1d.org.

GREEN MOUNTAIN ROLLER

DERBY HOMECOMING BRAWL: Spectators gasp with glee as the local league faces off against two New Hampshire teams in an action-packed doubleheader. Champlain Valley Exposition,

Essex Junction, 4 & 6 p.m. $1018. Info, 878-5545.

TWIN STATE VIXENS V. CONNECTICUT YANKEE

BRUTALS: Two leagues go headto-head in an athletic and inclusive environment that aims to inspire a love for flat-track roller derby. Union Arena Community Center, Woodstock, 4-6 p.m. $5-15; free for kids under 5. Info, 457-2500.

talks

IRA GLASS IN CONVERSATION: The host and creator of “This American Life” assumes the spotlight for a candid conversation about his groundbreaking career. Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center, Stowe Mountain Resort, 7-10 p.m. $77.23-95.95. Info, 760-4634.

TALK SAVES LIVES PRESENTATION & FILM

SCREENING: Terri Lavely of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention leads a poignant presentation, followed by a screening of “Tales of Harsh Gruder” and a moderated discussion. See calendar spotlight. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 2 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 540-3018.

tech

REPAIR CAFÉ: Volunteer experts troubleshoot a wide array of broken items — and teach patrons how to fix their things themselves. Spark Coworking Space, Greensboro, 10 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free. Info, 878-6956.

theater

‘CLUE’: See FRI.26.

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.24, 6:30 p.m.

‘THE FAE OF THE FORGOTTEN FOREST’: Audiences members take in this poignant play following a man who has awakened in

the year 1924 with no memory of who he is or where he came from. QuarryWorks Theater, Adamant, 2-4 & 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 229-6978.

‘THE GARBOLOGISTS’: See THU.25, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘THE TWELFTH NIGHT SHOW’: See FRI.26.

‘WATERSHED’: See FRI.26, 2 & 7 p.m.

words

THE POETRY EXPERIENCE: Local wordsmith Rajnii Eddins hosts a supportive writing and sharing circle for poets of all ages.

Pickering Room, Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 1-3 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

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.28

crafts

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.24, 1-3 p.m.

etc.

BLOCK PARTY: Community members gather for an afternoon of door prizes, yard games, woodfired pizzas, fall brews, and an open house and sample sale at neighboring Muriel’s of Vermont. Hero’s Welcome General Store, North Hero, 2-5 p.m. Free. Info, 372-4161.

fairs & festivals

CELEBRATE CRAFT QUECHEE

ART FESTIVAL: See FRI.26.

MARSHFIELD HARVEST

FESTIVAL: ’Tis the season for cider pressing, live music, wagon rides, a chili cook-off and other autumnal activities. Jaquith

Public Library, Marshfield, 11 a.m.3 p.m. Free. Info, 426-3581.

OKTOBERFEST: Grab your lederhosen and enjoy live tunes by Inseldudler, custom steins, giant pretzels and the official release of the brewery’s Märzen Fest Bier. Switchback Beer Garden & Smokehouse, Burlington, noon-9 p.m. Free. Info, 540-6965.

OLD-FASHIONED HARVEST

MARKET: See SAT.27, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

SNUGFEST: Art, music and fashion converge at a celebration promoting kind and compassionate treatment of others. Silver Towers Pavillion, Ripton, noon-7 p.m. $35. Info, hello@snugfest.com.

VERMONT PUMPKIN CHUCKIN’

FESTIVAL: Mechanical wizards of all ages build trebuchets to toss pumpkins for distance and prizes. Proceeds benefit the Clarina Howard Nichols Center. Stowe Events Field, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. $10; free for kids 5 and under. Info, 603-630-4800.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.25.

‘OCEAN PARADISE 3D’: See THU.25.

‘OTHER SIDE’: See FRI.26. Latchis Hotel & Theater, Brattleboro, 4 p.m. $15. Info, 254-1109.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.25.

‘SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER 3D’: See THU.25.

food & drink

WINOOSKI FARMERS MARKET: Area growers and bakers offer local and global fare against a backdrop of live music. Winooski Falls Way,

10 a.m.-2 p.m. Free. Info, info@downtownwinooski.org.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.25, 1-4:30 p.m.

health & fitness

THE ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION WALK TO END ALZHEIMER’S: Vermonters take important steps to raise funds and awareness about the disease as part of a nationwide movement. Shelburne Museum, 10 a.m. Funds raised; preregister. Info, 316-3839.

CHASE AWAY 5K: Dog lovers take strides to raise funds for canine cancer research. Leashed pups welcome. Veterans Memorial Park, South Burlington, 9 a.m. $25-40; preregister. Info, vthounds@gmail.com.

HOPE IN MOTION: Good Samaritans get their bodies moving at a timed 5K run or a 1K fun walk to benefit Turning Point Center of Addison County’s recovery services. Porter Medical Center, Middlebury, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. $25; preregister. Info, 377-9035.

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: New and experienced meditators alike sit together in the Plum Village tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh. Hot Yoga Burlington, 6-7:45 p.m. Free. Info, newleafsangha@ gmail.com.

lgbtq

BOARD GAME DAY: LGBTQ+ tabletop fans bring their own favorite games to the party. Rainbow

Bridge Community Center, Barre, 1-6 p.m. Free. Info, 622-0692.

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.

LGBTQ FIBER ARTS GROUP: A knitting, crocheting and weaving session welcomes all ages, gender identities, sexual orientations and skill levels. Presented by Pride Center of Vermont. Noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, laurie@ pridecentervt.org.

QUEER READS BOOK CLUB: LGBTQ+ lit lovers gather to discuss a new title each month. Pride Center of Vermont,

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

Burlington, 1:30-2:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-3403.

music

BRAINTREE BLUEGRASS BRUNCH: TURNIP TRUCK & THE SPRING CHICKENS: The high-octane series closes out with a dynamite double bill of bluegrass, swing, gypsy jazz, folk and country music. Chandler Center for the Arts, Randolph, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Info, 728-9878.

BRONWYN & FRIENDS:

Musicians bust out skillful covers of popular tunes by crowd favorites, from the Beatles to Bonnie Raitt. Montpelier

Performing Arts Hub, 6-7 p.m. $5-15. Info, 798-6717.

CHORAL EVENSONG: The Cathedral Choristers, the adult choir and vocal guests offer deeply personal music appealing to people of many faiths — or none at all. Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Burlington, 4 p.m. Free. Info, 861-0244.

LIVE IN THE ORCHARD CONCERT SERIES: ROWAN: A traditional folk band plays resonant tunes in the Celtic, Appalachian and Americana genres. Shelburne Orchards, noon-2 p.m. Free. Info, 985-2753.

TONE FOREST: A groundbreaking contemporary jazz ensemble heralded by online magazine Marlbank as “totally hypnotic” takes the stage with saxophonist Michael Zsoldos. Artistree Community Arts Center, South Pomfret, 3 p.m. $30. Info, 457-3500.

‘WATER, LOVE AND LOSS:

CHORAL MUSIC OF JOHN MARK HARRISON’: A talented ensemble of local singers performs original a cappella compositions by the Green Mountain composer. Proceeds benefit the Vermont Immigration Legal Defense Fund. Unitarian Church of Montpelier, 4-5:30 p.m. $20. Info, 595-9945.

outdoors

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24.

talks

NIELS RINEHART: In

“Uncovering Artifacts in the Attic,” an archaeologist and historic resources coordinator reports on recent research regarding 60,000 items recovered between 1979 and 1993. Ethan Allen Homestead Museum, Burlington, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, 865-4556.

tech

DROP-IN TECH SUPPORT: Techsavvy library staff provide oneon-one guidance and support in 30-minute sessions. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 4-6 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

theater

‘AUTUMN SCREAMS + POSSIBILITARIAN

HALLELUJAHS OF THE SERVANTS OF THE ABYSS’: The puppet troupe’s fall show

dazzles with towering figures, vibrant costumes and political commentary. Paper Mache Cathedral, Bread and Puppet Theater, Glover, 3 p.m. $15 suggested donation. Info, 525-3031.

‘CLUE’: See FRI.26, 3 p.m.

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.24, 5 p.m.

‘THE FAE OF THE FORGOTTEN FOREST’: See SAT.27, 2-4 p.m.

‘THE GARBOLOGISTS’: See THU.25, 2 & 7:30 p.m.

‘THE TWELFTH NIGHT SHOW’: See FRI.26, 2 p.m. words

CHARD DENIORD & RACHEL

HADAS: Two acclaimed Vermont poets share from their recent publications, followed by a reception and book signing. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 4-5 p.m. Free. Info, 748-8291.

JOYCE THOMAS: A lauded local poet reads from her third collection of works, Some Things in This World before a signing. Stone Valley Arts, Poultney, 3-4:15 p.m. Free. Info, stonevalleyartscenter@ gmail.com.

WORDS OUT LOUD: KNOWING BY HEART: Vermont authors discuss their works at this weekly fall reading series, offering listeners insight into their written worlds. Old West Church, Calais, 3 p.m. Free. Info, 223-6613.

MON.29 crafts

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. etc.

FEMALE FOUNDERS SPEAKER SERIES SEASON 10 KICKOFF: It’s a party, not a panel! Community members celebrate a decade of Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies’ female-focused programming. Hotel Vermont, Burlington, 5:30-7:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 651-0080.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.25.

INTERNATIONAL SILENT MOVIE DAY: Cinephiles commemorate the historic genre with a screening of the 1916 feature film A Vermont Romance, followed by two French shorts. Lumière Hall, Burlington Beer, 6-8 p.m. Free; cash bar. Info, 863-2337.

‘OCEAN PARADISE 3D’: See THU.25.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.25.

‘SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER 3D’: See THU.25.

games

BURLINGTON ELKS BINGO:

Players grab their daubers for a competitive night of card stamping for cash prizes. Burlington Elks Lodge, 6 p.m. Various prices. Info, 862-1342.

language

GERMAN LANGUAGE LUNCH:

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.

outdoors

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24.

INTERNATIONAL OBSERVE THE MOON NIGHT: The moon gets its moment in the sun (see what we did there?) at a mind-blowing gathering featuring telescope opportunities and out-of-thisworld videos. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

talks

KEVIN CHU: In “Choosing Scarcity or Abundance: Reimagining Vermont’s Economy,” the Vermont Futures Project executive director explores key data and trends shaping the state’s economy. Pierson Library, Shelburne, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Free. Info, 985-5124.

TUE.30

business

WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS

NETWORK CONFERENCE: A high-impact day brings together professionals, aspiring entrepreneurs and allies for meaningful connection, practical skill building and collaborative visioning. Lunch and refreshments provided. ECHO Leahy Center for Lake Champlain, Burlington, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. $99-199; preregister. Info, 503-0219.

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.

crafts

ALL HANDS TOGETHER

COMMUNITY CRAFTING GROUP:

See SAT.27, 4:30-6 p.m.

CRAFTERS DROP-IN: Community members converse and connect through knitting, crocheting, mending, embroidery and other creative pursuits. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 6-8 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

dance

SWING DANCE PRACTICE

SESSION: All ages and experience levels shake a leg in this TUE.30 » P.70

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friendly, casual environment designed for learning. Bring clean shoes. North Star Community Hall, Burlington, 8-9:30 p.m. $5. Info, 864-8382.

etc.

BLOOD DRIVE: Participants part with life-sustaining pints at this American Red Cross donation event. Greater Burlington YMCA, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 862-9622.

GENEALOGY QUEST: Family-tree enthusiasts get amped up about ancestry at a monthly meeting. Waterbury Public Library, 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, rlseymour@ comcast.net.

VERMONT WOMEN’S FUND

ANNUAL CELEBRATION: Vermont Public’s Jane Lindholm emcees a celebration of the state’s largest philanthropic organization dedicated solely to women and girls. Girls Who Code founder and activist Reshma Saujani delivers the keynote address. The Flynn, Burlington, 5 p.m. $10-50. Info, 388-3355.

film

See what’s playing at local theaters in the On Screen section.

‘ANIMAL KINGDOM 3D’: See THU.25.

‘THE APARTMENT’: A Manhattan insurance clerk attempts to climb the ladder at his company by letting executives use his digs for trysts in Billy Wilder’s 1960 rom-com. Film House, Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Info, 540-3018.

‘OBIT.’: Film historian Rick Winston hosts this screening of Vanessa Gould’s 2016 documentary chronicling the New York Times’ obituary team. Maple Corner Community Center, Calais, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Free. Info, thekentmuseum@gmail.com.

‘OCEAN PARADISE 3D’: See THU.25.

‘SEA MONSTERS 3D: A PREHISTORIC ADVENTURE’: See THU.25.

‘SPACE: THE NEW FRONTIER 3D’: See THU.25.

games

DUPLICATE BRIDGE GAMES: See THU.25.

health & fitness

BEGINNER TAI CHI: Newbies learn how gentle movement can help with arthritis, mental clarity and range of motion. Virtual option available. Unitarian Universalist Church, Springfield, 10-11 a.m. Free; preregister. Info, jo@jobregnard.com.

COMMUNITY MEDITATION: All experience levels 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.

QI GONG: Students of this ageold Chinese technique learn how to combine mindful movement and breath to strengthen their bodies and quiet their minds. Waterbury Public Library, noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, judi@ waterburypubliclibrary.com.

UMATTER SUICIDE PREVENTION

AWARENESS OVERVIEW: The Center for Health and Learning hosts a virtual seminar for attendees seeking to enhance their skills in identifying community members at risk. Noon-1 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 254-6590.

language

FRENCH CONVERSATION GROUP: Fluent or still learning, language lovers meet pour parler la belle langue. Burlington Bay Market & Café, 5:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, 343-5493.

ITALIAN LANGUAGE LUNCH: Speakers hone their skills in the Romance language over bagged lunches. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, noon-1 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

music

THE ROBERT CRAY BAND: The Blues Hall of Famer and his funky friends play tunes from

half a century of hits. Paramount Theatre, Rutland, 7-9 p.m. $4565. Info, 775-0903.

outdoors

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24.

seminars

‘SORTING THE DIGITAL SPIN: HOW TO SPOT MISLEADING, MADE-UP & MURKY

INFORMATION’: Media expert Dr. Cheryl Casey presents on the basics of digital literacy, including avoiding fraud and identifying misinformation. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 5:30-6:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

sports

EZ BREEZY URBAN ADVENTURE: Cyclists take part in a casual seven-mile group ride around Burlington, complete with good tunes. A treasure hunt follows. Local Motion, Burlington, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 861-2700.

talks

CAROLINE BRUZELIUS: A professor emerita at Duke University presents “Art and Technology at Notre-Dame: The Cathedral as a ‘Laboratory’ of Gothic,” examining the intersection of history, technology and architecture in rethinking the iconic landmark. Pierson Library, Shelburne, 6:307:30 p.m. Free. Info, 985-5124.

DR. BENJAMIN HETT: A professor of history at Hunter College delivers a timely lecture with “Hitler’s Rise to Power From the Perspective of 2025.” Memorial Lounge, Waterman Building, University of Vermont, Burlington, 7 p.m. Free. Info, jhuener@uvm.edu.

‘LIVING SYSTEMS: CONVERSATIONS ON ECOLOGY & THE NATURAL WORLD’: The Cutler Memorial Library presents a riveting three-part series exploring human beings’ connection to nature. Plainfield Town Hall Opera House, 6 p.m. Free. Info, 454-8504.

theater

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.24.

words

BURLINGTON LITERATURE GROUP: Over the course of eight weeks, bookworms analyze Vladimir Nabokov’s 1969 novel Ada, or Ardor: A Family Chronicle. 6:30-8 p.m. Free. Info, info@ nereadersandwriters.com.

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.

TWILIGHT AT TWILIGHT: Fans file in to celebrate 20 years of Stephanie Meyer’s popular vampire series with themed activities and special book deals. Phoenix Books, Burlington, Essex and Rutland, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Free. Info, 872-7111.

WRITING CIRCLE: Words pour out when participants explore creative expression in a low-pressure environment. Virtual option available. Pathways Vermont, Burlington, 4-5:30 p.m. Free. Info, 777-8691.

WED.1

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.

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM FOR JUSTICE-INVOLVED WOMEN: See WED.24.

business

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

FIBER ARTS NIGHT: Knitters, crocheters and weavers make progress on projects while

soaking up creativity and connection. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, Montpelier, 5:30-7 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

YARN CRAFTERS GROUP: See WED.24.

etc.

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, cdmvt47@yahoo.com.

food & drink

COMMUNITY COOKING: See WED.24.

health & fitness

CHAIR YOGA: See WED.24.

language

ELL CLASSES: See WED.24.

SPANISH CONVERSATION: Fluent and beginner speakers brush up on their vocabulario with a

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.

discussion led by a Spanish teacher. Presented by Dorothy Alling Memorial Library. 5-6 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, programs@damlvt.org.

music

SILO SESSIONS: TAYLOR ASHTON: A shape-shifting musician with a distinctive baritone voice performs intricately crafted meditations on love, life and memory. Bread & Butter Farm, Shelburne, 7-9:30 p.m. $18-20. Info, musicforsprouts@gmail.com.

SUNDAY MORNING: An eclectic band plays a rich range of tunes, from soft piano jazz to banjo-driven country with an occasional Latin twist. The Tillerman, Bristol, 5-8 p.m. Free; cash bar. Info, 643-2237.

outdoors

CABOT CHEESE-E-BIKE TOUR: See WED.24.

GREAT VERMONT CORN MAZE: See WED.24, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. GUIDED SHORT TRAIL HIKE: Green Mountain Club staff lead hikers on a 0.7-mile trek, offering up useful tips and tricks along the way. Dogs welcome. Green Mountain Club Headquarters, Waterbury Center, 2-3 p.m. Free. Info, 244-7037. sports GREEN MOUNTAIN TABLE TENNIS CLUB: See WED.24. theater

‘COME FROM AWAY’: See WED.24. words BOOK DISCUSSION SERIES: See WED.24. ➆

As an HR professional for more than 20 years, I know how challenging recruitment can be. When I post a job, I want it to reach all Vermonters who are interested and searching for the right opportunity. Seven Days makes that possible. eir postings are seen statewide, so I know I’m connecting with candidates everywhere. Posting a job is as easy as 1-2-3. I simply send an email to Michelle Brown on Friday, and it’s live on their site on Monday. e Seven Days staff are super responsive, helpful and customer-centric.

ANNA GRADY VP of Operations and Administration, Vermont Community Foundation, Burlington

FAMI LY FU N

projected imagery tucked among the trees. Shelburne Farms, 6 p.m. $12-20; free for kids 2 and under. Info, treewild.inc@gmail.com.

See What’s Next.

COMMUNITY PARTNERS

• BETA Technologies

• Data Innovations

• GBIC

• GlobalFoundries

• Hula

• Marvell

• Northﬁeld Savings Bank

• Norwich University

• UVM O ce of the Vice President for Research (OVPR)

• Vermont Technology Council

• VTel

• VIP SUPPORTING PARTNERS

• The Targeted Resume

• Vermont Technology Alliance

OTHER EXHIBITORS

• Accessible Web

• Champlain Cable

• Coldwell Banker Hickok & Boardman

• Community College of Vermont

• Creative Micro

• Dynapower

• Fluency

• Governor’s Institutes of Vermont

• Green Mountain Power

• Hayward Tyler

• Hazelett

• Lake Champlain Chamber of Commerce

• Launch VT

• NDI

• OnLogic

• OVR Technology

• PayMore

• PCC Pediatric EHR Health Solutions

• Prime Engineering

• Rigorous

• UVM Advance

• VELCO

Learn helpful tips on networking and getting hired at this free, pre-Jam webinar hosted by Sue Schlom of the Targeted Resume. Register at techjamvt.com.

• Vermont State University

• Waitsﬁeld and Champlain Valley Telecom

• Wildlife Imaging Systems

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.

chittenden county

PRESCHOOL MUSIC WITH LINDA BASSICK: The singer and storyteller extraordinaire guides wee ones ages birth to 5 in indoor music and movement. Dorothy Alling Memorial Library, Williston, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 878-4918.

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.

THE STEP CIRCLE: A MONTHLY MEETUP FOR

STEPPARENTS: A relaxed, judgment-free gathering focuses on swapping tips, sharing stories and supporting each other through the ups and downs of blended family life. CarpenterCarse Library, Hinesburg, 7:30-9 p.m. Free. Info, stepparentassociation@gmail.com.

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, 2nd Floor, Children’s Library, Montpelier, 10:30-11 a.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

stowe/smuggs

WEE ONES PLAY TIME: Caregivers bring kiddos under 4 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

ACORN CLUB 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.26

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

KICKLINE: Students in grades 3 to 6 work with trained teaching artists to learn basic choreography, play movement games and end the day with a dance-filled celebration. Waterfront Park, Burlington, 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 863-5966.

chittenden county

‘BORDERLANDS: 1001 NIGHTS WITH MOON’: This enchanting outdoor theater event reimagines the timeless story of One Thousand and One Nights as a radio-style play replete with

LEGO BUILDERS: Mini makers explore and create new worlds with stackable blocks. Recommended for ages 6 and up. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

barre/montpelier

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: A drop-in hangout session welcomes kids ages 12 to 17 for lively games, arts and crafts, and snacks. KelloggHubbard Library, Montpelier, 2-8 p.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

LEGO CLUB: Budding builders create geometric structures with snap-together blocks. KelloggHubbard 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.

northeast kingdom

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: Youngsters and their caregivers delight in beautiful books, silly songs, creative crafts and unplugged play in the library’s cozy children’s room. Craftsbury Public Library, Craftsbury Common, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 586-9683.

SAT.27

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

FAMILY ART SATURDAY: ART FROM THE HEART CROSSOVER: Families get creative at an intergenerational art activity inspired by themes found in the center’s current exhibition, “Do We Say Goodbye? Grief, Loss and Mourning.” BCA Center, Burlington, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Free. Info, 865-7166.

SPLASH DANCE: Kiddos soak up sunshine and fun in the fountain while DJs spin family-friendly tracks. Burlington City Hall Park, 2:30-4:30 p.m. Free. Info, eindorato@burlingtoncityarts.org.

chittenden county

‘BORDERLANDS: 1001 NIGHTS WITH MOON’: See FRI.26.

RUG CONCERT: FLUTE, TROMBONE & PIANO: Vermont Youth Orchestra enthralls its youngest concertgoers with an interactive morning of music. Elley-Long Music Center, Saint Michael’s College, Colchester, 11 a.m. $20; free for kids; preregister. Info, 655-5030.

mad river valley/ waterbury

GILLIAN LEDA SCHUBERT: An author reads from her jubilant ode to seasonal rituals, Firsts & Lasts: The Changing Seasons followed by a special craft for little listeners. Inklings Children’s Books, Waitsfield, 11 a.m.-noon. Free. Info, 496-7280.

northeast kingdom

BURKE FALL FESTIVAL: Families celebrate autumn foliage with a picturesque parade, wagon rides, a petting zoo, face painting, rubber duck

races — and even cow plop bingo. East Burke Village, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Free. Info, 626-4124.

COMIC BOOK CLUB: Kiddos collaborate then create their very own comic book to print and take home. Haskell Free Library & Opera House, Derby Line, 1-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 888-626-2060.

outside vermont

HOPSTOP FAMILY FILM & WORKSHOP: PIXAR SHORTS & ANIMATION CREATION: Cedar

O’Dowd of Junction Arts & Media teaches families how to craft a moving image and explore the magic of cinematic storytelling. Loew Auditorium, Hopkins Center for the Arts, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H., 11 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Free; preregister. Info, 603-646-2422.

SUN.28

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

BURLINGTON ELKS SOCCER SHOOT: Players ages 7 to 13 vie for a chance to participate in the upcoming state competition. Leddy Park, Burlington, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 862-1342.

chittenden county

LIVE IN THE ORCHARD CONCERT SERIES:

MUSIC & MOVEMENT WITH MISS EMMA:

The local legend leads little ones and their caregivers in joyful song and dance to explore the changing seasons and celebrate everyday moments. Shelburne Orchards, 10-10:45 a.m. Free. Info, 985-2753.

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, 12:30-2:30 p.m. Free. Info, 891-2014.

manchester/bennington

MOVIE MAGIC FAMILY FILM SERIES:

‘PADDINGTON 2’: Film lovers of all ages don their coziest scarfs and enjoy themed snacks while watching the beloved bear’s charming adventures on the big screen. Bennington Theater, 2 p.m. $2. Info, 500-5500.

outside vermont

CATVIDEOFEST: It’s like your TikTok feed on the silver screen! More than 70 minutes of feline cuteness delight viewers of all ages. Lebanon Opera House, N.H., 4 p.m. $13-15. Info, 603-448-0400.

MON.29

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

STORY ARTISTS: Wee ones ages 2 to 6 and their caregivers read a selection of books by a featured author, then make art inspired by the theme. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 10:3011:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

mad river valley/ waterbury

TODDLER TIME: Little kids ages 5 and under have a blast with songs, stories, rhymes and dancing. Waterbury Public Library, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 244-7036.

upper valley

STORY TIME WITH BETH: An engaging bookseller and librarian reads picture books on a different theme each week. The Norwich Bookstore, 10 a.m. Free. Info, 649-1114.

TUE.30

burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

MINECRAFT MEETUP: Fans of the sandbox game from ages 7 to 12 play on the library’s private server. Snacks provided. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 5-6:15 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

SING-ALONG WITH LINDA BASSICK: Babies, toddlers and preschoolers sing, dance and wiggle along with the local musician. Fletcher Free Library, Burlington, 11-11:30 a.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

chittenden county

CRAFTYTOWN: Kiddos express their inner artist using mediums such as paint, print, collage and sculpture. Recommended for ages 6 and up. South Burlington Public Library & City Hall, 3-4 p.m. Free. Info, 846-4140.

STORY TIME: Youngsters from 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.

barre/montpelier

BASEMENT TEEN CENTER: See FRI.26, 2-6 p.m.

SPANISH STORY TIME: Kiddos become immersed in the Romance language through stories and songs with Edisa. Kellogg-Hubbard Library, 2nd Floor, Children’s Library, Montpelier, 10:30 a.m. Free. Info, 223-3338.

northeast kingdom

LAPSIT STORY TIME: Babies 2 and under learn to love reading, singing and playing with their caregivers. Siblings welcome. St. Johnsbury Athenaeum, 10:15-10:45 a.m. Free. Info, 745-1391.

PRESCHOOL STORY TIME: See FRI.26.

WED.1 burlington

‘ANIMATIONLAND’: See WED.24.

‘CHAMP: AMERICA’S LAKE MONSTER’: See WED.24.

LIBRARY LITTLES: See WED.24.

TEEN DROP-IN: Patrons ages 12 to 18 pop by to chat with teen services librarian Miriasha, play card and board games, and build community. Snacks provided. Fletcher Free Library New North End Branch, Burlington, 2:15-3:15 p.m. Free. Info, 863-3403.

barre/montpelier

BABY & CAREGIVER MEETUP: See WED.24.

FAMILY CHESS CLUB: See WED.24.

mad river valley/ waterbury

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. K

CAMP

Socialization and Training for pups under 17 weeks

Let us do the "heavy lifting" to help you pave the way toward a happy, healthy, well-behaved puppy!

classes

THE FOLLOWING CLASS LISTINGS ARE PAID ADVERTISEMENTS. ANNOUNCE YOUR CLASS HERE FOR AS LITTLE AS $21.25/WEEK (INCLUDES SIX PHOTOS AND UNLIMITED DESCRIPTION ONLINE).

NEWSPAPER DEADLINE: MONDAYS AT 3 P.M. POST CLASS ADS AT SEVENDAYSVT.COM/POSTCLASS. GET HELP AT CLASSES@SEVENDAYSVT.COM.

arts & crafts

GARDEN CRAFTS DAY AT RED

WAGON PLANTS: Join us for a full day of creative workshops inspired by the handmade traditions from gardens and the woods. All levels welcome. Come play, learn and leave with something uniquely your own. Visit shop.redwagonplants.com/shop/ events/35 to register. CARVING WOODEN UTENSILS: (Instructor: Jennica Stetler) 3-5 p.m. Carve a spoon from local green wood using hand tools. GARDEN

BENCH BROOMS: (Instructor: Nora Woolf) 1:30-4 p.m. Make a round whisk and a garden bench broom. TERRACOTTA

PINCH POTS (Instructor: Katie Cameron) 9-10:30 a.m. Handsculpt a terracotta planter while learning pottery techniques.

FAIRY HOUSES (Instructor: Jodi Whalen) 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Craft a whimsical fairy house from sustainably foraged forest ﬁnds. FALL WOODLAND

GARLANDS (Instructor: Susan Lepple) Noon-1:30 p.m. Use grown and foraged plant materials to create a delicate and ﬂowing fall garland. INDIGO DYEING (Instructor: Lynne Gavin ) 2-4 p.m. Experience the art of indigo vat dyeing, shibori and resist techniques. Date: Sat., Sep. 27, various times from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Cost: $50-100, variable according to class. Location: Red Wagon Plants, 2408 Shelburne Falls Rd. Info: 802-482-4060, info@ redwagonplants.com.

ART CLASSES: WINGSPAN

STUDIO: Take an inspiring art class this fall, held in the artist’s studio in Burlington’s South End Arts District! Drawing class is perfect for beginners and other types of artists. Hone seeing, mark making and conﬁdence with group activities, solo sketch time and exercises. Sign up for Plein Air Weekend Workshop to develop color mixing, composition and alla prima painting techniques (some past experience required). Maggie Standley, an experienced teacher and painter, has held residencies at Vermont Studio Center and Shelburne Museum and painted at the Santurce es Ley mural/ music festival in Puerto Rico. She brings technical know-how, clear instruction and encouragement so that you can tap into your artistic voice. Get out of your comfort zone and sign up today! Starts Oct. 6. Location: Wingspan School & Studio, 4A Howard St., Burlington. Info: Maggie Standley, 802-233-7676, maggiestandley@gmail.com, wingspanstudioeduc.com.

dance

BEGINNING SWING DANCE

CLASS SERIES: You’ll get moving to big band and swing music, learn how to communicate through lead-and-follow connection, and get lots of practice with six-count footwork. is class is great for beginning-level swing students with any amount of experience (or no experience), and no partner is necessary. For more information and to register, visit vermontswings.com/ events/category/classes.

Four Tue. evenings, Oct 7-28, 7-8 p.m. DJ dance follows, 8-9:30 p.m. Cost: $15/class; $50 for the four-week series; $40 for students. Location: North Star Community Hall. 20 Crowley St., Burlington. Info: 802-864-8382, contact@vermontswings. com, vermontswings. com.

food & drink

FALAFEL, SHAWARMA & MIDDLE-EASTERN FAVORITES: Spice things up with this hands-on class from chef Ariel Voorhees of Gather Round Chef Service,

where we’ll dive into the bold, vibrant ﬂavors of the Middle East. You’ll learn to make crispy falafel, tender shawarma-style chicken, creamy hummus, and other delicious favorites that are perfect for mezze platters or weeknight dinners with ﬂair. Along the

way, we’ll talk technique, spices and how to build balanced, crave-worthy plates. We’ll ﬁnish by gathering to enjoy the feast together, because food is meant to be shared. Date: Sat., Oct. 11, 5-7 p.m. Cost: $100. Location: Red Poppy Cakery, 1 Elm St., Waterbury. Info: 203-400-0700, sevendaystickets.com.

healing arts

FALL INTO FOCUS: VISION BOARD WORKSHOP: Slow down. Reﬂect. Realign. As the seasons shift, it’s the perfect time to pause and get intentional about what’s next. In this cozy, creative workshop, you’ll craft a vision board — a powerful tool that

helps you clarify your goals, stay focused and bring your dreams to life. No experience needed. Just come ready to reﬂect, create and connect with what you truly desire. All supplies included. Ages 13-plus. Date: Sun. Sep. 28, 1-5 p.m. Cost: $70. Location: 11 Pearl St., Ste. 206, Essex Jct. Info: Ladies Social Group, 802-316-8885, celeste@ divinefeminineleaders.com, sevendaystickets.com.

language

FRENCH CLASSES CHEZ

WINGSPAN : Learn French in dynamic small group classes this fall! ree levels to choose from. Experienced teacher has lived/worked in France and West Africa. Allons-y! Privates available aussi! Classes start week of Sep. 22. Location: Wingspan Studio & School, 4A Howard St., Burlington. Info: Maggie Standley, 802-233-7676, maggiestandley@gmail.com, wingspanstudioeduc.com.

martial arts

NEW TAI CHI BEGINNERS CLASS IN BURLINGTON Long River Tai Chi Circle is the school of Wolfe Lowenthal, student of professor Cheng Man Ching and author of three classic works on Tai Chi Chaun. Patrick Cavanaugh is a longtime student and assistant of Wolfe’s and a senior instructor at Long River Tai Chi Circle in Vermont and New Hampshire

and will be teaching the class in Burlington. Starts Oct. 1, ongoing on Wed. mornings, 9-10 a.m. Registration will remain open until Oct. 29. Cost: $65/ mo. Location: In the gym at Saint Anthony’s Catholic Church, 305 Flynn Ave., Burlington. Info: Patrick Cavanaugh, 802-490-6405, patricklrtcc@gmail.com, longrivertaichinewengland.com.

AIKIDO: THE POWER OF HARMONY: Introductory classes begin Oct. 7. Cultivate core power, aerobic ﬁtness and resiliency. e dynamic, circular movements emphasize throws, joint locks and the development of internal energy. Join our community and ﬁnd resiliency, power and grace. 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. Location: Aikido of Champlain Valley, 257 Pine St., Burlington. Info: bpincus@burlingtonaikido. org, burlingtonaikido.org.

music

TAIKO TUESDAYS, DJEMBE WEDNESDAYS!: Drum with Stuart Paton! New sessions each month. Community Taiko Ensemble Beginner’s Class, Mon., 5:30-7 p.m. Taiko on Tue.: Kids & Parents Taiko, 4-5:30 p.m.; Adult Intro Taiko, 5:30-7 p.m.; Accelerated Intro Taiko, 7-8:30 p.m. Djembe on Wed.: Intermediate Djembe,

5:30-7 p.m.; Beginner Djembe, 7-8:30 p.m. Drums provided. Cost: $92/4 weeks; 90-min. classes; $72 per person for Kids & Parents class.

Location: Burlington Taiko, 208 Flynn Ave., Suite 3-G. Info: Stuart Paton, 802-448-0150, burlingtontaiko.org.

Buy & Sell »

ANTIQUES, FURNITURE, GARAGE SALES

Community »

ANNOUNCEMENTS, LOST & FOUND, SUPPORT GROUPS

Rentals & Real Estate »

APARTMENTS, HOMES, FOR SALE BY OWNER

Vehicles »

CARS, BIKES, BOATS, RVS

Services »

FINANCIAL, CHILDCARE, HOME & GARDEN

Musicians & Artists »

LESSONS, CASTING, REHEARSAL SPACE

Jobs » NO SCAMS, ALL LOCAL, POSTINGS DAILY

Charlotte

AGE/SEX: 6.5-year-old neutered female.

ARRIVAL DATE: August 11, 2025

SUMMARY: Charlotte is a bright, spirited dog with a huge heart and deep love for her people. She came into our care when her previous guardians were moving and couldn’t bring her along. Affectionate and endlessly devoted, she bonds intensely with her human and loves nothing more than cuddling under the covers! She’s also incredibly playful and energetic. Squeaky balls and games of fetch are her absolute favorites. She thrives with regular play sessions to keep her happy and balanced. She does best with a well-rounded canine companion to help her feel secure. She may show mild guarding around food items or when sharing close space with her person. She responds well to structure and should be managed thoughtfully during these moments.

DOGS/CATS/KIDS: Charlotte is dog-social. We are happy to arrange an introduction at HSCC if you have a resident canine looking for a friend. She has lived with cats and tolerated them well. She has also lived with children and enjoyed their company.

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 noon to 5 p.m. Call 862-0135 or visit hsccvt.org for more info.

DID YOU KNOW?

HSCC can facilitate dog-to-dog introductions! If you’re interested in adopting a dog and you already have one at home, we can introduce your dog to a potential new pal at HSCC to see if they get along before you take them home.

HOME & GARDEN

TREES/SHRUBS FOR SCREENING & LANDSCAPING

Arborvitae, evergreen, hardwood, apple, fruit. Field grown/container grown, state inspected, 1-year warranty. Eden, Vt. $20. Info, 802-309-4063, arborhilltreefarm@ outlook.com.

PETS & SUPPLIES

OLDE ENGLISH BULLDOGGE

Purebred, limited registration, ready to go Oct 1. $1,500. Comes w/ Vermont health certiﬁ cate. Call or text 802-486-0866.

PUG PUPPIES

Pug puppies ready mid-Oct. Fawn male, black female. Contact

SPORTING GOODS

THULE BIKE RACK

4-bicycle hitch rack. Great condition. $150. Contact 239-410-8326.

PING-PONG TABLE

Standard Ping-Pong table. Excellent condition. Paddle set incl. Pick up in Quechee, VT. $30. Info, 617-417-6816, 73carroll@gmail.com.

WANT TO BUY

TOP CASH PAID FOR OLD GUITARS

Looking for 1920-1980 Gibson, Martin, Fender, Gretsch, Epiphone, Guild, Mosrite, Rickenbacker, Prairie State, D’Angelico & Stromberg guitars + Gibson mandolins & banjos. ese brands only! Call for a quote: 1-855-402-7208. (AAN CAN)

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

Communit y ommuni

ANNOUNCEMENTS

OPERA LOVERS COMMUNITY

Chat about favorite singers, recordings, opera houses, etc. If you sing, that’s a plus! Call 802-497-0912.

not incl. Pet-friendly dependent on vet recommendation. Background check req. through avail. com. Baseboard heating (fuel oil), town water. 1-year lease followed by mo. to mo. if agreeable. 1st, last + security. Avail. Oct. 15. Beautiful large porch. Info, 802-5035834, karynvtparker@ gmail.com.

BURLINGTON HEATED 2-BR NOW $1,500, HEATED 3-BR NOW

$1,700

MUSIC LESSONS

GUITAR INSTRUCTION

All styles/levels. Emphasis on building strong technique, thorough musicianship, developing personal style. Paul Asbell (Big Joe Burrell, Kilimanjaro, UVM & Middlebury College faculty, Seven Daysies winner). Info, 802-233-7731, pasbell@ paulasbell.com.

31 S. Willard St. Unfurnished 2-BR, 1-BA, 903 sq.ft. Good-size 2nd ﬂ oor 2-BR, avail. now. We pay building heat & cold water; tenants pay utils. $1,500/mo. Also, very roomy 3-BR avail. now, We pay heat & cold water; tenants pay utils. $1,700/mo. W/D in basement for 3-BR apt. Good locations. Info: 802-318-8916, jcintl0369@gmail.com.

BURLINGTON: HISTORICALLY PRESERVED 2-BR, $2,500, 1,100 SQ.FT. WALK TO UVM, WINOOSKI, SHOPS, YOGA

BURLINGTON CAN BE AFFORDABLE! 1-BR, 1-BA. Host in her 80s w/ a knack for interior design & a love for good food & good books is seeking a housemate to drive her to the grocery store, lend a hand in the garden & share some cooking/meals (on a ﬂ exible schedule). $300/mo. Interview, refs. & background checks req. EHO. Info, 802-863-5625 or info@homeshare vermont.org, or visit homesharevermont.org for application.

Karthaus helps people w/ gut pain, bloating, diarrhea/constipation & sleep problems to poop well & sleep soundly! ose w/ brain fog, fatigue & post-concussion symptoms feel changes within weeks! You CAN feel like yourself again. Info, 802-5564341, admin@innata naturopathicmedicine. com, innatanaturo pathicmedicine.com

HOME & GARDEN

PROTECT YOUR HOME

Home break-ins take less than 60 seconds. Don’t wait! Protect your family, your home, your assets now for as little as 70 cents a day! Call 1-833-881-2713.

BEAUTIFUL BATH

UPDATES

495 Colchester Ave. Water view, airy. Bonus loft & full, large BA. NS, pets OK. A/C, DW, W/D in unit. On-street parking, near bus stop. New utils. & ﬁ xtures. Only 4 units in building. Owner managed. Pictures on Facebook under BP at 495 Colchester Ave. #3. Virtual tour avail. by text upon request. Info, 802-349-6929, kbrb@ shoreham.net.

APARTMENTS & HOUSES FOR RENT

3-BR IN VICTORIAN GINGERBREAD IN STARKSBORO, VT

12 Big Hollow Rd. Unfurnished 3-BR, 1-BA. $1,300/mo. Utils.

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

BURLINGTON/ DOWNTOWN: ONLY 2 UNITS LEFT 131 Church St. Two unfurnished, brand-new 2-BR apts. for rent. Avail. Oct. 1. Amenities incl. A/C, keyless entry, W/D in unit & more. Efﬁ cient & cozy. $3,100 & $3,300. Call 802-238-4309.

HOUSEMATES

SHARE SOME COMPANY, SHARE A HOME

Active retiree in Bristol who enjoys walking, gardening & cooking for friends is seeking a housemate to share a bit of company & some meals, in addition to light household assistance. $400/mo. A gentle dog would be considered! Familiarity w/ memory loss is a plus but not a must. Info, 802-863-5625 or info@homeshare vermont.org, or visit homesharevermont.org for application. Interview, refs. & background checks req. EHO.

ELECTRONICS

AFFORDABLE TV & INTERNET

If you are overpaying for your service, call now for a free quote & see how much you can save: 1-844-588-6579. (AAN CAN)

FINANCIAL & LEGAL

GET TAX RELIEF

Do you owe more than $10,000 to the IRS or state in back taxes? Get tax relief now! We’ll ﬁght for you! Call 1-877-7036117. (AAN CAN)

GET DISABILITY BENEFITS

You may qualify for disability beneﬁ ts if you are between 52 & 63 years old & under a doctor’s care for a health condition that prevents you from working for a year or more. Call now: 1-877-247-6750. (AAN CAN)

STOP OVERPAYING FOR AUTO INSURANCE

A recent survey says that most Americans are overpaying for their car insurance. Let us show you how much you can save. Call now for a no-obligation quote: 1-833-399-1539. (AAN CAN)

HEALTH & WELLNESS

GUT PROBLEMS, INSOMNIA & BRAIN HEALTH? ACCEPTING NEW PATIENTS! W/ 10 years of clinical experience, Dr. Cheryl

Beautiful bath updates in as little as 1 day! Superior quality bath & shower systems at affordable prices. Lifetime warranty & professional installs. Call now: 1-833-4232558. (AAN CAN)

PEST CONTROL

Protect your home from pests safely & affordably. Roaches, bedbugs, rodents, termites, spiders & other pests. Locally owned & affordable. Call for a quote, service or an inspection today: 1-833-237-1199. (AAN CAN)

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)

AGING ROOF? NEW HOMEOWNER? STORM DAMAGE?

You need a local expert provider that proudly stands behind its work. Fast, free estimate. Financing avail. Call 1-888-292-8225. (AAN CAN)

NEED NEW WINDOWS?

Drafty rooms? Chipped or damaged frames? Need outside noise reduction? New, energy-efﬁ cient windows may be the answer! Call for a consultation & free quote today: 1-877-2489944. (AAN CAN)

Using the enclosed math operations as a guide, ll the grid using the numbers 1 - 6 only once in each row and column.

Sudoku

Show and tell. 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.

Open 24/7/365. Post & browse ads at your convenience. Extra! Extra! There’s no limit to ad length online.

WANT MORE PUZZLES?

Try these online news games from Seven Days at sevendaysvt.com/games.

Put your knowledge of Vermont news to the test.

CALCOKU 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.

SUDOKU BY JOSH

REYNOLDS

DIFFICULTY THIS WEEK: HH

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 in a row or column.

ANSWERS ON P.78 H = MODERATE H H = CHALLENGING H H H = HOO, BOY!

See how fast you can solve this weekly 10-word puzzle.

Legal Notices

VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT

LAMOILLE UNIT PROBATE DIVISON

CASE NO. 25-PR-03621

NOTICE OF HEARING AND ORDER FOR PUBLICATION

Estate of: Eileen Murphy

TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS:

The following petition/motion, Petition to Open an Estate and Appoint Fiduciary, has been filed in the Probate Division of the Superior Court: May 28, 2025.

A hearing on the petition/motion will be held at: 9:00 AM on October 30th 2025 at the abovenamed court.

If no one appears at the hearing to object, the relief requested may be granted. If you wish to receive notice of future events in this proceeding, you must notify the Court by filing a Notice of Appearance form that can be found on the Vermont Judiciary website.

It is hereby ORDERED that the notice of hearing as set forth in the Order be published in The Seven Days, a newspaper of general circulation in Lamoille County.

Publication date: September 24th, 2025

Electronically signed pursuant to VRE.F. 9(d) 8/26/2025

/s/ Probate Judge, James R Dean Mahoney

Any individual with a disability requiring assistance accessing the services, programs, and/or activities at the Courthouse should contact the Clerk’s office at the above address for further assistance.

Lamoille Unit

154 Main Street

Hyde Park, VT 05655

802-888-3887

www.vermontjudiciary.org

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).

Rule 9.000 Rule Regarding the Installation, Construction, Operation, and Aggregation of Energy Storage Facilities.

Vermont Proposed Rule: 25P035

AGENCY: Public Utility Commission

CONCISE SUMMARY: The rule includes provisions that govern: (1) application-based process for the issuance of a certificate of public good for certain energy storage facilities under the provisions of 30. V.S.A. § 248; and (2) other requirements for all energy storage facilities that address: (a) interconnection; (b) safety standards; (c) respective duties of distribution utilities, transmission utilities, and energy storage facility owners and operators and energy storage aggregators; (d) participation in wholesale energy markets; and (e) decommissioning.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, CONTACT: Mary Jo Krolewski, Vermont Public Utility Commission, 112 State Street 4th Fl. Montpelier, VT 05602 Tel: 802-828-2358 E-Mail: mary-jo.krolewski@ vermont.gov URL: https://epuc.vermont. gov/?q=node/64/163053.

FOR COPIES: Jake Marren, Vermont Public Utility Commission, 112 State Street 4th Fl. Montpelier, VT 05602 Tel: 802-828-2358 E-Mail: jake.marren@ vermont.gov.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

ER UUSD invites all interested, qualified persons or firms to submit proposals for the construction of a “Snack Shack” at Enosburg Falls High School on Dickenson Street in Enosburg Falls, VT. RFP requests should be sent to: Vernon Boomhover

(802) 848-7661; [vernon.boomhover@fnesu.org]. Proposals will be due October 13, 2025, with a bidder walkthrough on September 29, 2025.

REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

NMV UUSD invites all interested, qualified persons or firms to submit proposals for the replacement of two steam boilers at Sheldon Elementary School on Poor Farm Road in Sheldon VT. RFP requests should be sent to: Vernon Boomhover (802) 848-7661; [vernon.boomhover@fnesu.org]. Proposals will be due January 5, 2026, with a bidder walkthrough on November 3, 2025.

NORTHFIELD MUTUAL HOLDING COMPANY NOTICE OF ANNUAL MEETING

A Special Meeting of the Corporators of the Northfield Mutual Holding Company will be held October 9, 2025 at the Capitol Plaza Hotel, 100 State St, Montpelier at 6:30PM. The matters to be considered include the election of a Corporator and a Director. Please call (802) 871-4492 for information.

PROPOSALS TO AMEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF VERMONT

The Vermont General Assembly is proposing voters amend the Constitution of the State of Vermont.

Proposal 3 has passed two successive legislative sessions and will appear on the November 2026 ballot for voter approval. Proposal 4 is pending legislative approval in the second year of the biennium. If approved, Proposal 4 will also appear on the November 2026 ballot.

See proposals below:

Proposal 3: This proposal would amend the Constitution of the State of Vermont to provide that the citizens of the State have a right to collectively bargain.

Article 2* of Chapter I of the Vermont Constitution is added to read:

Article 2*. [Right to collectively bargain]

That employees have a right to organize or join a labor organization for the purpose of collectively bargaining with their employer through an exclusive representative of their choosing for the purpose of negotiating wages, hours, and working conditions and to protect their economic welfare

and safety in the workplace. Therefore, no law shall be adopted that interferes with, negates, or diminishes the right of employees to collectively bargain with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment and workplace safety, or that prohibits the application or execution of an agreement between an employer and a labor organization representing the employer’s employees that requires membership in the labor organization as a condition of employment.

Proposal 4: This proposal would amend the Constitution of the State of Vermont to specify that the government must not deny equal treatment and respect under the law on account of a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin.

Article 2* of Chapter I of the Vermont Constitution is added to read:

Article 2*. [Equality of rights]

That the people are guaranteed equal protection under the law. The State shall not deny equal treatment under the law on account of a person’s race, ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or national origin. Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted or applied to prevent the adoption or implementation of measures intended to provide equality of treatment and opportunity for members of groups that have historically been subject to discrimination.

NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE, CHAMPLAIN HOUSING TRUST

Rose Street Basement Storage, 78 Rose Street, Burlington, VT 05401. The contents of the following self-storage units will be sold at public auction on September 29, 2025 at 12:30.

Angela Izzo #04, #07, #15, #18, #24 and #28.

Units will be opened for viewing immediately prior to the auction. Cash only. Contents of each storage unit will be sold as one lot.

NOTICE FROM THE ESTATE OF JAMES S. FRY, ESQUIRE ESSEX JUNCTION, VT

The estate of James S. Fry, Esquire, located at 17 Wrisley Court, Essex Junction, Vermont is trying to reach the following former clients of Attorney Fry, or their personal representatives if the client is deceased:

Andrew Rupert Burnum

James Casali, III

Sharron Casali

Penny Diane Drinkwine

Edward Stuart Hanbridge

Karen Lynch Hanbridge

Eliazbeth McDonald

Janet M. Mullin

Elizabeth A. Preston

Ruth Remillard

Anne Mae True

Please contact Michelle Miller via email at michellegmiller@gmail.com or by calling 802-3731934 no later than November 15, 2025.

NOTICE OF SELF STORAGE LIEN SALE

Exit 16 Self Storage 295 Rathe Rd Colchester Vt 05446

Notice is hereby given that the contents of the storage unit will be sold at auction

Bernie Miller 20 x 30

Scott Boutwell 5 x 10

Brandy StPeter 5 x 10

Luther Nance 5 x 10

Units will be opened for viewing immediately prior to the auction.

Sale shall be by live auction to the highest bidder. Contents of the entire storage unit will be sold as one lot.

All winning bidders will be required to pay a $50.00 deposit which will be refunded once the unit is empty and broom swept clean.

The winning bid must remove all contents from the facility within 72 hours of bid acceptance at no cost to Exit 16 Self Storage. Exit 16 Self Storage reserves the right to remove any unit from the auction should current tenant pay the outstanding balance in full prior to the start of the auction.

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT

PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT

DOCKET NO.: 25-PR-04010

In re ESTATE of Rita I. Weston

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Rita I. Weston, late of Essex Junction, Vermont

I have been appointed to administer this estate. All creditors having claims against the decedent or the estate must present their claims in writing within four (4) months of the date of the first publication of this notice. The claim must be presented to me at the address listed below with a copy sent to the Court. The claim may be barred forever if it is not presented within the four (4) month period.

Dated: September 17, 2025

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Donna J. Piche

Executor/Administrator: Donna J. Piche, P.O. Box 3051, Burlington, VT 05408 cmicciche@miccichelaw.com (802) 318-6201

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 09/24/2025

Name of Probate Court: State of VermontChittenden Probate Division

Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401

OPENINGS

BURLINGTON CITY COMMISSIONS/BOARDS

**UPDATED AS OF SEPTEMBER 18, 2025 LO**

Chittenden Solid Waste District-alternate

Term Expires 5/31/26 One Opening

Conservation Board

Term Expires 6/30/27 One Opening Electric Light Commission

Term Expires 6/30/28 One Opening Vehicle for Hire Licensing Board

Term Expires 6/30/28 One Opening Winooski Valley Park District

Term Expires 6/30/27 One Opening

Applications may be submitted to the Clerk/ Treasurer’s Office, 149 Church Street, Burlington, VT 05401 Attn: Lori NO later than Wednesday, October 15, 2025, by 4:30 pm. If you have any questions, please contact Lori at (802) 865-7136 or via email lolberg@burlingtonvt.gov.

City Council President Traverse and Mayor Mulvaney-Stanak will plan for appointments to take place at the October 21, 2025 City Council Meeting/City Council With Mayor Presiding Meeting.

ACT 250 NOTICE

APPLICATION 4C1365 AND HEARING

10 V.S.A. §§ 6000 - 6111

Application 4C1365 from Rivers Edge Building

Development Co., LLC, 41 Gauthier Drive, Suite #1, Essex Jct, VT 05452 and Jacob Glaser, 185 Allen Brook Lane, Williston, VT 05495, was received on August 27, 2025 and deemed complete on September 12, 2025. The project is generally described as the construction of two new local roadways to serve 107 new residential dwelling units on the south/west corner of Old Stage Rd. and Mountain View Rd. in Williston. The project tract is 94.66 acres, which will be

subdivided into three lots; two of the lots (14.98 acres and 33.44 acres) will be dedicated to the Town of Williston, totaling 48.42 acres. The remaining 46.24 acre lot will include 107 footprint lots for the residential dwelling units, resulting in the creation of 110 total new lots. The project is located at Old Stage/Mtn. View Road in Williston, Vermont.

The District 4 Environmental Commission will hold a site visit on October 14, 2025 at 1:00 PM, with a public hearing on the application to follow at 1:45 PM. This hearing will be conducted both in-person and via Microsoft Teams video conferencing software (Teams). To access the Teams meeting, click on the following link, or enter the meeting ID and passcode by clicking on the button in the upper right corner of your Teams calendar window that says “# Join with an ID.”

• Teams Meeting Link: 4C1365 Act 250 Hearing | Meeting-Join | Microsoft Teams

• Meeting ID: 247 037 988 284 6

• Passcode: 8fC64bx2

The public hearing will be held at 111 West St., Essex Junction, VT.

If you are unable to participate in person or by using Teams, you may still call in to the hearing:

• Dial: 802-828-7667

• Enter Conference ID: 390 429 837#

• To raise hand: Press *5

• To mute and un-mute: Press *6

The application may be viewed on the Land Use Review Board’s website (https://act250.vermont. gov) by clicking “Act 250 Database” and entering the project number “4C1365.” To request party status, fill out the Party Status Petition Form on the Board’s website: https://act250.vermont. gov/documents/party-status-petition-form, and email it to the District 4 Office at: Act250.Essex@ vermont.gov.

If you have a disability for which you need accommodation in order to participate in this process (including participating in the public hearing), please notify us as soon as possible, in order to allow us as much time as possible to accommodate your needs. For more information, contact Kaitlin Hayes, District Coordinator before the hearing date at the address or telephone number below.

Dated September 18, 2025

By: /s/Kaitlin Hayes

Kaitlin Hayes

District Coordinator 111 West Street Essex Junction, VT 05452 (802) 622-4084 kaitlin.hayes@vermont.gov

TOWN OF RICHMOND

DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD (DRB) AGENDA OCTOBER 8, 2025 AT 7:00 PM

THIS IS A HYBRID MEETING WITH ON-SITE AND REMOTE ACCOMMODATIONS

3rd floor Meeting Room A, Richmond Town Offices, 203 Bridge Street Richmond, VT PLEASE NOTE: In accordance with Act 1 (H.42) 2023, this meeting will be held onsite, via Zoom or by phone. You do not need a computer to attend this meeting. You may use the “Join by Phone” number to call from a cell phone or landline; this is a toll-free number. When prompted, enter the meeting information provided below to join by phone. For additional information and accommodations to improve accessibility of this meeting, please contact Dante DeNault at (802) 556-4959 or preferably at ddenault@ richmondvt.gov.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89057870483

Join by phone: +1 929 205 6099 US (New York) Meeting ID: 890 5787 0483

Passcode: 771583

Application materials for review: Development Review Board 10/8/25 - Town of Richmond, VT

PUBLIC HEARING:

Item 1

CUR 2025-04 Marc Shattuck

Parcel ID #DG2941

Project description: Applicant seeks approval for an

Bay Ridge Apartments

Margaret’s Way, Shelburne [corner of Champlain Road & Route 7]

NEW one, two, three and four bedroom apartments in Shelburne’s newest neighborhood!

PROPERTY FEATURES

Rent includes: heat, hot water, electricity, trash & snow removal, air conditioning, Wi-Fi

Laundry: free on-site

Parking: free on-site

Other features: community gardens, playground

PRICING*

1 bedroom > $1,300-$1,441

2 bedroom > $1,525-$1,887

an application and additional information, visit us online at www.getahome.org/bayridgeapartments or call 802.862.6244.

emergency streambank stabilization project under the Conditional Use Review (CUR) process. Project is located at 2941 Dugway Road, a 10.95-acre lot. The planned work is for the construction of a rip rap stabilized stream bank of the Huntington River.

Seven Days | 1/3 page ad | 8/13/25 publishing

(1713 Route 128) & via ZOOM on Monday, October 13th, 2025 at 7:00 PM to review the following applications:

Application: Final Plat Review

Applicant: William Paden

Item 2

SUB 2025-07 Michael Sipe Jr.

Parcel ID #WF0060

Project description: Applicant seeks both Preliminary and Final approval to subdivide 60 Wolf Lane, an existing 15 acre-lot (lot 8), into two lots of 1.74 (lot 8) and 13.26 (lot 15) acres respectively . No development is proposed other than creating new parcel lines (which will restore the 1.74 acre parcel to its original 2006 configuration, pre-2008 subdivision modification).

TOWN OF WESTFORD DEVELOPMENT REVIEW BOARD NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARINGS

Pursuant to 24 V.S.A. Chapter 117 and the Westford Land Use & Development Regulations, the Westford Development Review Board will hold public hearings at the Westford Town Offices

Property Location: Paden Property – Plains Road (approx. 124.5 acres)

Zoning Districts: Rural 3, Rural 10, and Water Resource Overlay

This proposal is a request for final plat approval of a 3-lot minor subdivision.

Application: Reaffirmation of Final Plat Approval

Applicant: Lee Hendler

Property Location: Swansong Take Two, LLC

Property – Route 128 (approx. 82.8 acres)

Zoning Districts: Rural 5, Rural 10, Water Resource Overlay, Flood Hazard Overlay

This proposal is a request to reaffirm a previously approved 8-unit, 9-lot subdivision and PUD.

Rendering by Duncan Wisniewski Architecture

Legal Notices

Join Zoom Meeting:

Meeting ID: 916 8396 9175 – Passcode: 6G0AL8

For more information call the Town Offices at 878-4587 Monday–Thursday 8:30am–4:30pm & Friday 8:30am-1:00pm

ENFORCEMENT OF LIEN, CHAMPLAIN VALLEY

SELF STORAGE, LLC

In accordance with VT Title 9 Commerce and Trade Chapter 098: Storage Units 3905. Enforcement of Lien, Champlain Valley Self Storage, LLC shall host a private auction of the following units on or after October 11, 2025:

Location: 2211 Main st Colchester VT

Contents: household goods

Savanna Culver: #923

Billy Jo Ducharme: #910

Jocelyn Holcomb: #606

Location: 78 Lincoln St. Essex Jct. VT

Contents: household goods

Matthew Norris: #062

Zhenya Ford: #074

Jason Mckee: #044

Auction pre-registration is required, email info@ champlainvalleyselfstorage.com to register.

CVSS,llc reserves the right to reject any bid lower than the amount owed by the occupant or that is not commercially reasonable as defined by statute. Any person claiming a right to the goods may pay the amount claimed due and reasonable expenses

PLACE AN AFFORDABLE NOTICE AT: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LEGAL-NOTICES OR CALL 802-865-1020, EXT. 142.

before the sale, in which case the sale may not occur.

IN ACCORDANCE WITH VT TITLE 9 COMMERCE AND TRADE CHAPTER 098: STORAGE UNITS 3905.

Enforcement of Lien, Stuff-It Self-Storage LLC shall host a live auction of the following unit on 10/7/25 at 4:30PM:

Location: 930 Main St, Fairfax, VT 05454

Jessica True, unit #55: household goods

Cary Snow, unit #9: household goods

Naomi Shaw, unit #101: household goods

Contents sold as is, and need to be removed within 48 hours at no cost to Stuff-It Self-Storage LLC. Purchase must be made in cash and paid in advance of the removal of the contents of the unit. A $50 cash deposit shall be made and will be refunded if the unit is broom cleaned. Stuff-It Self-Storage LLC reserves the right to accept or reject bids.

BIDDING FOR THE HVAC SERVICES AND PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT FOR THE COLCHESTER POLICE STATION IS NOW OPEN.

Link to documents is below.

Proposals for HVAC Services and Preventative Maintenance Agreement for the Colchester Police Station (herein called SERVICES), will be received by the Town of Colchester (herein called the “OWNER”), at the Colchester Town Office Building at 781 Blakely Road, Colchester, Vermont until Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 2:00 PM, and then at said office publicly opened and read aloud. A bid tabulation will be prepared and distributed upon

Support Groups

A CIRCLE OF PARENTS SUPPORT GROUPS

Please join our professionally facilitated, peer-led support groups 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. 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

If you want to drink, that’s your business. If you want to stop, that’s ours. Call the Vermont statewide anonymous hotline: 802-802-2288. Alcoholics Anonymous holds daily meetings all over Vermont, both in person & online. See burlingtonaa.org for meetings, news & events in Chittenden & Grand Isle counties. For meeting & events throughout Vermont, see aavt.org.

ALZHEIMER’S ASSOCIATION SUPPORT GROUPS

Support groups meet to provide assistance & info on Alzheimer’s disease & related dementias. They emphasize shared experiences, emotional support & coping techniques in care for a person living w/ Alzheimer’s or a related dementia. Meetings are free & open to the public. Families, caregivers & friends may attend. Please call in advance to confirm the date & time. The Williston caregiver support group meets in person on the 2nd & 4th Tue. of every mo., 5-6:30 p.m., at the Old Brick Church in Williston. Contact support group facilitators Molly at dugan@ cathedralsquare.org or Mindy at moondog@ burlingtontelecom.net. The Middlebury support group for individuals w/ early stage dementia meets on the 4th Tue. of each mo., 3 p.m., at the Residence

request by interested parties. The contract for the SERVICES described within these specifications will be for a period of three (3) years. https://www.colchestervt.gov/ DocumentCenter/View/11527/ PD-HVAC-Services-and-PM-Contract---2025

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT PROBATE DIVISION WINDHAM UNIT

DOCKET NO.: 25-PR-04883

In re ESTATE of Helke Kallenbach

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Helke Kallenbach, late of Londonderry, Vermont.

Dated: September 22, 2025

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Launa L. Slater

Executor/Administrator: Charles Kallenbach, c/o Launa L. Slater, Wiener & Slater, PLLC, 110 Main Street, Suite 4F, Burlington, VT 05401

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 09/24/2025

Name of Probate Court: Windham Probate Court Address of Probate Court: 30 Putney Road, Brattleboro, VT 05301

CONTACT CLASSIFIEDS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM OR 802-865-1020 EXT. 115 TO UPDATE YOUR SUPPORT GROUP

STATE OF VERMONT SUPERIOR COURT

PROBATE DIVISION CHITTENDEN UNIT

DOCKET NO.: 25-PR-05203

In re ESTATE of Henry J. Gretkowski

NOTICE TO CREDITORS

To the creditors of: Henry J. Gretkowski, late of Burlington, Vermont

Dated: September 22, 2025

Signature of Fiduciary: /s/ Michael Gretkowski

Executor/Administrator: Michael Gretkowski, c/o Glenn A. Jarrett of Jarrett | Hoyt, 1795 Williston Road, Suite 125, South Burlington, VT 05403 Phone Number: 802-864-5951 Email: glenn@vtelaw.com

Name of Publication: Seven Days Publication Date: 09/24/2025

Name of Probate Court: Vermont Superior Court Chittenden Probate Division Address of Probate Court: 175 Main Street, Burlington, VT 05401

at Otter Creek, 350 Lodge Rd., Middlebury. Contact is Daniel Hamilton, dhamilton@residenceottercreek. com or 802-989-0097. The Shelburne support group for individuals w/ early stage dementia meets on the 1st Mon. of every mo., 2-3 p.m., at the Residence at Shelburne Bay, 185 Pine Haven Shores, Shelburne. Contact is support group facilitator Lydia Raymond, lraymond@residenceshelburnebay.com. The telephone support group meets on the 2nd Tue. of each mo., 4-5:30 p.m. Preregistration is required (to receive dial-in codes for toll-free call). Please dial the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-7 Helpline, 800-272-3900, or visit alz.org for more info. For questions or additional support group listings, call 800-272-3900.

ANXIETY RELIEF GROUP

Anxiety Relief Group is a safe setting for relaxing & exploring your feelings w/ others through gentle socialization & self-expression, building up what makes you centered & strong. Wed., 4-5:30 p.m. Both in-person & Zoom options avail. In-person meetings are held at the Fletcher Free Library’s Fletcher Room in Burlington. Email us for the Zoom link & more info: pvcc@pathwaysvermont.org.

BRAIN INJURY SUPPORT GROUP

Vermont Center for Independent Living offers virtual monthly meetings, held on the 3rd Wed. 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.

CONVERSATIONS ABOUT SUICIDE

Conversations About Suicide is a judgment-free & open space to talk about personal experiences of suicidal ideation. The group is facilitated by peer support staff w/ lived experience of suicidality. Thu., 4-5 p.m., at Vermont Wellness Collaborative, 125 College St., 3rd Floor, Burlington. Email us for more info: pvcc@pathwaysvermont.org.

DISABILITY 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 Mon., 1:15-2:15 p.m., at Fletcher Free Library’s Pickering Room & online on Zoom. Email us for the Zoom link & more info: pvcc@ pathwaysvermont.org.

FCA FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP

Families Coping with Addiction (FCA) is an open community peer support group for adults (18+) struggling with the drug or alcohol addiction of a loved one. FCA is not 12-step-based but provides a forum for those living the family experience, in which to develop personal coping skills & to draw strength from one another. Our group meets every Wed., 5:30-6:30 p.m., live in person in the conference room at the Turning Point Center of Chittenden County (179 S. Winooski Ave., Burlington), &/or via our parallel Zoom session to accommodate those who cannot attend in person. The Zoom link can be found on the Turning Point Center website (turning pointcentervt.org) using the “Family Support” tab (click on “What We Offer”). Any questions, please send by email to tdauben@aol.com.

FOOD ADDICTS IN RECOVERY ANONYMOUS (FA)

Are you having trouble controlling the way you eat? FA is a free 12-step recovery program for

anyone suffering from food obsession, overeating, under-eating or bulimia. Local meetings are held on Mon., 4-5:30 p.m., via Zoom. For more info & a list of additional meetings throughout the U.S. & the world, call 603-630-1495 or visit foodaddicts.org.

FRESH START: A TOBACCO/VAPE QUIT WORKSHOP

Join a free 4- or 5-week group workshop facilitated by our coaches, who are certified in tobacco treatment. We meet in a friendly, relaxed & virtual atmosphere. You may qualify for a free limited supply of nicotine replacement therapy. Info: call 802-847-7333 or email quittobaccoclass@uvmhealth.org to get signed up, or visit myhealthyvt.org to learn more about upcoming workshops.

GRIEVING A LOSS SUPPORT GROUP

A retired psychotherapist & an experienced life coach host a free meeting for those grieving the loss of a loved one. The group meets upstairs at All Souls Interfaith Gathering in Shelburne. There is no fee for attending, but donations are gladly accepted. Meetings are held on the 1st & 3rd Sat. of every mo., 10-11:30 a.m. If you are interested in attending, please register at allsoulsinterfaith. org. (More information about the group leader at pamblairbooks.com.)

HEARING VOICES SUPPORT GROUP

This Hearing Voices Group seeks to find understanding of voice-hearing experiences as real lived experiences that may happen to anyone at any time. We choose to share experiences, support & empathy. We validate anyone’s experience & stories about their experience as their own, as being an honest & accurate representation of their experience, & as being acceptable exactly as they are. Tue., 2:30-4 p.m. Vermont Wellness Collaborative (125 College St., 3rd Floor). Email us for more information: pvcc@pathwaysvermont.org.

Program Manager

For full description and to apply, please visit: advancevermont.org/jobs

Digital Print Assistant/ Customer Service

The Minuteman team is hiring for our satellite site in Montpelier. We seek a hard-working individual with a background in digital print production. Knowledge of most major design software important. Light bindery skills would be helpful but we will train the right individual. Must be organized and have a keen eye for quality in a deadline driven environment. Excellent phone, email, and interpersonal skills while interacting with our customers is very important. Ability to work independently without direct supervision is a must. Full or part time and can be somewhat flexible. $24-$28 per hour depending on experience. Other benefits included for full time.

Send resumes to

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

POST YOUR JOBS AT: PRINT DEADLINE: FOR RATES & INFO: MICHELLE@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

IT/AV Technician

The Clerk’s Office for the United States District Court is seeking a qualified individual with excellent analytical, organizational and interpersonal skills capable of functioning in a dynamic, teamoriented environment. The duty station is Burlington, Vermont. Full federal benefits apply.

Complete job description and formal application requirements are found in the oﬃcial Position Announcement available from any U.S. District Court oﬃce (Burlington and Rutland) or the court’s website.

4t-USDistrictCourt092425.indd 1

Accounting/Payroll Clerk

One day a week - $22 - $25 an hour.

Responsible for the successful operation of payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable and resident billing.

Looking for someone that is detail orientated, a team player with positive interaction skills. Has some flexibility in scheduling if needed.

We offer a collaborative working environment and a 403b retirement plan.

Assistant Operations Manager

32 hrs a week - $30-$35 an hour

Responsible for oversight of daily operations/department meetings, onboarding & orientation of new hires/benefits, upkeep of website & Facebook, grant tracking, supplies management. Assists Executive Director in additional tasks necessary for successful operation of the Center.

Are you a positive communicator with some supervisory/management experience and organizational skills? Consider joining our organization and dedicated team of compassionate caregivers. Experience in residential care a plus.

This position qualifies for Health, Dental, Retirement and Paid Time Off Benefits. NOTE: These two positions could be combined for the right candidate. Contact Kim at 802-586-2415 or email your resume to kroberge@craftsburycarecenter.org.

DRIVERS NEEDED

Skilled Carpenters

New West Building Company is a general contractor based in Stowe, VT., and is seeking skilled carpenters.

Trim carpentry experience is a plus. Competitive pay DOE

($35–$50/hr) with beneﬁts including insurance and 401K match after one year.

Please send resume to jobs@newwestbc.com

Busy solo law office representing housing providers/landlords seeks full-time dependable, hardworking, detail-oriented and personable administrative assistant to support the team with strong communication, organizational & computer skills. Experience with VT Court e-filing system & Office 365 preferred but not required. Starting at $21+/hr. depending on experience with benefits.

Send resume to Atty. Nadine Scibek, 180 Battery St., Ste. 200, Burlington, VT 05401 or email nadine@nlslawvt.com

Seeking a companion for our 31-year-old daughter who is developmentally delayed. She takes full care of herself. Companion would support her involvement in community-oriented activities. Must have driver’s licence and car. No smoking. Monday-Friday, 1 day or more. Please call or email with questions.

Morton Bostock, morton.bostock@gmail.com

PART-TIME ACCOUNTING ASSISTANT

Clean Energy Group (CEG) is seeking an experienced and self-motivated individual with bookkeeping skills to join our team. A strong candidate will have evidenced experience with bookkeeping/accounting and be meticulous with details and accuracy. Additional details below.

DESIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience in and knowledge of bookkeeping and generally accepted accounting principles

• Advanced Excel ability

• Familiarity with Sage accounting software and Paydata/Assure payroll platform helpful but not required

• Detailed-oriented and thorough

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills

• Personable and enjoys working on a small team, while also capable of independent, self-directed work

• Able to maintain utmost confidentiality

• Ability to work onsite from CEG’s office in downtown Montpelier

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE POSITION:

• Part-time position averaging 15 hours per week – work schedule can be flexible based on individual preference, workload, and organizational needs

• Salary commensurate with experience starting at $24/hour

Interested in applying? Please send a resume and a letter of interest to Anna Whitlock at careers@cleangroup.org. The letter of interest should be between 4-6 sentences and include why you are interested in this position and highlight your specific qualifications based on the job description.

The Family Room is Hiring

Food Program Coordinator

We've got the recipes, the pantry, and the people— now we just need YOU! The Family Room is looking for a passionate Food Program Coordinator. Part-time, pay rate $23/hr & benefits. Apply now and help families thrive: thefamilyroomvt. org/now-hiring

exciting place to work. You will be part of a highly professional and collegial team that is proud of, and enthusiastic about, the mission of the state legislature.

Front of House

We are looking to fill a part-time front of house position with a bright, positive, and motivated individual with previous experience in the service industry. Position entails working in a fast-paced setting, working well under pressure, taking orders and maintaining attentiveness to all guests’ needs and having a teamoriented personality that can also work independently and professionally. The rate is $15 plus tip. Please send a resume to: chiuhos@asinglepebble.com

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HIGHWAY CREW!

Animal Shelter Associate

Play a key role in the well-being of animals and ensure a positive experience for the public in the Adoption Center. The team cares for an average of 80 animals daily and works to create a safe, clean, and comfortable environment to help animals acclimate as they transition to new homes. If you are a compassionate and dependable person with strong customer service skills - we want to hear from you! Experience in a veterinary hospital, animal welfare organization, or animal care facility is helpful but not required. You must also be available for weekend and holiday work to be considered.

The position starts at $19/hr, includes paid vacation, sick, and holiday time, as well as access to health, dental, and vision benefits. Visit our online application for a full job description and to apply: hsccvt.org/Join-Our-Team

Graduate Nurse Residency Program

Build your skills – with support.

Kickstart your nursing career with the support you need at our not-for-profit, rural critical access hospital. Apply for our Summer 2025 program on the Medical-Surgical Unit. Receive hands-on training with experienced preceptors, exposure to diverse patient populations, and education on essential nursing skills in a mentorship-driven atmosphere. Why NVRH? Collaborate with a dedicated team, gain valuable experience, and enjoy work-life balance in a welcoming rural community while making a meaningful impact on patients’ lives.

Requirements: Enthusiastic new graduates with a Bachelor’s or Associate’s Degree in Nursing and eligibility for a Vermont or multi-state Compact RN license. Benefits Include: Competitive compensation, student loan repayment, tuition reimbursement, paid time off, and more. About Us: Located in St. Johnsbury, Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital serves over 30,000 people in a picturesque, bustling community.

Apply Now! nvrh.org/careers.

Keep our roads safe, clear, and moving! Love the outdoors? Big machines? Teamwork? The Town of Warren is looking for a Highway Maintenance Worker to join our crew. Compensation based on experience with a range of $26-$28.

You’ll:

• Operate plows, loaders & graders

• Maintain roads, signs & drainage

• Tackle Vermont weather like a pro

You Bring:

• Valid driver’s license (CDL a plus)

• Heavy equipment experience (or willing to learn)

• Positive, safety-ﬁrst attitude Why Join Us?

• Full-time + beneﬁts

• Competitive pay

• Great crew & mountain views daily

Apply today: rcampbell@warrenvt.org

Questions? Call Andrew at 802-496-2945

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Assistant Controller

The Assistant Controller plays a key role in supporting VHCB’s financial health through accounting, grants management, compliance, and team collaboration. Responsibilities include managing daily financial operations, preparing financial statements, supporting audits and budgets, and working closely with program staff to ensure transparency and accuracy.

VHCB is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and we strongly encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds to apply. This position is open until ﬁlled.

To apply, send a cover letter and resume to: jobs@vhcb.org To learn more, visit vhcb.org

Web Developer/Analyst Wanted

Join VSAC’s IT team and help build and maintain internal web applications that support critical business operations.

REQUIREMENTS

3+ years of full stack development and SQL Server experience

Proficient with APIs, Git, SSRS and modern development tools Strong communication, problem-solving and time management skills WHY VSAC?

Purpose-driven work, competitive salary ($), and excellent benefits — all while helping Vermonters access higher education. Apply now: vsac.org/careers

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TRIVIA HOSTS

Seeking responsible, engaging, quick witted and charismatic individuals to host weekly trivia night programs and other events! We’ll provide everything needed to run a successful trivia night, including proper training. Hosting is a great way to earn some fun money, entertain a crowd, and become a “local celebrity.”

We are looking for hosts in the following areas:

COLCHESTER • ESSEX

MILTON • STOWE

Compensation: This is a part time position. Competitive pay with opportunity to host additional accounts.

To apply, please email resume to: INFO@PUBGEEKS.COM.

1 9/11/25 6:14 PM

Legal Assistant

We’re looking for a parttime legal assistant with an outstanding work ethic to join our team. The legal assistant provides support regarding estate planning and probate matters, and assists the managing attorney with administrative tasks.

Our ideal candidates have experience in estate planning and probate and are proficient in Word and Quicken. Professionalism and exceptional client service skills are required. We offer comprehensive benefits and salary commensurate with experience.

Please email a cover letter, resume, and references to attorneys@LCLawVT.com

SERVICE COORDINATOR

Vermonters for Criminal Justice Reform (VCJR) is seeking a Service Coordinator to join our team! Provide case management and related services for people living with substance use disorders. Some driving required with mileage reimbursement provided.

Job Type: Full-time in person (Burlington, VT). Anticipated starting salary: $43,000$45,000 per year, plus benefits for full-time 40 hour per week employment. Please request a full job description or submit a cover letter and resume to Jess Kirby via email at jess@vcjr.org.

Economic Mobility and Opportunity Special Assistant

(Grant Funded)

The Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission (CCRPC) seeks a grant-funded Economic Mobility and Opportunity Special Assistant (30-month term) to serve the municipalities of Shelburne, South Burlington, Winooski and Essex Junction.

This position will advance economic mobility by addressing systemic barriers, fostering cross-sector collaboration, and promoting equity. The hired individual will work with municipal leaders, CCRPC staff, community members, and nonprofit partners to co-design and implement strategies that expand access to housing, workforce development, financial security, and other pathways to economic well-being, especially for historically underserved populations.

Salary range: $70,000–$100,000, with excellent benefits.

Location: Based in municipal offices across the four participating communities, with some remote flexibility.

Application deadline: We will begin reviewing applications on September 30, 2025.

For complete details, including responsibilities, qualifications, and application instructions, visit: ccrpcvt.org/jobs

The CCRPC is an equal opportunity employer. At the CCRPC, we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Intake Coordinator

HomeShare Vermont seeks a friendly, organized, and detail-oriented person to serve as the welcoming face of our organization and help ensure the smooth daily operation of our program.

Responsibilities include front desk management, administrative support, and interaction with our clients.

25-hr/week position, Monday-Friday, 8:30 AM–1:30 PM

Pay rate: $25/hour

To learn more about our program and how to apply, visit HomeShareVermont/announcements

At HomeShare Vermont, we pride ourselves on fostering a collaborative, mission-driven work environment where every team member contributes to making a meaningful difference in the lives of others. 4t-HomeShareVT091725.indd 1

Director of Development

Lamoille Restorative Center (LRC) is seeking a mission-driven, relationship-focused Director of Development to lead fundraising, donor relations, and communications for a respected nonprofit advancing restorative justice in Vermont.

You’ll play a key role in expanding LRC’s impact through strategic fundraising, major gifts cultivation, marketing, and community engagement. The ideal candidate is a strong storyteller, strategic thinker, and community connector with experience in nonprofit development.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Lead and grow LRC’s fundraising strategy and donor base

• Oversee communications, campaigns, and events

• Collaborate with a passionate team making real impact

• Enjoy a generous benefits package and flexible work environment

• Learn more about our mission at lrcvt.org.

COMPENSATION

• 32-40 hours per week with an hourly wage: $30.00–$35.00

BENEFITS Generous benefits package, including:

• $13,113 annually to allocate toward medical, dental, vision, supplemental insurance, or retirement

• 27 paid days off + 17 paid holidays

• Paid family medical leave

• Annual training stipend

• Life insurance

• Pre-tax dependent care deductions

Please submit a cover letter and resume to: info@lrcvt.org

The position will remain open until it is filled.

Lamoille Restorative Center is an equal opportunity employer. We value diversity and are committed to fostering an inclusive environment for all employees and applicants.

“I feel cared for by my colleagues at all different levels of the organization. Everyone genuinely supports each other in the work that we do.”

~ Anna Kremer, Peer Growth & Lifelong Learning Facilitator

Great jobs in management and direct support at an award-winning agency serving Vermonters with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Benefit package includes 29 paid days off in the first year, comprehensive health insurance with premium as low as $30 per month, up to $6,400 to go towards medical deductibles and copays, retirement match, generous sign on bonus and so much more.

And that’s on top of working at one of the “Best Places to Work in Vermont” for seven years in a row. Join our team today!

Project Manager

PCI Consulting is expanding our team! We are seeking a highly organized, self-motivated, and experienced Project Manager to join our OPM team. As a well-established, respected, and growing capital project management firm, we work with a wide range of clients across Vermont to bring some of the most interesting and exciting capital projects to life!

This is a great opportunity to integrate into an innovative project management/owner’s representation team, dedicated to the success of our commercial, educational, municipal, healthcare, and institutional clients. At PCI, we foster an internal culture that supports a work life balance through a generous compensation/ benefits package, flexible hours, and opportunities for professional development. If you are looking for a fulfilling future, flexibility, and working in a collaborative environment where you can succeed, we’d love to hear from you!

PCI Consulting is an equal opportunity employer (M/F/D/V).

The Project Manager: Plans and manages a wide variety of capital projects for clients.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in construction management preferred. Other degrees in combination with experience will be considered.

• 2+ years of demonstrated capital project/ construction management experience

• 2+ years of demonstrated leadership and/or management experience

• Google Suite and Microsoft Office Proficiency required

• Ability to read and thoroughly understand blueprints/specifications is required.

• Experience using software such as Bluebeam, AutoCAD, or Revit, is preferred

• Excellent written and oral communication skills

• Excellent organization skills

• Ability to effectively and efficiently manage multiple large, small and/or complex projects

• Ability to be self-directed, self-motivated, and goal orientated

• Ability and willingness to work a flexible schedule

• Though not required, experience in estimating and performing takeoffs is preferred

• PCI offers a competitive compensation package and a collaborative work environment.

Pay: $38 - $42 per hour

Benefits:

• 401(k) matching

• Paid time off

• Mileage reimbursement

• Wellness and professional development allowances

• Ability to commute/relocate: Burlington, VT 05401: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required)

Send resumes to: hannah@pcivt.com

ATTENTION RECRUITERS:

Clerical Assistant

A well-established legal office in Franklin County is seeking a reliable, detail-oriented part-time Clerical Assistant to support our team. This a great opportunity for someone who brings a strong work ethic, positive energy, and a willingness to learn.

Pay range: $18-$21/hour.

Please submit your resume to: VBK Law, PO Box 307 St. Albans, VT 05478 or email: jhorton@vbklawvt.com

Faith Development Assistant

We are looking for an organizer who loves to work with children and families. Part-time, Sundays a must, other hours ﬂexible.

To apply, please visit: uusociety.org/information/ employment-opportunities to see the full job description.

Come join a team where your diverse voice is heard and valued.

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Clerk of the Works

We are seeking a highly organized, self-motivated, and experienced Clerk of the Works to join our team. As a well-established, respected, and growing capital project management firm, we work with a wide range of clients across Vermont to bring some of the most interesting and exciting capital projects to life!

This is a great opportunity to integrate into an experienced project management team, dedicated to the success of our commercial, educational, municipal, healthcare, and institutional clients. At PCI, we foster an internal culture that supports a work-life balance through a generous compensation/benefits package, flexible hours, and opportunities for professional development. If you are looking for a fulfilling future, flexibility, and working in a collaborative environment where you can succeed, we’d love to hear from you!

The Clerk of the Works: Spends the majority of their time on job sites, ensures that contract documents are adhered to, witnesses and documents any required testing, maintains detailed records of all construction activities, keeps the project team informed of any potential issues, and works closely with PCI’s Project Managers to ensure the schedule and budget are adhered to. When not on site, the Clerk of the Works: works with Project managers to plan and manage a wide variety of capital projects for clients; Develops and maintains positive working relationships with clients, co-workers, professionals, end-users, and other project stakeholders; Contributes to and supports the structural and strategic evolution of the firm in keeping with the goals of the business; Ensures consistent delivery of services to all constituents; Contributes to continuous process improvement and integration of new ideas into the business; Develops new client relationships and business.

OG Certified Literacy Instructor

Full or Part-Time

The Stern Center in Williston is seeking an OG Certified instructor to join our highly experienced and collaborative team of teachers. If you’re a qualified educator with training and experience in structured literacy instruction, this rewarding role allows focus and impact, teaching one-on-one to make a positive difference every day.

Candidates should be certified in Orton-Gillingham or have had training in Orton-Gillingham and/or Wilson. Our ideal candidate will also have exceptional communication and organizational skills, an understanding of research-based interventions, and experience in developing individualized learning plans.

Specific duties include:

• Administer and interpret pre- and post-instructional assessments

• Create specific academic goals and objectives for each student

• Communicate with parents, schools, teachers, and special educators

2v-FirstUUSocietyFAITH091725.indd 1 9/15/25 4:07 PM You’re in good hands with...

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 5+ years of demonstrated, field construction experience in a supervisory role

• Experience with Construction Management software, such as Procore, is required

• Google Suite and Microsoft Office Proficiency is required

• Ability to read and thoroughly understand blueprints/specifications is required.

• Experience using software such as Bluebeam, AutoCAD, or Revit, is preferred

• Ability and willingness to work a flexible schedule

• Though not required, experience in estimating and performing takeoffs is preferred

Salary: $36.00 - $40.00 per hour

PCI offers a competitive compensation package and a collaborative work environment.

Ability to commute/relocate: Burlington, VT 05401: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Required) Send resumes to: hannah@pcivt.com PCI Consulting is an E.O.E. (M/F/D/V).

• Strong progress monitoring and reporting skills

The non-profit Stern Center for Language and Learning is dedicated to learning for all as we recognize that all great minds don’t think alike. We invite you to learn more about us at: sterncenter.org

The starting salary range for this position is $54,000 to $57,000 annually.

The Stern Center for Language and Learning is proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

“Seven Days sales rep Michelle Brown is amazing! She’s extremely responsive, and I always feel so taken care of. I can only imagine how many job connections she has facilitated for local companies in the 20 years she has been doing this.”

CAROLYN ZELLER, Intervale Center, Burlington

Get a quote when posting online. Contact Michelle Brown at 865-1020, ext. 121, michelle@sevendaysvt.com

WE’RE HIRING: SURGICAL STAFF

We are currently accepting applications for SURGICAL STAFF:

• RN Circulators

• Surgical Technologists

• CRNAs

• OR Service Aide

• Licensed Nursing Assistant

• OR Nurse Manager

For more information, visit copleyvt.org/careers or contact Kaitlyn Shannon, Recruiter, at 802-888-8144 or kshannon@chsi.org.

IT SYSTEMS SUPPORT TECH

Join Country Walkers and VBT Bicycling Vacations; an award winning, Vermont based, active travel company and be part of our high performing, international team. We offer deluxe, smallgroup bicycling and hiking tours worldwide at a variety of levels and paces. Positively impacting people's lives through active travel experiences is what we’re all about!

We're seeking a detail-oriented and service driven professional to join our team as an IT Systems Support Technician. In this role you'll be responsible for the day-to-day support and administration of the end-user PC-related environment as well as front-line support for our reservation, content management, and guest online portal applications. As the first line of support, this position requires empathy, patience, and strong problem-solving skills. The successful candidate will have a strong history of providing exceptional customer service.

Qualifications Include:

• Associates degree in Information Technology or equivalent work experience

• Strong PC and laptop skills including provisioning, Windows 10 and 11 Operating System knowledge, security setup, etc. Ability to work in IT support desk environment and tracking work details in IT ticketing system, ServiceNow. Basic familiarity of PC Networking (wired and wireless) as well as the use of VPN Software.

• Experience and/or familiarity with the following types of applications is preferred but not required: Microsoft 365, CoPilot, Customer Reservation, Call Center platforms, Customer Data Management, etc.

BENEFITS: Medical, Dental & Vision; HSA & FSA; Life & Disability; Accident, Hospital & Critical Illness; Pet Insurance; Vacation, Sick and paid Holidays; 401(k) with Company Match; Employee Assistance Plan; Education Assistance; and Employee Discounts & Travel Deals.

COMPENSATION: The salary range for this position is $50,000.- $72,500.

Send resumes to: nvoth@vbt.com

Staff Attorney

The Vermont Network Legal Clinic

The Vermont Network Legal Clinic seeks a staff attorney to provide pro bono legal advisement and representation for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Specific responsibilities include conducting intakes, providing legal advice and representing clients in family, civil or other legal matters. This is a full-time (40 hours per week) position, located at our offices in Waterbury, Vermont, with some remote work options available. The Vermont Network offers a competitive salary and benefit package including a salary range of $60k - $75K, comprehensive healthcare coverage and generous time off.

The Vermont Network is a statewide non-profit organization working to create the possibility that all Vermonters can thrive. The clinic serves approximately 500 individuals per year. More information about the Vermont Network is available at vtnetwork.org

Candidates must be a member of the Vermont Bar and able to practice law in Vermont. Experience with family law and an understanding of domestic and sexual violence is preferred but not necessary. Candidates should send a cover letter, resume and sample of legal writing to Jamie@vtnetwork.org. Applications will be accepted until October 3rd.

Burlington Housing Authority (BHA)

Are you interested in a job that helps your community and makes a difference in people’s lives every day? Consider joining Burlington Housing Authority (BHA) in Burlington, VT to continue BHA’s success in promoting innovative solutions that address housing instability challenges facing our diverse population of low-income families and individuals.

We are currently hiring for the following positions:

Property Manager Receptionist /Administrative Assistant: Serves as first point of contact for our customers in the Property Management office. This role greets applicants and the general public at the main office, collects rent payments, provides administrative support to the Leasing Specialist, the Property Managers, and the Director of Property Management. Pay $20.00 to $22.00 per hour.

Maintenance Technician: Performs general maintenance work in BHA owned and managed properties. This includes building exteriors, common areas, apartments, building systems, fixtures, and grounds. Our Building Operations Techs are required to participate in the on-call rotation, which covers night and weekend emergencies. Pay $24.00 to $26.00 per hour.

For more info about these career opportunities please visit: burlingtonhousing.org.

Interested in our career opportunity? Send a cover letter & resume to: humanresources@ burlingtonhousing.org

Human Resources

65 Main St, Suite 101 Burlington, VT 05401

BHA is an Equal Opportunity Employer

CASE MANAGERS

Case Managers support older Vermonters in the community to stay as independent as possible in the environment of their choice by promoting health, rights, independence, and economic well-being.

This position is based in our Barre CVCOA office, combined with in-home field visits.

Pay Range: $24-$26 per hour.

For the full job description and to apply, please visit: https://cvcoa.org/employment

Assistant Town Clerk/ Assistant to the Boards

THE TOWN OF ST. GEORGE in Chittenden County is seeking to hire a part-time Assistant Town Clerk/Assistant to the Boards. The position will directly support the work of our Town Clerk and the various Town Boards, who keep things running on behalf of our small but dynamic community. Ideal candidates will have attention to detail, be good at working with people, and be able to handle a variety of tasks.

For more information, please see the job postings on the Town website here: https://bit.ly/StGeorgeJobs

To apply, please email a cover letter and your resume to: SBViceChair@stgeorgevt.com

The jobs are open until filled; priority consideration will be given to applications received before Monday, October 6, 2025.

GO HIRE.

Join our Culinary Team! Line Cooks Needed

Line Cook hours: 2pm to close. Part/Full-time positions available

Wage range: $15-$25 plus tip sharing. Looking for someone who is self motivated and focused with positive personallity.

Teamwork-oriented and not afraid of working under pressure. Competitive wages.

Please send a resume to: chiuhos@asinglepebble.com

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.

• 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.

Job Seekers:

• Search for jobs by keyword, location, category and job type.

• 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.

jobs.sevendaysvt.com

fun stuff

“Whatever. Guy lives with his aunt and wears pajamas.”

JEN SORENSEN

HARRY BLISS

“My hybrid is greener than their hybrid.”

PHIL JOHNSON

JULIANNA BRAZILL

JOHN KLOSSNER

LIBRA

(SEP. 23-OCT. 22)

The ancient Mesopotamians believed each person had a personal god called an ilu who acted as a protector, guide and intercessor with the greater gods. You’re in a phase when your own ilu is extra active and ready to undergo an evolutionary transformation. So assume that you will be able to call on potent help, Libra. Be alert for how your instincts and intuitions are becoming more acute and specific. If you feel an odd nudge or a dream insists on being remembered, take it seriously. You’re being steered toward deeper nourishment.

ARIES (Mar. 21-Apr. 19): In Tonglen, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation, you visualize yourself breathing in the suffering, pain or negativity of other people, then imagine breathing out relief, healing or compassion toward them. The practice can also be done on your own behalf. The goal is to transform tension and stress into courage, vitality and healing. I recommend this practice, Aries. Can you turn your scars into interesting tattoos? Can you find mysterious opportunities

lurking in the dilemmas? Can you provide grace for others as you feed your own fire?

TAURUS (Apr. 20-May 20): In a YouTube video, I watched Korean artisans make hanji paper in the same way their predecessors have for 1,300 years. It was complicated and meditative. They peeled off the inner bark of mulberry trees, then soaked it, cooked it and pounded it into pulp. After mixing the mash with the aibika plant, they spread it out on screens and let it dry. I learned that this gorgeous, luminous paper can endure for a thousand years. I hope you draw inspiration from this process, Taurus. Experiment with softening what has felt unyielding. Treat what’s tough or inflexible with steady, artful effort. Be imaginative and persistent as you shape raw materials into beautiful things you can use for a long time.

GEMINI (May 21-Jun. 20): Legendary jazz musician Sun Ra was a Gemini who claimed to be from the planet Saturn. He aspired to live in a state of “cosmic discipline” — not just in his musical training but also in his devotion to self-improvement, aesthetic exploration and a connection to transcendent realities. He fused outrageous style with sacred order, chaos with clarity. I invite you to draw inspiration from him. Put your personal flair in service to noble ideas. Align your exuberant self-expression with your higher purpose. Show off if it helps wake people up.

CANCER (Jun. 21-Jul. 22): In Inuit tradition, qarrtsiluni means “waiting in the darkness for something to burst forth.” It refers to the sacred pause before creativity erupts, before the quest begins, before the light returns. This is an apt description of your current state, Cancerian. Tend your inner stillness like a fire about to ignite. Don’t rush it. Honor the hush. The energies you store up will find their proper shape in a few weeks. Trust that the silence is not absence but incubation. Luminosity will bloom from this pregnant pause.

LEO (Jul. 23-Aug. 22): You’re feeling the stirrings of a desire that’s at least half-wild. A surprising vision or opportunity has begun to roar softly within you. But here’s key advice: Don’t chase it recklessly. Practice strategic

boldness. Choose where and how you shine. Your radiance is potent, but it will be most effective when offered deliberately, with conscious artistry. You’re being asked to embody the kind of leadership that inspires, not dominates. Be the sun that warms but doesn’t scorch! PS: People are observing you to learn how to shine.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sep. 22): If humans ever perfect time travel, I’m going to the Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt. It was crammed with papyrus scrolls by authors from all over the world. It was also a gathering point for smart people who loved to compare notes across disciplines. Poets argued amiably with mathematicians. Astronomers discussed inspirations with physicians. Breakthroughs flowed freely because ideas were allowed to migrate, hybridize and be challenged without rancor. Consider emulating that rich mélange, Virgo. Convene unlike minds, cross-pollinate and entertain unprecedented questions. The influences you need next will arrive via unexpected connections.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In Venice, Italy, floods periodically damage books at libraries and bookstores. Trained volunteers restore them with meticulous, hands-on methods. They use absorbent paper and towels to separate and dry the pages, working page by page. I offer this vignette as a useful metaphor, Scorpio. Why? Because I suspect that a rich part of your story needs repair. It’s at risk of becoming irrelevant, even irretrievable. Your assignment is to nurse it back to full health and coherence. Give it your tender attention as you rehabilitate its meaning. Rediscover and revive its lessons and wisdom.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In classical Indian music, a raga is not a fixed composition but a flexible framework. It’s defined by a specific scale, characteristic melodic phrases and a traditional time of day for performance. Musicians improvise and express emotion within that expansive set of constraints. Unlike Western compositions, which are written out and repeated verbatim, a raga has different notes each time it’s played. I think this beautiful art form can be inspirational for you, Sagittarius. Choose the right time and tone

for what you’re creating. Dedicate yourself to a high-minded intention and then play around with flair and delight. Define three nonnegotiable elements and let everything else breathe.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): In medieval European monasteries, scribes left blank pages in certain texts. This was not done by accident but to allow for future revelations. Later readers and scribes might fill these spaces with additional text, marginalia and personal notes. Books were seen as living documents. I recommend a metaphorical version of this practice to you, Capricorn. You will thrive by keeping spaces empty and allowing for the unknown to ripen. You may sometimes feel an urge to define, control and fortify, but acting on that impulse could interfere with the gifts that life wants to bring you. Honor what is as yet unwritten.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): In West African Vodún cosmology, the deity named Lêgba guards the crossroads. He is the mediator and gatekeeper between the human world and spirit realm. He speaks all languages and serves as the first point of contact for communication with other spirits. In the weeks ahead, Aquarius, you may find yourself in Lêgba’s domain: between past and future, fact and fantasy, solitude and communion. You may also become a channel for others, intuiting or translating what they can’t articulate. I won’t be surprised if you know things your rational mind doesn’t fully understand. I bet a long-locked door will swing open and a longdenied connection will finally coalesce. You’re not just passing through the crossroads. You are the crossroads.

PISCES (Feb. 19-Mar. 20): In 1977, NASA launched two Voyager spacecraft into the abyss. Both carried a message in the form of a golden record to any extraterrestrial who might find it. There were greetings in 55 languages, natural sounds such as whale songs and thunderstorms, music by Chuck Berry and others, plus more than 100 images and diagrams explaining how to find Earth. It was science as a love letter, realism with a dash of audacity. I invite you to craft your own version of a golden record, Pisces.

Respond to these people online: dating.sevendaysvt.com

WOMEN seeking...

SPONTANEOUS, JOYFUL, REALIST

I am looking to have a partner interested in companionship, occasional adventures traveling, hiking, watching TV/movies, listening to live music, hanging with family and friends. Conversations. Lots of hobbies, but open to hearing or sharing yours. I belong to the 251 Club. Love weekend road trips. I’d like to meet someone who is also a hard worker but can enjoy downtime, too. Sunset_Seeker 61, seeking: M, l

SEEKING FUN AND ADVENTURE

The world is full of adventures just waiting to be had: a long hike and walk to a waterfall, a fabulous show, a great meal, a beautiful ski. All these are adventures I like to go on. Care to join me? wildflower762, 54, seeking: M, l

NOT A FAN OF FAKES

Trusting my heart to you will take some time, but if you’re patient it will be worth it. I’m a romantic woman who loves to watch sunsets. I have a big heart and tend to trust people. Honesty is what I expect and deserve. I’m a one-man woman, and I want a one-woman man, nothing less. Patty802 66, seeking: M, l

FULL OF STARS

My friends tell me I’m the nicest and most Zen person they know. I love music, art and history. Oh, and maybe you and/or your pets. I use “y’all” in unexpected places. I do not have a Dick Cheney tattoo. Tell me about you. NotAngryMittens 52, seeking: M

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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

OUTDOORS, ACTIVE, SEEKS CONNECTIONS

I enjoy most outdoor activities including hiking, biking, XC/downhill skiing, gardening, training my horse. I am happy dancing under the stars or kayaking at sunrise. While I enjoy creative travel, I also enjoy each of Vermont’s seasons at home. I still work full time but make plenty of time for fun. Life is OK alone but more fun when shared. NEK026, 63, seeking: M, l

HOMEBODY AND TYPE 2 FUN

Hi there! Looking for my forever mealprep partner. Ideally someone to join me on my newly discovered type 2 fun activities as well! Reach out if you want to dry heave up a mountain together. pinecone802 28 seeking: M, l

UNPRETENTIOUS, CARING WORD-LOVER

Outdoorsy retired journalist seeking intelligent irreverent soul to share mutually enjoyable pursuits. For me these include music — roots, alt-folk, blues; cold winters, summer sun, hiking, skiing, cycling. I’m drawn to those who don’t take themselves too seriously.

My son, grandkids and Labrador Nina mean everything. Treading lightly after losing my life partner, seeking friendship that may evolve into something deeper. elkaytee 68, seeking: M, l

NEW IN TOWN, SEEKING COMPANION

I am seeking a kindred spirit — someone to explore with. I love the outdoors — hiking, skiing, paddling — and I love cultural things: art galleries, vintage shops, indie films. I like going out for coffee, shopping, music, and also hanging out at home watching TV with my pup.

I am healthy and active and seek the same. newVTher 63, seeking: M, l

AUTHENTIC, CREATIVE, CURIOUS

Active and social introvert new to and smitten with the North Country looking for a like-minded partner to continue exploring it with. Mom to three adult children, all out on their own. Passions include yoga, hiking, gardening, learning, reading and creating. Scienceminded, politically liberal, spiritually grounded and emotionally available for friendship and, if we’re a fit, more. annwithane 55, seeking: M, l

DOWN-TO-EARTH NATURE LOVER

Looking for sincere, real spirituality connected to nature, and friends for hiking and exploring the outdoors. Theotherside 51 seeking: M, NC, NBP, l

SPIRITED AND CURIOUS, NO DRAMA

Hi! I’m looking for someone to share life’s adventures with and a relationship that brings out the best in each other. No drama on either end. Kindness, truthfulness and appreciation for the beautiful things in life are a must. Friendship first and then let’s see where it goes! genX25, 57, seeking: M, l

EXPLORING THIS LIFETIME MOMENT

Interested in meaningful conversations and activities. Accepting of differences. Require quality time outdoors daily. INFJ 65 seeking: W

SOMEONE TO LAUGH WITH

I am looking for interaction! I’m very social. I miss fun. I miss sharing life experiences. I have a wicked sarcastic sense of humor. Be forewarned! I can make a joke (usually a bad one) about anything. Hard no to anyone that supports the orange monster. If you are interested in chatting, send me an email. Yikestheworldisnuts 65, seeking: M, l

YOU?

Statuesque. Celtic. Worth it. OceanMaeve, 70, seeking: M

LIVING MY NEW LIFE

I am recently — in the last year — living as a single woman again. My life is good but not full. There is a void. A companion, a friend maybe. It would be fun to have someone to do things with, be it a walk, go to flea markets, antiques shops, museums, road trips, movies. Newlife2025 64, seeking: M, l

LIVING WITH PURPOSE

Seeking a true partner for the best that is to come. itry 44, seeking: M

CURIOUS, CREATIVE, CARING, HOPEFUL

I’m a teacher, mother to two, well traveled but at heart a homebody, caring, creative, intelligent,fit, and open-minded.Looking for a committed relationship with a man who’s kind, fun, smart, and open-minded, with a great sense of humor. Relationships unfold slowly, starting with friendship and allowing things to go where they will. Physical chemistry depends on strong communication and emotional intimacy. Helen 66, seeking: M, l

MEN seeking...

BRIT WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

I am a searcher. I admit to screwing up a couple of relationships by not being attentive enough, but these things are never one person’s fault. I like being with a special woman very much and would like to try again before I kick the bucket. greytail2020, 78, seeking: W, Cp, Gp, l

NATURE AND YOU AND ME

Fit, environmentally conscious, politically moderate, autumn/Halloween loving, adventuring, trail running/hiking, natural (from nature) magic male looking for someone to spend time with who has some of the same interests. You enjoy being in nature, don’t smoke, are educated by self or by institutions/self, are self-sufficient, are conscientious, are considerate, and have a sense of magic in the world. chinaski, 55 seeking: W

PEACEFUL KIND EASYGOING PATIENT

FREEDOM

I like kind and polite people. I’m a simply humble, very human and tranquil person. Dolcevita099999 35 seeking: W, TW, Cp, l

HELPFUL TO THE COMMUNITY

I live in the small town of Groton, so I need to branch out a bit. I am more of a listener than a talker. GrotonDave 69, seeking: W

ADVENTUROUS, TRAVELER, GOOD LISTENER, HAPPY

I’m a busy retired guy who enjoys spending time outside. I love sailing, biking, hiking and skiing. Being outside is calming and nourishing. All of these activities are best when shared. I like talking with people and expanding my circle of friends while also learning more about myself. I’m a good listener, honest, caring, loyal and a happy, grateful man. PlayOutside2 60, seeking: W, l

AUTHENTIC, ACTIVE AND FUNNY

I am a pretty simple human being who enjoys the little things. I enjoy physical activity and being outside. A trail run through the woods is my idea of a good start/end to the day. I hope this helps. If you want to know more, you have to “buy” the book — or at least borrow it from the library. Liveoutside, 45, seeking: W, l

LAID-BACK, ROMANTIC, OLD-SCHOOL GENTLEMAN

Hi, I’m a 56-year-old man looking for a special someone to share good times with. I am an honest, hardworking man, and very romantic. I’m a onewoman-only guy. The right woman would be treated with respect and kindness. Stardad 56 seeking: W, l

CREATIVE, ACTIVE, NATURE-LOVING MAN

I work with my hands most days. With wood, metal, sometimes stone. Mostly I love the work and process of building, though my greatest work has by far been constructing the temple within. Meditation. Yoga, hermeticism. Processing feelings, refining heart’s desires. Connecting the great wealth and wellspring of divinity that exists within. Seeking kindred spirit for creative adventures. Mysticworks, 37, seeking: W, l

DRENCHED IN LIFE, STILL CURIOUS

Coming up as an artist and writer, I love to investigate and learn new things. My often outdoors life keeps me pretty active and fit. Is there someone as curious as myself (who is also nimble, fit and smart) to hang out with from time to time? I’d enjoy a stimulating companion for adventures, conversation, Sunday brunch and warm connection. SentientBeing, 79 seeking: W, l

LET’S MAKE PLANS

Hi. My name is Jonnie. I live in the middle of nowhere, N.Y., I work in Vt. I see things from a different view and angle. Time is important to me not because it moves forward but because of what is created in that moment. I love music, like a good conversation and anything. I’m easy to talk with. Ttys. Jonnie74 50, seeking: M, W, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp

CHECKING THIS OUT

Checking this out. Tallguyvt84 41, seeking: W, l

LAID-BACK, OLD-SCHOOL

Just lost the love of my life to cancer. Money-wise, I am not rich. I am honest, caring, loving, always making my partner happy. I don’t like being alone. I am looking for a woman who does not care about what I don’t have, but more what I do have, and that’s love and honesty. indian 69 seeking: W

LIFE-LOVING, FUNNY, CONSIDERATE

After 55 years of traveling the world for business, I have landed in the Mad River Valley and am loving it! I love all the seasons (well, not mud season). I still work as a consultant and occasionally travel, but mostly work via Zoom. I am in search of someone to attend the theater, festivals, and to dine out with. Alan70 69, seeking: W, l

LOVE, PLAYFUL AND FUN

Let’s have fun and enjoy each other’s presence. Flirtforever1234, 37 seeking: W

HEY

Hi, if you’re interested. Pikem19, 20, seeking: W

DIRTY HANDS, CLEAN SOUL

I am a hardworking, genuine person. I am kind of old-fashioned. I have way too many hobbies: I enjoy working on vehicles and small engines, working on firewood, maple sugaring, welding, and four-wheeling. In the winter I like snowmobiling and snow plowing. I am looking for a committed relationship with a down-to-Earth country girl. Blacktruckman, 29, seeking: W, l

FUN, HONEST AND HARDWORKING

Semi-retired arborist living in the Adirondacks looking to continue loving. Looking for an emotionally mature woman who is looking to be loved and respected, and to have fun. Love to cook, listen to music, walk in the woods, garden, take road trips to New Orleans and out West, and volunteer time to help others. Healthy, active and always trying to learn more. Treedude, 70, seeking: W, l

TRANS WOMEN seeking...

ADVENTUROUS, WHIMSICAL AND SILLY

Brand new to Vermont living, from the West Coast! Looking for love in hopefully the right place. Always up for a good time and wanting to find someone who loves yacht rock, movies and going on the wackiest side quests. YachtRockGal 27 seeking: M, W, TM, TW, NBP, l

MUSICIAN/WRITER/DANCER SEEKS CONNECTION

I love writing, making music, dancing, being out in nature, understanding new things, stepping up, learning what other folks care about and trying to make a positive difference in the world. I’m an incorrigible optimist who predicts dire things, a gentle person with a steel core, an introverted social butterfly. Seeking creative, compassionate, joyful connection! Sylph 56, seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, l

GENDER NONCONFORMISTS seeking...

ADVENTURE, CREATIVITY, NATURE, COMMUNITY, LOVE

Join me for woods, water, volunteering, karaoke, or crafting! Me: nonbinary male ADHD extrovert who loves wildlife and most people. I like alone time, but miss sharing a bed (and life). No kids but would happily adopt/etc. You: open-minded, active, curious, tough, cuddly and communicative. You have goals but can be spontaneous. Learning Spanish or ASL? Practice with me. WildWeirdWonderful 41, seeking: W, Q, NC, NBP, l

COUPLES seeking...

EXPLORING THREESOMES AND FOURSOMES

We are older and wiser, discovered that our sexuality is amazingly hot! Our interest is another male for threesomes or a couple for threesomes or foursomes. We’d like to go slowly, massage you with a happy ending. She’d love to be massaged with a happy ending or a dozen. Are you interested in exploring sexuality with a hot older couple? DandNformen 69, seeking: M, W, TM, TW, Q, NC, NBP, Cp, Gp, l

GREEN HAT AT EMERGENCY

DEPARTMENT

In ER waiting room, I spotted you across the way. You had dark, curly hair and were wearing a green cap and joggers. I was sitting under the TV on the wall, wearing a black sweatshirt and brown pants, with a face mask on. You and I made eye contact a couple times. I thought you were cute! Let’s swap germs? When: Sunday, September 21, 2025. Where: Emergency Department Waiting Room. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916435

SAVORY PASTRIES?

We discussed pastries and your regular attendance; the baristas knew you by name. I ordered the almond cake, and you missed out on pumpkin cake. I felt a connection then and then caught a glimpse of you at Barr Hill. Unfortunately, I was waiting for someone else — I think I would have said hi otherwise.

When: Saturday, September 20, 2025. Where: Birchgrove Bakery, Montpelier. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916434

BEAUTIFUL REDHEAD MONTPELIER

Red curly hair, beautiful smile and eyes! Maybe you are a driving instructor?

As you were in the passenger seat and the guy driving looked confused. I was the older dude who nodded as I crossed the street, and the car you were in drove by. Wowed, for sure! When: Wednesday, September 17, 2025. Where: Montpelier on Taylor St., Sunny day. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916433

REVO CASINO is is a long shot, like our gambling. Playing that silly cat game — hopefully you won after I left. Should’ve gotten your number. When: ursday, September 11, 2025. Where: Revo Casino and Social House, Lebanon, N.H.. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916431

If you’ve been spied, go online to contact your admirer!

TATTOOED WOMEN. BANANAS.

It was probably around 1:30. You had a baseball hat; many tattoos, including throat; black hoodie; bananas and hard-boiled egg. I noticed you because we crossed paths, like, four times. I also had bananas, and we were both grabbing a single hard-boiled egg at the same time. When: Tuesday, September 16, 2025. Where: City Market. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916432

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN AT MOE’S WILLISTON

You sat at the last booth on the main window side, facing PetSmart on your right-hand side looking out. I was sitting two booths up, facing you, with PetSmart on my left if I was looking out. Too shy to approach you when I was leaving. You had a red top on with white top underneath. When: Wednesday, September 10, 2025. Where: Moe’s Southwest Grill, Williston VT. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916430

ART HOP FRIDAY FOOD TABLE

We chatted oh-so-brieﬂy around a food table. You were wearing white pants with a red ﬂower pattern. I was with my wirehaired dog. Would have liked to talk more but just wasn’t the right time/place. Hope you enjoyed your evening. When: Friday, September 5, 2025. Where: South End Art Hop. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916429

MAKING WAY AT SHAW’S BERLIN

We shopped, passed, then met face-toface in a narrow aisle where I stopped my cart to let you through. You (tan brimmed hat, wavy light hair, slim) and I (older man with white goatee) spoke. Your gracious remarks and open face caught my attention. I was intrigued, and I’d like to meet and talk more. When: Friday, September 5, 2025. Where: Shaw’s, Berlin. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916428

My husband and I go all out decorating our house and yard for Halloween. We usually start in the ﬁrst weeks of October, but this year he pulled out the decorations as soon as September hit. I love spooky season, but it felt a little early, even for me. Should I try to rein him in a bit?

THE INSTRUCTOR

You were wearing a black shirt with “Instructor” on it and held the door open for me at the store in Hinesburg. I meant to say more, but the moment slipped by too quickly. If you see this, I’d love to continue the conversation that didn’t quite start. When: Wednesday, September 3, 2025. Where: Store in Hinesburg. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916427

IRISH JERRY IN ESSEX

We were introduced in July at a show in South Hero. You asked if I’d like to meet up at another show, and I said I’d like that, but you had to leave in a hurry and we didn’t exchange info. Would be nice to see you again! An rud nach ﬁu e a lorg, ni ﬁu i a fhail. When: Saturday, July 5, 2025. Where: South Hero. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916426

KIND PHOTOGRAPHER

Photographer I met today, handsome and healthy. I am wondering if you are single? I was surprised you were not waiting for someone when you talked with me while I worked on my project. If you can say where we were and what my project was, maybe we can continue our conversation and you can have someone to go with you. When: Sunday, August 31, 2025. Where: outdoors. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916424

LOWE’S ESSEX MST ASSOCIATE

Who’s that MST Associate at Lowe’s in Essex with the blond pony tail? Always enjoy seeing her when I’m shopping at the Lowe’s in Essex. When: Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Where: Lowe’s Essex. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916423

SHAW’S

B., those are some mighty ﬁne legs you have! When: Tuesday, August 26, 2025. Where: Shaw’s. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916422

LOWE’S

You were shopping for mini blinds or shades. Later, you were at the selfcheckout at the same time I was. As we were walking out you kindly offered to help me carry a long bulky item to my car. I wish I had accepted your help so we could have talked a bit. If you see this, please respond. anks! When: Saturday, August 23, 2025. Where: Lowe’s in Essex. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916421

SHANNON AND DWEEB

My heart speaks your name in every moment. You are the softest light in my darkest hours, the calm in the chaos, the dream I never dared to wish for. Loving you feels like breathing — effortless, essential, infinite. With you, even silence feels like music, and time slows just to let me stay in your arms a little longer. When: Sunday, September 29, 2024. Where: Cambridge. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916420

SHOPPING AT MICHAEL’S

To the lovely lady shopping at Michael’s today: You smiled at me when you saw me, and I thought you were beautiful. I wish I hadn’t been too shy to talk to you. When: Thursday, August 21, 2025. Where: Michael’s. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916418

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN WHITE

Beautiful blond woman in white dress, white shoes with a red scarf tied around her. You were walking in Middlebury and then sitting in the park. I smiled as I drove by in a work truck. Tried to come back just to tell you how beautiful and confident you looked, sitting there. You were gone. You are stunning! When: Thursday, August 21, 2025. Where: Middlebury. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916417

DEDICATED RECYCLER FOR HELPFUL SHOPKEEP

I stopped by your store on the way back from a bike ride and asked a question about recycling. The lights kept going out. Was it a sign? A helpful poltergeist? Maybe you were just being friendly, but on the off chance you were interested, let me know where we met and we can keep the banter going over a coffee! When: Saturday, August 16, 2025. Where: while you were working at a store. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916416

PIZZA AND PLAY?

A couple who loves our weekly slice at Two Brothers Pizza, where service is nice! Hey, with your charming light, join us for some fun and a magical night? If you’re down for laughter and a little spice, let’s join up after you’re done with your slice? When: Tuesday, August 12, 2025. Where: Two Brothers Pizza. You: Woman. Me: Couple. #916414

SILVER FOX, MAPLE STREET POOL

I noticed you noticing me, and I wanted to give you notice that I noticed you back. When: ursday, August 21, 2025. Where: Maple Street Pool with your son. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916419

HONEST, FAITHFUL, LOYAL

No offense to anyone! How you live your life is your business, but I would love to know: Are there men out there who still believe in the oldfashioned ways? Loyalty, honesty, faithfulness, and dating women your own age because you feel secure in your age and you don’t need a young girl to feel like a man. When: Friday, August 15, 2025. Where: everywhere. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916413

TO THE RACE CAR DRIVER

To the man who helped me through a tough time: You made me laugh and actually had me believing that maybe not all guys are jerks. We talked for many months. en you just blew me off and I heard it was because you were dating someone. Why couldn’t you just be honest? I only asked you for your friendship. Dishonesty sucks! When: Friday, August 15, 2025. Where: under Road. You: Man. Me: Woman. #916412

RAVENS GIRL

I saw you at JP’s this past Saturday and we caught a glance. You smiled as you ate your French toast. You were wearing a Ravens Jersey with the number 52 on it. I was sitting close to you, also wearing a Ravens Jersey, and we shared a moment. Would love to catch a game with you sometime! When: Saturday, August 2, 2025. Where: JP’s. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916411

FOCUSED CUTIE AT RESOURCE BURLINGTON

De Witchy Wife,

Decking the halls for any holiday takes a whole lot of work. It’s a drag to put in all that effort for a short time of enjoyment. Getting started early is a sureﬁre way to squeeze the most out of a season. e time frame for Halloween décor is subjective. Some people start hauling out the spiders and bats as early as August. Heck, there are yards in my neighborhood that have skeletons up all year. e homeowners dress them up for different occasions — one was even posed with a lawn mower over the summer. So getting the pumpkin rolling in September seems perfectly apropos. Decorating brings excitement

and anticipation for the coming holiday. at, and the decorations themselves, can trigger the release of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a real, scientiﬁcally proven “fun juice” that contributes to feelings of wellbeing and happiness. e world is a hot mess right now, so taking part in any activity that creates joy should be done as early and often as possible.

Rather than trying to rein in your husband’s enthusiasm, perhaps you should throw caution into the cauldron and join the fun. You may ﬁnd yourself getting caught up in the spirit, too.

Looking back at the entrance and noticed you pausing to look over your shoulder my way. OK, we’re both looking to repurpose things, or just cheap. Me: tall, gray mesh hat, gray shirt, tan pants. You: blond, red-and-white-striped halter top. Wanted to ask what you were looking for. I’d like to know if you found it. When: ursday, August 14, 2025. Where: ReSOURCE Burlington, Pine Street. You: Woman. Me: Man. #916410 up

Good luck and God bless, The Rev end

Perverted tales. Hedonistic confessions. Bold, erotic and sensual? Titillating? Incredible and luscious? Yes, please! Extreme, deviant, obscene perversity helps incite lust. I am eager to hear from all you perverts. Conﬁdential. Very few limits. I dare you to shock me. #L1889

I’m a 43-y/o male seeking a woman, 30 to 50. Adventure seeker building an off-grid cabin in Newport. I’m 5’8”, redheaded, ﬁt, living between western Mass. and Vt. I like to cook, bathe, hike, camp and travel. Seeking ﬁt, fun-loving, cuddly companion for potential future together. #L1880

Male looking for female, age 59 to 69. I am disabled but still get around on my own. Looking for someone to hang with, since I am all alone and hate it. My partner passed from cancer. #L1888

I’m an 81-y/o woman seeking a male. I am a widow of ﬁve years. Looking for companionship. Love music, reading and knitting, crocheting and playing card games, etc. #L1887

Gracious, attentive, educated, humorous soul seeks a ﬁt, tender and unassuming female counterpart (58 to 68) for woodland walks, shared meals and scintillating conversation. Won’t you join me? #L1885

HOW TO REPLY TO THESE LOVE LE ERS:

Seal your reply — including your preferred contact info — inside an envelope. Write your pen pal’s box number on the outside of that envelope and place it inside another envelope with payment. Responses for Love Letters must begin with the #L box number.

MAIL TO: Seven Days Love Letters PO Box 1164, Burlington, VT 05402

PAYMENT: $5/response. Include cash or check (made out to “Seven Days”) in the outer envelope. To send unlimited replies for only $15/month, call us at 802-865-1020, ext. 161 for a membership (credit accepted).

PUBLISH YOUR MESSAGE ON THIS PAGE!

1 Submit your FREE message at sevendaysvt.com/loveletters or use the handy form at right.

We’ll publish as many messages as we can in the Love Letters section above. 2

Interested readers will send you letters in the mail. No internet required! 3

I’m an independent alternative to the classic male. Seeking independent alternative female for inside/outside adventures of all kinds. No TV or online presence beyond email. #L1886

I’m a 44-y/o bi male seeking a male, female or bi couple for casual sex. I am clean, easygoing and anything goes. No judgment here. Let’s talk. Call/text. #L1877

I’m a SWM, 60s, 5’7”, 165 lbs. seeking slim males who enjoy a nice, long, slow, relaxing blow job or a regular one, if desired. NSA, just pleasure. #L1882

I’m a 19-y/o male college student seeking a kind, curious, adventurous woman around my age. I enjoy meditating, being outside and long conversations. Looking for someone I can value and appreciate who can help me to value and appreciate life. #L1881

I’m a 74-y/o male. It’s been a long, long time without feeling a woman’s touch. I miss sex. I would love to meet a single, divorced or widowed woman in her 70s or 80s. Did I mention I miss sex? Phone number, please. #L1879

I have the dreams; you have the sugar. Let us maybe travel a bit and figure out what this country needs. F, 24, seeking someone intellectual, active and financially afloat. #L1878

Int net-Free Dating!

I am looking for an 81-y/o woman. #L1884

I’m 65 y/o and gay. Male, seeking my partner/lover and best friend. Gregarious and fun-loving. Laughter and a sense of humor are the cornerstones of my life. As Jimmy Buffet says, “If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane!” #L1875

Divorced white female, 66 y/o. Looking for a single male, 45 to 60, who is tall, not big. Who is loving, caring and fun to be with. I like being outdoors. I am disabled and use a wheelchair. I am loving, caring and honest and don’t play games. Like animals, and I am easy to get along with. I live in Winooski. Hope to hear from someone soon. #L1876

Bist du mein B.G.G. (Big Gentle German)? 40, ehrlich, kreativ und naturluver. Suche liebevollen, bewussten DEU Mann für zweisprachiges Leben zwischen VT und DEU. Ich bin liebevoll, gesund und bereit. Du und Ich: Lass uns die Welt mit unserer Liebe verändern. #L1873

Describe yourself and who you’re looking for in 40 words below: (OR, ATTACH A SEPARATE PIECE OF PAPER.)

I’m a

AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL) seeking a

AGE + GENDER (OPTIONAL)

BELOW.

I’m a 72-y/o Eastern European woman with a young lifestyle. Seeking a man, age not important. I am a writer, and I like studying foreign languages. I would like to meet a man from Germany, France or Spain/South America to practice language skills. I am not expecting romance; friendship would be sufﬁcient. #L1872

Single M, 60, youthful blond, blue-eyed appearance, wanting mutual attraction with F, 45 to 60, for connection/intimacy. Dinners, talks, walks, nature, TV, entertainment, day trips, overnights, spontaneity, hobbies, more. Ideally seeking BDSM kinky playmate, openminded, curious to explore kinky side and fantasies. #L1870

I’m a SWF, 71 y/o, seeking a man 60 to 70 y/o. I live in Woodstock, Vt. I want a serious relationship with a man. Phone number, please. Best to call after 6 p.m. Would like to meet in person. #L1874

Required conﬁdential info: NAME ADDRESS

ADDRESS (MORE) CITY/STATE

MAIL TO: SEVEN DAYS LOVE LETTERS • PO BOX 1164, BURLINGTON, VT 05402 OPTIONAL WEB FORM: SEVENDAYSVT.COM/LOVELETTERS HELP: 802-865-1020, EXT. 161, LOVELETTERS@SEVENDAYSVT.COM

THIS FORM IS FOR LOVE LETTERS ONLY. Messages for the Personals and I-Spy sections must be submitted online at dating.sevendaysvt.com.

Darkness Falls Tour

FRI., OCT. 3-FRI., OCT. 31

199 MAIN ST, BURLINGTON

Fright by Flashlight

SAT., SEP. 27-SAT., NOV. 1

LAKEVIEW CEMETERY, BURLINGTON

FOTW Trail Clinic

WED., SEP. 17

SAXON HILL TRAILHEAD, ESSEX JCT.

Alexis P. Suter Band

WED., SEP. 24

MAIN STREET LANDING PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, BURLINGTON

'Gone Guys' Film Screening & Discussion

THU., SEP. 25

LATCHIS - MAIN THEATRE, BRATTLEBORO

Pumpkin Tiramisu Workshop

THU., SEP. 25

RED POPPY CAKERY, WATERBURY

September Bird Monitoring Walk

SAT., SEP. 27

BIRDS OF VERMONT MUSEUM, HUNTINGTON

Talk Saves Lives & 'Tales of Harsh Gruder'

SAT., SEP. 27

MAIN STREET LANDING PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, BURLINGTON

Green Mountain Chorus Annual Show

SAT., SEP. 27

WATERBURY CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

Green Mountain Roller Derby Homecoming Brawl Double Header

SAT., SEP. 27

CHAMPLAIN VALLEY EXPOSITION, ESSEX JCT.

SAT., SEP. 27

'Tales of Harsh Gruder' Evening Film Screening & Reception

MAIN STREET LANDING PERFORMING ARTS CENTER, BURLINGTON

Ben Gage in Concert

SAT., SEP. 27

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF RUTLAND

PRIDE + JOY DANSE

SAT., SEP. 27

THE PHOENIX GALLERY & MUSIC HALL, WATERBURY

TALIB KWELI FEAT. LANDON

WORDSWELL, SKYZOO & MISTER BURNS

SAT., SEP. 27

AFTERTHOUGHTS, WAITSFIELD

Fall Into Focus: Vision Board Workshop

SUN., SEP. 28

LADIES SOCIAL GROUP, ESSEX JCT.

Next Steps Workshop 2025

THU., OCT. 2

GENERATOR MAKERSPACE, BURLINGTON

Bloom Lab Perfumery Class

SUN., SEP. 21

COTERIE COMMONS, DOYLESTOWN

The Blackburn Brothers FRI., OCT. 3

RETRO LIVE, PLATTSBURGH

TURNmusic presents 'Those Who Can, Teach' with Connor Young, trumpet, and Addison Daniels, saxophone

FRI., OCT. 3

THE PHOENIX GALLERY & MUSIC HALL, WATERBURY

TURNmusic plays ft. Dan Liptak and Nic Cannizzaro

SUN., OCT. 5

THE PHOENIX GALLERY & MUSIC HALL, WATERBURY