April 28, 2016

Bristol youth enjoys baseball diplomacy By GAEN MURPHREE BRISTOL — “What our players and what the Cuban players ... did in those six days did more for government relations between our two countries than has been done in the last 40 years by the governments,” Little League baseball coach Jim Carter said. Carter, retired University of Vermont baseball coach and grandfather of Bristol 12-year-old Carter Monks, was referring to the trip that he, Monks and 10 other Vermont Little League baseball players made to Cuba last week. “That’s pretty dramatic for me to say that, but they were so well

received it was just unbelievable,” Carter said. The Vermont team — composed of players from Bristol, Burlington, Essex Junction and Shelburne (including one female athlete, Anna Jenemann of Burlington) — traveled with four coaches, including Carter as head coach, and 14 accompanying parents and siblings on a tour sponsored by the Burlington-based Cuban American Friendship Society. They spent their April spring break in Havana, learning about Cuba’s intense passion for baseball, seeing cultural and historic sights, getting to meet some of Cuba’s (See Ball players, Page 14A)

AMERICAN AND CUBAN youth baseball players, including Bristol’s Carter Monks, and their coaches hold flags representing their respective homelands during a Vermont baseball tour of the island nation last week.

Photo courtesy of Alexandre Silberman/cubabaseballtrip.wordpress.com

ADDISON COUNTY

INDEPENDENT Vol. 70 No. 17

Middlebury, Vermont

◆

Thursday, April 28, 2016 ◆ 64 Pages

Lawsuit over rail bridges up in air

Bristol looks for a new elementary principal

Group seeks more details from VTrans By JOHN FLOWERS terials disposal plan, and details of MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury blasting that might occur during the selectboard members on Tuesday replacement of the Main Street and said they are satisfied with the Ver- Merchants Row rail bridges. mont Agency of Transportation’s VTrans on April 25 completed a latest update and assessment of the six-page response to Langrock’s letupcoming downtown rail bridges ter. The town’s Local Project Manconstruction project, but agement Team — reaffected property ownferred to as the LPMT ers want more informa- “I’ve been very in town documents — tion and remain poised happy with the reviewed the VTrans into take legal action if it progress we formation late last week, is not forthcoming. then drafted a letter to have made, Through their attor- particularly Langrock that the selectney, Peter Langrock, the unanimously enduring the past board coalition of downtown dorsed on Tuesday. property owners in an two weeks.” That letter — signed — Donna by selectboard ChairApril 11 letter made a Donahue man Brian Carpenter — total of 18 questions and information requests of states in part: the town and VTrans. “While the final resolution of Requested information included some aspects of the construction the anticipated dates and durations project are still in the process of beof street closures, the contractors’ ing worked out — the treatment of insurance information, plans show- storm water post-construction is a ing any project drainage discharge good example of this — the LPMT point and the associated state dis- believes that this process has brought (See Middlebury, Page 16A) charge permit, a contaminated ma-

By GAEN MURPHREE BRISTOL — The search is under way for a new principal at Bristol Elementary School, and Addison Northeast Supervisory Union Assistant Superintendent Catrina DiNapoli, who is spearheading the search, said nearly 20 applicants have applied for the position. Current Bristol Elementary Principal Sandy Jump notified Interim Superintendent Armando Vilaseca in March that she would be retiring effective on July 1. “We very much appreciate the work that Sandy’s done,” said Bristol School Board Chair Elin Melchior. “She came to the school during some difficult times, and we very much appreciate her work over the past three years. We wish her the best in her retirement.” The search for the new principal began shortly before the BES board accepted Jump’s resignation at its April 11 meeting. DiNapoli outlined the timeline for the search, which school officials described as “aggressive due to the time of year.” In an email to the Independent, DiNapoli reported that she had formed a committee made up of a board member, community members, fac(See Bristol, Page 16A)

Speech contest revived after half-century hiatus

By the way After a strong finish at the 2016 Vermont-NEA Scholars’ Bowl State Finals, the Middlebury Union High School Scholars’ Bowl team this Saturday will compete in the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small School National Championship Tournament in suburban Chicago. This national competition will test their knowledge of history, science, literature, fine arts, geography, the social sciences, current events and more areas of study. The MUHS team, coached by Perry Lessing, will consist of Josh Bechhoefer, Dace Eaton, Henry Ganey, Ronan Howlett and Elias Wyncoop. Good luck! Middlebury Safe Routes is organizing a second annual “Kelly Boe Memorial Bike Ride” for Monday, May 2, to raise money for a scholarship fund in honor of Boe, a Middle(See By the way, Page 7A)

Index Obituaries ................................ 6A Classifieds ....................... 6B-10B Service Directory .............. 7B-8B Entertainment ........................ 12A Community Calendar ...... 8A-10A Sports ................................ 1B-4B

75¢

Hitting the note CHRISTOPHER ROSS REHEARSES his role as Miles Gloriosus during a dress rehearsal Tuesday night of the Middlebury Community Players’ production of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The show opens April 28 at the Town Hall Theater. For more photos and showtimes see Page 13A. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

By JOHN FLOWERS MIDDLEBURY — The year was 1825. John Quincy Adams had just been sworn in as the sixth U.S. president, and the Erie Canal had just opened. And at Middlebury College, the first annual “Parker Merrill Speech Competition,” a contest designed to help undergraduates excel at public speaking, was held. The competition — founded by Middlebury’s first professor, Frederick Hall, and named in honor of a benefactor and a former college pastor — was for decades held in the Congregational Church of Middlebury and emerged as one of the most popular town-gown events, according to Dana Yeaton, renowned local playwright and visiting assistant professor of theater at the college. Area orchestras were invited to perform in between as many as 16 student speeches, which in the early

days tended to be borrowed from the texts of literary and political icons. During the 1940s, competitors began writing their own speeches. “It was a big cultural event,” Yeaton said. But in 1965, the speechifying came to an abrupt and mysterious end. Perhaps the students of that era felt more inclined to do their talking at demonstrations against the escalation of the Vietnam War and in favor of the Civil Rights movement. Either way, the Parker Merrill Speech Competition went on what would become a half-century hiatus. That hiatus ends this Friday, April 29, at 7:30 p.m. in the college’s Dana Auditorium. That’s when six student finalists in a revived competition will deliver speeches of up to six minutes, embracing a common theme: “True (See Tradition, Page 16A)

College students make Cuba mercy mission with surfboards By DAVID FUCHS my face — that I became a believer. By my “Are you bringing your board?” spoiled West Coast standards, this was crazy It was January and I was in California, pack- … and I loved it. ing up my car to drive back to Middlebury So, I guess it shouldn’t have come as such College in Vermont when I read a surprise when, just seven weeks that text from my friend and fellow later, Christian caught me in passIn five days, wild man Christian Johansen. ing and suggested in half a sentence What? Was I bringing my surf- somehow, we that our newly founded Middlebury board to Vermont, a landlocked had gone from College Surf Club lead a surf-serstate, in the middle of winter? Was completely in vice trip to Cuba. he out of his mind? What? the dark to I resisted. He insisted. And sure completely in “We’ll talk later,” he said and enough, a month later, we were at rushed off to class. I got a text that the tip of Long Island clad head-to- the loop. night telling me he had booked his toe in neoprene, marching across ticket. I tried to call, but his phone the snow to the Atlantic with surfboards in hand. was dead … so I took a deep breath and a leap I had always known Christian, a New Hamp- of faith, and booked mine. shire native and senior Feb at Middlebury Col- A QUICK HISTORY OF lege, to be a bit of a dreamer, but it was out SURFING IN CUBA there — bobbing in the chop with 20-degree On the map, Cuba doesn’t fit the mold of gusts of wind whipping across my back and an a surfer’s paradise. At the edge of the Carib(See Surfing in Cuba, Page 18A) ear-to-ear smile stretched involuntarily across

CHRISTIAN JOHANSEN, LEFT, Lucas Onetti and David Fuchs finish a winter surfing session near Montauk, N.Y., which prompted the Middlebury College friends to travel to Cuba recently to try to deliver surfing gear to underground surfers there. Courtesy photo

PAGE 2A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

City sidewalk to enter Waltham Extension will serve new affordable housing development

VOLUNTEERS IN CUENCA, Ecuador, pack up food for victims of the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck the South American nation on April 16. Hundreds were killed in the quake and some 25,000 people were left homeless.

Photo by Fran Putnam

Ecuador rallies after earthquake Editor’s note: This article was provided by Fran and Spence Putnam of Weybridge. CUENCA, Ecuador — When we set off on an extended trip to Ecuador a few weeks ago we had no idea that we would have a brush with the most serious natural disaster to take place in this South American country in at least 40 years. The April 16 earthquake that registered 7.8 on the Richter scale was a very unsettling experience for us, but for the people living near the epicenter (only 150 miles from our location) it was a disaster. As of a week after the earthquake there were nearly 600 confirmed dead, 155 missing, 8,340 injured, and some 25,000 people housed in emergency shelters. Estimates for the cost of rebuilding the damaged area ranged up to $3 billion. Our only previous personal connection to Ecuador was through Rotary Exchange student Domenica Vasquez, who attended Middlebury Union High School in 2012-2013 and lived with the Foster-Provencher family in Weybridge. Her stay in the Middlebury area touched many people, and her family became like extended family to the Fosters and Provenchers. Domenica and her family live in Portoviejo, one of the cities hit hardest by the earthquake. Although Domenica and her family were uninjured, their city is devastated. A 2.5-square-mile area of the central business district was completely destroyed, and more than 100 people died there. We have seen television footage showing just how extensive the damage has been to homes, businesses, roads, bridges and water systems. There will be a very long rebuilding process in Portoviejo and the rest of the affected area. One of the most heartening experiences we have had is seeing the way Ecuadorians all over the country are coming together to collect food, water, clothing and medicine to send to the hard hit coastal areas. Here in Cuenca, where we are staying, there has been an outpouring of donations. The city hall is busy night and

VOLUNTEERS SORT BOTTLED water and other donations for earthquake relief at a Cuenca, Ecuador, center. The Rotary Club of Middlebury is collecting donations to be dispensed by a Rotary Club in Portoviejo, Ecuador. Photo by Spence Putnam

One of the most heartening experiences we have had is seeing the way Ecuadorians all over the country are coming together to collect food, water, clothing and medicine to send to the hard hit coastal areas. day as a center for volunteers sorting and packing everything imaginable for those affected by the earthquake. But as much as Ecuadorians have pulled together to meet the many challenges caused by the earthquake, they cannot do it alone. We know that many people all over the world are sending donations to Ecuador. We

believe the personal connection already established between Middlebury and Portoviejo can be a channel through which concerned residents of Addison County can provide assistance to Ecuador. The Middlebury Rotary Club is collecting tax-deductible donations to send to the Rotary Club of Portoviejo to assist in their recovery efforts. These funds will be administered under the care of Domenica’s father, a member of the Portoviejo Rotary Club and vice mayor of the city. If you would like to contribute to this effort please make out a check to the Rotary Club of Middlebury with “Ecuador Relief” on the memo line, and mail it to PO Box 46, Middlebury, VT 05753.

By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — The Vergennes City Council on Tuesday voted, 4-3, to extend its South Maple Street sidewalk southward to the city line and beyond to a Waltham 14-unit affordable housing project proposed by the Addison County Community Trust (ACCT). Extending the sidewalk a total of 492 feet, including about 120 feet into Waltham, would also serve a half-dozen city homes south of Thomas Circle, where the sidewalk now ends on the east side of South Maple Street. Council members in that close vote supported a motion made by Senior Alderman Renny Perry to take an offer from ACCT to do all the prep and finish landscaping work for the sidewalk if the city did the paving. Perry also proposed to take the estimated $2,250 cost of the needed materials for the project out of the city’s Water Tower Fund, not out of the taxpayer-funded general

fund budget. ACCT Executive Director Elise Shanbacker had earlier told city officials that funding for the $3 million project included a gravel sidewalk along the west side of South Maple Street, but not a paved sidewalk. City officials had objected because of the difficulty of plowing and maintaining an unpaved sidewalk, and Tuesday’s vote resolved the issue, with the city also agreeing to plow the Waltham stretch of sidewalk. ACCT has Waltham approval and most of the state permits it needs to install seven modular duplexes on the 2.3-acre former Gevry Trailer Park parcel on the VergennesWaltham line. Shanbacker said on Wednesday ACCT has received its Act 250 permit and hopes to begin construction in late May. A blend of affordable housing tax credits, Vermont Housing Conservation Board backing and a Community Development Block Grant will provide project funding. The duplexes will be leased to families making

60 percent or less of the county’s median income, according to ACCT. At the council’s Tuesday meeting, the vote came after some debate. Some council members objected to the time the city’s public works department would have to spend on the sidewalk extension rather than focusing on the already identified need of taking care of existing sidewalks in need of repair. City Manager Mel Hawley estimated the four members of the department would have to spend some or all four days on South Maple Street in order to complete the project. All work would be done in the city right-of-way, and no taking of land or easements would be necessary, he said. Hawley said labor costs could not be separated out easily, but would just be rolled into payroll expenses. But if they were, he said, “You could double (material costs) easily if you take into account the labor.” Hawley backed the project be(See Council, Page 3A)

Maple Run expected to a draw crowd MIDDLEBURY — Approximately 800 runners, many traveling with family and friends, are expected in Middlebury this weekend for the eighth edition of the Middlebury Maple Run – The Sweetest Half. The 13.1-mile half-marathon running race starts at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 1, in the parking lot behind Porter Hospital. Event organizers added a new feature or two to the event every year. New this year: • The oldest male and female finishers will receive a bottle of WhistlePig rye whiskey (bottled in Shoreham) for their efforts. • A new age group award has been created for the race’s youngest participants. Boys and girls age 13-15 and 16-19 will have separate age group awards. The first-, second- and thirdplace boys and girls will be awarded bottles of maple syrup. • Mr. Sappy, the race mascot, will make a special appearance and perhaps even run the race. In addition to bringing visitors to Middlebury during tourism’s shoulder season, the race’s secondary mission is to raise funds for local charities. Race proceeds are distributed through a grant program. This year four nonprofits serving Addison County will receive funding: Homeward Bound, Addison County’s Humane Society; Open Door Clinic; Helping Overcome Poverty’s Effects, known as HOPE; and MiddSummer Lunch/Charter House Coalition. The common thread among the recipients is that their projects will have the biggest bang for the buck in terms of the number of people served, reached or affected. Race proceeds are also distributed to organizations that provide support services, such as the Middlebury Police Department and Middlebury Regional EMS. Registrations are still being accepted. Online registration was open until Thursday, April 28, at 4 p.m. Registrations will be accepted in-person at the Middlebury Inn from 4 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 30, or at the start/ finish area the morning of the race from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m. Student registration rates never change: $40 individual/$50 team. The rates for nonstudents are $60 individual/$80 team. Links to online registration can be found at the event website at: www. middleburymaplerun.com. Road Closures There will be two short-term road closures to make the race safe for participants and motorists:

MORE THAN 700 athletes traipsed over hills and dales in Middlebury and Weybridge during last year’s 13.1-mile Maple Run half-marathon. At least that many are expected for the eighth annual race this Sunday. Independent file photo/Trent Campbell

· 8:55-9:15 a.m.: South Street from Collins Drive to Main Street and the intersections of Route 30/Academy Street/College Street/Weybridge Street. Once all the runners have cleared the College Street/Weybridge Street intersection the road will be reopened. · 9:45-11:30 a.m.: South Street and South Street Extension from Porter Field Road to the intersection of Morse Road. Residents, employees, hospital visitors and emergency vehicles will be permitted to pass. The road closures have the approval of the town of Middlebury, the Middlebury Police Department, Porter Hospital and the Middlebury

Regional EMS. About the Course The racecourse is certified by USA Track & Field and is run on a 50/50 mix of paved and hard-packed dirt roads with several elevation changes — some long grades but nothing too steep. Runners will enjoy beautiful views of the Green and Adirondack mountains and green pastures throughout the race. The first half of the course is a loop and the second half is an out-and-back that will be closed to traffic. The midway point and relay exchange zone is on the Middlebury College campus. The event website is www.middleburymaplerun.com.

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 3A

City council fills board vacancy, sets pool rates By ANDY KIRKALDY VERGENNES — In a Tuesday evening meeting, the Vergennes City Council OK’d two sidewalk projects (see story on Page 2A). In other business, council members: • Appointed Greg Burdick to fill a Vergennes vacancy on the Vergennes Union High School board. No one had filed before the late-January deadline for an empty seat on the board, which will disband in June 2017, when the Addison Northwest Supervisory Union will transition to one-board governance. Burdick’s term will expire on Town Meet-

ing Day next March. He is also the VUHS treasurer, but city officials determined serving both roles is not a legal conflict of interest. • Set fees for use of the Vergennes swimming pool this season. All fees will remain the same except for lunchtime adult use of the pool, which will increase from $1 to $2. • Heard from Alderman Lowell Bertrand, the Vergennes Green Up Day co-coordinator along with Craig Miner, that Green Up Day volunteers are welcome to gather at the city green on Saturday, May 7, between 8 a.m. and noon.

Council

Change of seasons A MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE student, perhaps unprepared with sneakers, leggings and a baseball cap, trudges across a snowy campus Tuesday morning.

Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Film festival launches tour, receives entries Organizers plan for bigger event

Komesar said. “I think this year, we are on the Festival organizers are also radar to a greater extent, as opreaching out to the next genera- posed to being a brand new event,” tion of filmmakers. To that end, the Komesar said. “That should enBy JOHN FLOWERS MNFF is collaborating with Mid- hance attendance.” MIDDLEBURY — The second dlebury Union High School and Middlebury College will make annual Middlebury New FilmmakTown Hall Theater to offer “See- Dana Auditorium available to the ers Festival (MNFF) is still four ing in the Dark,” a May 12 event MNFF for Sunday screenings this months away, but anticipation for at THT that will give an estimated year. Last year, Dana was only the event is already starting to build 200-plus students special insights available for Friday and Saturday with what have been an increasing into the filmmaking process. screenings, Komesar noted. This number of film submissions and the Moderated by Craven, “Seeing in year’s MNFF will wrap up during kickoff of a New England tour feathe Dark” will include screenings of the evening of Sunday, Aug. 28, turing last year’s winners. six short films. The two-hour event with a closing film and the VTeddy “We are absolutely delighted with will include a question-and-answer Awards presentations. the quality of work that has come session. MUHS English teacher Along with Dana Auditorium, in,” said Lloyd Komesar, chairman Tim O’Leary is a key co-organizer the Marquis Theater and Town Hall of the MNFF Board of Directors. of the event, according to Komesar. Theater will reprise their roles as “The word has gotten out in a posi“It will give students a sense of primary venues for seeing MNFF tive way about our festival and our how films are made, and give them submissions. And the Swift House support of new filmmakers.” a chance to react to the films we are Inn will again host the MNFF openNew filmmakers have until the showing and a sense of what the ing party on Thursday, Aug. 25. end of May to submit their work, festival is all about,” Komesar said. “It’s still a little unbelievable to which can be a feature or short “It’s been a terrific new initiative me that Lloyd and Jay have brought film. The submission must be the for us … and we will continue to do this world-class festival to Town entrant’s first or second film, as the it on a regular basis.” Hall Theater and the community,” LLOYD KOMESAR intent of MNFF is to view and celMeanwhile, the stage is quietly said THT Executive Director Doug ebrate new, exciting work. being set for year two of the MNFF. Anderson. “It couldn’t happen at “We are in the film gathering venues, which will include Well- Tickets are already available for a better time. This end-of-summer stage now,” Komesar said. “Last fleet Preservation Hall in Wellfleet, purchase through the THT. Indi- weekend would normally be a slow year, we received 320 total (films), Mass., on April 30 and May 1; Rail- vidual ticket prices have increased time for downtown, but the festiwhich was surprising to us. We road Square Cinema in Waterville, slightly to $12 for one show, up val energizes everything, drawing thought we would have 125. This Maine, on May 4; Frontier Cinema from the $11. But day passes ($28) people from across the state, filling year, we’re on track to get 400 in Brunswick, Maine, on May 6; and festival passes ($75) cost the bars and restaurants and inns, as films. We are just running real hot Lyric Hall Theater in New Haven, same as last year. well as bringing people into THT with films coming in right now. Conn., on May 11; the Music Hall Last year, MNFF sold or distrib- and the Marquis Theater. EveryThat will give us plenty of remark- Loft in Portsmouth, N.H., on May uted a combined total of 1,000 tick- body wins.” able material to choose from and 16; Avon Cinema in Providence, ets and passes, according to KomesMore information about the festiwe anticipate screening roughly the R.I., on May 18 and 19; and the Am- ar. He projects 1,250 to 1,300 will val can be found at middfilmfest.org. same number of films as last year — herst Cinema in Amherst, Mass., on make their way to festivalgoers this Reporter John Flowers is at 90 to 95 films.” year. johnf@addisonindependent.com. May 22. This year’s MNFF will run Aug. All of the theaters, Komesar said, 25-28. Komesar is also pleased with have experience showing indepenthe caliber of work that he’s seen in dent films and are shapthe early going. ing up as “excellent And he expects the “The word partners.” MNFF-related buzz will has gotten Komesar noted the get even louder during MNFF is compensatthe coming months as out in a ing the filmmakers for last year’s winners show positive way their expenses and film their work in venues about our screenings during Best throughout New Eng- festival and of the Fest. land. It’s called the “Best “Promises made and of the Fest New England our support promises kept,” he said Tour,” which kicked off of new of the MNFF commiton Tuesday, April 26, and filmmakers.” ment to reward the filmwill continue through late — Lloyd makers and showcase May. During those five Komesar their work throughout weeks, the MNFF’s 2015 New England. award-winning films “It is a privilege for us will screen in all six New England to take what we have created here states, providing their filmmakers and export it around New England valuable exposure before apprecia- in a way that brings attention to the tive audiences around the larger re- festival, this town and our efforts,” gion, according to Komesar. Komesar added. “It really has been ONE STEP CLOSER TO HOME The 11 films set to screen each a beautiful endeavor.” earned a VTeddy Award as a top The New England Tour is expectfeature or short at the inaugural ed to enhance MNFF’s reputation MAY 20, 2016 • 7-11PM festival last August. They include and in turn result in even better film “OMO Child: The River and the submissions in the future, Komesar Bush” (documentary feature), “Ro- believes. $65 meo Is Bleeding” (documentary “This is part of the building profeature), “The Sound and the Shad- cess,” Komesar said. “As you find OPEN BAR ow” (narrative drama feature) and and fulfill your mission, word gets ABUNDANT HORS D’OEUVRES “John the Baptist,” a documentary out that you are being true and deshort from Brazil that was given a livering to filmmakers. The tour has standing ovation at its screening the potential to really solidify our Tickets available April 15 on Main Street in last summer. reputation.” Vergennes at Linda’s Apparel, Classic Stitching, Filmmakers may accompany FINDING DISTRIBUTORS Everywear for Everybody, Malabar, Bixby Library their films to speak about their Komesar said some of last year’s work following the screenings. winning filmmakers have found and online at www.bixbylibrary.org/tickets Komesar was in Brattleboro on distributors for their films, some of Tuesday for the first stop on the which are being released as DVDs/ tour — the Latchis Theater. The Blu-ray discs or through videoLatchis screened the entire MNFF on-demand services. MNFF films program over two days, April 26- that have made the leap to distri27. Other theaters will do it in one bution include “OMO Child: The day. Renowned Vermont filmmaker River and the Bush” and “Romeo Is and MNFF board member Jay Cra- Bleeding.” ven was also scheduled to provide “To see some of these (films) support for the films at some of the move on to the next stage is great,”

(Continued from Page 2A) cause the sidewalk would serve several homes now without a sidewalk as well as the 14 homes in Waltham. “This is an area that is developed residentially and should have a sidewalk,” he said. But Alderman Matt Chabot said “current needs” of deteriorated city sidewalks should take precedence before building one that extended into Waltham. Mayor Bill Benton cited the recent inventory of city sidewalk needs he and planning commission chairman Shannon Haggett had worked on. Alderman Jeff Fritz said he agreed city workers should focus on those priorities. “It is a lot of lost time,” Fritz said. But a majority backed the work: Perry, Mark Koenig, Lynn Donnelly and Lowell Bertrand voted in favor of Perry’s motion. “I feel it’s a good advanced step for us,” Donnelly said. Bertrand said the funding source was ideal. “It’s a perfect opportunity for the Water Tower Fund money,” he said.

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Council members also discussed whether to tap the Water Tower Fund for labor costs, but opted not to. “Other projects will need Water Tower Fund money,” Donnelly said. In other sidewalk business, the council on Tuesday heard from Perry, who is both an alderman and Vergennes Partnership president, that Vergennes had been awarded a $40,000 grant to support an $80,000 School Street sidewalk rebuild and handicap-access project in front of The Antidote and what is now The Clock Shop, which is moving to Kennedy Brothers. The Antidote plans to expand into The Clock Shop’s space. Perry said the partnership authored the grant, which was awarded by the Vermont Downtown Program and made possible by the city’s Designated Downtown status, in turn made possible by the partnership’s existence. The city will use the Water Tower Fund to pay its $20,000 match, and building owner Hans Vorsteveld will also chip in $20,000.

PAGE 4A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

A DDIS ON INDE P E NDEN T

Letters

Editorials

to the Editor

Focus on jobs when defining ‘independent contractor’ status As the Vermont Legislature moves toward adjournment, several bills won’t make the deadline and will die mostly-baked. One such bill, H.867, dealt with how to define an independent contractor. It was controversial because it was characterized as pitting pro-labor forces against pro-business forces, and that pits liberals against conservatives right from the get-go. In this case, however, it’s the liberal bias that is so conservative. Too many Progressives and Democrats are working with an outdated perspective of the work place, and the needs of workers. It’s the business community — represented by both parties — that better understands the rapidly changing work environment in today’s economy. Here’s the issue: Under current law, a Vermont company that brings on a worker for a function that is core to the business cannot classify that person as an independent contractor. It’s part of the Vermont law called the “like work” or “nature of the business” provision. The bill, H.867, proposed to remove that “like work” provision and redefine the parameters of being an “independent contractor” with six provisions rather than the current three. In so doing, supporters said, employers and independent contractors would have a better sense In this case, of the definition, rather than the uncertainty of current law. The bill passed out of the House it’s the liberal the Committee on Commerce and Economic Develbias that is so opment by an unanimous 11-0 vote. Of the bill’s details, a key was the six criteria conservative. to be considered an independent contractor: 1) being free from control of the company; 2) controlling the means and manner of the work; 3) operating a separate business; 4) holding oneself out as a distinct business; 5) offering the services to the general public; and 6) not being treated as an employee under federal tax law. It stalled in the House Committee on General, Housing and Military Affairs because pro-labor concerns said it didn’t do enough to protect workers. What seemed to sway the House General Committee was testimony from union voices, even though other significant voices supported it. “The Department of Labor supports it,” Rep. Heidi Scheuermann, RStowe, said of the bill after it passed the Commerce committee on which she sits. “Everybody else supports it. The labor unions have expressed some concerns with it. I understand that they have them, but frankly I don’t think they’re legitimate… We’re trying to put in place labor laws that will allow this new workforce to grow while retaining the protections.” One business owner, Murphy Robinson, who owns a start-up company teaching outdoor sports, testified in February about the absurdity of the current law: Robinson explained she uses “independent contractors” one to four days a year to teach classes in such sports as archery and hunting to women. “(But) because they are engaged in the core nature of my business, they have to be an employee,” she told the committee. “I’m paying as much in workers’ comp insurance as I am in payroll.” Many other examples could be cited of equally egregious examples that currently force “independent workers” to miss out on job opportunities because of an overly strict law. That’s the harm of the current law. In the effort to be overprotective of workers, we end up hurting them. How? Because employers won’t hire them. They’ll look at other scenarios, move out of state, or just choose not to grow. “We have the responsibility to deal with a changing workplace both for employees and businesses,” said Rep. Bill Botzow, D-Bennington, the chair of House Commerce during a hearing. “We have what I would call 20th- and 19th-century policies around the workforce, and we’re 16 years into a next century and a next way of working.” On the flip side, Matt Durocher, business manager for Carpenters Local 1996, testified to the House General Committee that the construction industry was rife with misclassified workers that often don’t have workers’ compensation insurance to cover them if they’re hurt on the job. Durocher suggested the state law add specific language for the construction industry to insure no individual worked on a construction site without being covered by workers’ compensation. That could be the basis for a reasonable compromise. A task force over the summer will try to resolve the issues in the hopes that a new bill can be passed in the next session. To that task force, here’s a suggestion: While preventing blatant abuse of the independent contractor provision, think first about the restrictions placed on job growth, and the costs added to doing business (particularly building houses) that also harm Vermont workers. Err on the side of job growth, and resist the role of the “nanny” state. That’s how Vermont can keep our youth employed; how we create jobs for new families; how businesses can grow and expand and create more opportunities for Vermont workers. That doesn’t mean workers should not be covered by workers’ comp; they absolutely should. But be sure they are able to get a job first, and then ensure employers operate by reasonable rules. The six criteria in H.867 made progress in that direction. With a few more tweaks to insure worker protections in some cases and make businesses eager to hire more workers in others, it should be almost set to go. And none too soon. It’s an issue that’s been discussed annually for the past decade with no resolution. It’s time to think creatively and with a liberal can-do spirit, not a reactionary voice against change. Angelo S. Lynn

A bold move for Rutland Rutland Mayor Chris Louras made a bold play by launching an initiative to bring up to 100 refugees from Syria into the city. That initiative was cemented this past Tuesday when he held a press conference to announce a cooperative venture with the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program to start the resettlement this fall. Not surprisingly, the mayor took a little heat about keeping the initiative secret from city alderman and from Rutland County legislators. Louras maintained that the work between state and federal counterparts required confidentiality. But the question of trust, and of legislators being blindsided, is beside the point. The issue is bringing 100 new family members to Rutland County, finding them jobs, housing, fitting them into schools and meshing their lives into the neighborhoods there. Louras said the initiative includes approximately 30 families, who would begin arriving every two weeks or so starting in October. It is a significant undertaking, but it could have significant rewards. “As much as we will be helping these refugees, their presence will benefit the entire region by adding to the flavor and energy of our neighborhoods and stoking our economic engines,” said Carol Tashie, a farmer and community leader, as reported by VTDigger. Added Gov. Shumlin in a written statement: “Today, Rutland showed the rest of the country and the world that the values of respect for others, caring for those who need it most, and common decency are still alive and well in Vermont.” Both statements reflect well on Rutland and on Vermont. Angelo S. Lynn

ADDISON COUNTY

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Firefighters did excellent work Many thanks to the Bristol Fire Department, as well as the New Haven, Monkton and Lincoln fire departments for responding to our recent barn fire. We deeply appreciate the efforts of everyone involved. Chris and Bonnie Burpee Bristol

Hawking sparks deep thoughts

What spring? A MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE student leaves tracks in the snow as she walks past Old Chapel during Tuesday’s snow storm that left many wondering, “Where’s spring?” Independent photo/Trent Campbell

State’s love of nature reflected at ANR Every Earth Day, I take time to reflect (36 percent), fishing (37 percent), visiting on the importance of the work we do at state or national parks (63 percent), biking the Agency of Natural Resources and how (37 percent), paddling (40 percent), boating much I appreciate the passion and commit(27 percent) and hunting (24 percent). ment of our over 600 employees. At ANR, This love of the outdoors translates into our work to protect the environment is not broad support for environmental protection. just a job — it also provides a life of meanEighty-five percent of Vermonters strongly ing and purpose. We love Vermont and its agree (and 13 percent moderately agree) great outdoors, so we work together to make with the statement that “knowing that sure we protect Vermont’s beauty, health Vermont’s native fish and wildlife populaand heritage. We conserve state lands. We tions are healthy and surviving well is very ensure that our soil, air and water are clean. important to me even if I don’t get to see We make it easier for Vermonters to get outthem.” Eighty-one percent of Vermonters side to hunt, fish and recreate. And we plan strongly agree (and 15 percent moderately carefully for a future that reduces our conagree) that “threatened and endangered spetributions to climate change and prepares us cies must be protected.” Vermonters also This week’s writer for its impacts. recognize the significant environmental is Deb Markowitz, Whenever I meet with other environmen- secretary of the challenges we face, including global clital leaders from across the country, I am re- Vermont Agency of mate change (64 percent), the spread of inminded of how lucky I am to be working on Natural Resources. vasive species (71 percent), forest and habienvironmental issues in a state that defines tat fragmentation (46 percent) and the loss itself, in part, by our connection to nature. A recent public of Vermont’s scenic landscape (41 percent). opinion survey confirms that the Green Mountain State Vermonters also support reasonable regulation that is filled with people who care about the environment. protects our natural resources. Eighty-three percent agree Nine out of 10 surveyed Vermonters believe that open that it is OK to limit the right to develop property in order space is essential to their quality of life. The vast ma- to protect fish and wildlife habitat. Similarly, 75 percent jority are active outdoors, viewing wildlife (81 percent), disagree with the statement that “economic development birdwatching (55 percent), hiking (61 percent), camping (See Markowitz, Page 5A)

Community Forum

New rules best for superdelegates The Democratic Party added superdelegates to its national conventions beginning in 1984. Superdelegates are elected as party officials who are part of state delegations to the conventions, but are not pledged to a particular presidential candidate. Superdelegates were intended to provide a dose of political realism to counteract what some Democratic leaders saw as the tendency of delegates elected by the party grassroots to support unsuccessful presidential candidates and presidents, such as George McGovern and Jimmy Carter. Most Democratic delegates are elected as a result of primaries and caucuses and are allocated to presidential candidates in proportion to their performance at the polls. Superdelegates are not pledged to the results of voting in their states and may cast their vote at the convention as they see fit. This year, there are By Eric L. Davis 719 superdelegates, comprising 15 percent of all delegates at the Democratic convention. Hillary Clinton now appears likely to gain a majority of the elected delegates on, or shortly before, the date of the California primary on June 7. At that time, Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign will come to an end, for all practical purposes. The convention votes of the superdelegates, who overwhelmingly support Clinton, will ratify the decision of Democratic primary and caucus voters around the nation. The presence of a large number of superdelegates at future conventions will continue to present the possibility of unpledged delegates overturning the popular

Politically Thinking

choice of Democratic voters, as reflected in primaries and caucuses. This would be a profoundly undemocratic outcome. Former Gov. Howard Dean, a Vermont superdelegate in his role as a former chair of the Democratic National Committee, has said that “superdelegates don’t represent people. I’m not elected by anyone. I’ll do what I think is right for the country.” While this claim is true as a statement of Democratic Party rules, Dean’s views are fundamentally incompatible with contemporary understandings of responsibility and accountability among political party leaders. The number of superdelegates should be substantially reduced for future conventions. However, I am sympathetic to the argument that Democratic members of Congress, and Democratic governors, should be entitled to ex-officio delegate status. There are legitimate reasons for giving the elected officials delegate status. How these officials do in their own elections can certainly be affected by the performance of the presidential candidate at the top of the ticket. Also, if a Democrat is elected president, the members of the House and Senate will have to work with her or him in Washington. Currently, there are 188 Democrats in the House, 46 in the Senate, and 18 Democratic governors. This would come to 252 superdelegates, less than 40 percent of the actual number of 719 superdelegates this year. The bulk of the superdelegates now come from the ranks of the Democratic National Committee, and the (See Davis, Page 5A)

Editor’s note: The writer addressed this to Dr. Stephen Hawking and cc’d the Independent. Dear Dr. Hawking, Thank you for your inspirational, indomitable willpower. I believe it demonstrates the true purpose of humanity is to honor the universe with a sense of wonder. Realization is the Breath of Existence. It helps us accumulate Time, understanding that WE are part of the dark matter that inflates the universe, and can enjoy the potential you have mastered. The evidence is obvious. Significant events occurred approximately 4.5 billion years ago, that taken together, define Divine: Our moon is acquired, oceans flow, tectonic plates pulse, magnetosphere forms, clouds billow and Life begins where fire and brimstone was the nature of proto-earth. The expanding universe accelerates, instead of slowing, coincidental with the beginning of consciousness — which could explain why expansion of the universe continues today. Consciousness is the indefinable and immeasurable “dark matter” or “dark force.” It puts us at the center of our Universe. Viruses, bacteria and even plants’ desire for survival began the process and can power the engine of expansion, but they can only tell the story with random fossilization. We need to appreciate OUR predicament and protect OUR lifeboat, so our privileged vantage, wonder-filled history and mysteries can expand, and not rely solely on cave paintings and gravestones for enduring evidence of Humanity. Life is wonder or despair — artists point out Wonder. Lonely, scorched planet captivates hunting ice moon — oceans arouse Earth! Peter Szymkowicz Shoreham

Funds to prevent suicide sought Over the past 10 years, Vermont’s suicide death rates have averaged 30 percent higher than the U.S. rates. It is the second leading cause of death of all Vermonters age 1435 and the third leading cause for ages 35-44 and in the top 10 for all Vermonters. It turns out that the idea “that if someone wants to kill themselves, they will find a way” is a myth. Studies that follow people who made serious suicide attempts find that more than 90 percent of them do not go on to die by suicide (Owens, 2002) when they are identified as suicidal and get effective treatment and follow-up services. The Vermont Department of Mental Health has made a small new request of $72,000 to the Vermont Suicide Prevention Center, which was removed from the House Budget. Presently the state allocates $100,000 for suicide prevention, a woefully small commitment to a pressing public health problem for which there are effective means of prevention if they can be adopted into best practice across multiple sectors: education, health care and community providers. It is a complex problem that requires multiple solutions, and many people play an important role. The first place to start is to prioritize this very small request in the version of the Senate budget to be approved this week so we can build on the work we have done in Vermont to address this problem. Richard Paul for the board of directors of the Center for Health and Learning, Brattleboro

Letters to the editor The Addison Independent encourages you to write letters to the editor. We print signed letters only. Include an address and telephone number, too, so we can clear up any questions. Send it to: Letters to the Editor, Addison Independent, 58 Maple St., Middlebury, VT 05753. Or email to news@addisonindependent.com.

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 5A

CNN’s Jones to speak at college Will deliver 2016 graduation speech MIDDLEBURY — Van Jones, a CNN political contributor, attorney, author and environmental and human rights activist, will deliver the 2016 Middlebury College commencement address on Sunday, May 29. Jones is the president and cofounder of Dream Corps, whose current initiatives, including #cut50, #YesWeCode, and Green For All, work to bring economic opportunity to disenfranchised communities. In 2009, Jones was the special adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, where he helped to run the interagency process that oversaw $80 billion in green energy recovery spending. He became a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress in 2010, where he leads their Green Opportunity Initiative. Jones is the author of two New York Times bestsellers: “The Green Collar Economy” and “Rebuild the Dream.” He is also the co-founder of two social justice organizations, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and Color of Change. “Because Van’s life and work is a symbol for open, civil debate on the key issues of our time, I am thrilled that he is able to join us and inspire our students as they move into the next chapters of their lives,” said Middlebury President Laurie L. Patton. “We should all be willing to cross as many boundaries as Van has to create a better world.” Jones will receive an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letter degree at the college’s commencement ceremony. Five other distinguished men and women are also recipients of honorary degrees this year: Srinivas Aravamudan (posthumous) was professor of English, romance studies and the Literature Program, and the former dean of the Humanities at Duke University. His areas of expertise included 18thcentury British and French literature, postcolonial studies and literary theory. He was the president of Duke’s Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes and first vice president of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. His study “Tropicopolitans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688-1804” won the outstanding first book prize of the Modern Language Association in 2000. His most recent book, “Enlightenment Orientalism: Resisting the Rise of the Novel,” was published in 2012. Aravamudan was awarded his honorary degree on April 9, and died April 13, 2016. Sen. Susan M. Collins is the senior United States senator from Maine. First elected in 1996, Sen. Collins has a national reputation as

VAN JONES an effective legislator who works across party lines to find consensus and cooperation. She is a powerful advocate on issues of health care, education, small business ownership, defense and intelligence. She chairs the Senate Select Committee on Aging and the Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development Appropriations Subcommittee, and also serves on the Intelligence Committee and the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Sen. Collins ranks 19th in Senate seniority and is the most senior Republican woman. She has never missed a vote — having cast more than 6,000 — during her 19 years in office. John Grotzinger, Fletcher Jones Professor of Geology at California Institute of Technology in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, was the project scientist and head of strategic science planning for NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover mission. He was also a participating scientist for the Mars Exploration Rovers, and for the High Resolution Science Experiment camera on board the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). Grotzinger was part of the Opportunity rover team that discovered evidence of liquid water on ancient Mars. He is the recipient of the NASA Group Achievement Award, Mars Science Laboratory Mission; the NASA Outstanding Public Leadership Medal; and the Charles Doolittle Walcott Medal from the National Academy of Sciences. Hannah Grotzinger, his daughter, is a member of the Middlebury class of 2016.

Simi Linton, a writer, consultant and public speaker, has been active for more than 40 years in increasing the visibility of the disabled in society, and in particular in the arts. She is the author of two books, including the memoir, “My Body Politic,” and recently coproduced and directed the documentary “Invitation to Dance.” She is the founder of Disability/ Arts, which worked to help shape the presentation of disability in the arts and to increase the representation of works by disabled artists. She founded the National Coalition on Sexuality and Disability and has received a Switzer Distinguished Fellowship from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Hon. William K. Sessions III ’69 is a distinguished jurist who has served 20 years on the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, including tenure as chief judge from 2002 to 2009. He has held senior status on the court since 2013. Sessions was vice chair for 10 years and then headed the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 2009 to 2010. Sessions’ landmark ruling in 2007 ended the auto industry’s attempts to block states from regulating car emissions, leading the way for clean air legislation to be enacted in multiple states. He was formerly a partner in the Middlebury law firm of Sessions, Keiner, Dumont & Barnes. The Middlebury College commencement ceremony will be held on the main quadrangle at 10 a.m. on Sunday, May 29. More than 5,000 family members and friends are expected to attend.

Markowitz (Continued from Page 4A) is more important than wildlife.” ANR’s list of successes continues to grow with this strong backbone of public support. Significant new laws now protect our groundwater, lakes and ponds; preserve wildlife as a public trust; make recycling simple and convenient; guard communities against flooding; and encourage investments in renewable energy alternatives. We have added thousands of acres of land to our state portfolio, prevented and managed invasive species, grown our wood products industry, and carefully planned how we manage our natural resources so that they are protected for future generations. Despite our progress, we still face significant challenges. PFOA (per-

fluorooctanoic acid) pollution in Bennington County drinking water has underscored the need to better understand and regulate the many chemicals in our environment, as well as invest in our environmental cleanup funds. The toxic algae blooms in Lake Champlain remind us that polluted stormwater still hurts our waterways. And, as climate change continues, we are learning

how to be resilient in the face of its impacts. We are up for these challenges. This Earth Day I want to acknowledge the diligence of the many Vermonters, especially those at ANR, whose work to protect our environment ensures that Vermont remains a great place to live, work and raise a family. These are our Earth Day heroes.

Lucretius: Our accidental world Editor’s note: This is the 10th many pleasures it affords us, vast in a series of essays on Lucre- stretches of it are uninhabitable tius, an early philosopher who to us, fierce animals roam about provides a link to “lost classics” its wastelands, “red in tooth and through his epic poem “On the claw” — although Lucretius comments that this is nothing comNature of Things.” One of Lucretius’ main goals pared to the mass cruelty of war, in his poem is to teach us that which along with poverty and we exist in an accidental world. other injustices, is an invention of civilized societies, a He believed that the byproduct of its overrecognition of this reaching creativity. fact of was a prereqMoreover, human uisite for happiness. life is full of hazards. The dance of atoms in Unlike most other infinite space is withanimals, we enter the out beginning or end, world unprepared, and from this ceasehelpless, unclothed, less activity there has unsheltered, subject evolved innumerable to disease and sudden worlds or universes of untimely death. Toil every possible shape, and trouble are our size, and degree of constant companions durability — a “mulLucretius: the in life. If God were tiverse.” We should not be nature of things perfectly good and of unlimited power, surprised that our An essay by would he have made a world works well Victor Nuovo world just like this one enough for us to live in and enjoy, and that Middlebury College full of cruelty, pain, it has so long en- professor emeritus uncertainty and terror? Do we not insult the dured; this was bound of philosophy Gods when we imagto happen in a uniine them creators of verse of this sort. It this world? is the way things are, Moreover, contrary to what and once we have learned this, we will be well on our way to wis- Plato would have us believe, the earth is not divine; it is fragile, its dom. It is also not surprising that Lu- parts are perishable and perishcretius denied the divine creation ing, always in need of replenishof the world. In the fifth book of ing, under the heat of the sun it De rerum natura, he justifies his becomes parched and “exhales denial. If the Gods were, as he clouds of dust … which strong imagined them to be, eternally winds disperse,” or it is washed content, in need of nothing and away by rain or flooding rivers, without desire, then they would so that fields must be restored. have neither motive nor reason Sometimes, it seems as though to engage in the novel pursuit of the world is at war with itself, the sun, and the waters, and the wind making worlds. There remains the possibility contending against each other, the world is a product of mere and earth and its inhabitants bebenevolence. In Timaeus, Plato’s come victims. And he goes on. His purpose, dialogue that portrays the divine creation of the world, the reason however, is not to cause his readthat prompted a God to make this ers to despair of nature, but to world is just such an unselfish remove all obstacles that prevent motive. The divine creator of the the modest yet real enjoyment world was good, “and one who is of it, to prepare the mind to engood can never be jealous of any- joy the benefits of nature, imperthing. And so … he wanted ev- fect as they are, untroubled by erything to become as much like theological fancies, extravagant himself as possible.” Plato imag- hopes, and irresolvable riddles. Just as we learn to accept our ined the product of divine labor to be a world “teeming with liv- mortality, and to enjoy the sweet ing things mortal and immortal,” pleasures of what life we have, “a visible God,” the image of a unperturbed by counterfeit tertranscendent model, “an intelli- rors of the supernatural, so earth, gible Living thing,” everlasting. our home, becomes the more precious to us, because it is fragile, Such, he says, is our world. Lucretius responds that our and like us mortal. It was neither world is nothing like what Plato made for us, nor we for it. Yet imagined. Notwithstanding the earth is our mother and our tomb.

Davis (Continued from Page 4A) chairs and vice chairs of the Democratic Party in every state. Unlike the elected officials, who are themselves accountable to the voters, the party committee members are largely unknown. They are elected by party organizations, rather than through popular votes. If Democratic voters strongly disapprove of how an elected official votes as a superdelegate, they could, in theory, vote the official out of office at the next election. However, there is no way by which Democratic voters can hold DNC and state party

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We are accidental companions in an accidental life and we are consoled in knowing this, and perhaps made gentler and more caring to all things around us, because we share the same pleasures and delights. Our desires become modest, and our sentiments measured. In this way, nature grounds us, frees us from illusions, and prepares us to engage in moral pursuits, and to go forth in search of the sort of happiness suited to our situation in the world. Unlike Plato, who would have us abandon the earth leaving behind its transient pleasures, hoping to ascend to intelligible realms of truth, Lucretius calls us back to our place in nature, to earth, out of which all life springs, and bids us fashion our societies, its laws and institutions, and values to motivate us. He is a most consistent environmental philosopher. All good things arise out of the most earthy, elemental affairs. Woman meets man, they make love, marry, cohabit and have children. In the previous essay, I referred to Lucretius’ comments on Romantic love. He treats it almost clinically, as a frenzy that seizes all animals. Yet he presents another aspect of conjugal love: it becomes settled, calm, knowing, without illusions, steady, a friendship, where each partner acknowledges its need for the other and they collaborate in meeting them, so their life together is sustained by gentleness, caring, and a steady affection. Not all children are conceived in love, nor are they beneficiaries of mother love and parental care. Yet, looking at things from bottom up, these two things, mother love and parental care are the most natural, most earthy excellences. When perfected, they are altruistic to a fault. Add to this the friendship of partners, nurturing their young and providing for their needs. The good is nothing more nor less than the combination of all these things in a common life. To sum all this up, we are accidental beings in an accidental world; nature has not made us perfect, but our survival thus far shows that we possess the capacities to learn how to continue in this world, and to use the accidental gifts that nature has given us to do good, and to find happiness. These are attainable goals so long as we do not overreach.

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committee members accountable for their actions at the conventions. In fact, very few Democratic voters could even identify the superdelegates from their states, other than senators, House members, and the governor. If the party committee members want to be delegates to

future Democratic conventions, they should go as pledged delegates, and cast their votes in accordance with the results of the primaries and caucuses in their states. Eric L. Davis is professor emeritus of political science at Middlebury College.

PAGE 6A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

ADDISON COUNTY

Gerald DeWitt, 88, Weybridge

Obituaries JoAn Bachand, Burlington

BURLINGTON — JoAn M. (Whalon) Bachand passed away after a long illness on April 22, 2016. She was predeceased by her parents, James M. and Cecile E. Normandeau Whalon; her loving husband, Thomas E. Bachand I, in 1991; her son Thomas E. Bachand II in 2013; and her siblings James T. Whalon, John Whalon and Joyce Fisher. She is survived by seven children and their spouses, Robert (Kathy) Bachand of Virginia, James (Laura) Bachand, and Dawn Marie (Ricky) Sumner, all of Vermont, Tina (John) Poirier of Pennsylvania, and

Dean (Malinda) Bachand, Stephen (Fayanne) Bachand, and Joanne Turano, all of Vermont; 22 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews; sisters-in-law Donna Whalon and Mary Cross; and brother-in-law Frank Cross. A celebration of life memorial service will be held on Friday, April 29, at Brown-McClay Funeral Home in Vergennes from 1 to 2 p.m. and a gathering (potluck) after at Dawn Marie’s in Bridport. In lieu of flowers contributions may be made to Visiting Nurse Association of Chittenden County, 1110 Prim Road, Colchester, VT 05446. ◊

JOAN M. BACHAND

Alice Lauritsen, 92, Middlebury MIDDLEBURY — Alice Lauritsen passed away April 22, 2016. She was born June 6, 1923, to Stanley A. Byington and Fannie Ellen (Bacon) Byington. She spent her young years on the Byington farm in Charlotte and the Bacon homestead in Shelburne. She attended high school in Shelburne and graduated from Burlington High School in 1941 and from Green Mountain Junior College in 1943. In 1948 Alice moved to South Sioux City, Neb., where she married Oluf Lauritsen. She was active as a 4-H and Cub Scout leader and volunteered as a Civil Defense airplane watcher during World War II. In 1960 she moved back to her beloved state of Vermont where she worked as a secretary for Drake Smith Co. in Bristol and later as a bookkeeper for Hood’s Farm Engineering in Middlebury. In 1968 Alice purchased the trailer park that became known as the Lauritsen Trailer Park. She spent many hours updating the park and her home there. She loved cooking, flowers and gardening. In 1998 Alice sold the trailer park and her home and moved to a condo in Middlebury. Alice was a member and active participant in the Federated Church in Bristol where she taught Sunday school. She served on the Federated Board and was instrumental in

renovations of the parsonage and church. Alice held several offices in the Ladies Aid. Mrs. Lauritsen was initiated into the Order of Eastern Star in South Sioux City, Neb., in 1956. After moving back to Vermont she became a member of Libanus Chapter #47 where she served as a worthy Matron for six years. She also held many other offices and was Vermont Grand Ruth in the 1991-1992 session. In 1999 she joined Union Chapter #21 in Middlebury as a dual member. In 1998 she served as District Deputy of District #11. She was also a member of the Vermont and International Grand Representative Association. She leaves her son, Mark (Jan) Lauritsen of Omaha, Neb., and their children Christine (Ryan) Beckman of Lincoln, Neb., Brad Lauritsen of Omaha, Neb. and Katie (Mike) Molick of St. Louis, Mo. She also leaves a daughter, Phyllis Anne (Bill) Nathlich of Dakota Dunis, S.D., and her children Kim (Gary) Hinrichsin of Des Moines, Iowa, and Kirk Goodrich of Las Vegas, Nev.; great-grandchildren Alexandra and Ashley Beckman of Lincoln, Neb., Evan and Maria Molick of St. Louis, Mo., and Austin and Dillon Godfrey; sister-in-law Carol Byington of Williamsburg, Va.; and half-sister Margaret Bouvier of Middlebury and her children Kathy LaFleche and Mary Wright along with special nieces and nephews.

Harvey C. Smith

A Memorial Service in celebration of the Life of Harvey C. Smith will be held at Mead Chapel on the Middlebury College Campus on Saturday, May 7th at noon. Harvey was born July 11, 1933 and left us on January 22, 2016. He is survived by his wife of 43 years, Gail Dawson Smith and son Colin Alexander Smith of Middlebury, daughter Leslie Crocker Smith and her husband Robert James Nicholls of New Haven and sister Patricia Smith Elvebak of Corte Maderia, Calif. Following the service there will be a reception at the Middlebury Inn.

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Sanderson-Ducharme Funeral Home 117 South Main St. Middlebury, VT • 388-2311 sandersonfuneralservice.com

Board Member Spotlight Anne Collins

“A hand up not a handout. That’s both the philosophy and practice of the Addison County Parent Child Center, and why I’m proud to be associated with it. PCC’s work in the areas of poverty intervention and family preservation through support and education gives young people options that might not otherwise be available to them. And the net result, of course, is not just better lives for individuals & families, but a better community, and, in the end, a better world.”

wife Catherine of Sioux Falls, S.D., and Thomas DeWitt of Weybridge; by his sisters, Rosalyn Schoonmaker and Marion Whitford, both of Wallkill, N.Y.; and by his two grandsons, Jason and Jeremy DeWitt of S.D. He was predeceased by his parents and by his brothers, Earl B. DeWitt Jr. and Robert P. DeWitt. Visiting hours were held on Wednesday, April 27, 2016 from 4-7 p.m. at the Sanderson-Ducharme Funeral Home, 117 South Main St., Middlebury. Graveside services will be held in Modena Rural Cemetery in Modena, N.Y., at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to the Middlebury United Methodist Church at 47 North Pleasant St., Middlebury, VT 05753; GERALD DEWITT Elderly Services Inc., 112 Exchange St., Middlebury, VT 05753; or Addison County Home Health and direction of the Sanderson-Ducharme Hospice, P.O. Box 754, Middlebury, Funeral Home. VT 05753. Online condolences at www.sandArrangements are under the ersonfuneralservice.com. ◊

Robert Kellogg, 79, Orwell

ALICE LAURITSEN

ORWELL — Robert Howard Kellogg, 79, of Orwell died April 22, 2016, at his residence following a brief illness. He was born on Sept. 8, 1936, in Benson, the son of William H. and Lorraine I. (Fish) Kellogg. Mr. Kellogg grew up on the family farm in Benson and enlisted in the U.S. Navy on Dec. 7, 1954, honorably discharged on Dec. 6, 1958, in San Diego, Calif. He was employed as a welder for many years in San Diego, Calif., Long Beach, Calif., and Bakersfield, Calif., working on several aircraft and shipyards. He relocated back to Orwell in 1983, establishing a welding company that he operated for many years. He retired from the Pipefitting Steamfitting Union. He was a member of the Crippen Fellows American Legion Post 50 in Castleton, and the Fraternal Order Of Eagles, 3907 Aerie, in Fair Haven. Mr. Kellogg enjoyed hunting and

Alice was preceded in death by her mother, Fannie Bacon Byington; brother Stanley Jr.; brother and sister-in-law Gerald and Elinor Byington; father, Stanley Byington; and a special aunt, Marie Hamilton. Funeral services were at the Federated Church in Bristol on Wednesday, April 27, at 11 a.m. Interment was at the Shelburne Village Cemetery where she was buried next to her mother. Donations may be made to the Bristol Federated STARKSBORO — Dr. Wilbert Church, 6 Church St., Bristol, VT Price Niles, D.O., 85, died peace05443. ◊ fully surrounded by his family on Saturday, April 23, 2016, in his home at 1299 Robert Young Road, Starksboro, VT 05487. He leaves his wife of 37 years, Marijke Alders Niles, whom he met at the ski slopes of Sun Valley, Idaho; his daughter, STARKSBORO — A grave- Kirsten (Matthew); and his son, Marc side service for Ruthena Zeno of (Elisabeth). Starksboro, who died Feb. 18, will He was born in Ashtabula, Ohio, be held Saturday, May 7, at 11 on Dec. 22, 1930, the son of Tracy a.m. at Green Mount Cemetery on Wilbert and Irene Price Niles. At 17, Cemetery Road in Starksboro, with Price joined the Marine Corps, and the Rev. Larry Detweiler officiat- served with the Fifth Marines in the ing. A luncheon will follow at the Pusan perimeter in Korea. He was Starksboro Baptist Church. part of the Inchon landing. He also served in North Korea in the Chosin Reservoir. After discharge from the Marine Corps he attended Ohio State University and then graduated from MidWest University Medical School in 1966. He practiced as a family physician in Attica, Kan., and Cheboygan, Mich. Dr. Niles began his residency in orthopedic surgery in 1973, at DOH Corp. in Detroit. In 1977, Dr. Niles started his practice in South Bend, Ind., where he was

fishing and was an avid fan of the Boston Red Sox and Dodgers. Survivors include his wife, Susan Kellogg, whom he married on July 28, 1984, in Orwell; a daughter, Connie Campbell and her husband Larry of Nixa, Mo.; a son, William Kellogg and his wife Gina of Benson; a stepson, Shawn Beeman of Orwell; a grandson, John Kellogg of Salem, Ore.; two great-grandchildren, Hannah and Liam Kellogg; a sister, Phyllis Elithorpe of Massachusetts; a brother, John Kellogg of Salisbury; and nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by a sister, Lucy Grant. There will be no calling hours or funeral service. A graveside service will be held April 27, 2016, at 2 p.m. at the Fair View Cemetery in Benson. ROBERT H. KELLOGG Arrangements are by the Durfee Funeral Home. Memorial contributions may be County Home Health and Hospice, made to Boys Town; P.O. Box 8000, PO Box 754, Middlebury, VT Boys Town, NE 68010; or Addison 05753. ◊

Wilbert Niles, 85, Starksboro

Ruthena Zeno memorial service

associated with Michiana Community Hospital where he was the director of Medical Education and Chairman of the Board of Trustees. He retired in 2000. In 2002 he moved with his family to Starksboro. He practiced at Porter Hospital in Middlebury as a locum tenens surgeon. After retirement from Porter Hospital, Price helped Marijke with the launch of the perennial nursery and gardens. Price became the Master Tractor Operator. Price enjoyed extensive traveling with his wife and children and together they enjoyed many wonderful trips filled with good food and laughter. The arts played a very important role in the family. They shared many classical music events, shows and ballet and modern dance performances. He really enjoyed museum visits. He loved performing as Herr Drosselmeyer in the Nutcracker Ballet with all of his family. His favorite trips were the ski trips out West, where he would enjoy being out-skied by Kirsten and Marc. He had a passion for flying his Bellanca airplane and prided himself in being an FAA flight surgeon. During his

DR. WILBERT PRICE NILES illness he proclaimed that he was in the oyster stage and traveled to find the best! Cremation has taken place. Contributions may be made to either CFSJC for the Marijke Niles and Family Fund for the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, P.O. Box 837, South Bend, IN 46624, or Addison County Home Health and Hospice (ACHHH), P.O. Box 754, Route 7, Middlebury, VT 05753. ◊

Addison Independent

Obituary Guidelines The Independent will publish paid obituaries and free notices of passing. Paid obituaries cost 25 cents per word and will be published, as submitted, on the date of the family’s choosing. Paid obituaries are marked with a “◊” symbol at the end. For those who do not wish to purchase an obituary, the Independent offers a free notice of passing up to 100 words, subject to editing by our news department. Photos (optional) with either paid obituaries or free notices cost $10 per photo. Obituaries may be emailed to obits@ addisonindependent.com. Submissions must be received by 11 a.m. on Wednesday for publication in the Thursday paper and 11 a.m. on Friday for Monday’s paper. Email obits@addisonindependent. com or call 802-388-4944 for more information.

FUNERAL MEMORIAL SERVICE CREMATION PRE-PLANNING SERVICES

BROWN-McCLAY FUNERAL HOMES

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WEYBRIDGE — Gerald C. DeWitt, 88, died Thursday evening, April 21, 2016, at Porter Medical Center after a lengthy illness. He was born Feb. 16, 1928, in Kingston, N.Y., the son of Earl B. and Evelyn (Coddington) DeWitt. He earned his G.E.D. in Highland, N.Y. Gerald enlisted and served in the United States Army during the Korean Era. He was a member of the American Legion, Lions Club, Libanus Lodge #47 F & A.M. of Bristol and a member of the United Methodist Church. He was an avid golfer and enjoyed many winters in Arizona. Gerald had previously worked as a sales representative for F.M.C. and was also a Deputy Sheriff for Addison County Sheriff’s Department for over 25 years. He is survived by his wife Shelby (Harcourt) DeWitt, whom he married Dec. 9, 1950; by his sons, Gary M. DeWitt and wife Barbara of North Ferrisburgh, Martin L. DeWitt and

BRISTOL 453-2301

VERGENNES 877-3321

Helen Noel, 89, Brandon BRANDON — Helen T. Noel, age 89, died Tuesday evening, April 26, 2016, surrounded by her family, at Mountain View Center in Rutland. Helen was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on Dec. 16, 1926, to Joseph and Katherine (Giblin) Tracy. She was the youngest of five daughters. She married Dick Noel in Brooklyn in 1946. They settled on Long Island before moving to Brandon in 1965. Upon arriving in Brandon, they opened the Sears Catalog Store on Center Street, at the site now occupied by Café Provence. They sold the business in 1969. She afterwards worked for 15 years as the executive assistant to attorney Frank Bunting and another 15 years for the Rutland Northeast Supervisory Union, first as the executive assistant to the Superintendent, then as Personnel Officer. She retired in 1999. Helen was most proud of her election as the first woman on the Brandon selectboard in 1973. She championed the expansion of the board to five members and was instrumental in the formation of the zoning board of adjustment. She was proud to be a breast cancer survivor. She was an active member of many community groups including the League of

Women Voters, the Monday Club, the original Brandon Players and the Garden Club. She mourned the dissolution of these groups in later years. At home, she was known of always having a redecorating project in the works. The rooms in her home were constantly re-invented by her hand. She is survived by her sister, Edith Gerrity of Allendale, N.J.; daughter Kathie Butler and her husband Russ of Roswell, Ga.; daughter Wendy Noel Frederick and her husband Greg of Brandon; her son Jeffrey Noel and his wife Julie, also of Brandon; grandchildren Tracy Butler-Martinez and her husband Nick of Dublin, Ohio, Russell Butler and his wife Jennifer of Delaware, Ohio, Brian Butler of Columbus, Ohio, Amanda Noel of Middlebury and Ian Noel of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and great-grandchildren Claire and Holly Butler. Several nieces, nephews and cousins, as well as many good friends at the Brandon Senior Center and her many friends and neighbors at the Neshobe House, also survive her. She was predeceased by her former spouse in 1991, and her sisters Lillian, Marguerite and Kay. The memorial service “In

HELEN NOEL Celebration of Her Life” will be held on Saturday, April 30, 2016, at 10 a.m. at the Miller & Ketcham Funeral Home in Brandon. A private graveside committal service and burial will take place, at a later date. Memorial gifts in lieu of flowers may be made to the Brandon Area Rescue Squad, P.O. Box 232, Brandon, VT 05733. ◊

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 7A

By the way (Continued from Page 1A) bury resident who was killed after being struck by a car while cycling in Weybridge on April 14, 2015. The ride will start at 4 p.m. at Middlebury Union High School and will follow the same route through Weybridge as last year. Registration will be at the event and there is no fee. Donations can be made the day of the ride to Middlebury Safe Routes. All riders are required to have helmets. If you wanted to get an up-close look at the gorgeous new town offices at the rotary in downtown Middlebury, Friday will provide an opportunity. An opening ceremony and ribbon cutting will take place at 2 p.m. and tours of the new building will be offered until 5 p.m. Four local groups have teamed up to bring an exciting kickoff to summer tennis in Addison County. The Addison Community Athletics Foundation, Middlebury Parks and Rec. Department, the U.S. Tennis Association and SoJo Tennis invite the public — youth and adult — to come to the Middlebury Rec Park on the outdoor tennis courts this Sunday, May 1, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., for a free event designed to introduce or reintroduce you and your family to tennis. Organizers said the emphasis will be on fun. Equipment will be provided or bring your own. Participants will enjoy giveaways, food and music. In the event of bad weather this “play day� will be held at Middlebury Indoor Tennis. For questions or more information, contact Erin Morrison at emorrison@ acafvt.org. Speaking of tennis, the Addison Community Athletics Foundation is looking for volunteers to help elementary and middle school students learn to play and enjoy tennis. On May 20 and 21 the foundation is offering volunteer training at Middlebury Indoor Tennis. Sessions will cover ACAF’s youth tennis program and provide on-court leadership training, and they will also be combined with a USTA 10 & Under workshop. Organizers said those who attend both days can be a part of the many programs and initiatives ACAF has within Addison County. Those who would like to learn more about ACAF or register for the workshops may visit www.vermontcf. org/acaf or contact Erin Morrison at emorrison@acafvt.org. Morrison said over the past year ACAF has worked to get out into the community and into schools to share tennis with area youth, and that many schools and organizations are interested in participating in programs during and after school hours — thus volunteers

ADDISON COUNTY

VUHS honor roll are needed. Rick Winston will present a program and discussion on “Classic Films� at next Wednesday’s Shoreham Historical Society meeting. During the event, which begins at 7 p.m. at the Platt Memorial Library, Winston will talk about movies from the silent era through the 1950s, showing clips from acclaimed films of various genres and discussing their social significance. All are welcome and refreshments will follow the program. Look for something familiar on the cover article of the upcoming summer edition of the Magazine of Historic New England. The front-page photo and lead article feature Middlebury’s Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History. The article is excellent in introducing or re-introducing the public to the missions, buildings, collections and archives of the museum. The article highlights both historical themes and selections from more recent contemporary exhibits. The Addison Northwest Supervisory Union finally has a date for the first meeting of the new school board that will oversee the new unified school district that will govern the schools in Vergennes, Ferrisburgh, Addison, Panton and Waltham under one board with one budget. Superintendent JoAn Canning tells us that the annual meeting of the new school board will take place June 20 at 6 p.m. at the Vergennes Union High School library. Residents of the five towns OK’d the reorganization on Town Meeting Day. They’ve been waiting as Vermont Education Secretary Rebecca Holcombe, who must set the meeting and will attend, has a very busy schedule and this is the first possible date that she was available. The meeting will likely last one hour with a community reception and celebration immediately following. Nominations are now open for the 2017 Vermont Teacher of the Year program. The public is invited to join Vermont educators to directly nominate teachers for the statewide distinction. The winner serves as an advocate for Vermont’s teachers, students and education system. To be considered for the Vermont Teacher of the Year program, a teacher must hold a current Vermont teaching license, have a minimum of five years’ teaching experience, and be employed by a Vermont public, private or approved independent school. For more information about the program, go online to http://education.vermont.gov/department/awards/teacher-of-theyear. Nominations can be completed through May 31.

VERGENNES — The following Vergennes Union High School students have been named to the honor roll for the third quarter of the 20152016 academic year. GRADE 12 High honors: Justin Connor, Brevin Cushman, Joshua Dam, Kyra Duggento, Jaymee Fulcher, Edward Haskell, Jeb Hodsden, Eleanor “Nora� Hubbard, Kira Johnson, Tyler Kepes, Emily Lalumiere, Xavier Provencher, Jordan Racine and Nathan Rowell. Honors: Felicia Armell, Tamara Aunchman, Jesse Barnes, Dylan Bougor, Lathrop Brownell, Bassim Bunde, Grace Chamberlain, Broc Clark, Kelsey Coleman, Hailey Cray, Quinlan D’Andrea, Jack Eisenhower, Aaron Gaines, Emma Gardner, Brianna Gebo, Julia Johnson, Tami Johnson, Joshua Lorrain, Anissa Martin, Emily Martin, Megan Martin, Silas Mullin, Ethan Reardon, Michael Safford III, Natalie Salley, Nikkilette Salley, Joshua Sickles, Nicole Stearns, Sara Stearns, Bradley Sturtevant, Keisha Thompson, Shawnna VanderWey, Kareena Vorsteveld and Brett Woods. GRADE 11 High honors: Alyse Beauchemin, Brandon Chamberlain, Brandon Cousino, Caroline Johnston, Eva Kamman, Sadie Kass, Zoey Parker, Shay Pouliot, Troy Provencher, Relief Quinn, Antonio Ruggiero, Lauren Scott and Samuel Webb, Jr. Honors: Abigail Brace, Camden Bushey, Sarah Clark, Breanna De Smit, Abigael Dobson, Alyson Gebo, Ayla Gill, Ryan Grady, Ian Gramling, Joshua Hanlon, Anna Huppuch, Tinder Kiely, Devon Kimball, Jacob LaFleche, Rebecca Maloy, Courtney Morin, Melina Myers, Eli Paquin, Sophia Parker, David Porter, Max Ratti-Bicknell, Matthew Rivait, Christopher Robinson, Megan Rooney, Lillian Russell, Alyssa Saunders, Trevon Smith, Emily Stone, Rebecca Unger, Howard VanderWey, Annika Vorsteveld and Klaas Vorsteveld. GRADE 10 High Honors: Ally Atkins, Lance Bergmans, Anneke Boelens, Leigah Burbo, Lillian Clark, Norah Deming, Nora Hatch, Kristina Jochum, Saskia Kiely, Erin Lawrence, Anya Sonwaldt and Megan Tarte. Honors: Kaitlyn Brace, Adelaide Cushman, Allysha Devoid, Cody DeVries, Camden Dieterle, Tucker Dike, Peighton Duprey, Kayla Gevry, Eva Ginalski, Olivia Hawkins, Natalie Huestis, Aliya Hugo, Emma Husk, Dylan Johnson, Benjamin Kayhart, Casey Kimball, Abigail Loven, Judith PortugalDunne, Aaron Premont, E. Thomas Richards, Lianna Sargent-Maher, Bailey Smith, Dakota Spear, Keira Thorpe, Ashley Towle, Raymond VanderWey, Willem Wormer and Cambria Wyckoff. GRADE 9 High honors: Kylie Comeau, Ashley Cray, Cyrus Devine, Bess Gram-

ling, Marin Howell, Emily Jackson, Ezekiel Palmer, Hannah Philbrook, Dylan Rapoport, Madeline Smith, Emily Steen, Carter Visicaro and Cedar Winslow. Honors: Michael Alexopoulos, Joseph Ask, Emma Bryant, Benjamin Clark, Holden Clark, Shannon Cole, Bethany Delgadillo, Raven Duke, Dominic Fleming, Connor Gill, Jameson Haggett, Jack Halpin, Spencer Hurlburt, Olivia Hutchins, Josephine Jackman, Brandon Jewell, Katherine Kandzior, Kamren Kiefer, Nicholas Lareau, Rachel Leete, Olivia Lorrain, Morgan Lynk, Wade Mullin, Sarah Peterson, Richmond Rathbun, Lydia Sabourin, Abigail Smith, Brianna VanderWey, Megan Vorsteveld, Caitlin Walsh, Nathan Wojciechowski and Andrew Woods. GRADE 8 High honors: Brianna Billings, Leah Croke, Sophie Hatch, Marlie Hunt, Rory Patch, Erich Reitz, Emily Rooney and Kai Williams. Honors: Emma Beauchemin, Luke Bergmans, Robert Bicknell, Emily Brinkman, Ian Brons, Adelaide

Brooks, Eleni Brouillard, Kaleigh Campbell, Zeke Clark, Benjamin Curtis, Nathan DeVos, Aidan Gardner, Jackson Hameline, Kevin Jackson, Amber Krumrie, Gage Lalumiere, Justin McEntee, Viktoria Provencher, Aidan Scott, Jeffrey Stearns, Molly Tatlock and Kathryn Wyckoff. GRADE 7 High honors: Summer Chabot, Sophia Davis, Xander DeBlois, Emalie Gernander, Emma Jackman, Reagan Kayhart, Kobe Kessler, Jordan Kimball, Natalie Martin, Jarret Muzzy and Anna Rakowski. Honors: Harriet Anderson, Karrie Ayer, Ryan Baringer, Barret Barrows, Christopher Bolduc, Stang Chantawan, Ava Collins, Amanda Cook, Zehra Cushman, Ryleigh Dieterle, Rebekah Duprey, Avery Husk, Sydney Jewell, Dominic Kandzior, Hannah Kelly, Thomas Lawrence, Ethan Lynk, Alyssa MacKinnon, Chloe Mailloux, Maria Malaney, Adam Sausville, Tucker Stearns, Isabel Steen, Morgan Terry, Macey Thayer, Ashley Tierney, Samuel Visser and Jonathan Willis.

School Briefs County students receive awards at Rice High School SOUTH BURLINGTON — The following Addison County residents were recognized for academic achievement at Rice Memorial High School in South Burlington for the third quarter of the 2015-2016 school year. First honors: Caroline Carrara and Beatrice Shlansky. Second honors: Merle Beach, Carolyn Cutting, Chani Krech, Rachael Orvis, Maryann Pohlen, Liam Peterson, Victoria Peyser and Jasper Williams. Honorable Mention: Sierra Combs, Kristin DeGraaf and Jonathan Godaire. Natasha Johnson of Middlebury was named to the honor roll for the winter term at Oregon State University. Johnson is in the post baccalaureate program for computer science.

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children: (10 & under) $5

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Welcome – Brian Carpenter, Chair of the Middlebury Selectboard

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PAGE 8A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

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Tickets in advance only, available at the Bristol Rec OfďŹ ce. Children $10, accompanying adults $5. Info: 453-5885 or bristolrec@gmavt.net. Reserve by April 20. SpeakUp! Addison County bingo Vermont Mozart Festival concert in Middlebury. fundraiser in Middlebury. Thursday, Saturday, April 30, 7 p.m. Champlain Valley Unitarian April 28, 4-6 p.m., Middlebury American Universalist Society. The Vermont Mozart Chamber Legion. Featuring prizes from local merchants. Players present four of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Concessions and rafe. Proceeds will help members “Milaneseâ€? string quartets. Admission is $15 for attend conferences and workshops to advance their adults and free for children. Info and tickets: www. self-advocacy skills. vermontmozartfestival.org. “Thirty-eight: The Hurricane That Transformed “Art and Craftâ€? screening at Middlebury College. New Englandâ€? talk in Middlebury. Thursday, April Saturday, April 30, 3 and 8 p.m., Dana Auditorium. A 28, 5 p.m., Vermont Folklife Center. Vermont author documentary exposing the life of Mark Landis, one Stephen Long will share his new book about the of the most proliďŹ c art forgers in U.S. history. Free. only Category 2 hurricane to ever reach Vermont. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. “The Real Story of ‘The Imitation Havurah “Fun(d)raiserâ€? gala in Middlebury. Game’ and the Enigma of Alan Saturday, April 30, 7-9 p.m., Havurah House, 56 Turingâ€? talk in Hancock. Thursday, North Pleasant St. Admission $15 per person, $25 April 28, 7 p.m., Hancock Town Hall. for two, includes wine, appetizers and desserts, plus Tom Perera, a retired professor of a chance to bid on over 80 items. neuroscience and Enigma machine Proceeds fun Havurah’s educaMIDDLEBURY STUDIO SCHOOL — Adult: Weds AM Paint, collector, will talk about the movie “The tional, charitable and religious Weds. PM Wheel, Thurs AM Oils, Thurs. AM Hand building, programs. Park at Methodist Imitation Gameâ€? and share the more Thurs. PM Pastels, Thurs PM Drawing, Dyeing Cotton Church. Info: 388-2986 or accurate history of the cracking of the German Navy’s Enigma code. Free. Naturally. Children: Mon. Wheel, Weds. after school Hand ejoselson@langrock.com. Info: www.enigmamuseum.com. Festival concert at Building, Thurs. Clay Hand Building. Summer Art Camps, Clay Bach “An Excursion to Shondalandâ€? at Middlebury College. Saturday, & Adult classes are up on the website: middleburystudioschool. April 30, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center Middlebury College. Thursday, April 28, 7-9 p.m., Crossroads Screening for the Arts. The Middlebury org. Contact Barb at 247-3702, ewaldewald@aol.com. Room. Watch and discuss the pilots Bach Choir and Festival of “Grey’s Anatomyâ€? and “How to Get Orchestra perform under the Away with Murder.â€? Free popcorn. Part of the 2016 and nebulae. Free and open to the public, but will direction of Jeffrey Buettner. Tickets $12 public, $10 Gensler Symposium, “#IntersectionalTV: Mediating take place only if the sky is at least mostly clear. Middlebury ID holders, free to Middlebury College Race, Gender and Sexuality.â€? Symposium runs If the weather appears uncertain, visitors may call students with ID. Info: middlebury.edu/bachfest. April 25-29. Info: http://sites.middlebury.edu/ 443-2266 or visit http://go.middlebury.edu/observa“One for the Roadâ€? on stage at Middlebury College. gensler2016/2016/03/21/welcome. tory after 7 p.m. on the evening of the open house Saturday, April 30, 8 p.m., Hepburn Zoo. An uncom“One for the Roadâ€? on stage at Middlebury College. for a status report. fortable exploration of power and psychological Thursday, April 28, 8 p.m., Hepburn Zoo. An uncomtorture: An interrogator uses nothing but language fortable exploration of power and psychological to break down a family’s psyche. Running time: 30 torture: An interrogator uses nothing but language minutes. Tickets $5. to break down a family’s psyche. Running time: 30 “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Green Mountain Club wildower walk minutes. Tickets $5. Also on April 29 and 30. Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Saturday, in Waltham. Saturday, April 30, time and “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the April 30, 8 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury meeting place TBA. A 2.5-mile round-trip Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Thursday, Community Players presents one of the brightest trek on Buck Mountain, with a few moderately steep April 28, 8 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for ascents. Views of Champlain Valley and Snake Community Players presents one of the brightest Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 Mountain. Contact leader Mike Greenwood for and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT details: mike802vt@comcast.net or 802-349-5653. Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. More info: www.gmcbreadloaf.org. for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT Runs through May 7. box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. Church rummage sale in North Ferrisburgh. Quebecois music in Bristol. Saturday, April 30, 8 Saturday, April 30, 8-11 a.m., North Ferrisburgh Runs through May 7. p.m., WalkOver Concert Room, 15 Main St. Yann United Methodist Church. Final day: Flat fee of $5 Falquet and Pascal Gemme join with Newfoundland gives you unlimited merchandise. Proceeds beneďŹ t and New England solo balladeer Keith Murphy for a children who will be going on mission trips and double bill of traditional songs in French and English attending camps. as well as highly crafted traditional dance music. Rummage sale in Salisbury. Friday, Rummage sale in Salisbury. Saturday, April 30, 9 Final event in 2016 Cabin Fever Series. Admission April 29, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Salisbury a.m.-1 p.m., Salisbury Congregational Church. $15 in advance, $20 day of show. Reservations: Congregational Church. Drop-off and Drop-off and pick-up of donations available by call453-3188, ext. 2. pick-up of donations available by calling 352-4375. ing 352-4375. Continues Saturday. Electric car and bike demo in Middlebury. Saturday, Church rummage sale in North Ferrisburgh. Friday, April 30, 9 a.m.-noon, Mill Street parking lot. Come April 29, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., North Ferrisburgh United see Middlebury’s electric vehicle charging stations Middlebury Maple Run — The Methodist Church. Proceeds beneďŹ t children who and meet with EV car owners and dealers. Learn Sweetest Half in Middlebury. Sunday, will be going on mission trips and attending camps. about and test ride electric bikes, including elecMay 1, 9 a.m., starting at Porter Hospital. Also on April 30. tric-assist cargo bikes. USATF-certiďŹ ed half marathon and two-person Art history lecture at Middlebury College. Friday, Bike and outdoor gear swap and sale in Middlebury. relay on a 50/50 mix of paves and dirt roads. Live April 29, 12:15 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. Saturday, April 30, 9 a.m.-noon, Cannon Park. music on course, post-race pancake breakfast. Info Pieter Broucke presents “Orazio Samacchini’s Between April 25 and 29, drop off bikes you wish and registration: www.middleburymaplerun.com. Judith with the Head of Holofernes: An Art Historical to give away or sell on consignment at The Bike Free tennis play day in Middlebury. Sunday, May 1, Detective Story.â€? Broucke recounts the multi-year Center. Rental tables available for organizations. 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Middlebury Rec Park. Get introduced quest that resulted in the reattribution of one of the Proceeds beneďŹ t Middlebury Safe Routes. or reintroduced to tennis, with an emphasis on fun. museum’s earliest acquisitions from 16th-century “One World/One Breathâ€? tai chi/qi gong event Open to youth and adults. Equipment provided or German artist Hans Von Aachen to Samacchini. in Middlebury. Saturday, April 30, 10-11:30 a.m., bring your own. Giveaways, food, music. Rain locaLunch provided; $5 suggested donation, free to Middlebury Rec Facility, 154 Creek Road. In celetion: Middlebury Indoor Tennis. Info: emorrison@ college ID cardholders. bration of World Tai Chi/Qi Gong Day, people in acafvt.org. 2016 Gensler Symposium panels at Middlebury over 80 countries will take part in this “One World/ “Hansel and Gretelâ€? on stage in Bristol. Sunday, College. Friday, April 29, 1-5 p.m., Axinn 229. One Breathâ€? event. Learn about tai chi, observe May 1, 1 and 4 p.m., Holley Hall. Bald Mountain Two panels: “Desires that Matter; Visualizing demonstrations, join in with simple forms. Free for Theater presents an original, fast, funny and moving Web-based Intersectionalityâ€? and “Casting in the all ages. Info: 989-7532. adaptation of the folk classic. Part of a regional tour. Dark: The Politics of Production.â€? Part of the 2016 “Animal Encountersâ€? presentations in Orwell. Tickets $12 adults, $8 children under 16. Suitable Gensler Symposium, “#IntersectionalTV: Mediating Saturday, April 30, 10 and 11 a.m., Orwell Free for ages 6 and up. Tickets available at baldmounRace, Gender and Sexuality.â€? Symposium runs Library. The Vermont Institute of Natural Science taintheater.org or at the door. April 25-29. Info: http://sites.middlebury.edu/ (VINS) offers two programs on owls, with live animal May festival in New Haven. Sunday, May 1, 1-4 p.m., gensler2016/2016/03/21/welcome. demonstrations. “Give a Hoot,â€? at 10 a.m., is for New Haven Town Hall. Live music, maypole danc“Healing Voicesâ€? movie screening in Middlebury. young children; “Owls and Their Calls,â€? at 11 a.m., ing, a spring dessert contest (free to enter, $5 to Friday, April 29, 1 p.m., Champlain Valley Unitarian is for all ages. sample all), plant swap and sale (bring yours), storyUniversalist Society, 2 Duane Court. This is a ďŹ lm American Cancer Society Relay for Life at telling and songs, family arts and crafts, mini-horse by people who have heard voices and had other Middlebury College. Saturday, April 30, noon-8 visit and the Shriner clowns. Info or to register a experiences commonly labeled as psychosis or p.m., Battell Beach. Event opens with a Survivors dessert: 453-5978 or 877-3080. mental illness. Co-sponsors Alyssum, a peer hosted and Caregivers Lap. Luminaria ceremony at 6 p.m. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the hospital diversion service and respite house, and Info: www.relayforlife.org/MiddleburyCollege or Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Sunday, May 1, the Counseling Service of Addison County staff will 802-872-6321. 2 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury Community co-facilitate small-group discussions following the “Conquering Clutterâ€? workshop in Middlebury. Players presents one of the brightest and funniest ďŹ lm. Saturday, April 30, 1-2 p.m., Ilsley Library. Maija musicals ever written. ASL interpretation for this Phil Henry & Gary Moon, and Richard Ruane & Chamberlain, “The Clutter Coach,â€? will give a free show only. Tickets $15 for Thursday shows, $23 Beth Duquette in concert in Bristol. Friday, April workshop on achieving tidiness and getting orgafor all other performance ($18 for students with ID). 29, 7:30 p.m., Bristol Bakery, 16 Main St. A double nized. Register at thecluttercoachvt@gmail.com or Tickets available at the THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or billing of Vermont singer-songwriters. Doors open 802-349-5638. www.townhalltheater.org. Runs through May 7. at 6:30 p.m. BYOB. Suggested donation $10. Info: Met Opera’s “Elektraâ€? broadcast in Middlebury. Gallery talk in Brandon. Sunday, May 1, 3 p.m., 802-453-3280. Saturday, April 30, 1 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Richard Compass Music and Arts Center. Fiber artist Judith Bach Festival opening concert at Middlebury Strauss drama starring soprano Nina Stemme, who Reilly talks about the works in her exhibit “The Girl College. Friday, April 29, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for portrays Elektra’s primal quest for vengeance for with the Purple Hair: A Retrospective.â€? Exhibit runs the Arts. Featuring vocal works of the Renaissance the murder of her father, Agamemnon. Run time 1 through May 30. Info: www.cmacvt.org. and Baroque periods, performed by the Middlebury hour, 45 minutes. Tickets $24/$10 available at the Organist Nathan Laube in concert at Middlebury Collegium. Free. Info: middlebury.edu/bachfest. THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222 or www.townhalltheater. College. Sunday, May 1, 3 p.m., Mead Chapel. “One for the Roadâ€? on stage at Middlebury org. Pre-show talk with refreshments in the Byers Laube plays a Bach program that celebrates College. Friday, April 29, 8 and Studio at 12:15 p.m. Mead Chapel’s 45-year-old Gress-Miles organ. 9:30 p.m., Hepburn Zoo. An “Royal eventâ€? for kids in Bristol. Pre-concert lecture at 2:15 p.m. Tickets $20 public, uncomfortable exploraSaturday, April 30, 1-2 p.m., $15 Middlebury ID holders, $6 Middlebury College tion of power and Holley Hall. All area princes students. psychological and princesses ages 3 and Hospice storytelling event in Middlebury. Sunday, torture: An up are invited (with an May 1, 5 p.m., American Flatbread. Hospice interrogator adult) to come meet Volunteer Services hosts “From the Hearth: Stories uses nothprinces and prinof Love and Loss at the End of Life,â€? a Moth-inspired ing but cesses from their storytelling event where pre-selected community language favorite stories. members will tell true, ďŹ rst-person stories on the to break Entertainment, theme. Cocktails and light fare at 5 p.m., stories at down a stories, music, 6:15. Suggested donation $10. family’s refreshments Community dinner in Vergennes. Sunday, May and photo 1, 5-6:30 p.m., St. Peter’s parish hall, 85 South opportuniMaple St. Bring your family and friends and enjoy t i e s . a home-cooked meal with your neighbors, free of charge. Menu: Turkey-n-biscuits, cole slaw, raisin rum bread pudding, ginger bread and beverages.

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Middlebury Family Health would like to welcome Dr Peter Wilhelm to our team! Dr. Wilhelm attended UVM Medical School and Family Medicine Residency. He brings extensive primary care experience from his years as a flight surgeon with the US Naval Air Service. Peter will be joining Middlebury Family Health this summer. We are now scheduling his appointments.

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Established over 20 years ago, Middlebury Family Health has grown into a diversified independent, ALL PHYSICIAN, MULTI-SPECIALTY practice which includes INTERNAL MEDICINE, FAMILY MEDICINE, and PEDIATRICS. We provide comprehensive quality health care to our patients from birth to elderly. We are a certified level 3 Medical Home and Meaningful Use Certified with our Electronic Health Record. Our friendly, knowledgeable staff will be there to guide you through your visit. Come join us today!

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WHAT’S ON THE WEB THIS WEEK?

psyche. Running time: 30 minutes. Tickets $5. Also on April 30. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Friday, April 29, 8 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury Community Players presents one of the brightest and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. Runs through May 7. Observatory open house at Middlebury College. Friday, April 29, 9-10:30 p.m., Top of McCardell Bicentennial Hall. No set program, but Jupiter will be in the evening sky. Also visible through telescopes will be a number of interesting stars, star clusters,

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We are pleased to announce that that Dr. Wilhelm is accepting new patients Please call the office to schedule

802-388-1500 44 Collins Drive, Suite 201 Middlebury, VT www.middleburyfamilyhealth.com

May

Cabin Fever ďŹ nale YANN FALQUET, LEFT, and Pascal Gemme, who will be joined by solo balladeer Keith Murphy, offer a night of traditional songs in French and English at WalkOver Concert Room in Bristol on Saturday, April 30, at 8 p.m. The concert closes out this year’s Cabin Fever Music Series.

Farm-to-school community breakfast in Cornwall. Monday, May 2, 7:45-8:30 a.m., Cornwall elementary school. Erik Andrus of Boundbrook Farm and Good Companion Bakery presents “Vermont’s Great Grains: Taking a Second Look at Cereals.â€? On the menu: carrot and quinoa mufďŹ ns, granola and yogurt, strawberries and bananas. Suggested donation $3 adults, $1.50 for children under 5. RSVP to lhonican@acsu.org by April 29. Kelly Boe Memorial Ride in Middlebury. Monday, May 2, 4 p.m., departs from Middlebury Union High School. A ride commemorating those who have been hurt or killed in road bike accidents. Ride loops through Weybridge. Student art exhibit opening in Vergennes. Monday, May 2, 6-7:30 p.m., Bixby Memorial Library. Celebrating the opening of the Addison Northwest Supervisory Union K-12 art exhibit. Music and refreshments. Exhibit runs through May 31.

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Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 9A

join us for our

GRAND OPENING SATURDAY, MAY 7

Senior thesis dance concert at Middlebury College. Friday, May 6, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. Seniors Sky Williams/Celeste Allen and Otto Pierce examine the intersection of contemporary choreography with their varied additional educational disciplines. Tickets $12/$10/$6, available at www. middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Observatory open house at Middlebury College. Friday, May 6, 9-10:30 p.m., Top of McCardell Bicentennial Hall. No set program, but Jupiter will be in the evening sky. Also visible through telescopes will be a number of interesting stars, star clusters, and nebulae. Free and open to the public, but will take place only if the sky is at least mostly clear. If the weather appears uncertain, visitors may call 443-2266 or visit http://go.middlebury.edu/observatory after 7 p.m. on the evening of the open house for a status report.

May

7

Funky folk STRANGLED DARLINGS HAVE what New England Music News describes as “expert song writing, exquisite musicianship, funky beats, owing melodies and a twisted sense of humor.â€? The duo plays at Two Brothers Tavern in Middlebury on Saturday, April 30, at 6 p.m. Laurie Patton and Bill McKibben in Middlebury. Monday, May 2, 6:30 p.m., Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society. North Branch School in Ripton brings Middlebury College President Laurie Patton and author and environmentalist Bill McKibben together for “Spirit in Education,â€? a conversation offering some perspective on the role of religion in education, one of NBS’ year-long curriculum themes. Info: www. northbranchschool.org. Atomic bomb survivor leads discussion in Middlebury. Monday, May 2, 7:30-9 p.m. Mead Chapel, Middlebury College. Hiroshima survivor Shigeko Sasamori and Clifton Daniel, grandson of President Harry Truman, will discuss the themes of responsibility and reconciliation in a discussion moderated by Professor Steve Snyder. Questions and perspectives from the audience welcome.

May

3

TUESDAY

Blood pressure/foot care clinic in Brandon. Tuesday, May 3, 9:30 a.m., Forest Dale Senior Center. Info: 802-770-1536. Middlebury Fire Department ham supper in East Middlebury. Tuesday, May 3, 5-8 p.m., Waybury Inn. Fundraiser for the ďŹ re department. Dinner served continuously throughout the evening. Tickets $15 adults, $5 kids 10 and younger, and free for kids younger than 3. Tickets at the Caddy Shack, Cole’s Flowers, Goodro Lumber and the Waybury Inn, as well as from any ďŹ re department member. Takeout available at the door.

May

4

WEDNESDAY

Gallery talk in Middlebury. Wednesday, May 4, noon, Sheldon Museum. Museum Executive Director Bill Brooks talks about the exhibit “The Curious Cousins of Vermont Outsider Artist Gayleen Aiken.â€? Exhibit runs through May 21. Talk is free with museum admission. Info: 802-388-2117 or www.henrysheldonmuseum.org. Bike safety fair in Middlebury. Wednesday, May 4, 3-4 p.m., Mary Hogan School side lot. Join Middlebury Safe Routes for a bike safety fair after school. Test your skills through our obstacle course. Helmets, safety checks, prizes. Used book sale in Brandon. Wednesday, May 4, 4-7 p.m., Brandon Free Public Library. First sale of the season. Sale continues until mid-October every Wednesday from 4-7 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. In May, all hardcover ďŹ ction priced $5 or less will be half price. Proceeds go to Friends of the Brandon Free Public Library for books and other materials and to help underwrite special projects. “Robert Frost in the Worldâ€? talk in Middlebury. Wednesday, May 4, 7 p.m., Ilsley Library. Middlebury College professor and biographer Jay Parini explores how Robert Frost became America’s favorite poet by writing accessible poems, creating a uniquely appealing persona and pioneering the public reading of poems. A Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesdays event. Info: www.vermonthumanitiescouncil.org or 802-262-2626. “Extreme Medicine: Practicing in Africa for 28 Yearsâ€? talk at Middlebury College. Wednesday, May 4, 7-8:30 p.m., McCardell Bicentennial Hall, Room 219. Dr. Rick Hodes went to Ethiopia to help victims of the famine in the mid-1980s, planning to stay for a year. He never left. He is now the medical director of Ethiopia for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and is the senior consultant at a Catholic mission helping those with heart disease, spinal disease and cancer. Celtic jam in Middlebury. Wednesday, May 4, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. Student-led session. Info: www. go51main.com.

May

5

THURSDAY

Senior meal in Bristol. Thursday, May 5, noon, First Baptist Church of Bristol. Come early to visit with friends. Menu: baked ham, “surpriseâ€? potatoes, seasonal vegetables and bread pudding. Suggested donation $4. To be on the list call Nancy at 453-5276. Cinco de Mayo events in Vergennes. Thursday, May 5, 4-7 p.m., downtown. Sidewalk music courtesy of Let It Rock Entertainment. Painter Sean Dye will give a demonstration at Creative Space Gallery. Local wine, spirits and cheese tastings at various venues. Talk on “Community Belonging and Support of Recovery in Colombiaâ€? in Middlebury. Thursday, May 5, at 6 p.m., Counseling Service of Addison County, 109 Catamount Park conference room. Dr. Alberto Fergusson of Bogota, Colombia, will share the inspiring story of his highly innovative and internationally recognized community work with people in Colombia who are homeless and coping with major mental health challenges. Discussion following the talk on local issues. Twist O’ Wool Spinning Guild auction in Middlebury. Thursday, May 5, 6 p.m., 49 Wilson Road. Viewing starts at 6 p.m. Auction starts at 7 p.m. Info: 453-5960. Film on dying screened in Middlebury. Thursday, May 5, 7-10 p.m. 2 Duane Court. A free screening of the award-winning documentary “How to Die in Oregon,â€? in which ďŹ lmmaker Peter Richardson gently enters the lives of the terminally ill as they consider whether — and when — to end their lives by lethal overdose. Richardson examines both sides of this complex, emotionally charged issue. “A Midsummer Night’s Dreamâ€? on stage at Middlebury College. Thursday, May 5, 7:30 p.m., Wright Theatre. A fresh production of Shakespeare’s classic comedy, directed by Middlebury alumnus ClĂĄudio Medeiros ’90. Tickets $12/$10/$6, available at www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Thursday, May 5, 8 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury Community Players presents one of the brightest and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. Runs through May 7.

May

6

FRIDAY

Ladies Aid Industria rummage sale in Lincoln. Friday, May 6, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Burnham Hall. Annual event. Drop-off on Wednesday, May 4, from 1-7 p.m. No electronics. Info: 453-3364. Continues Saturday. Exhibit opening reception in Brandon. Friday, May 6, 5-7 p.m., Brandon Artists Guild. Celebrating the opening of “Early American Decoration in Retrospect,â€? historical decorative art by BAG President Dolores Furnari. Techniques include stenciling on tin and wood, reverse glass painting and theorem painting. On exhibit through June 28. “A Midsummer Night’s Dreamâ€? on stage at Middlebury College. Friday, May 6, 7:30 p.m., Wright Theatre. A fresh production of Shakespeare’s classic comedy, directed by Middlebury alumnus ClĂĄudio Medeiros ’90. Post-performance discussion Friday only. Tickets $12/$10/$6, available at www. middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Friday, May 6, 8 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury Community Players presents one of the brightest and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. Runs through May 7.

SATURDAY

Ladies Aid Industria rummage sale in Lincoln. Saturday, May 7, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Burnham Hall. Annual event. $2-per-bag day. Drop-off on Wednesday, May 4, from 1-7 p.m. No electronics. Info: 453-3364. Rummage and food sale in Shoreham. Saturday, May 7, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Shoreham Congregational Church. Special $4 bag sale at noon. Donations accepted May 5 and 6 from 1-3 p.m. Info: 802-897-8591. Used book sale in New Haven. Saturday, May 7, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., New Haven Town OfďŹ ces. The Friends of the New Haven Library will sell used children’s books, adult ďŹ ction and nonďŹ ction, how-to’s, new books, old books, big books, little books. Take what you like, pay what you can. Funds collected will help support the library. Pottery sale in Middlebury. Saturday, May 7, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Middlebury Studio School, 2377 Route 7 South. Pottery by Kathy Clarke, Ken Martin, Su Shannon, local potters, studio assistants and students. Also, cards, jewelry, paintings and more. Fundraiser to beneďŹ t the school. Revolutionary War history walk in Orwell. Saturday, May 7, 1 p.m., Mount Independence State Historic Site. Guided walk on and off the trails to explore Revolutionary War militia strategy and some of the remains of defensive works from 1776 and 1777. Wear sturdy boots or shoes, dress for the weather and bring water if you like. Admission $5 adults, free for children under 15. Info: 802-759-2412. Museum volunteer information session in Middlebury. Saturday, May 7, 1-3 p.m., National Museum of the Morgan Horse, 34 Main St. Come learn a quick history of the Morgan horse and ways that you can help the museum through volunteering. Light snacks provided. RSVP to Amy at morganmuseum@gmail.com or 802-388-1639. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Saturday, May 7, 2 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury Community Players presents one of the brightest and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. Runs through May 7. “Timbuktuâ€? on screen at Middlebury College. Saturday, May 7, 3 and 8 p.m., Dana Auditorium. Not far from Timbuktu, Kidane lives in a town that suffers under a Jihadist regime. Everything changes when Kidane accidentally kills the ďŹ sherman who slaughtered his beloved cow. In French and Arabic with English subtitles. Free. Info: www.middlebury. edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Kentucky Derby Day beneďŹ t in Cornwall. Saturday, May 7, 6:30 p.m., at the home of Sue and Bruce Byers. Annual beneďŹ t sponsored by the Porter Medical Center Auxiliary. Come bet on your favorite horse and watch the derby. Proceeds support Porter Hospital or Helen Porter Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center. Tickets $45 per person, available at 388-4744 or portermedical.org. Rhythm Future Quartet in concert in Ripton. Saturday, May 7, 7:30 p.m., Ripton Community House. A Ripton Community Coffee House event. Open-mike followed by the featured performers. Admission $10/$15/$3. Info: http://rcch.org or 802-388-9782. “A Midsummer Night’s Dreamâ€? on stage at Middlebury College. Saturday, May 7, 7:30 p.m., Wright Theatre. A fresh production of Shakespeare’s classic comedy, directed by Middlebury alumnus ClĂĄudio Medeiros ’90. Tickets $12/$10/$6, available at www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. The Ricochet Duo in concert in Brandon. Saturday, May 7, 7:30 p.m., Brandon Music. Pianist Rose Chancler and percussionist Jane Boxall perform works by Nancy Van De Vate, Marc Mellits, Paul Elwood and others. Tickets $20. Reservations recommended: 802-247-4295 or info@brandon-music.net. “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forumâ€? on stage in Middlebury. Saturday, May 7, 8 p.m., Town Hall Theater. Middlebury Community Players presents one of the brightest and funniest musicals ever written. Tickets $15 for Thursday shows, $23 for all other performance ($18 for students with ID). Tickets available at the THT box ofďŹ ce, 382-9222, or www.townhalltheater.org. Runs through May 7. Senior thesis dance concert at Middlebury College. Saturday, May 7, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. Seniors Sky Williams/Celeste Allen and Otto Pierce examine the intersection of contemporary choreography with their varied additional educational disciplines. Tickets $12/$10/$6, available at www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. The Sound Investment Jazz Ensemble at Middlebury College. Saturday, May 7, 8 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. The college’s big band swings into spring. Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/ arts or 802-443-3168.

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8

SUNDAY

Warbler Warm-up in Bristol. Sunday, May 8, 7:30-10:30 a.m., Bristol Waterworks. Otter Creek Audubon’s Ron Payne and Warren King lead a search for newly arrived spring migrants. Hone your birding identiďŹ cation skills before leaf-out. Meet at the Bristol Waterworks, Plank Road east of North Street. If in doubt about weather, call King at 388-4082. Mother’s Day breakfast in Vergennes. Sunday, May 8, 8-10 a.m., St. Peter’s Parish. Eggs, omelets to order, hot cakes, French toast, sausage, bacon and more. Adults $8.50, seniors $7.50, kids 6-12 years $6, kids under 6 free, families of ďŹ ve or more $28. Info: 877-2367. Choral concert at Middlebury College. Sunday, May 8, 2 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. The Middlebury College Community Chorus presents its Mother’s Day concert. Free. Info: www.middlebury. edu/arts or 802-443-3168. “A Midsummer Night’s Dreamâ€? on stage at Middlebury College. Sunday, May 8, 2 p.m., Wright

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PAGE 10A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

calendar

community

Memories ride on scent

ANeSU school band concert in Bristol. Tuesday, May 10, 5 p.m., Mount Combined Abraham Union High School. Combined-school band concert, part of the annual ANeSu Fine Arts Festival. Student final presentations at Middlebury College. Tuesday, May 10, 5:30 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. In this interactive session, titled “Final Presentations: Sophomore Seminar in the Liberal Arts,” students offer representations of their final essays in all sorts of art forms other than essay. Prompt: “What is the good life, and how do 802 I live it?” Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168. Spring piano recital at Middlebury College. Tuesday, May 10, 7:30 p.m., Mahaney Center for the Arts. Concert by Diana Fanning’s piano students. Free. Info: www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802 802-443-3168.

May

11

WEDNESDAY

ANeSU Fine Arts Festival in Bristol. Wednesday, May 11, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Mount Abraham Union High School. Art gallery open 8 a.m.-8 p.m.; Lincoln Elementary performance, 6 p.m.; Bread and Puppet performance (free), 7 p.m. Blood drive in Vergennes. Wednesday, May 11, 8:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Vergennes Union High School. Appointments at redcrossblood.org or 1-800 1-800-733-2767. “Global Warming: Update 2016” talk in Middlebury. Wednesday, May 11, 10:30 10:30-11:30 a.m., Ilsley Library. Hosted by the Addison County Retired Teachers Association, which holds its annual meeting at 10 a.m. Rich Wolfson, professor of physics at Middlebury College, discusses how the threat of global warming may be greater than anticipated in the Fifth Assessment Report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Book club meeting in Bridport. Wednesday, May 11, 7 p.m., Bridport Highway Department conference room, Crown Point Road at Short Street. The Bridport Book Club discusses “A Gift of Rain” by Tan Twan Eng. Info: 758-2858. 2858.

May

12

THURSDAY

ANeSU Fine Arts Festival in Bristol. Thursday, May 12, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Mount Abraham Union High School. Art gallery a.m. p.m.; free community concert, 7 p.m., featuring the open 8 a.m.-8 Ridgerunners, Sweet Transition, Mount Abe Jazz Band and the Robinson Elementary School Rock Band.

May

13

Parini on Frost IN “ROBERT FROST in the World,” Middlebury College professor and biographer Jay Parini explores how Frost became America’s favorite poet by writing accessible poems, creating a uniquely appealing persona and pioneering the public reading of poems. This Vermont Humanities Council First Wednesdays event is on May 4 at 7 p.m. at Middlebury’s Ilsley Library. Theatre. A fresh production of Shakespeare’s classic comedy, directed by Middlebury alumnus Cláudio Medeiros ’90. Tickets $12/$10/$6, available at www.middlebury.edu/arts or 802-443-3168.

May

9

MONDAY

“Higher Education: How the Press Shapes the Private Gains Over the Public Good” talk at Middlebury College. Monday, May 9, 4:30 p.m., Dana Auditorium. Presented by Jeffrey Selingo. Addison County Right to Life meeting in Bristol. Monday, May 9, 7 p.m., St. Ambrose Church. Visitors welcome. Light refreshments served. Info: 388-2898 or L2Paquette@aol.com. “Italian Spring: A Concert of Madrigals” in Middlebury. Monday, May 9, 7:30 p.m., St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. Amaryllis: Vermont’s Early Voice gives an a cappella performance of 16th-century works by Marenzio, Lassus, Palestrina and others, capped by a 17th-century suite of madrigals, “La Sestina,” by Monteverdi. Suggested donation $15. Info: lunalove@gmavt.net or 802-453-3513.

May

10

TUESDAY

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Blood drive in Middlebury. Tuesday, May 10, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., American Legion. Appointments at redcrossblood.org or 1-800-733-2767. Middlebury Garden Club lecture in Middlebury. Tuesday, May 10, 1 p.m., Residence at Otter Creek. Researcher and landscape designer Annie White presents “The Buzz on Pollinator-Friendly Landscapes.” White will share a list of plants that attract bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. Program qualifies for Master Gardener education hours. Free. Info: www. middleburygardenclub.org.

WELLNESS CENTER

A Center for Independent Health Care Practitioners “Wellness is more than the absence of illness.” 50 Court St • Middlebury, Vt 05753 Jim Condon ................... 388-4880 or 475-2349 SomaWork

FRIDAY

Blood drive in New Haven. Friday, May 13, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., New Haven United Reformed Church. Appointments at redcrossblood.org or 1-800-733-2767. Exhibit reception in Middlebury. Friday, May 13, 5-7 p.m., Jackson Gallery at Town Hall Theater. Celebration of a two-day show May 12-13: “The ArtiFacts of Life.” This is a mini-museum showcasing objects with compelling stories contributed by regular folks. The focus is on serendipity: objects and stories about chance, coincidence and luck. Info: 382-9222 or www. townhalltheater.org.

L I V EM U SIC Isabel Rosenberg in Middlebury. Thursday, April 28, 7:30-8 p.m., 51 Main. The Paradiddles in Middlebury. Thursday, April 28, 8-9 p.m., 51 Main. The Justin Perdue Quartet in Middlebury. Friday, April 29, 7-9 p.m., Marquis Theater. Glenn Roth in Middlebury. Friday, April 29, 8-10, 51 Main. Eric Despard in Middlebury. Saturday, April 30, 6-7:30 p.m., 51 Main. Strangled Darlings in Middlebury. Saturday, April 30, 6 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Moose Crossing in Middlebury. Saturday, April 30, 8:30-10:30 p.m., 51 Main. Gumbo YaYa in Middlebury. Friday, May 6, 8:30-10:30 p.m., 51 Main. Keating 5 in Middlebury. Saturday, May 7, 8:30-10:30 p.m., 51 Main. Folks Up In Treetops in Middlebury. Saturday, May 7, 9 p.m., Two Brothers Tavern. Coon Hill John in Middlebury. Friday, May 13, 8-10 p.m., 51 Main. Mogani in Middlebury. Saturday, May 14, 8:30-10:30 p.m., 51 Main.

See an extended calendar and a full listing of

O N GO IN G GEV EV E N T S

on the Web at

www.addisonindependent.com

Though many might President Abraham consider violets a Lincoln was assassinated. noxious weed that is as “When Lilacs last in the hard to eradicate from Dooryard Bloom’d” was their lawns as dandelions, written as an elegy to the I am among those who fallen president by Walt love their various shades Whitman in the summer of purple as well as of 1865 during a period white flowers and heartof profound national shaped leaves that pop up mourning. bravely and hopefully in Whitman was at his early spring. mother’s home when he Their roots are not deliheard the news of the cate, one friend reminds president’s death; in his me, as they curl around grief he stepped outside the roots and overtake the door to the yard, other plants in the garden. where the lilacs were They’re bullies. I even blooming. He used the love that about them — natural imagery of the By Johanna Nichols they remind us that they lilac to move from grief were there before woods toward an acceptance and became lawns. knowledge of death: My gardening friends bemoan the In the dooryard fronting an old farmmenace of violets. Those pretty little house near the white-wash’d palings, devils are hard to contain. I cheer when Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with they leap the low stonewall that borders heart-shaped leaves of rich green, With the flowerbeds. many a pointed blossom rising delicate, One spring, living in a faraway city with the perfume strong I love, With every that knows neither violets nor lilacs (my leaf a miracle — and from this bush in other favorite spring blossom), I received the dooryard, With delicate-color’d blosa photo from home of the violets. I could soms and heart-shaped leaves of rich almost smell them. The photo sent me green, A sprig with its flower I break. back in time to my childhood. Fourteen years later, in a lecture delivMy older sister and I picked them for ered in New York, Whitman recalled my grandmother on our walk home from the conditions on the day that Lincoln school along the wooded road above died: “I remember where I was stopher house. I clutched ping at the time, the a bouquet in my fiveseason being advanced, eeing a year-old hands. I there were many lilacs picture of remember my grandin full bloom. By one mother telling me that of those caprices that violets, she loved their peppery enter and give tinge to smell. My grandmoth- remembering events without being at er’s yard was a paradise the paradise all a part of them, I find of scents. At the corner myself always reminded of her flower garden of smells in my of great tragedy of that stood a clump of deep grandmother’s day by the sight and purple lilac bushes. odor of these blossoms. Apple trees blossomed yard, and feeling It never fails” (printed around the back of the the powerful in Specimen Days & house. Collect in 1881). connection with Seeing a picture of Whitman’s encounviolets, remembering my grandmother ter with the lilacs in the paradise of smells in evoked a vivid bloom in his mother’s my grandmother’s yard, yard caused the flowers and feeling the power- emotional to become bound to the ful connection with my memory. memory of Lincoln’s grandmother evoked death. I remember my a vivid emotional grandmother’s lilac memory. bush, bent under a profusion of blosWhy do scents produce floods of soms, and her hopes that the lilacs would memories? Our brains process smells in stay fresh for decorating the cemetery a different way from other senses. Smells for Memorial Day. I connect the humble get routed through the smell-analyz- Syringa with my grandmother, with the ing region of the brain that is closely collective grief we express on Memorial connected to the regions that handle Day, and with our acceptance and knowlmemory and emotion. Visual, sound, and edge of death. Whitman put it this way: touch information do not pass through Come lovely and soothing death, the same brain areas. Also, our bodies Undulate round the world, serenely contain far more receptors for smells than arriving, arriving, they do for other senses like sight and In the day, in the night, to all, to each, touch. We are able to recall many more Sooner or later delicate death. memories when they are associated with Wherever I live, when graced with at scent, and they tend to be older memories least one lilac bush and a scattering of from the first decade of life. violets, I feel that it is the right place for For me, the peppery smell of violets, me. the smells of lilacs and apple blossoms Johanna Nichols is a grandmother, evoke fond and pleasurable memories. a mother, and a retired minister who Not all memories brought back by smells ponders how to live a meaningful life and are positive. They also play a role in trig- who enjoys writing. She hosts a blog at gering disturbing memories. riversidemusings.wordpress.com. Days after the end of the Civil War,

Ways of Seeing

S

wellness

directory

Caryn Etherington ................... 388-4882 ext. 3 Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork Nancy Tellier, CMT ......................... 388-4882 ext. 1 Therapeutic Massage, CranioSacral Therapy, Ortho-Bionomy®, Soul Lightning Acupressure Donna Belcher, M.A. ............................ 388-3362 Licensed Psychologist - Master, Psychotherapy & Hypnosis Charlotte Bishop ....................... 388-4882 ext. 4 Therapeutic Soft & Deep Tissue ...or 247-8106 Neuro Muscular Reprogramming JoAnne Kenyon, NCTMB, LMT(NM)..... 388-0254 Be your best! Energy Balancing: Brennan Healing Science®, Quantum Touch®, Matrix Energetics®. Relaxing Integrative Massage. www.joanne.abmp.com Karen Miller-Lane, N.D., L.Ac. .............. 388-6250 Naturopathic Physican, Licensed Acupuncturist, CranioSacral Therapy. Ron Slabaugh, PhD, MSSW, CBP........ 388-9857 The BodyTalk™ System Irene Paquin, CMT 377-5954 or 388-4882 ext.1 Integrative Energy Work & Therapeutic Massage. Ortho-Bionomy® & Reiki Master Robert Rex................................. (802) 865-4770 Certified Rolfer™, Movement Educator Gail Rex...................................... (802) 989-1989 Licensed Acupuncturist, Herbal Medicine If you’d like to be listed in this Wellness Directory, call Pam at 388-4944.

Gail Rex

Licensed Acupuncturist, Herbal Medicine Gail has been healing with acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine for 18 years. In that time, she has gained experience with a wide variety of ailments and has found it particularly rewarding to treat children and teens, as well as those whose health issues have not responded to Western medical treatment. Gail’s warm personality and decades of experience creates a relaxed and comfortable setting for anyone wishing to explore treatment with Chinese medicine. Gail is a graduate and former faculty member of the Tri-State Institute for Traditional Chinese Acupuncture, and is also the author of Wood Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life (Kodansha, 1998). Gail specializes in difficult-to-treat conditions, including auto-immune disorders, the symptoms of Lyme disease, and developmental delays in children.

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 11A

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AROU

Goings on

TOWN

Something special going on in your send it in! life? Send it in at:

Does your group or organization have something happening that’sAddison appropriateIndependent for the calendar? We want P.O. Box 31 please, send to hear about it! If you have a picture, Middlebury, Vermont 05753 that too. Pictures and text may be emailed to: or email it to: news@addisonindependent.com news@addisonindependent.com

SWEET TRANSITION FROM Mount Abraham Union High School took AGED TO PERFECTION took first place at the recent “United in HarTHE SKIDMORE DYNAMICS came in second at the “United in Harmomony” a cappella competition at Town Hall Theater in Middlebury. The ny” a cappella competition at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater on April 9. third place when eight a cappella groups competed at Middlebury’s event raised $8,500 for United Way of Addison County. Town Hall Theater on April 9.

Thanks to all a cappella competition supporters who helped raise $8,500 for United Way of Addison County United Way of Addison County would like to send a giant THANK YOU shout out to all a cappella fans for their support and community spirit. A packed Town Hall Theater erupted in song at 7 p.m. on Saturday night, April 9, as all eight competing groups united to perform “Sing” by My Chemical Romance in support of UWAC and our community. The $8,500 in profits raised will go directly in to our community to benefit families in the areas of health, education and financial stability. What a fun way to contribute to making Addison County a better place for all.

Emcee Alisa Endsley kept us on track, and engaged us in some audience music education, while judges Clint Bierman, Justin Bouvier and Helen Weston analyzed and gave feedback to the contestants. Our Stage Manager Mary Longey kept everything backstage under control. Artistic Director Loren Sylvester choreographed and created musical arrangements for two exciting and dynamic group numbers to open and close the show. All of these folks generously

Notes

donated their time. Events like this cannot happen without support from sponsors and we were so lucky to have the following wonderful businesses participate: 97.5 Eagle Country, 102.9 Farm Fresh, Addison Independent, Agway, Bourdon Insurance Agency, Brown-McClay Funeral Home, Cabot, Country Home Products, Distinctive Paint & Interiors, Little City Cycles, Marble Works Pharmacy, Middlebury Eye Associates, Middlebury Natural

of appreciation

Foods Co-op, Mountain Health Center, Newton Electrical & Refrigeration, Phoenix Feeds and Nutrition, RPM, Structural Energy Corp., The Mac Doctor, Vermont Soap, and Wow Toyz. Thank you also to the always helpful and talented THT team of Haley Rice, Josh Cote and Jess Kroll for their patience, skill and input. And last but not least, thank you to all of the performing groups for the time spent rehearsing and traveling, and the willingness to join together with competitors to produce something that so wonderfully expresses the idea of being united for the community at large. Performing

were: Aged to Perfection (first place), the Skidmore Dynamics (second place), Sweet Transition (third place), UVM Hit Paws, House Blend, Vocal Unrest, Fortunate Happenstance, and Upscale. We are so lucky to have businesses and volunteers, like those above, and event attendees in Addison County who truly LIVE UNITED and get involved to support us and our community in so many ways. Thank you all. Nancy Luke United Way of Addison County Middlebury

Rotary exchange program offered to French speakers MIDDLEBURY — High school students who have completed a minimum of one year of French and who want to experience life in a Frenchspeaking household are encouraged to apply for the Rotary Club of Middlebury’s new youth exchange program with the Rotary Club of Sherbrooke, Quebec. “This is going to be a great opportunity for students studying French to meet others their own age,” said club president Geoff Conrad. “For years we have sponsored students to go abroad. Now we have an exchange that is close to home and still culturally different.” Students will be matched with a high school student in Sherbrooke, stay in his/her home, and then host

the Quebec student in their Addison County home this July. Rotary will organize the exchanges and provide transportation. Other than hosting another student, there is NO cost to students. Up to four students will be selected this summer. If there is interest, the number of students may be increased in 2017. Rotary values international exchanges and wants to make this opportunity available to all eligible high school students in Addison County. For further information and to apply, email David Clark at david2108@myfairpoint.net or Tim Hollander at tim.hollander.1943@ gmail.com.

Hannaford Career Center will offer tractor safety class for teen farmers MIDDLEBURY — The Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury will host its 2016 Tractor Safety Course May 3-19. The course is for youth ages 14-16 who plan to work in a farm setting, but organizers said people of any age are welcome to take the course. Led by Phillip Teer, classes meet

Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-6 p.m. starting Tuesday, May 3, at the PAHCC North Campus at 372 Mainelli Road in Middlebury. The course ends with a driving test on Saturday, May 21, rain or shine. The Tractor Safety Course costs $25. Sign up at the first class or call 382-1011 or 382-1012.

milestones births

• Emily & Shane Durkin, Poultney, April 12, a son, Finley Kai Durkin. • Stephanie Morrill & Anoki Thompson, Whiting, April 13, a son, Anoki James Thompson Jr. • Meghan (Richards) & Eamon DelGiacco, Middlebury, April 15, a daughter, Maeve Rosaria DelGiacco. • Adam Sears & Brooke Ryan, Orwell, April 16, a son, Ryder Clayton Sears. • Kassie DeCamp, Fair Haven, April 18, a daughter, Isabelle Riley DeCamp. • Mollie (Zanoni) & Lincoln Sprague, Ferrisburgh, April 19, a daughter, Charlotte Marvel Sprague. • Amy (Svendsen) & Jason Fitzsimmons, Hinesburg, April 20, a son, Wilder Lynn Fitzsimmons. • Michelle Newton & Duane Laughlin II, Brandon, April 20, a daughter, Tristyn Marie Laughlin. • Sarah (Bouvier) & Thomas Hazelton, Bristol, April 22, twins, a daughter, Charlotte Patricia Haselton, and a son, Emmitt Callahan Haselton. • Alexandria (Goddard) & Justin Manell, Rutland City, April 22, a son, Connor Paul Manell.

Pet of

the Week Give your pet the spotlight! Send photo and story to news@addisonindependent.com

Statewide winner KAITLYN MCNAMARA, 12, of East Middlebury hands out reusable grocery bags at Hannaford Supermarket last Friday afternoon. McNamara’s artwork was chosen to represent Vermont on the side of the bag. Student art from Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and New York also adorns the bags. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

Firefighters Association awards Book sale in Brandon Free scholarships to area students Public Library this Wednesday ADDISON COUNTY — The Addison County Firefighters Association Scholarship Committee has announced that Nicole Stearns, Emma Ober and Nicholas Coe were recently chosen to receive $500 scholarships. The scholarships are awarded annually to Addison County students. The scholarships were acknowledged in Bristol on April 20 at the association’s quarterly dinner and meeting. These awards are given annually to children of firefighters or to students who are pursuing a college education in a fire-related field. Stearns is the daughter of Randy and Pam Stearns of Addison. She is graduating from Vergennes

Union High School and will attend Community College of Vermont in Winooski to pursue a degree in child development. Ober is the daughter of Dan and Sally Ober of Lincoln. She is graduating from Mount Abraham Union High School and will attend College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, to pursue a degree in biology. Coe is the son of Peter and Valerie Coe of Shoreham. He is graduating from Middlebury Union High School and will attend Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., to pursue a degree in sociology. The Ray E. Davison Scholarship fund was established in 1992.

BRANDON — The Friends of the Brandon Free Public Library will once again open their used book sale in the basement of the library on Wednesday, May 4, from 4 to 7 p.m. The sale will be open every week on Wednesday evening from 4 to 7 p.m. and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Friday and Saturday through mid-October. The Friends say this may be the best organized and longest running used book sale in Vermont. Books are arranged by type and subject, and include hardcover and paperback fiction, nonfiction of every description and books for children,

toddlers, and young adults. There are special sections devoted to gardening, cooking, how-to and do-it-yourself projects. All of the income from this sale is given by the Friends for the purchase of books and other materials and to help underwrite special projects for the Library. For the month of May, all hardcover fiction priced at $5 or less will be half price.

PAGE 12A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

Cinco de Mayo to be celebrated in Vergennes

THE MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE student a cappella ensemble Ingoma will sing several African lullabies during the Middlebury College Community Chorus’ annual Mother’s Day concert on Sunday, May 8, at 2 p.m. in Robison Hall at the Mahaney Center for the Arts.

College/town chorus to offer Mother’s Day concert MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury College Community Chorus invites the community to its annual Mother’s Day concert. The 90-voice choir performs on Sunday afternoon, May 8, at a special time and location this year: 2 p.m. in Robison Hall (Concert Hall) at the Mahaney Center for the Arts on the Middlebury College campus. Admission is free. The choir is led by Jeff Rehbach and accompanied by Tim Guiles. The program features a fascinating juxtaposition of works from around the world, including selections performed by the student a cappella ensemble Ingoma, which specializes in singing African music. Unique choral arrangements of lullabies include “Hombe,” a Luo folksong from Kenya, and the South African songs “Thula Baba” (“Hush My Baby”), as well as “Thula Mama” (sung by

Ingoma). In contrasting style, the chorus The chorus welcomes the change of seasings a newly composed work by American sons and flowering of spring with a new setwriter Daniel Elder, simply titled “Lullaby,” ting of the classic Robert Burns text, “A Red, and the beautiful “Seal Lullaby,” Red Rose” by Nashville comwith a text by Rudyard Kipling The program poser Kevin Memley; “Enjura,” and music by Eric Whitacre. an Ugandan song that depicts the features a The choir offers “Magnificat” fascinating coming of the rains to end the dry by 28th-century Italian composer season; and a popular Israeli song, Antonio Vivaldi. With a text that juxtaposition “Erev Shel Shoshamin,” which dates back to the first century, its of works from describes how night falls slowly nine sections contain a variety around the while the winds carry the scent of of choral styles. Dramatic shifts world… roses. The program closes with a in textures and harmonies bring brand new setting by Wisconsin life to the words of Mary, sung when she composer Zachary Moore of Alfred Lord learned that she would become the mother Tennyson’s classic text, “There Is Sweet Muof the Messiah. String players from the Ver- sic Here.” mont Symphony, Champlain Philharmonic, Rehbach notes, “The program offers singMiddlebury Community Music Center and ers and audience the opportunity to experithe College Orchestra accompany the chorus. ence a variety of choral styles from across

the globe and across the centuries. We place songs that arise from long-held traditions alongside with expressive writing for chorus and piano music by a new generation of American composers born between 1970 and 1992.” The College Community Chorus is open to all singers without audition. Its student members come from across the U.S., Africa and Asia, while its community members travel from many different towns — Brandon, Bristol, Cornwall, Goshen, Hinesburg, Hinesburg, Huntington, Leicester, Lincoln, Middlebury, Monkton, Moriah, New Haven, North Ferrisburgh, Orwell, Port Henry, Randolph, Salisbury, Shoreham, Vergennes, Waltham, Weybridge, Winooski — to participate in this 150-year-old community tradition, hosted by Middlebury College.

VERGENNES — Merchants in Vergennes have organized a “Ladies Night” promotion that promises to bring lots of life to the downtown streets in the Little City next Thursday evening. Ladies Night on May 5, 4-7 p.m., will be a festive way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and buying local. Downtown stores will feature free beverage and cheese tastings from Appalachian Gap, Shacksbury Cider, Fairy Tale Farm, Stonecutter Spirits, WhistlePig Whiskey, Bridport Creamery and Charlotte Village Winery — all local producers. Vergennes Wine & Beverage will host a wine tasting at Creative Space Gallery. Sidewalk music will be provided courtesy of Let It Rock Entertainment. Free demonstrations at various shops will include mini-massages, mini-makeovers, and a hoop presentation. Painter Sean Dye, who makes his home in Vergennes, will offer a demonstration at Creative Space. Restaurants are offering Mexican-themed specials, and stores will offer door prizes and giveaways. “We’ve been working hard on putting together an event that benefits visitors and business alike,” said Amy Bodette Barr, marketing and development coordinator for the Vergennes Partnership. More information is online at www.vergennes.org.

‘The Meddler’ showcases family fun and a lovely life The Meddler; Running time: 1:40; Rating: PG-13 What a pleasure to watch a topflight cast create a movie that wins on every level. It’s Susan Sarandon’s story, no question about that, but in her wackily wonderful performance, she has great support from everyone else on screen. Let’s take a look at the wacky aspect. “The Meddler” opens on Marnie Minervini (Susan Sarandon) as she unleashes a monologue in one of those New Jersey accents everyone who doesn’t live there thinks belongs to everyone who does. Marnie’s husband, Joe, has died and she is moving to California to be near her daughter Lori (Rose Byrne) who works as a writer in the production side of television. We suffer an initial wave of worry that this will be the conventional story of a mother

driving her daughter crawho never for a moment zy, but don’t waste a minstops talking and advising, ute on that. This mother is becomes part of each of in Susan Sarandon’s hands their lives until finally she and she makes Marnie an realizes she can’t live just original in every imaginthrough other people. She able way. has been busy but sad and Daughter Lori, sunk in emotionally alone. misery after being unloadWhen two men show ed by her boyfriend, is tryinterest in the spirited ing desperately to limit the widow, she instinctively interventions of her conwithdraws from each. She cerned mother. She tells By Joan Ellis misses Joe. When Zipper Marnie to get busy, to find (J.K. Simmons) takes her a life for herself. That’s for a ride on his Harley Dawhat this film is about. A woman vidson, we are given the beginnings alone in her 60s with Marnie’s of one of the gentlest, most touching great big generous heart needs to courtships to grace the screen in a help people, and she sets out to find long time. Sarandon and Simmons them. Freddy (Jerrod Carmichael) a create something rare and real. worker in an Apple store. Jillian (CeThe wonder here is that the actcily Strong), a friend of Lori’s who ing is so good that people of differcan’t afford a nice wedding. Marnie, ent ages seem to relate quite natu-

Movie Review

Dining and Entertainment

TH E AT E R

Merchants Row Middlebury, VT Tickets: 802-382-9222

OWN HALL

www.townhalltheater.org

Thu-Sat 4/28, 29 & 30, 5/5, 6 & 7 @ 8pm; Sun 5/1 & Sat 5/7 @ 2pm $15 Thu; $23 adults/$18 students w/ ID for all other shows

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM Middlebury Community Players

rally to different characters. Older women feel Marnie’s aloneness; younger women understand Lori’s need for privacy from the mother she loves. A man nearby in the audience teared up gently because “It’s so real.” In writing this story about her zany mother, writer/director Lorene Scafaria has given us the pleasure of watching people of good will work things out with the people they love. It becomes obvious why this works so well: there are no villains here. I can’t imagine another set of actors being able to bring this family story to such funny, lovely life. Susan Sarandon, Rose Byrne, J.K. Simmons and Cecily Strong have made a wistful family comedy take flight for all of us. They’ve given us a genuine flash of light right in the middle of the summer doldrums. Don’t miss it.

MAY PIES OF THE MONTH SMOKEY PORK N’ PICKLE Our Sweet BBQ Sauce topped with Smoked Gouda Cheese, BBQ Pulled Pork, Dill Pickle Chips, Pickled Red Onions and Creamy Mozzarella Get You r Jam On!

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388-7755 • Delivery daily from 5pm www.ninospizzamiddlebury.com

The Slice Guy

21 MACINTYRE LANE • MIDDLEBURY

Don’t miss one of the funniest musicals ever written.

Sat 4/30 1pm $24/$10 Students

MET LIVE IN HD ON THE THT BIG SCREEN

ELEKTRA

“Nothing prepared me for the seething intensity, psychological insight and sheer theatrical inventiveness of this production” – Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times Sat 4/30 7pm $15/Adults Free/Children

VERMONT MOZART FESTIVAL

THT welcomes the VMF to the Middlebury Champlain Valley UU Church

Wed 5/4 11am $10/$5 Students

FLORENCE & UFFIZI GALLERIES Great Art Wednesdays on the THT Big Screen

Journey through Renaissance art and witness the unveiling of Da Vinci’s restored Adoration of the Magi.

Indoors Rain or Shine

Green Mountain Draft Horse Association

23rd Annual

Horse, Tack & Equipment Sale

Saturday, May 7th, 2016 9am Equipment • Horses at 1pm Horses that do not sell will be charged $50 or 7% of last bid, whichever is less. $50 paid up front by seller.

Addison County Field Days Grounds, Rt 17– New Haven, VT

New & Used Tack Horse Related Farm Equipment QUALITY CONSIGNMENTS WANTED! Food Available on Grounds • No Dogs Please Admission $1/person to benefit local youth organizations.

For more information: Rose Ann Lombard 802.425.2824 • rlombard@gmavt.net

www.greenmountaindraft.org

HUNGRYTOWN, THE DUO of Rebecca Hall And Ken Anderson, will bring their roots music to the Starksboro Public Library with a free concert on Friday, May 20.

Hungrytown duo to bring its grit, ballads to Starksboro on May 20 STARKSBORO — The Vermont-based roots music duo Hungrytown will play a free concert at the Starksboro Public Library on Friday, May 20, from 7-9 p.m. Together, Rebecca Hall and Ken Anderson have earned a reputation for the quality and authenticity of their songwriting. The husband-and-wife team met in New York City, where they had been performing regularly — Hall as a jazz singer, and Anderson as a drummer for a variety of garage bands. Their introduction to folk music came later, when a close friend, who died tragically young, entrusted to them her collection of 1960s folk albums and her guitar (which has since been featured on all of their albums). Inspired by the grit and trueto-life experiences she heard in

these traditional ballads, Hall was inspired to write the lyrics that later became her first songs, aided by Anderson’s flair for musical arrangement. After Hall released two solo albums (both produced by Anderson), the duo quit their boring desk jobs, moved to Vermont in 2003 and decided to pursue full-time careers as touring musicians. The Starksboro performance will be in support of their third album, “Further West,” which made the top 10 on the American Folk DJ charts for two months last summer, and at least 14 “Best of 2015” lists. Hungrytown’s music has been featured in several television programs, including “The Daily Show” and “Portlandia.” For more information on the Starksboro show, call 453-3732.

Mt. Independence walk offered May 7 ORWELL — Mount Independence State Historic site in Orwell on Saturday, May 7, at 1 p.m., will host a special guided walk on and off the trails to explore Revolutionary War military strategy and some of the remains of the defensive works from 1776 and 1777 that are most visible in spring before full leaf. Revolutionary War expert Mike Barbieri, Mount Independence Coalition President Stephen Zeoli, and site administrator Elsa Gilbertson lead the program. American construction of Mount Independence began 240 years ago, when American officers agreed in June 1776 to concentrate their efforts in protecting Lake Champlain and New England on a major new defensive system on this “strong ground” peninsula. This is one of many programs this year to celebrate the 240th anniversary of the fort, as well as the 50th anniversary of the trail system. Meet at the museum for orienta-

tion. Wear sturdy shoes or boots, be prepared to go off trail, dress for the weather, and bring water if you like. This special event brings you to this historic site before opening on Saturday, May 28. The program is co-sponsored by the Mount Independence Coalition and Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Admission is $5 for adults and free for children under 15. Call 802-759-2412 for more information. The Mount Independence State Historic Site, one of the best preserved Revolutionary War archaeological sites, is part of the Vermont State Historic Sites system. It is located at 497 Mount Independence Road, six miles west of the intersections of Vermont Routes 22A and 73 near Orwell village. Carefully follow the signs. The site will open for the regular season on Saturday, May 28. Regular hours will be 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily through Oct. 12.

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 13A

A funny thing… IN THE EARLY 1960s the great comedy writer Larry Gelbart and the great composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim teamed up to produce “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” The show opened on Broadway in 1962 to great success and several Tony Awards, including best musical. The Middlebury Community Players’ production, which features Pierre Vachon in the lead role of Pseudolus, opens April 28 at the Town Hall Theater with 8 p.m. performances on April 28, 29 and 30 and May 5, 6 and 7. There will be 2 p.m. matinees on May 1 and 7. Seen here during a dress rehearsal Tuesday night are, clockwise from top left, Nate Severy, Kerianne Severy and Vachon; Nate Severy, Jennifer Parmelee and Vachon; Kerianne and Nate Severy; Severy, Vachon and Severy; Todd Lefkoe and Vachon; Vachon and Sarah Stone; and Christopher Ross. Independent photos/Trent Campbell

PAGE 14A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

Ball players (Continued from Page 1A) coaching is an actual, fulltime job — best professional baseball players, not a volunteer activity. Excelling making new friends despite language at sports is an important component barriers and playing baseball against of Cuban national identity, he local teams. explained, and the slogan for all For first baseman Carter Monks it Cuban sports programs is “Victory is was the trip of a lifetime — despite your duty.” a dislocated knee (suffered during a The path to excellence is arduous game) that put him into a cast and on and, by American standards, crutches for much of the week. narrow. Serious young athletes, said “I just kept enjoying the Simon, have to choose one sport to experience,” said Monks, specialize in. The municipal teams interviewed at his Bristol home (four of which the Vermonters played shortly before the cast came off this against), practice two hours a day, week. “I could have been ‘poor me’ seven days a week. The best-of-thebut instead it was like ‘lucky me, I’m best provincial teams (one of which in Cuba.’” the Vermonters faced) practice six Monks said that for him the hours a day, seven days a week and highlight of the week was the serve as farm teams for professional opportunity to get to know fellow baseball, said Simon. baseball players from Cuba. “Put it this way, I have never “After every game we would seen 11-year-old kids play baseball go and have dinner with the other like those kids who were on the team. And what that meant is that a provincial team,” he said. “One of Vermont player would sit with two them is considered the best catcher or three Cuban kids and then another in all of Cuba for his age group. And Vermont with more Cuban,” said another of them is considered the Monks. “To me the interactions that second-best pitcher in all of Cuba. we got to have with those kids — The second-best pitcher, I got to working with language barriers, us warm him up between innings with not speaking much Spanish, them a catcher’s mitt, and he threw lasers. not speaking much English, a lot of Thank goodness every pitch was hand signals — I thought that that right on the money. When I took the was the highlight. Just showing how catcher’s glove off, my hand was much we cared and how much they pink and swollen just from catching cared.” four of his pitches.” Aside from two days traveling He figured those pitches clocked at to and from Havana, the itinerary something like 95 miles an hour. unfolded in roughly the same way Not surprisingly — given the each day. In the mornings, the rigors of Cuban athletic training — Vermonters would see the sights or the Cuban teams won every game vs. go to the José Martí Center for a the Vermonters. cultural presentation sponsored by Monks said that playing against the Cuban counterpart of the Cuban such excellent peer athletes was a American Friendship great way to learn. Society. These included “I really “I learned from them, presentations on sports understood how like just watching their and on the history motions. Everything huge this was of baseball in Cuba, about them just trips to see Ernest for me to be able clicked,” he said. Hemingway’s country to go there. It “They were so good. estate, walking around was like as soon They practice so Old Havana and as I stepped well. They’re so well taking in the colonial down (off the coached. There’s such a architecture, listening love for baseball. to street music, airplane) it was “They were such touring Cuba’s largest just magical good teams, it made professional baseball — so few us play better,” Monks stadium, watching the Americans have continued. “And you gleamingly restored had the chance could clearly see how classic American cars much better we got to do this. That from the 1950s drive throughout the week.” past, or just going to the really hit me: Monks said it was so how unique it beach. fun that it didn’t feel After lunch, the team was.” competitive. would spend an hour or — first baseman “I’ve never felt so so warming up and then Carter Monks good about losing — play against a team of the whole team felt that 11- and 12-year-olds way,” he said. “We were playing from Cuba. After the game, the against these really enjoyable, fun Vermont and Cuban teams often kids.” exchanged jerseys. The Vermont SOME PERSPECTIVE team brought multiple sets of jerseys Monks, who attends Red in bright colors to give away. Plus the Cedar School, came to Cuba well group had raised funds in Vermont prepared, having done a month-long to bring everything from dental independent study on the Cuban floss, pencils and Life Savers to trade and travel embargo, in place baseballs, gloves, cleats and batting since 1960. Monks found he was helmets to give away to their Cuban often able to answer questions about counterparts. Cuban-American relations, even to After every game, the Vermonters the adults in the group. and Cubans, kids and adults like, His school research gave Monks would all share a meal together. perspective. Evenings, the American group might “I really understood how huge this take in more sights. was for me to be able to go there,” he Little League coach, baseball dad said. “It was like as soon as I stepped and Burlington attorney Tom Simon, down (off the airplane) it was just one of the coaches on the trip, magical — so few Americans have explained that in Cuba youth baseball had the chance to do this. That really

BRISTOL 12-YEAR-OLD Carter Monks, second from left, and other Vermont team members pose with a Cuban baseball player they met on their recent tour of the Caribbean island.

Photo courtesy of Alexandre Silberman/cubabaseballtrip.wordpress.com

CARTER MONKS, 12, of Bristol just returned from a spring break trip to Cuba sponsored by the Cuban American Friendship Society. Monks and other young Vermont athletes played baseball against Cuban teams during the cultural and educational exchange trip. Monks is seen here with caps and a ball that he traded for in Cuba. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

hit me: how unique it was.” Even though his research had prepared him to see poverty, Monks said he was surprised to realize that the average pay in Cuba is around $40 a month, and that a dentist or an engineer might end up driving a taxi because there’s far more money to be made from tips in the tourist industry than from those professions. Like so many visitors, he was deeply moved by the vibrancy of Cuban street culture — especially the music and dancing — and by the warmth with which ordinary people embraced him and his fellow Vermonters. Monks, Simon and Carter all described the numbers and enthusiasm with which locals — kids and adults like — flocked to see the week’s series of Cuban-American baseball games. Part of that, Monks thought, was that both sides share a love of baseball. “It’s huge here in the U.S. but I think that in Cuba baseball has really been the sport,” Monks said. “It’s like it’s one of the main things that really ties people together.” One of the ways that their Cuban hosts honored the Vermont Little Leaguers was by playing the American national anthem (along with the Cuban anthem) before every game. As Monks, Carter and Simon were all careful to emphasize, this was only the third time that the American anthem had been played in Cuba since the U.S. embassy closed in 1961. The other two times were when the U.S. embassy reopened in July 2015 and when President Obama visited in March — quite an honor for a group of grade school and middle school athletes. Hearing the American national anthem and coaching baseball in Cuba was especially emotional for Monks’ grandfather — and coach — Jim Carter. Born in 1942, Carter remembers the Cuban baseball superstars who played in the American professional leagues when he was growing up. “They were tremendous players,” he said. “Camille Pasquale is considered the best curve baller ever in Major League Baseball.” Carter also remembers how, as a young college student, he watched the black-and-white television sets blink on in his college cafeteria as President John F. Kennedy announced the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis. “For the next 13 days we held our breath,” said Carter. “It’s stuck in my memory all these years.” Carter said he didn’t think he’d ever go to Cuba. And when he stood on the playing field and heard the U.S. national anthem being played,

he said he found himself shedding “tears of joy.” While Carter is not uncritical of many aspects of modern Cuba, he wonders why the United States continues as the only country in the world with its embargo. “I think the door is opening more and more ... and I applaud President Obama for this. And hopefully what we did is just a little bit more of opening the door,” said Carter. “To think that a country that we’ve had such a history with and that is 90 miles from us — that’s from here to Bennington for crying out loud.” Editor’s note: See more photos from the trip online at cubabaseballtrip.wordpress.com. Reporter Gaen Murphree is at gaenm@addisonindependent.com.

CARTER MONKS PLAYS maracas along with a street musician in Havana. The Bristol youth said he was moved by the vibrancy of Cuban street culture. Photo courtesy of Alexandre Silberman/cubabaseballtrip.wordpress.com

There’s still time to register!

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 15A

MUHS scholars heading to big bowl Team to compete in championship event in Chicago MIDDLEBURY — With its strong finish at 2016 VermontNEA Scholars’ Bowl State Finals, the Scholars’ Bowl team from Middlebury Union High School proved itself worthy to play on a national stage. On April 30, the team will represent MUHS in Chicago in a national competition testing competitors’ knowledge of history, science, literature, fine arts, geography, the social sciences, current events and more areas of study: the National Academic Quiz Tournaments’ Small

School National Championship Tournament (SSNCT). Quiz bowl is a competitive, academic, interscholastic activity for teams of four students. It is the national version of the game that is often locally called Scholars’ Bowl. Quiz bowl teams use buzzers to answer questions about science, math, history, literature, mythology, geography, social science, current events, sports and popular culture. The matches feature a blend of individual competition and team collaboration, since no individual player is likely to be an expert in all subject areas. Participation in quiz bowl both reinforces lessons from the classroom and encourages players to develop new intellectual interests.

The SSNCT is the only quiz bowl national championship pitting small schools against each other. Non-selective public schools with enrollments of 500 or fewer in their top three grades are eligible to compete. The team will consist of Josh Bechhoefer, Dace Eaton, Henry Ganey, Ronan Howlett, and Elias Wyncoop. The team will be coached by Perry Lessing. Tournament results will be updated throughout the two days of competition at www.naqt.com/stats/ tournament-teams.jsp?tournament_ id=6602 so everyone can follow along and see how the team does. You can also follow the #ssnct on Twitter.

A SALVADOR DALI perfume bottle is among the items featured in “The ArtiFacts of Life,” a two-day exhibit of everyday objects and the stories behind them. The exhibit runs May 12-13 at the Jackson Gallery at Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater. Photo by Haley Rice

Two-day art show will combine ordinary with extraordinary items MIDDLEBURY — You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both, and there you have …a two-day show at Town Hall Theater in the Jackson Gallery. “The ArtiFacts of Life” is a mini-museum that showcases objects with compelling stories contributed by regular folks. It’s only up May 12-13 with a reception on Friday, May 13, from 5-7 p.m. This time, the focus is on serendipity: objects and stories about chance, coincidence and luck. An African sword, a perfume

bottle, a tattered Chinese lantern. What stories do these and other “regular” objects tell? “I’ve wanted to do something like this for a while — get a bunch of community members to contribute to a show in our amazing gallery,” said Town Hall Theater Operations Manager Haley Rice. “I asked some of the THT staff to solicit one or two people to contribute a piece. We don’t know what most of them will be bringing, which is part of the excitement. Some of the staff have

objects in the show as well. It’s going to be an interesting little show — at the intersection of storytelling and art exhibit.” The Jackson Gallery is located in the lower level of Town Hall Theater, a community and cultural venue located in the center of Middlebury. Gallery hours are Monday through Saturday noon to 5 p.m., and an hour before any public events in the building. For further information, call 802-382-9222 or consult the web site: www.townhalltheater.org.

See Jupiter at observatory open house MIDDLEBURY — The Physics Department at Middlebury College will again host two open house nights at the College Observatory this spring. The observatory, located atop McCardell Bicentennial Hall, will be open to the public for viewing the

heavens on Friday evenings, April 29 and May 6, from 9 until 10:30 p.m., provided the skies are mostly clear. Jupiter will be in the evening sky on both of these dates. Also visible through our telescopes will be a number of interesting stars, star clusters and nebulae. There is no set program for the open house nights; the public is invited at any time during the scheduled hours. The observatory dome houses a 24-inch, computer-controlled telescope. Additional, smaller telescopes will also be available on the roof deck for observing the night sky. McCardell Bicentennial Hall is located on the western edge of the college campus. Follow Route 125 west from the Middlebury village center, through the campus. Approximately 0.1 mile past the crest of the hill on College MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE Street, turn right at the base of OBSERVATORY

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the hill onto Bicentennial Way, which leads to the parking lot. Enter the building and take the elevators to the top (7th) floor. All observatory public nights are free and open to the public, but will take place only if the sky is at least mostly clear. If the weather appears uncertain, visitors may call the observatory at 443-2266 or visit the observatory web site after 7 p.m. on the evening of the open house for a status report. More information can also be found at go.middlebury.edu/ observatory.

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PAGE 16A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

Tradition

Middlebury

(Continued from Page 1A) North: A Principle to Guide Us Through Troubled Times.” Those six finalists — pared down from an original field of 24 — will deliver original material without notes, props, charts or a podium, and they’ll be expected to do it in a manner that captivates, inspires and educates the assembled crowd. Credit for bringing back the Parker Merrill Speech Competition goes to “Oratory Now,” a student organization formed in 2014 with the mission of cultivating the art of public speaking among the undergraduates. Underwritten through the Ron and Jessica Liebowitz Fund for Innovation, Oratory Now is directed by Yeaton. The organization trains students in public speaking techniques and pays them to impart those skills to other students and teachers — individually, or in classes — throughout the campus. Students go through nine hours of training to become certified speaking coaches. “These are generally students who want to work on their own speaking, and that’s a big part of the training,” Yeaton said. “We also work on the teaching part of it, which I think is a great way to learn something.” REVIVAL Oratory Now members reasoned that their mission should include bringing back the speech competition. “We are hoping it becomes our signature event of the year,” said Yeaton, coordinator of the contest. “We are making a big deal of reviving this tradition.” He is getting a huge assist in the contest re-boot from Middlebury College student Mariah Levin, one of this year’s leading speech coaches. “I’ve found from my own experience that the simple act of having done it a couple of times without falling on your face is so rewarding,” Levin said of public speaking. “It

(Continued from Page 1A) additional clarity to the issues highlighted as well as a heightened sense of joint resolve and commitment on the part of VTrans, the town, and its engineering and construction partners to resolving the challenges of this project in a transparent and collaborative manner. The selectboard endorses the LPMT’s response to your letter and encourages your clients to continue to attend and participate in LPMT meetings to assure themselves that the project is indeed receiving the diligence and expertise it deserves.” The project management team letter to Langrock and the VTrans responses to the property owners’ questions are posted at addisonindependent.com. Middlebury Selectwoman Donna Donahue is a member of the project management team. “I’ve been very happy with the progress we have made, particularly during the past two weeks,” she said at Tuesday’s board meeting. “It’s progress,” echoed Selectman Nick Artim. “It’s a complex project.” But it’s not enough progress according to some downtown property owners, who cited a lack of backup material to buttress the responses. The Langrock letter had warned of an unspecified legal action if the questions had not been satisfactorily answered by April 29. The group also invited the town to join in the legal action. Affected property owners are concerned that they and the town remain in the dark about many aspects of an estimated $40 million project that figures to bring considerable noise, dust, traffic detours, parking woes and shopping disruptions to downtown Middlebury during portions of three years. Langrock was unavailable for comment as the Independent went to press on Wednesday. But Edgewater Gallery owner George Dorsey, a member of the downtown property owners association, provided the following quote: “We appreciate the town’s efforts to get answers and documentation that is vital to the health and safety of the downtown,” Dorsey said. “We continue to offer support in the review of documents. There are at this point no documents provided that answer the questions raised. No review is possible without real and meaningful documents. In the reply, we were surprised to hear the project has been delayed until 2017. That’s a concern, given the clear and present danger posed by the current infrastructure.” Dorsey said the coalition of property owners has not yet decided whether the information provided would be enough to stave off legal action. Matt LaFiandra, vice president of development for Dorsey’s Edgewood Holdings LLC, was present at Tuesday’s meeting. “VTrans, despite the hard work they’ve put in the response in the draft I read before the meeting tonight, still hasn’t provided many of the documents they reference,” LaFiandra said. “It takes time, but I would recommend to my selectboard that they remain diligent about sourcing that documentation from the state and from VHB (Engineers),

MIDDLEBURY COLLEGE VISITING Assistant Professor of Theater Dana Yeaton, left, and student Moriah Levin are coordinating the revival of the Parker Merrill Speech Competition on campus. The finals of the event, which was previously held at the college between 1825 and 1965, will be Friday at 7:30 p.m. in Dana Auditorium. Independent photo/Trent Campbell

gave me so much confidence when I dient in many fields: public serwas starting.” vice, to be sure, but also business, Students who take the stage on education and other kinds of jobs,” April 29 have already run the gaunt- Douglas said in an emailed response let of elimination rounds. They also to the Addison Independent. “It’s have all benefited from solid coach- important, then, that students hone ing — including from their skills early. I’m former Vermont gover- “We are hoping delighted that Prof. Yeanor and 1972 Middleton has reintroduced the bury alumnus James it becomes our competition. It’s excitDouglas. The Middle- signature event ing to see Middlebury bury Republican is serv- of the year. students develop an abiling as a script consultant We are making ity to express themselves to the finalists. articulately and hold the a big deal of An executive in resiattention of the audience. reviving this dence at the college It’ll serve them well in since January of 2011, tradition.” whatever they decide to — Dan Yeaton pursue.” Douglas has been a valued mentor and teacher Each of the 24 contesto students interested in politics, tants gave an initial speech that was history and the mechanics of state evaluated by student judges through government. He also wrote, and co- Oratory Now. Twelve of those comauthored, many speeches during his petitors went on to a semifinal round more than 35 years in state politics. on April 14 judged by three faculty He was happy to participate in the members. revival of the speech competition. Those judges chose the six final“Public speaking is a key ingre- ists: sophomores Peter Dykeman-

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Bermingham, Tabitha Mueller, and Dominick Tanoh; first-year students Nia Robinson and Briana Garrett; and senior August Hutchinson. A panel of Middlebury alumni judges will pick a winner and runners-up on April 29. First place carries a prize of $500, with second and third place awarded $250 each. Yeaton said a people’s choice winner will also be named. SUBJECT MATTERS Competitors have picked interesting topics for their respective speeches, according to Yeaton and Levin. Compassion, a commitment to learning and the science of smiling are examples of the focal points of the student speeches. “What I think is fun and intriguing about having original content is that it has the potential to address issues of the time,” Levin said. “There’s all these conversations on campus … that are high in tension. Our hope with the prompt is to say, ‘What is this principle we can say can help us get along, make things better when times are hard.’” Yeaton said race, ethnicity and inclusivity are among the topics that have generated some of the most intense debate that he has seen during his 20 years on the college faculty. Judges will rate the speeches based on the “five canons of rhetoric,” according to Yeaton. They include memory, delivery, style, arrangement and invention. “It’s live, so anything can happen,” he said. And this updated version of the Parker Merrill Speech Competition will feature a new twist. It’s called ‘PowerPoint Roulette.” Pairings of students and faculty members will be solicited from the audience to speak, on the spot, about seven different slides that will pop up on a screen during the course of 2.5 minutes. The speakers will have never seen the images before. They might include a cat, a pie chart with no info, a random phrase, and/or a pencil. The four, twoperson teams will have to instantly invent dialogue to explain the images. “It’s an impromptu speaking game,” Yeaton said. “You’re on your own.” Organizers hope the competitors and spectators appreciate the value of public speaking as they watch it in action on Friday. “There’s a whole industry around public speaking,” Yeaton said. “You might get the interview on paper, but you get the job in person.” Admission to the April 29 competition is free. More information about the event can be found at sites. middlebury.edu/oratorynow. Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.

a strong grip on tradition

Place your bets on a favorite colt for the 142nd “Run for the Roses.” Watch the running of the Derby. Sport your favorite hat.

* Proceeds from this event will support various projects at Porter Hospital and Helen Porter Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center

(Continued from Page 1A) ulty and staff and had issued a community survey asking for feedback on criteria important in choosing a

AFTERSCHOOL PROFESSIONALS APPRECIATION WEEK

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who we ultimately are paying, so they owe us this stuff. We can trust all we want, but as they say, verify.” For example, the VTrans answer to the question “What insurance do each of the contractors carry?” was, “Insurance requirements are specified in Section 103.4 of VTrans’ Standard Specifications.” Jim Gish, Middlebury’s community liaison for the rail bridges project, said he hopes the rail bridges project can proceed as quickly as possible without legal action. He challenged Dorsey’s assertion that the project had now been “delayed” until 2017. Gish said a longstanding project timetable has called for preliminary work — including drainage improvements at the site of the former Lazarus building off Main Street, and the laying of a temporary access road to the Battell Block parking lot — to be done later this year, with bridge work slated to begin in earnest next spring. SIDEWALK PROJECT In other action on Tuesday, the Middlebury selectboard got its first look at preliminary plans for the installation of a combined total of 2,700 feet of sidewalk along the south side of Seymour Street and the east side of Pulp Mill Bridge Road. The estimated $760,000 project is primarily being funded with state and federal money, with a 10-percent match from the towns of Middlebury and Weybridge. Once completed, the project will ensure continuous sidewalk along Seymour Street to the Pulp Mill Bridge, and then along Pulp Mill Bridge Road to Weybridge Street. The additional 2,700 feet will close what has been a substantial gap in the sidewalk network, which has presented some safety concerns for walkers, joggers and cyclists who regularly enjoy a scenic route that passes Otter View Park. Middlebury and Weybridge in 2014 jointly completed a scoping study for the work. Plans call for the project to be put out to bid late this winter and for construction to begin during the summer of 2017. Addison County Regional Planning Commission Director Adam Lougee on Tuesday presented the preliminary plans to the selectboard and a handful of area residents whose properties will be affected by the project. Lougee said the work, as currently designed, will have no impacts on the municipal water/sewer systems, will avoid existing trees and fences, result in 0.15 acres of slope easements and some “small temporary construction easements on 10 Weybridge Street properties,” have minimal storm water infrastructure, and “largely involve sheet flow to existing drainage ditches.” Some neighbors at Tuesday’s meeting raised questions about the potential impact of the sidewalk project on adjacent, mature trees. “I can’t say that no trees will be damaged or cut,” Lougee acknowledged. Selectboard members said they hope the additional sidewalk will provide safer conditions for Middlebury and Weybridge pedestrians. “It is a very heavily used route,” said Selectman Victor Nuovo. “The need is quite evident.” Reporter John Flowers is at johnf@addisonindependent.com.

new principal. The position had been posted for three weeks on the national education website SchoolSpring and just closed on Tuesday. Melchior expects that DiNapoli and her committee will be able to hold to a timeline posted on the ANeSU Facebook page and meet twice over the next two weeks before holding full-day interviews on May 5. According to DiNapoli, Interim Superintendent Vilaseca and incoming Superintendent Patrick Reen will “collaborate on a final recommendation to the board.” When hired, Jump was the third administrator in 10 years after the retirement in 2004 of long-time BES principal Terrance Evarts. Jump began at BES in the summer of 2013 as interim principal, when DiNapoli, then the principal, took a one-year post as the ANeSU director of curriculum and professional development. Jump was then hired as principal in March 2014. Jump has worked in education over three decades and began as a high school teacher. Before becoming principal at BES, Jump served as principal at Charlotte, Milton and East Corinth after coming to Vermont from Maine. Reporter Gaen Murphree can be reached at gaenm@addisonindependent.com.

Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016 — PAGE 17A

Horse museum offers volunteer opportunites MIDDLEBURY — The National Museum of the Morgan Horse on Main Street in Middlebury is seeking new volunteers for its upcoming season. Join experienced volunteers and Museum Director Amy Mincher on Saturday, May 7, from 1-3 p.m. for a new volunteer orientation. Volunteering at the National Museum of the Morgan Horse offers a unique opportunity to learn about a unique part of American history while also providing a valuable service to the community. The National Museum of the Morgan Horse has only one full-time

employee but offers an impressive amount of programs and services. The museum creates new exhibits on a regular basis, has an engaging online presence, provides articles for The Morgan Horse magazine, and greets thousands of visitors each year. The museum needs volunteers to help with all of these things and more.

At the training, new volunteers will learn a quick history of the Morgan horse in American history, get a preview of the new exhibit, and learn about the various opportunities to help. For more information e-mail Mincher at morganmuseum@gmail. com or call 802-388-1639.

Bristol cops will dispose of drugs BRISTOL — The Bristol Police Department has will hold a Drug Take Back event this Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Residents of the five-town area — Bristol, Lincoln, Monkton, New Haven and Starksboro — can drop off their unused or expired medications at the Bristol Police Department at 72 Munsill Ave. at BristolWorks so that they can be properly disposed of. The Vermont Department of Health calls unused and expired medicine “Vermont’s most dangerous leftovers.” The Health Department cautions that it’s unsafe to flush drugs down the toilet or wash them down the sink and that improperly disposed of drugs can harm water sources, wildlife, pets and people.

Gettin’ the dirt JOSEPH GORRES, ABOVE RIGHT, a soil science researcher from UVM, shows off some soil samples while participating in a UVM Field Day event on a Panton farm last Thursday. Gorres talked about soil health and the soil erosion potential of Vergennes clay. Below right, UVM Extension agronomy Outreach Coordinator Kirsten Workman, kneeling, listens as Panton farmer Gerard Vorsteveld, left, describes some of his farming practices. Independent photos/Trent Campbell

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Executive skills

What are they and why do they matter? Editor’s note: April is the Month of the Young Child, and early educators throughout Addison County are raising awareness of the importance of early brain development, and positive child experiences. Expanding our understanding will help us all become the best parents, caregivers and teachers we can be. This is the second of two articles about early brain development and how conditions in very early life, beginning in pregnancy, can affect individuals far into adulthood. By DR. JODY BRAKELEY In the last article, we learned that executive skills (hereafter referred to as ES) are “brain-based skills that help individuals complete tasks and become independent.” Babies are born with the potential to develop ES over time. Through support and feedback from others, a child develops ES gradually and sequentially, like baby steps. Previously we examined response inhibition (the opposite of impulsivity), emotional control, working memory, flexibility and self-monitoring. In this segment, we will look at six other executive skills that make life easier. Sustained attention is the ability to keep paying attention to a situation or task even when there are distractions or when one is tired or bored. Maturely developed sustained attention is the ability to pay attention to the right thing at the right time for as long as it takes. For some folks, this is an easier task than for others. Of course, the situation, topic or activity makes a big difference as well. When you are interested in a topic or activity, when it is easy for you to understand, when there is lots of prompt positive feedback, etc., it is much easier to remain focused. Task initiation is the ability to “get started”; it is the opposite of procrastination. It means that you can begin a project in an efficient and timely manner. Individuals with strong task initiation skills can get right to work doing homework, cleaning their room or home, correcting papers, paying bills, filling out a necessary form, fixing the faucet and so on. Planning/prioritization is the ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or complete a task. It involves making decisions about what is important to focus on and what is not. It is a mental or physical list of what to do first, then second, then third, and so on. People who make lists are grooming this skill. Organization is the ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information, materials and personal belongings. There are

DR. JODY BRAKELEY children who always lose their mittens, jackets and backpacks. They may grow into teenagers and adults who lose their car keys, wash their cell phones, and misplace important items. Sometimes folks can overdo their need for organization. There are individuals who are so organized that they have a place for everything; nothing is ever out of place. They not only have lists; they have lists of their lists! That can be just as challenging as not being organized enough. Time management is being able to estimate time, portion it out, and stick to time limits and deadlines. It carries with it a sense that time is important. People with well-developed time management skills are typically on time for meetings, mail in their bills before getting a penalty, and arrive for appointments, school or work on time. Individuals with less well-developed time management skills are notoriously late. They rack up speeding tickets because they have not judged their time well and may owe a lot of interest on late credit card payments. Goal-directed persistence is the ability to stick with a project until it is done. It means that the individual is not distracted by competing interests and that s/he can stay on her/his roadmap until the job is completed. Individuals who start projects such as making Christmas presents, organizing the family room, or building a small structure, but who never seem to get them finished may need to train their goal-directed persistence ES. If you were to add impulsivity (i.e. impatience, inability to wait) to these six ES, I wonder if you would be reminded of anyone you know — maybe even yourself. There is emerging consensus that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) with or without high-activity, has to do with immaturely developed ES. This makes a lot of sense to me, and it actually fills me with hope.

When we view ADHD as a set of immaturely developed ES, it takes away blame and judgment of the individual and his or her family. It implies that there are ways to develop any weak ES just the way one might learn to putt a golf ball. This newer understanding helps parents and teachers become more patient with children who have these traits. It leaves us on the doorstep to developing more effective strategies, therapies, and treatment programs. Now you have 11 new concepts to add to your vocabulary. Keep them tucked away; we may see them again some time: 1) Response Inhibition, 2) Working Memory, 3) Emotional Control, 4) Flexibility 5) Meta-Cognition 6) Sustained Attention, 7) Task Initiation, 8) Planning/Prioritization, 9) Organization, 10) Time Management, and 11) Goal-Directed Persistence. Addison Building Bright Futures is part of the Building Bright Futures (BBF) statewide network. BBF is the only statewide nonprofit, publicprivate partnership organization focused solely on improving the wellbeing of young children and families by improving the system that serves them. Addison Building Bright Futures partners with Let’s Grow Kids, a privately funded, statewide public education campaign to raise awareness about the importance of the earliest years to the success of Vermont’s children, communities and economy. Dr. Johana “Jody” Brakeley is a member of Addison Building Bright Futures and a Let’s Grow Kids volunteer. Dr. Brakeley is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and former pediatrician in Middlebury.

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PAGE 18A — Addison Independent, Thursday, April 28, 2016

DAVID FUCHS, LEFT, delivers donated surfboards to a crew of Cuban surfers during a recent trip to Havana made by Middlebury College students.

Photo by Linda Mariela Gutierrez Delgado

Surfing in Cuba (Continued from Page 1A) catch our flight with six surfboards bean, protected from the Atlantic by strapped to the roof — thanks to the the Bahamas, Haiti and Jamaica, it generosity of Pioneers Board Shop ONE OF HAVANA’S top surfing talents, Arnan Perez Latingua, catches big air at “Calle 70� in Havana, Cuba. doesn’t look like a wave-magnet like and Cinnamon Rainbows of HampPhoto by Linda Mariela Gutierrez Delgado Hawaii, which is surrounded by open ton, N.H., and Burlington’s Wind & ocean and picks up swell from virtu- Waves. ally every direction. TOUCHDOWN IN HAVANA If it weren’t for the personal testiThe airplane door opened and we mony of a mutual friend, a New York descended the staircase to the tarmac Times article from 2013 and a dated in the 85-degree and humid evening website titled “Havana Surfers,� we weather, a far cry from the snow we wouldn’t have had reason to believe had left behind in Middlebury. that there was much surf in Cuba at We slipped through customs withall — and, due to shortage of surf out a problem and soon were waiting supplies in the country, even less rea- at the baggage carousel, brimming son to believe that there’d be surfers. with excitement as we slowly came In part, those challenges tie back to terms with the fact that we had acto policy. As the Cuban government tually made it to Cuba. does not recognize surfing as an ofThe bags trickled out at glacial ficial sport and has a general suspi- pace — like one bag every five mincion of any form of wautes slow. We joked, tercraft, it has been and trading guesses about still is impossible to buy Despite these what was happening bea surfboard or any ma- obstacles, hind the scenes. terials one could use to a small, “It’s like there’s only make one on the island. underground one guy back there and Despite these obevery few minutes, community of stacles, a small, underhe walks to the plane, ground community of Cuban surfers grabs a bag, and then Cuban surfers has pre- has prevailed, takes a break,� one of vailed, drawing on ev- drawing on us mused. ery resource possible to every resource Spirits were high, but make it into the waves. possible to as 30 minutes stretched From the early days to an hour and the first of scavenging board- make it into the hour gave way to a secshaping materials like waves. ond, nervousness crept foam from the lining of in. old refrigerators, resin from the naWe noticed a baggage handler tional plastic factory and plywood walking in from a side door and tabletops from the dump, the Cu- asked him if he had noticed two ban surf scene has come a long way, 10-foot-long bags lying around. He managing to stockpile a small supply hadn’t. of gear. Still, every board has either “Just wait,� he said. “They’ll been carried in by family members come.� abroad or donated by foreigners. Soon, it was midnight and there Groups like Havana Surfers and was still no sign of the bags. With an Royal 70 are committed to nurtur- airport staff antsy to get home and a ing the Cuban surf community by rapidly depleting pool of taxis at the attracting equipment donations from airport entrance, we filled out a missabroad. They manage their supply as ing baggage report and left, dejectequitably as possible — distributing ed, with nothing more than a phone the newest and highest-performance number that we could call to check boards to the island’s best surf- on the status of the bags. ers who then, in turn, give their old Over breakfast the next morning, boards to younger or newer surfers. we borrowed our hostel owner’s Every time new gear comes in, a re- phone to connect with the airport. shuffling occurs and the new equip- Unfortunately, no new information ment is appropriately absorbed into had materialized overnight and we the Cuban surfboard eco-system. were told to call back the next mornWe planned to add to that supply ing. with the goal of eventually establishCombined with the fact that we ing a triangular surfboard distribu- hadn’t actually managed to get in tion network between Middlebury touch with a single Cuban surfer beCollege, the rest of New England fore leaving the United States, the and Cuba. But with only two and prospects of our project were lookhalf weeks until departure, we need- ing grim. ed to act fast. The only information we had came We roped in Asher Brown, a from the “Q&A� section of the Hafreshman Feb and additional New vana Surfers website. “Q: Want to Hampshire surf fanatic, and began meet Havana surfers? A: Go to the cold-calling every surf shop between bottom of Calle 70, behind the RusMontreal and New Jersey in search sian Embassy, next to the Panorama of donations. Hotel and ask for Yuniel ValderAfter two weeks of hustling, we rama.� were on the road to Montreal to So, that’s exactly what we did. While it features some of the best waves in Havana, Calle 70, or 70 Street, is not what most people envision when they imagine a Caribbean surf destination. Waves break over a dangerous reef in the shadow of the towering Russian Embassy. JUNE 18 Instead of sand, surfers traverse a JULY 17 treacherous minefield of razor-sharp AUGUST 14 coral-rock to arrive at “La Plancha,� a concrete slab filled with holes, SWIM 600 YARDS BIKE 14 MILES RUN 3.1 MILES which leads to the shoreline. Once there, surfers wait before carefully jumping belly-first on their boards, landing on the back of the receding aftermath of a wave and paddling quickly to evade any oncoming surges, which carry the risk of throwing them back onto the rocks. Well, at least, that’s the case from December though February when there are waves. In late March, we discovered, the ocean next to Havana is flat as a lake. And unfortuLake Dunmore Triathlon nately, no waves meant no surfers. Short on alternatives, we pressed 1600 yd. swim, 28 mi. bike, 6.2 mi. run... June 18 & Aug. 14 on, asking every person we encountered on the walkway next to the Vermont Sun Half Marathon Members recieve a coast if they knew a man named 25% discount 10k, 5k run... September 25 “Yuniel� or, realistically, anybody on all events who surfed. run & triathlon series For days, this was our cycle: Wake 3FHJTUSBUJPO PQFO UP JOEJWJEVBMT BOE UFBNT t WFSNPOUTVO DPN up. Call the airport. No one would

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pick up. Grab a taxi to Calle 70. Ask for Cuban surfers. Go home. Rinse. Repeat. And eventually, it paid off. A TURNING POINT A young man named Alexis turned out to be the key. If we met him at the beach the next morning, he said, he would bring us to meet his friend Lester, a common figure in the Calle 70 surf scene. Alexis kept his word, meeting us by the water the next morning. He took us to Lester’s and then to his art school, where we met a photographer named Linda, a Cuban journalism student who created a book on the Calle 70 surfers. Once we got a hold of one thread, we just kept pulling. Turns out, Linda knew Yuniel and quickly put us in touch. Both of them knew Yojani, ArnĂĄn and Frank — some of the island’s best surfers — the same ones we had seen in the photos of The New York Times article. Yojani was friends with Januelm, who invited us to a party at Havana’s only skate park that afternoon. Once there, we were invited to a party at Frank’s house where we met Yaya, the head of Royal 70 and the country’s most prominent female surfer. In five days, somehow, we had gone from completely in the dark to completely in the loop. Even though there was still no sign of the boards, we at least had a plan for what to do with them once — or, at this point, if — they arrived. ICING ON THE CAKE On the day of Christian and Asher’s departure (I was staying on a couple days longer), we caught a cab to the airport. If the boards were ever going to arrive, this was our last shot at picking them up while one us was on the island to deliver them. As the New England boys waited to check in, I tracked down the airline office to figure out where in the Americas our boards had ended up. After a brief yet nearly impossible to believe conversation with the airline representative, I raced downstairs to update the guys before they passed through security: Evidently, the airline workers had forgotten to unload the bags off our initial flight, sending them back and forth several times between Montreal and Havana. But now, finally, they were here and, because of their size, had been waiting outside the lost and found luggage area. A few hours later, in a state of euphoria, I left the boards in the hands of one of our Cuban compadres. When I came back the next day to meet the crew who would be riding them, a chill had set in across the coast. A cold front had come in across the Gulf of Mexico, they explained, meaning that — if luck were on our side — we’d have a chance at snagging some off-season waves. So, we suited up, waxed up the boards and optimistically headed down to the shore. As we got closer, we could make out the spray blasting off the shore and onto the street, eliciting a chorus of excited shouts from the crowd. Our relaxed walk increased to a jog and then to a full-on ecstatic sprint. Swept up in the stoke, we made it to the rocks, picked our way to “La Planchaâ€? and leapt it into the surf. The Cubans in the water welcomed me to the line-up with smiles and fist bumps. As we traded waves, their skill was undeniable. They dropped in fast, carving aggressive, graceful lines up and down the faces and sending up plumes of mist every time they hit the top. The surfer floating next to me was examining his new board from Vermont with contagious enthusiasm. My gaze shifted back to shore, where all of Havana stretched out along the coast, and that same involuntary smile spread across my face. This was crazy ‌ and I loved it. Editor’s note: David Fuchs is a Middlebury College junior and an intern for the Addison Independent.