Gonda honored
Mikahely
Land trust recognizes ‘citizen naturalist’
Madagascar singer creates unique sounds, transcends boundaries
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South Burlington’s Community Newspaper Since 1977
the JUNE 23, 2022
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New school superintendent backs out
VOLUME 46, NO. 25
Your honor, honored
School board scrambles to hire district leader AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
After months of searching for someone to fill in as superintendent of South Burlington schools, the district’s top finalist has backpedaled. Lisa Cala Ruud, a school administrator from New York who school board members voted to hire at their most recent meeting, emailed the district last Sunday declining the interim superintendent position. Now the school board has just one week to find a replacement for David Young, the district’s leader of 11 years, before he starts a new job July 1. “I’m disappointed,” school board member Alex McHenry said Monday, adding that he’s not sure what the next steps are. Board member Kate Bailey, who was elected in March, also expressed her disappointment but wrote in an email that the board is “working through the procedure for See SUPERINTENDENT on page 2
COURTESY PHOTO
Former Gov. Madeline Kunin unveils the portrait of Supreme Court Associate Justice John A. Dooley of South Burlington at a ceremony June 9 honoring his 30 years of service to the state’s highest court. The portrait hangs at the Chittenden County Courthouse in Burlington. See news item, page 2.
Sports bras, sisters, sultanas: Hinda Miller makes hall of fame AVALON STYLES-ASHLEY STAFF WRITER
History won’t remember if it was a dark and stormy night in Burlington, 1971, when a few young women Frankenstein’d together a pair of jockstraps to create the world’s first sports bra. Hinda Miller remembers it as one of the most exciting times in her life. She was 27, single, a college
grad with a master’s degree in theater design and a runner without support — for the ladies. So, when she, Lisa Lindahl and Polly Smith set out to create a bra for jogging, the goal was to fix a problem that they experienced in their own lives and knew other athletes felt. They had no idea that their invention would become the sports bra, turn into its own category of athletic wear, and change the game for not only the sports industry, but
for women’s empowerment and representation across the world. Neither could they have predicted that about 50 years later, all three co-founders of the sports bra would be officially inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. While they were part of the class of 2020 inductees, the coronavirus pandemic put celebrations on hold until this year. “You can say that it was a product of the right time, in the right
place, with the right two women who were strong enough to survive each other and keep going, do the work. We just were very hard workers and we believed in our running, and we believed in our sisters. There was a lot of belief and passion and love that drove us,” Miller said, speaking of her and Lindahl who co-founded their company, Jogbra Inc. (later renamed JBI) in 1977 and patented the sports bra design in 1979. Smith, a childhood friend
of Lindahl’s, helped design and sew the initial prototype but later moved on to become a designer with the Jim Henson Company. Playtex Apparel bought JBI in 1990 and Sara Lee, owner of Champion Products, later bought out Playtex and formed a division dedicated to sports bras, now a household name in ready-to-wear clothing and a must-have for many See MILLER on page 12