AROUND TOWN
Kristen honored
MONTPELIER — Green Mountain United Way Executive Director Tawnya Kristen was recently named this year’s Vermont Workplace Wellness Outstanding Contributor Award, in the nonprofit category. This honor was in recognition of her leadership in establishing workplace wellness best practices with employers in central and northeastern Vermont, as well as creating a workplace that holds a high standard for her own staff of seven in the Berlin office. Kristen has led the formation at Green Mountain United Way of the Working Bridges program that helps connect working Vermonters with basic needs support, financial counseling and more.
FEMA appeal
If you receive a letter from FEMA saying you’re ineligible for assistance, read further to find out why you were denied. It might be something as simple as a missing signature in your paperwork. Visit disasterassistance.gov for more complex issues, reach out to FEMA by calling the Helpline 800-621-3362.
Holiday meals
Price Chopper/Market 32 is offering its customers a way to support members of the community who might need a little help putting together a holiday meal.
Through the “Fill A Plate with Hope This Holiday Season” program, for $10, shoppers can purchase a bag of food items to be donated to local organizations chosen by each individual store. The organizations will then provide the food to those who need food assistance during the holiday season. The bags include 6 oz. PICS traditional crispy onions, 4.7 oz. PICS au gratin potatoes, two 15.25 oz. PICS whole kernel corn, 14.5 oz. PICS cut green beans, and 6 oz. PICS turkey stuffing.
The bags of holiday food items will be available for sale at Price Chopper/Market 32 stores until Dec. 22.
Car seats
SOUTH BURLINGTON — As the Thanksgiving holiday approaches, Chittenden County SHARP (Safe Highway Accident Reduction Program) Team and Heritage Automotive Group will co-host a free car-seat check and press event Saturday, Nov. 18, at Heritage Toyota, 1580 Shelburne Road in South Burlington. The free child safety seat check will run from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., a press conference takes place at 10:30 a.m., a free lunch (hot dogs and hamburgers) will be offered from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
VLT staff
MONTPELIER — Vermont Land Trust announced Mead Binhammer as its new project director for the Mad River Valley and other areas of central Vermont. With a background in land stewardship and wildlife biology, he previously worked at the Trustees of Reservations in Massachusetts, the National Park Service (Wyoming; Grand Teton National Park) and Buzzards Bay Coalition, a regional Massachusetts Land Trust. He grew up in Brookfield and joined VLT this fall. He will be based at the land trust’s Montpelier office.
Liza Walker, his predecessor, advanced conservation and land stewardship goals in the Mad River Valley for 18 years. She began working for VLT in 1996, then in 2005, became the organization’s project director for the Mad River Watershed. Walker has moved on to the Environmental Mediation Center as program manager and mediator. She remains involved with Valley projects in an individual capacity.
AROUND VT
Christmas trees
U.S. Forest Service officials in Vermont welcome the public to select and cut a Christmas tree at Green Mountain National Forest with the purchase of a $5 permit. Permits are now available for purchase either online (an additional $2.50 service fee applies) or in-person at our GMNF offices in Manchester (2538 Depot St. Manchester Center, 802-362-2307) or Rochester (99 Ranger Road, Rochester, 802-767-4261).
In support of the Every Kid Outdoors initiative, this year, the Forest Service will again provide fourth-grade students with a free Christmas tree voucher by registering at everykidoutdoors.gov. Fourth-graders who register must present a printed voucher to redeem a Christmas tree permit.
Master gardener
Registration is now open for the 16-week, non-credit, online Master Gardener Course through the UVM Extension Master Gardener program. Registration closes Jan. 12, 2024; the course begins Jan. 19, 2024.
Gardeners of all experience levels will benefit from the course, which covers topics, including fruit and vegetable gardening, herbaceous plants, lawn care, insect pests, plant diseases and landscape design among others.
Information will be presented by UVM faculty and green industry professionals through recorded lectures, live Q&A sessions, discussion forums and other weekly activities. Participants must have basic computer skills and should plan on up to six hours a week to complete course work, assignments and quizzes.
The course fee is $400 for Vermont residents, $550 for nonresidents, with an additional $75 for the 880-page manual. Vermonters may apply for partial scholarships until Dec. 15. Visit go.uvm.edu/mastergardener to register or apply for financial aid.
If requiring a disability-related accommodation to participate, email debra.heleba@uvm.edu or call 802-656-1777 by Dec. 15.
BUSINESS
Charity sale
BARRE — On Saturday, Oct. 21, locals shopped and raised more than $31,000 to fight hunger in our area. During the 13th annual Charity Sale, Lenny’s Shoe & Apparel and customers collectively raised $31,865 for the Vermont Foodbank and JCEO Plattsburgh Foodshelf. During October, Lenny’s customers were encouraged to make a $10 donation to the Vermont Foodbank or JCEO Plattsburgh Foodshelf in exchange for a custom canvas tote bag and access to the storewide sale; 100% of the donations collected went directly to the nonprofit organizations.
Highest honor
WATERBURY — For the fifth consecutive year, Best Western Plus Waterbury-Stowe in Waterbury was recognized with the brand’s highest honor, the M.K. Guertin Award, as well as the Champion Customer Care Award, at BWHSM Hotels’ 2023 Convention held recently in Honolulu. The Best Western Plus Waterbury-Stowe is one of only 45 hotels out of more than 2,300 BWH Hotels properties in the U.S. and Canada to receive both awards, placing it in the top 2% of all Best Western Hotels in North America. The Best Western Plus Waterbury-Stowe features 83 rooms, an indoor pool and fitness center, fireplace suites, playground and outdoor area, a covered bridge and a nature trail developed by Vermont Youth Conservation Corps.
BIRTHS
CVMC
A son, Aron Daudelin, was born Oct. 30, 2023, to Tanika and Aron Daudelin, of Graniteville.
A daughter, Joan Anderson, was born Nov. 7, 2023, to Colleen Hertz and Ian Anderson, of Montpelier.
Copley Hospital
A daughter, Eleanor Marie Rivard, was born Nov. 6, 2023, to Jeffrey and Amanda (Locke) Rivard, of Cambridge.
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