Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

"Good morning, Revolution; you're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on."
Langston Hughes

We have lots going on this week in Windham County. Let's get right to it: 


HAPPENING TODAY, SUNDAY JUNE 18TH, 2017

Phone Banking for the Georgia Special Election
Sunday, June 18th, 2017 at the Brattleboro Food Co-Op (2 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) in the Community Room. 
6:30pm-8:30pm.
Please use the entrance at 7 Canal Street.

What’s the best possible gift for Dad?? Adding a Democrat to the House of Representatives!  The GA special election is on Tuesday so we are phone banking! (Note: this is the new and correct time for the event.)
Please join us. This is a final push before the GA election to get out the vote!  We will be calling Democrats and reminding them to vote.  We had a phone banking party earlier this week -- it was fun to do it together and we all spoke to some really great, motivated voters.  One woman said to me, "We are super excited about Ossoff and thank you for all that you are doing from so far away."  That felt good.
Please join us!  We provide snacks, technical assistance, phone bank training, hand holding (if needed!) and a good time. You bring your phone, computer and if you would like, your headphones.  

HAPPENING THIS WEEK MONDAY, JUNE 19TH, 2017 - SUNDAY JUNE, 25TH, 2017

Select-Board Meeting: Show Up to Support Diversity in Town Staff!
Tuesday, June 20th, 2017 on the steps of the Municipal Center (230 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) at 6pm. 
Of the 191 Brattleboro town staff, there is not a single person of color. Please come out this Tuesday and support racial diversity in our community leadership and staff positions! 
Select board will continue the ongoing discussion of how to diversify and encourage better representation. Let's show our support for Select board and town staff diversification and equitable representation.
We will be gathering on the Municipal Center steps at 6pm for a brief orientation, after which we will attend the Town Meeting as a group to demonstrate our support and solidarity for better representation within Brattleboro’s Town Staff.
PLEASE COME WEARING BLACK LIVES MATTER T-SHIRTS AND GEAR! Lost River Racial Justice will be providing a limited number of Black Lives Matter T-Shirts for sale. In lieu of Black Lives Matter gear please bring an 8.5x11 sign expressing your support for racial diversity in Town Staff.
Share/join/like our event page on Facebook!


______

Vermont Workers’ Center Organizing Committee
Tuesday, June 20th, 2017 at The Root Social Justice Center (The Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). First Floor, 6pm-8pm. Doors open at 5:45pm. The Root is nut-free and fragrance-free.
Blue Cross/Blue Shield has requested a 12.7% premium increase for plans bought through the Exchange (VT Health Connect). The Healthcare Is A Human Right campaign is organizing resistance to those rate hikes and support for the full implementation of Act 48, Vermont’s universal healthcare law. If you are affected by the rate hikes or want a just healthcare system in Vermont, contact us at  [email protected] or 802-257-4336 and/or join us at the Organizing Committee meeting.

______


Brattleboro Area Interfaith Initiative (BAII) Monthly Gathering
Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 at the Centre Church (193 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) in the Parlor. 12:30pm-2:00pm. 
Please note a time change in our monthly gatherings to beginning at 12:30pm and running until 2:00pm. 
For questions please contact [email protected]
As summer in Windham county is full of music festivals and celebrations, we will be talking about our relationships with music, everything from Bach to supermarket music. 
While the emphasis will be on our reflections and personal relationships to music, if you are interested in sharing a particularly meaningful/illustrative clip (1 minute or less) we will have a speaker with connections of various types and a CD player. 

______

Vermont Calendar Fundraising Project for 350VT-Interest Meeting
Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 at the Brattleboro Food Coop (2 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) 
in the Cafe at 5:15pm.
Prior to the 350 Brattleboro's regular Leadership Meeting there will be a calendar fundraising informational meeting in the Coop Cafe at 5:15pm for 30 minutes or so. Plan for a working gathering and to share photos for those who would like to bring them.
This project will be fun and positive in a time of serious worry and fear about what is happening to our planet and this country. Please think about how you want the boxes for each day to be used- messages and information about problems and solutions? Dates of enviromental significance? There will be some calendars for us to check out to see if there are any design features we want to incorporate.
If you can't make this time, but want to help please contact Nancy at 802-380-3362 or [email protected].

______

Edible Brattleboro Regular Meeting
Wednesday, June 21st, 2017 at a members’ Residential Garden (51 Moreland Avenue, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 6:00pm. Outdoor meeting, weather permitting. All are welcome.
Edible Brattleboro has a mission to "grow food everywhere for everyone." This year we will launch a “share the harvest” stand to distribute freshly grown produce from our gardens and from gardens all over Brattleboro. Come join the discussion of this initiative at our next meeting to be held at our most recently planted residential garden.

______

BrattleMasters Celebrate Summer
Thursday, June 22nd 2017 at the Marlboro College Graduate Center (28 Vernon Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 
6pm.
BrattleMasters, our local Toastmasters club, will celebrate the arrival of summer at its next meeting on Thursday June 22. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, 28 Vernon Street in Brattleboro.  The public is welcome and encouraged to attend, and is invited to participate in the extemporaneous speaking exercises. There will also be prepared speeches, evaluations, and reports by members.
Since 1924, Toastmasters International has helped people from diverse backgrounds become more confident speakers, communicators, and leaders. For information about the local Toastmasters club, please visit http://brattleboro.toastmastersclubs.org.


______

Protest Vigils at TD Bank
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions

Brattleboro
Friday, June 23, 2017 (and every Friday) in front of TD Bank Brattleboro (215 Main St, Brattleboro, VT 05301). Noon-1pm. Signs will be provided.

Bellows Falls
Friday, June 23 (and every Friday) in front of the TD Bank Bellows Falls (2 Church St, Bellows Falls, VT 05101). 1pm-2pm. Please bring your own signs.
TD is a major investor in Tar Sands. TD helps to fund the Dakota Access Pipeline. The State of Vermont Keeps Most of Our Cash in TD.
What You Can You Do (besides attending the vigils):
If you’re a TD depositor, change banks!
If you’re a Vermonter, demand that state funds not be deposited with a bank investing in fossil fuels.
Contact your state legislators to support the bills in the House & Senate calling for a commission to explore the possibility of a State Bank. 
Founded in 2005, Post Oil Solutions is a 501c3 community organizing project in Southeastern Vermont whose mission is to help empower the people of the Central Connecticut River Valley bioregion to develop sustainable, resilient , collaborative, and socially just communities leading to a self- and community-sufficient post petroleum society. For more information please contact [email protected] or 802.869.2141 


______

Resistance Summer Community Potluck
Sunday, June 25th, 2017 at the Putney Public Library (55 Main St, Putney, VT 05346) at 11:30am.
RSVP through the event link and comment with your dish or call Laura Chapman at 802-380-4379. 
Join with MoveOn, The Putney Huddle, friends, and neighbors at Putney Public Library for a Resistance Summer Community Potluck. We'll enjoy good food, spend time with friends old and new, and celebrate all we've accomplished so far in resisting the radical agenda of the Trump administration. Followed by the regular Putney Huddle Meeting with guest speaker Jaime Contois leading us in a Social Justice conversation and Isaac Grimm, lead organizer for Rights and Democracy will talk with us about their work and how we can combine efforts. All are welcome! Come for part are for all of it!
Many hands make light work! Pitch in by bringing a dish and/or drinks, helping to greet attendees, taking pictures, or tidying up after the potluck. If you can bring your own table ware to reduce waste.

______


UPCOMING EVENTS

Mother Up! Monthly Meet-Up
Monday June 26th, 2017 at KidsPLAYce (20 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301).
5:30pm-7:30pm. RSVP helpful, but not required. Contact Abby Mnookin for more info at [email protected].
Mother Up!: Parents Exchange for Change is a project of 350Vermont that brings together families to talk about the tough realities of climate change and to participate in the transition to a healthier and safer world. Inspired by the "Food Not Lawns" movement, this month we'll be talking more about turning yards into gardens, and Marilyn Chiarello from Edible Brattleboro will share more about local efforts to create edible landscapes in our community. A simple vegetarian meal and childcare for ages 8 and under will be provided.


______

Climate Change Café: A Community of Concerned Citizens
“Council on the Uncertain Human Future”
a project of Post Oil Solutions
Tuesday, June 27th, 2017 at the Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main St, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 6:00pm.
FREE. Light Refreshments Available
For further Information please call 802.869.2141 or email [email protected].
Now more than ever, there is an immense need to stop and listen to one another, to recognize our shared humanity, and to seek cooperative solutions to our collective challenges, especially climate change.
Council is an ancient practice that brings people together into a talking circle for candid and heartfelt conversation. Each person has a voice, speaks from the heart, and all the others listen. Council draws on the life experience and wisdom of all participants to generate new understandings of the problem and new possibilities for solutions. It fosters attentive listening and authentic expression, supporting a deep sense of community and recognition of our interconnectedness as it does so.
By using the Council to consider the full scope of the climate crisis, participants slow down and listen well, to both themselves and others. . Sitting in a circle with heart communication creates connection and acceptance; a more collective consciousness gradually develops. Fears, anger, guilt, despair and other feelings may be experienced, perhaps transformed; new levels of awareness, possibility, and agency may emerge.


______

The Southern Vermont Dance Festival 
Thursday, July 13th, 2017 - Sunday, June 16th, 2017. 
Locations and times vary.
This year’s theme is Diversity and throughout all of the classes, the community events, and the gala performances you will see themes of our times. Resistance, free speech, diversity, equality and beyond will all be represented. SVDF is arranging a special Resistance/Social Justice Promenade on Saturday July 15th from 10am to 1pm.  Come to the River Garden and get your map to the acts.  Then at 1pm, come on down to the Latchis for a short performance on the Story of Harriet Tubman called "Sister Moses".  For more information on the community events, to take classes, and to get your tickets to the galas please go to www.southernvermontdancefestival.com 
Come to the One and Only Brattleboro as the streets come alive with Movement!


______

SAVE THE DATE:

Local Love Brigade Gatherings
Thursday, July 6th, 2017, 2pm - 4pm at the Brooks Memorial Library
Wednesday, July 19th, 2017 at 10am at Bradley House
Sunday, August 13th, 11:30am - 1:30pm at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
In the meantime, we'll keep sending out postcards to folks that need it. Here are the addresses from past week's incidents. Let's keep the love flowing.

(If you missed the great article in the Commons about the impact the Love Brigade is having, you can check it out here.)

______

Racial Justice Fundraiser 
Saturday, July 29th, 2017 at Super Fresh Organic Cafe (30 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 6:30pm-8:30pm.

Live Music

______

ONGOING SUMMER EVENTS

Vigil at TD Bank in Montpelier
sponsored by the Upper Valley Affinity Group
The Second Thursday of Each Month Through the Summer and Fall. At the Corner of State and Main Streets in Montpelier, VT. 
11:30am-1pm.

Ride share from Exit 5 off I91N. Departs at 10am. Contact Tim at 802.869.2141 or [email protected],net.]
Come and stay as long as you can to peacefully protest TDBank’s huge investments in climate and water destroying pipeline infrastructure.
Urge the State of Vermont and other depositors to close their TDBank accounts.
Support moving swiftly to 100% renewable energy and a state bank for Vermont.
We will be bearing witness and distributing fact sheets about TD's extensive financial support for pipelines.
Bring a sign, bring your friends, bring your neighbors, bring your lunch or just come and join us by yourself.
For more information contact Duncan Nichols at 802.281.2692 or [email protected].

______

STANDING REGULAR MEETINGS

350Brattleboro Regular Meetings
1st and 3rd Wednesdays (Leadership Team) in the Brattleboro Food Co-op Community Room (1 Canal Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 6pm-8pm.


______

SKILLED VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY

Childcare as a Radical Act: Sign up to Provide Childcare! 
The Family Solidarity Action Network is moving forward with their next big effort to support families in local activism: a collective of folks to provide childcare for local activist meetings or events. If you or someone you know would be able and willing to offer childcare (as a volunteer, or paid) for meetings and events please fill out this spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YGVI8wECe4ZDdghtAG147j7ktwgB_J5ZoWUPkwGrOhM/edit#gid=0

We are looking for people young and old with varying degrees of experience.  Having a large pool of people to call on will make it much easier for organizers to arrange childcare for meetings, allowing for more voices of families with young children to participate in local activism!  We will then be making this list available to other local organizations so we can be sure that childcare doesn't have to be a barrier to participation for anyone. 

______

VOLUNTEER AND COMMUNITY SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES

Sister District 
SisterDisrict is an organization that connects you with your local home district team to work on Sister Races in Virginia, Washington State, and Georgia. The goal? To turn Red states Blue. Support these critical races by donating to them and sharing about them on social media.  Or, get in on the fun by joining your local district team for even more action items! 
Here is an update from the Vermont district team:
SisterDistrict Soup
We have made a few changes to our SisterDistrict Soup project and will be offering a monthly soup subscription to benefit either SisterDistrict directly or our current candidate (subscriber's choice). 
Please help us by sharing this link with friends and family who may be interested in subscribing or volunteering to help make or sell soup: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfU1Vv1oJRgTBATJ8TTp8vHUaGFIz0coVCVe28gYVOrK9K-BQ/viewform?c=0&w=1 (NOTE: for more information please email [email protected])
In addition to raising money to help get our nation onto a better trajectory, we are also committed to providing you the most delicious and locally-sourced soup that we can. Vegetarian, gluten- and dairy-free options will be available. There is no reason that you can't eat well and resist at the same time!


______

ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING


Indigo Radio
Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FM
To stream live: Visit www.wvew.org 
Indigo Radio, deepening understanding and making connections!
IndigoRadio is a group of area educators seeking to learn through engaging with others in our community and throughout the world. We will be talking about educational and social issues both globally and locally and connecting them to our lives and Brattleboro community.
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indigoradiowvew/
For archive recordings of past shows: https://soundcloud.com/user-654648353


______

Thank you, as always, for your unwavering dedication to your community this and every week. Your community sees you and we appreciate everything you do! 

Your Friendly WeCAN Admins,
Ann and Joanna