Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

"No being is so important that he can usurp the rights of another."
From the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Schizoid Man" (23 January 1989) by Richard Manning and Hans Beimler

     This week's newly posted offerings include free food and veggies, office hours with State Rep Sara Coffey, Brattleboro’s Housing Action Plan Community Workshop, a workshop focusing on predatory red flags hosted by the Women's Freedom Center, a lecture on Hollywood during the McCarthy era, and multiple climate justice events from 350 Brattleboro and 350VT....and those are only a few of the events taking place this week. Scroll on down a bit further in this email and you'll find an additional 6 new items we've added. There's lots happening in Windham County, friends, and we hope to see you at one of these crucial events very soon! 

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HAPPENING TODAY:
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14th, 2021

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HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15th, 2021-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 21st, 2021

Vermont Food Bank’s Veggie Van Go Upcoming Schedule
The First and Third Mondays of Every Month in the parking lot across the street from the main entrance to Brattleboro Union High School (131 Fairground Road, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-11am. 
Veggie Van Go is a program through the Vermont Foodbank that gives out free produce and local food for people to take home.
November 15th, 2021
December 6th, 2021
December 20th, 2021
January 3rd, 2022

Important information:

• Drive through model- please stay in your vehicles
• If you are walking there: see a Vermont Foodbank associate but please make sure to stay 6 feet back.
• There are no income requirements, registration or paperwork to participate
• You do not need to be present to get food: you may ask someone to pick up on your family's behalf.

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Coffee with Coffey Hours
Tuesday, November 16th, 2021
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2021, Online. 6:30pm-7:30pm.
Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87653733300?pwd=c0pDdk9EcHJKUnUzQjY0cm0wbEw3Zz09
Communication with my constituents is a high priority for me, especially as we prepare for the 2022 session. I want you to know what I'm working on and I want to hear from you. I encourage folks to join me at one of my monthly coffee hours. I will be holding coffee hours on third Tuesday of the month.
If you would to receive my newsletters or have questions about the legislation we passed in 2021 or to talk about your priorities for 2022 please email me at: [email protected] 
Your feedback is critical to my legislative work, so please do not hesitate to reach out anytime. 
Take good care,
Sara Coffey
State Representative, Windham-1

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Marlboro Community Food Share
hosted by the Marlboro Community Center
Thursday, November 18th, 2021, and every Thursday, at the Marlboro Community Center (524 South Road, Marlboro, VT, 05344). 4:30pm-5:30pm.
Every Thursday from 4:30pm-5:30pm the Marlboro Community Center invites you to fill a grocery bag with non-perishables and fresh local produce. No registration or eligibility required. This weekly opportunity is available for anyone who could use an extra bag of groceries or knows someone who does.
Food will be set up in the entry-way to the Marlboro Community Center. For proper social distancing, please enter one person at a time. Bring a grocery bag or use ours. Masks are required. Deliveries will be made through Marlboro Cares for those needing assistance. Please call Marlboro Cares at 802-258-3030 in advance to arrange a delivery.
To donate food:
Leave non-perishable food in the donation box at the Marlboro Post Office. It will be collected on a weekly-basis. (Please note that this box previously supplied the Deerfield Valley Food Pantry, which is now distributing food exclusively from VT Food Pantry) 
Gardeners and farmers are welcome to donate produce. Wear masks and wash hands when harvesting and handling food. Fresh produce can be dropped off at the Community Center on Thursday between 1pm and 4pm. (Any leftover produce will be taken to FoodWorks the following morning)

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Guilford Cares FoodPantry
Thursday, November 18th, 2021 (and every Thursday) at the Guilford Fairgrounds (163 Fairground Rd, Guilford, VT 05301). 5pm-6pm. If you have questions, concerns or would like to donate groceries or monetary gifts please contact Pat Haine 802-257-0626. For additional questions or more information call 802 579 1350 or email [email protected].
Guilford Cares Food Pantry has moved! The Pantry has moved to the First Aid building at the Guilford Fairgrounds. We will be fully stocked with all our usual grocery items.
The Fairgrounds are on Fairground Road, just off Weatherhead Hollow Road. From Guilford Center Road turn onto Weatherhead Hollow Road. Travel 1.7 miles down the road. The Fairgrounds are on the left and there will be a sign directing you up the hill for about .2 miles. The red building is on the left with a sign out in front. Please remain in your car; we’ll greet you,  and give you a shopping list as we have been doing for the past year.
If the Pantry will be closed for any unexpected reason, the closure will be announced on WKVT, WTSA, and Front Porch Forum.
If you cannot come to the Pantry due to illness or high risk, you can call also call Pat to arrange for food delivery by a volunteer.
We know that supplemental food can make such a big difference in one's budget. That is why we are stocking our shelves for our neighbors. All are welcome to come and take home fresh produce, staples, meat, dairy.
Guilford Cares welcomes anyone in need of supplemental food for themselves or their families.

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Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market 
a project of Post Oil Solutions
Saturday, November 20th, 2021 at the C.F. Church Building (80 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-2pm.
For info email Sherry at [email protected], call 802-275-2835, or visit us at www.brattleborowinterfarmersmarket.org. 
Weekly indoor farmers market, creating community and boosting food security every week.  
All locally grown and made: farm produce, meats, syrup, fresh baked goods, cheeses, fruits, cider, preserves, handmade jewelry, pottery, soaps and more. 
Accepting credit, debit and EBT. Crop Cash + Food Boost turns $10 EBT into $30 every week. 

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The Root Social Justice Center Open House
Saturday, November 20th, 2021 at The Root Social Justice Center (The Whetstone Studios for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 1pm-4pm.
Please bring your own containers for food. Thank you.
Connect with the Root’s all BIPOC staff; Tour our space; Meet racial accountability partners and community; Sign up for programs; Join our team of volunteers ; Take a photo in the “I Am Vermont Too” Photo Booth; Win a prizes ; Soup, pies, donuts, cider, and more…

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Training: Organizing and Movement Building
hosted by 350VT
Saturday, November 20th, 2021, Online. 2pm-4pm.
Click here to register.
You're invited to a free online training in Organizing and Movement Building on Saturday, Nov. 20th from 2pm-4pm. Learn how to engage and onboard new leaders, develop volunteer leadership, and keep people involved to build a vibrant climate justice movement. This workshop is facilitated by 350VT and hosted for the nationwide 350.org network, so attendees will be climate justice activists from across the country. 

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Brattleboro Families Rise Up Meet-up
Sunday, November 21st, 2021 at the Retreat Farm (45 Farmhouse Square, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-12pm.
Join us for another in-person, outdoor meet-up! This month, we're back at Retreat Farm, where we'll circle up in the woods around a fire.
* Snacks (apples, cheese sticks, granola bars, hard-boiled eggs) and childcare support provided
* Masks recommended when not eating or distancing
We'll share gratitudes, do a somatics grounding exercise, talk about parenting amidst the climate crisis and the COVID pandemic with winter upon us, learn about ways to take action with 350VT's Just Transition campaign, and end with a song.
This is a project of 350 Vermont bringing together families to talk about the tough realities of climate change and to participate in the transition to a healthier and safer world. What Joanna Macy calls the “Great Turning,” or the third revolution, is this unprecedented time where we are called to stop the destruction of our world, to build new life-sustaining practices and ways of being, and to shift our collective consciousness. We especially wish to engage young parents in this vital discussion of how we can make positive changes to protect our planet for our children's future.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Talk About Our Democracy: Learn about the No Más Polimigra Campaign in Windham County
Monday, November 22nd, 2021, Online. 6:30pm. For information contact Francie Marbury at 802-464-5169.
To Join the meeting copy this URL into your search bar on the 22nd: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82678353560?pwd=TDdCZ1VvbXB2U3N3bVdka1MxSEVSdz09
The meeting will be recorded and will air on BCTV and on WVEW FM .
Join the No Más Polimigra campaign to close loopholes that allow local police to act as immigration enforcers. We've succeeded in Brattleboro, and we are working to have the Windham County Sheriff's Office follow suit.
Talk About Our Democracy will host campaign organizers  We're holding this public information session to explain the statewide and local campaigns, talk together about how and why to be in community solidarity, and connect interested folks to the organizing in their town, or county-wide.
We look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Woody Bernhard is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic:  No Más Polimigra
Time: Nov 22, 2021 06:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82678353560?pwd=TDdCZ1VvbXB2U3N3bVdka1MxSEVSdz09
Meeting ID: 826 7835 3560
Passcode: 929267
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Meeting ID: 826 7835 3560
Passcode: 929267
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/keeMQAoiei

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Brattleboro Community Thanksgiving and Volunteer Opportunity
Wednesday, November 24th, 2021 at Brattleboro Union High School (131 Fairground Road, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 11:30am.
Brattleboro Union High School, Fresh Pick Cafe, and The Pit Mistress have collaborated to ensure that we are able to hold a 2021 Community Thanksgiving meal. Food will be available for dine in, take out, and delivery.
Volunteers are needed! Please fill out this form if you are available to assist. Thank you!

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A Silent Vigil of Loving Kindness
Wednesday, November 24th, 2021 at Wells Fountain (298-250 VT-30, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 1:30pm-2:30pm.
For further information and to be on the mailing list for future vigils, please contact Tim Stevenson, [email protected]
Under a banner that reads, “Holding a Space of Loving Kindness for All Living Beings,” we will conduct a silent vigil on Thanksgiving Eve @ Wells Fountain across from Brooks Library and the Municipal Building, downtown Brattleboro
Our purpose is to serve as a living reminder of the inherent goodness of each of us, as well as our inextricable connection with one another.
For a few minutes or the entire hour, all are welcome to join us in extending sentiments of loving kindness to all living beings: to family and friends, neighbors and strangers, kindred spirits and adversaries, human and non-human beings, alike. And to ourselves, as well. People may choose to stand, kneel, or sit in a chair they bring (there are stone benches circling the Fountain).

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Critical Mass Bicycle Ride
Friday, November 26th, 2021 at Piny Park (corner of High & Main Streets, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 5:30pm-6:30pm.
Questions? Email [email protected]
NOTE: Location change to Pliny Park to coincide with Solidarity Fridays! We're continuing with our Critical Mass Rides on the last Friday of the month. This month's theme is Green Friday aka Buy Nothing Day!
Masks and physical distancing recommended. Kids and families welcome.
Critical (and "Kidical") Mass rides have a unique way of energizing folks around bike mobility, transportation solutions, and amplifying our collective ability and power to begin reclaiming our streets and communities. We need this, and we need YOU!

Schedule:
5:30pm: We'll be starting AND ending at Pliny Park. Meet up, get organized, decorate bikes, create a costume, make and hold signs....
6:00pm: Begin Critical Mass ride. This will be a high-visibility downtown route.
6:30pm: End ride back at the Pliny Park.

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Red Cross Blood Drive at the Winston Prouty Campus
Saturday, November 27th, 2021
Saturday, December 18th, 2021 at the Winston Prouty Center for Child and Family Development (Austine Drive, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 9am-3pm. To help make these events possible by volunteering, please contact Lisa Whitney at [email protected]
Winston Prouty and the American Red Cross are hosting monthly blood drives throughout 2021.The Red Cross has over 135 years of experience providing humanitarian aid including more than 75 years of supplying blood to those in need. Each pint of blood we collect can help save up to three lives and will touch the lives of so many more. What a great way to pay it forward and make an impact on people in our community and across the country.
You can participate by donating blood or by volunteering to help support the event (set-up/clean-up, registration, parking, etc).
Sign up to DONATE blood here:
https://www.redcrossblood.org/give.html/drive-results?zipSponsor=

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Artist Talk: William Ransom
hosted by the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center
Thursday, December 2nd, 2021, Online. 7pm.
Admission: Free. To register for this free online event, visit: https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/.../artist-talk.../
William Ransom discusses KEEP UP/HOLD UP, his sculptural installation on view at BMAC, which addresses the weight the artist experiences as a Black man in America and the tensions endured by Black bodies in the face of slights and violence.
Ransom grew up on a dairy farm in Vermont, where he had a physical, working relationship with tools and materials on a daily basis. Balance has always played an important role in his life and work: as the son of a biracial union, balance between black and white; as a farm kid living in the city, balance between rural and urban, city and soil; as a diabetic, balance between a sweet tooth and insulin injections. Ransom’s work often reflects this sense of balance, suggesting flux, movement, things in a state of becoming or diminishing.
Ransom studied sculpture and architecture at Bennington College and received an M.F.A. in sculpture from Claremont Graduate University. He has shown extensively across the country in solo and group exhibitions in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles and elsewhere. After a decade in Los Angeles, he has returned with his family to the hills of Vermont, where he now lives and works.

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COMING IN 2022

Lucy Terry Price: Witness, Voice, and Poetics within the American Tradition
presented by Vermont Humanities
Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022, Online. 7pm.
Register for this talk at www.vermonthumanities.org/stjohnsbury
Beginning with Vermonter Lucy Terry Prince, the first known African American poet in the US, poet Shanta Lee Gander explores creative lineage within poetics. Surveying the work of Phillis Wheatley, Laurence Dunbar, Rita Dove, and slam poet Dominique Christina, Gander considers the poetic arc from the past to the modern moment. 

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The Poetics of Girlhood and Womanhood in America
presented by Vermont Humanities
Wednesday, April 6th, 2022, at Brooks Memorial Library (54 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7pm.
Poets and writers Diana Whitney and Shanta Lee Gander join Christal Brown, associate professor of Dance at Middlebury College, in a conversation that explores how girlhood and womanhood in America are manifested across the boundaries of poetry, dance, and lived experience.

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ONGOING EVENTS

Recovery Families
hosted by Turning Point
Fridays at Turning Point of Windham County Recovery Center (39 Elm Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-11am. 
Young children welcome!
Join other caregivers for connection and support of your own recovery journey or that of someone you love. 

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EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Out in the Open is hiring a Health Justice Organizer (HJO)! Our HJO will be responsible for: creating, launching, staffing, and supporting volunteers and participants in our new Rural LGBTQ+ Health Buddy Program (HBP). They will work directly with the Organizing + Programs Director as well as with other Out in the Open (OITO) staff as part of a small collaborative team building a powerful movement of rural LGBTQ+ people.
The HBP is a new OITO program where trained volunteers and/or the HJO accompany rural LGBTQ+ individuals, who live in Windham County, Vermont, in healthcare settings to offer support to the person receiving care and help push for their needs to be met by providers.
More details, including the full job description on our website. Deadline to apply November 29 at 9AM. Questions? Email us at [email protected].

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COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES

Covid 19 Pop-Up Testing

Brattleboro
417 Canal St.
Tue, Wed, Thur, Sat 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm

Testing is available for all. 
If you need testing, there are a variety of options available to you: your primary care provider, pop-up test sites and pharmacies. The Test Site Finder below can help you find other testing near you.
HEALTH DEPARTMENT POP-UP TESTING LOCATIONS
Here are the steps to set up a testing appointment at a pop-up testing site:

• Register to get an account
• Receive an email with your patient ID and use that to confirm your account (check your spam folder if you don't see the email)
• Log in with your patient ID
• Set up an appointment

Register for Pop-Up Testing Here

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The Village Closet
on the Wintson Prouty Campus (60 Austine Drive, Brattleboro, VT, 05301), in Croker Hall.
Open Wednesdays from 4pm-6pm and Saturdays from 10am-12pm, or
by appointment. For more information, please email [email protected]
Your source for free baby, children, and pregnancy clothing/items. Donations of gently used items accepted. We are collecting new and "like new" children's coats and winter gear for our Kids in Coats partnership with United Way of Windham County.  If you have items to donate, please stop by today if you are able!
On Wednesdays, Everyone Eats will be distributing free dinners on campus from 3:30pm-4:30pm.

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FREE HEALTHY AND NUTRITIOUS FOOD IN WINDHAM COUNTY

Brigid’s Kitchen, St. Michael’s Church, 47 Walnut Street, Brattleboro 802-254-6800 or 802-558-6072 
Grab-and-go lunches and fruit/nuts on Mon, Weds, Thus, and Sat, 11:30am-12:20pm.

Loaves and Fishes, Centre Congregational Church 193 Main Street, Brattleboro (802) 254-4730
Grab-and-go lunches on Tuesdays and Fridays at 12pm.

VT Foodbank and Veggie Van Go will be at Brattleboro Union High School (Fairground Ave, Brattleboro, VT, 05301), in the parking lot, on the 1st and 3rd Monday of the month, from 10am-11am. Drive up, touchless pickup. Walkers welcome, too. Call VT 211 for more information. 

Foodworks, the food shelf program of the Groundworks Collaborative https://groundworksvt.org (802) 490-2412, [email protected] 
Households in need of food are asked to call or email to coordinate delivery. There is an urgent need for volunteers, and Foodworks has set up protocols to keep staff, volunteers, and clients as safe as possible. Please email us at [email protected] if you are able to help.

Guilford Food Pantry 
Every Thursday at the Guilford Fairgrounds. 5pm-6pm.
We know that supplemental food can make such a big difference in one's budget. That is why we are stocking our shelves for our neighbors. All are welcome to come and take home fresh produce, staples, meat, dairy. Guilford Cares welcomes anyone in need of supplemental food for themselves or their families.

Everyone Eats continues, including grab-and-go meals at these times and locations: 

• Thursdays after 5pm at the Retreat Farm farm stand
• Sundays outside of Turning Point from 11am-1pm

Folks receiving services through Foodworks, Loaves and Fishes, and the Brattleboro Community Justice Center can obtain free meals through those organizations.
You can also order Everyone Eats! meals directly from participating restaurants using the Localvore App.

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FOR PUTNEY RESIDENTS

From Laura Chapman: As a Putney voter and a person that has served on select-board, I am supporting the attached petition for many reasons that I would be happy to discuss further in person, here, or at town meeting. This petition will not create any change. It only enables an article to be put on our upcoming town meeting day agenda. That article would allow for us to then vote on whether or not we as a town want to increase our select-board representation from three to five members. There are pros and cons to increasing. In my personal opinion and experience, the pros far outweigh the cons, but without it being put on the agenda, the conversation is moot, so I hope you'll consider signing. If we get all the signatures we need before the end of December, it will also go into the town report, which will give the added benefit of voters being fully informed before March. 

You must be a Putney voter to sign. 

How to sign, you can either-
Very Helpful - Reach out to me and we can arrange you signing my copy
Unbelievably Helpful - Print out your own copy, gather signatures, reach out to me when you're done so we can get them all handed in at the same time. 

You can also share this post with others. 

Thank you!

Laura 

https://online.flippingbook.com/view/1005928364/?sharedOn=facebook&fbclid=IwAR27n_98OCVKVcQLBLKuhU3kM0fA76eubDN98lP8s8NhPyAwCwJhZRkoUko 

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ADDITIONAL COVID 19 RESOURCES CAN BE FOUND AT THEIR PERMANENT HOME ON OUR WEBSITE, HERE: https://www.wecantogether.net/covid19_resources

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RESOURCE FOR WeCAN

Rapid Response Text Alert System

When WeCAN began, Song & Solidarity set up a Rapid Response Text Alert System for WeCAN Groups. Directions for signing up are on WeCAN's website, here: https://www.wecantogether.net/rapid_response. We are grateful to Song and Solidarity for providing this service.

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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. 

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  Covid cases are on the rise again, friends. We remind you to please mask up when gathering indoors and in large crowds outdoors. Please get vaccinated or get your booster if applicable! We can't wait to see you at an event or meeting in the near future! 

Your Friendly WeCAN Editors,

Joanna and Sam