Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

"You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE is an English primatologist and anthropologist

     New items this week include a virtual town hall, a queer dance party, and a New Year's Day bike ride, WeCAN friends. We encourage you to take a moment and scroll through to the end of the email to see what's new in Windham County--and how you can share your unique talents to become more involved. We hope you are having a safe and happy holiday season and are continuing to take appropriate Covid 19 protocols during your activism activities as we move into the colder weather. With over 700 new cases in VT just today and 50 in Windham County alone, we urge you to remain aware and cautious when gathering in person and indoors. Thank you! 

HAPPENING THIS WEEK:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 13th, 2021-SUNDAY, DECEMBER 19th, 2021

Virtual Town Hall on The Vermont Climate Action Plan
hosted by the Vermont Legislative Climate Solutions Caucus
Wednesday, December 15th, 2021, Online. 7pm.
Please register here.
The Vermont Legislative Climate Solutions Caucus is hosting a Virtual Town Hall on Wednesday, December 15 at 7 pm to share our reactions to the Climate Action Plan, discuss plans for the upcoming legislative session, and to hear directly from Vermonters about what climate policies we should prioritize in 2022. The Town Hall will include regional breakout rooms led by legislators from your county.
On December 1, the Vermont Climate Council published its highly anticipated Climate Action Plan. The result of months of hard work by six subcommittees and the full 23-member council, the plan is an important step in climate action for our state.
We're still reading the full 265-page report and considering its recommendations and details. We hope you will read it, too: Here's a summary and here's a link to the full report. It includes valuable information about the current and projected impact of climate change on our state, with recommended strategies in five areas:
• Cutting climate pollution
• Resilient working and natural lands
• Vital communities
• Capturing carbon
• Cross-cutting solutions
The Climate Plan provides a roadmap for legislators and other stakeholders that will guide our policy decisions in 2022 and beyond. Importantly, the plan — which will be updated every four years — also includes a Just Transition framework to evaluate recommendations based on how they will affect Vermont's most highly impacted and frontline communities, including those who are:
• Highly exposed to climate risks
• Experience oppression and racism
• Are excluded from opportunities or have less resources to adapt to climate and economic change
• Bear the brunt of pollution and negative effect from fossil fuels and extractive economies
• Are more likely to experience a job transition as Vermont addresses climate change

______

Marlboro Community Food Share
hosted by the Marlboro Community Center
Thursday, December 16th, 2021, at the Marlboro Community Center (524 South Road, Marlboro, VT, 05344). 5pm-6pm. 
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)

______

Guilford Cares FoodPantry
Thursday, December 16th, 2021 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.

______

Red Cross Blood Drive at the Winston Prouty Campus
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=

______

Brattleboro Winter Farmers’ Market 
a project of Post Oil Solutions
Saturday, December 18th, 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. 

______

Brattleboro Queer Dance Party Returns!
Saturday, December 18th, 2021 at The Stone Church (210 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 9pm-1am.
For tickets, please go to: www.venuepilot.co/events/45417/orders/new
Proof of vaccination or negative COVID test administered by a health professional within 48 hrs will be required for entry & mask must be worn at all times while inside the venue.
Brattleboro Queer Dance Party is back and ready to dance the night away live and in person with DJ Xero spinning all night long.
DJ Xero (she/her) is a trans woman who has worked throughout New England for 15+ years and spun over 350 individual nightclubs events. She has been spinning a variety of weekly dance music events online at twitch.tv/XandraXero during 18+ consecutive months of the Covid pandemic, including a monthly fundraising event called "TRANS DANS" that has raised nearly 11,000 for many trans specific and queer charities. She debuted with BQDP for All Hallows Eve 2019 and has eagerly awaited returning to Vermont to spin for you again! XXX
The intention of the BQDP space is to be safe, open, and accepting.

______

UPCOMING EVENTS

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.
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.

______

Coffee with Coffey Hours
Tuesday, December 21st, 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

______

A Silent Christmas Vigil of Loving Kindness
Friday December 24th, 2021 at Wells Fountain (298-250 VT-30, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 12pm-1pm.
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 Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24 at 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).

______

COMING IN 2022

Critical Mass Bicycle Ride
hosted by 350 VT and 350 Brattleboro
Saturday, January 1st, 2021 at Piny Park (corner of Main Street and High Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 1pm-2pm.
Questions? Email [email protected]. Masks and physical distancing recommended. Kids and families welcome.
Join us to pedal in the New Year! May 2022 be the year of mass mobilization for climate justice!
Critical 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: 
1pm: Meet at Pliny Park, get organized, decorate bikes, make and hold signs....
1:30pm: Begin Critical Mass ride. This will be a high-visibility downtown route.
2pm: End ride back at Pliny Park.

______

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. 

______

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.

______

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. 

______

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES

The Expanded GA Motel Housing Began A Few Days Early! That means that if you are unhoused with no where to go and meet income eligibility of below 185% of the poverty line, and have less than $2250 in savings, you now qualify for motel housing through March 1st.

Even if you were denied before and recently.
Even if you took the $2500 buy out.
Even if you were kicked out in July or since.
Even if you were told you don't qualify.

Eligibility has been expanded for the GA Motel Program! Even if you were denied before you likely qualify! Today through weekend call 211 if you are unhoused & have no where to go.
Beginning Monday call Economic Services during business hours 8am-4:30pm and 211 after business hours.

______

In Home Covid 19 Vaccines and Boosters

If you are homebound and not able to leave your home for medical services, you can get your COVID-19 vaccination and booster in your home. Call your local home health agency or 802-863-7240 to schedule an appointment. www.healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine

______

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

______

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.

______

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: 

• There is no longer an Everyone Eats distribution at Turning Point on Sundays, as Edible Brattleboro is dormant in the winter.
• The meals at Retreat Farm are stocked in their farm stand for pick up anytime, first come first serve. We are planning to stock on Tuesdays and Thursdays in December.

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.

______

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

______

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.

______

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. 

______

Please note: Submissions for the Weekly Email Update edition on December 27th will be due by WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22nd by 10pm due to the holiday on Saturday, December 25th. A reminder will be issued during that week. Thank you. 

Your Friendly WeCAN Editors,

Joanna and Sam