Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

“I think we have to do everything that we can to end institutional racism in this country. It is not acceptable to me that the rate of childhood poverty among the African-American community is over 30 percent in this country — that is beyond belief — that African-Americans die from cancer at higher rates than whites. So we’re going to do everything we can to put resources into distressed communities and improve lives for those people who have been hurt by the legacy of slavery.”  
Senator Bernie Sanders on reparations, February 2019

   We have quite a few new entries this week, WeCAN readers, and we urge you to take a few moments and scroll through carefully as there are a few new listings sandwiched in-between older ones you may have already seen. 
     If you're in the mood to get right to work this week, here is a simple, 5 minute action that you can do whenever you have a few moments and access to your email. VT House Bill 273, an act relating to promoting racial and social equity in land access and property ownership, currently has 18 sponsors and needs your vocal support.

Here is some more information on VT House Bill 273: The Vermont BIPOC-Led Land Access and Opportunity Act
 
from @neilyjennings on Instagram

PURPOSE OF THIS ACT:
The purpose of this act is to invest in individual and collective land access and property ownership as a way to move towards greater racial and social equity in wealth distribution.
WHAT THIS ACT WILL DO:
Establish a “Vermont Land Access and Opportunity Fund,” which will be governed by BIPOC Vermonters and others appointed by various anti-racist organizations.
The Fund will award grants & funding for Vermonters who have historically suffered from discrimination and who have not had equal access to public or private economic benefits.
Funds will be directed toward:
• home purchase
• land for farming & stewardship
• financial education, wealth management, and regenerative natural resource programs
• Anti-racist mutual aid networks
• Collective ownership of land
• The Every Town Project
The Board will also work with the Vermont Housing Finance Agency and the Vermont Department of Taxes to remove barriers to home & property-ownership for BIPOC Vermonters.

Contact your representatives to encourage them to support this important legislation!
To find your VT State Representative's contact info, enter their name or your town into this search engine: https://legislature.vermont.gov/people/.

______

HAPPENING TODAY, SUNDAY, MAY 2nd, 2021

Abenaki Recognition and Heritage Week
presented by the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum
Saturday, May 1st, 2021 at 12am-Sunday, May 9th, 2021 at 11:30pm
For tickets, please click HERE.
The Vermont Indigenous Heritage Center (VIHC)  presents an all-encompassing online film festival during Abenaki Recognition and Heritage Week; May 1st-9th, 2021.  They will take you on a startling journey through 12,000 years -- of old, new, mundane and extravagant stories and realities of the ancient, historical and modern Abenakis and their Neighbors.  Our settler partner, the Ethan Allen Homestead Museum is helping the VIHC to make the festival available to the Public.
This event will provide 20+ hours of instruction in Abenaki History, culture, and ecology.
You will be sent a link via email the day before the festival begins. The Link will take you to a private website which will contain all of the videos, watch some, watch them all! The site will be taken down on May 9th.

_____

No-Dig Garden Work Party at Mountain Home Park with Edible Brattleboro
Sunday, May 2nd, 2021 at Mountain Home Park in West Brattleboro, VT from 1pm-4pm (stay as long as you can). Email Marilyn at [email protected] for details and exact location.
Come join Edible Brattleboro volunteers as we expand the garden at Mountain Home Park in West Brattleboro. Learn how to build healthy soil and create a raised sheet-mulched bed without digging.

_____

Weekly Community Conversation with Rep. Emilie Kornheiser
Sunday, May 2nd, 2021, Online. 11am.
Please sign up in advance for this meeting and we’ll send you an email with the zoom link. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEtce-grD4rGNxo9FEE3R8zKpRSj_qBTz03
Emilie Kornheiser, State Representative for Windham 2-1, invites you to join her weekly community conversations: every Sunday at 11am. We’ll talk about what’s happening in the legislature and in our town. Open conversation format-- come for the full hour or just stop by for a few minutes to share a particular concern or question.

______

Coffee with Coffey
Sunday, May 2nd, 2021, Online. 3pm-4pm.
Access the Zoom event HERE.
Please join me Sunday from 3pm-4pm for my monthly Coffee with Coffey hour. This is a great way to connect with neighbors and discuss the issues. I’m the Co-Chair of the Women’s Legislative Caucus, and I look forward to sharing updates on some of the issues and legislation that we have been working on. I look forward to discussing the issues, answering questions and hearing about your priorities. 

_____

HAPPENING THIS WEEK, MONDAY, MAY 3rd, 2021-SUNDAY, MAY 9th, 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-11:30am. 
Veggie Van Go is a program through the Vermont Foodbank that gives out free produce and local food for people to take home.
Monday, May 3rd, 2021
Monday, May 17th, 2021
Monday, June 7th, 2021
Monday, June 21st, 2021

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.

For questions, please contact the WSESU VVG Program Coordinator:
Kira Sawyer-Hartigan, WSESU
53 Green Street
Brattleboro, VT 
[email protected]
(802)254-3730

______

Everyone Eats! 
Monday, May 3rd, 2021-Thursday, May 6th, 2021 at the C.F Building (80 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 4pm-6pm. Masks required. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE EARLY.  If you have any questions visit https://www.brattleboro.com/everyoneeats/ or contact Frances Huntley [email protected]. Organizational ordering information is listed under our Free and Nutritious Food in Windham County section further along in this email. 
Everyone Eats! is a program which will distribute meals from Brattleboro restaurants to anyone in need who lives in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, or Vernon, free of charge, through December 11th. There will be 850+ meals/day available Monday through Thursday to serve our community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pick up for individuals will be at the C.F. Church Building at 80 Flat St in Brattleboro and group/institution orders can be picked up at Mama Sezz in West Brattleboro. All meals are available Monday-Thursday between 4pm and 6pm until supplies run out.
If you have extra produce from your garden, there will be a wheelbarrow you can drop it off in on your way out of the pickup site. Participating restaurants will use the donated produce in making more meals.
The meals are free, but if you would like to make a monetary contribution to help make more meals possible for others, it will be gratefully received. The base cost of each meal is $10 but any amount will be appreciated.
Each restaurant will contribute meals two or more days a week. You will receive one individually packaged cold ready-to-eat or heat & serve dinner for each person you request a meal for. Meals will be distributed cold, so if you are driving a distance, delivering to other households, or distributing through your organization, consider bringing a cooler if you can.

_____

Windham County Democrats Monthly Meeting
Monday, May 3rd, 2021, Online. 6:30pm.
Register for Zoom link at:  https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrdeihqTkuGdbT2n0t5R2DSzDa5qU-P7Bv
This month's guest speaker will be Clair Cummings, the new Executive Director of the Vermont Democratic Party. She will be sharing her ideas and leading a discussion about the VDP's plans for reorganization and preparing for the 2022 election. We will also get a quick overview of the statewide redistricting process. 
Meetings of the Windham County Democrats bring together delegates representing the 22 towns of Windham County. Our meetings are open to the public and we welcome new ideas and perspectives.

_____

Joint Public Hearing on Vermont's Unemployment Insurance System
Tuesday, May 4th, 2021, Online. 5pm-7pm.
To register as a speaker at the hearing, please sign up here: https://legislature.vermont.gov/.../public-hearing... Registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and testimony time will be limited to two minutes per person.
To submit written testimony, please email an MS Word or PDF file to [email protected] The hearing will be live streamed on the Legislature’s Joint Committees YouTube channel here: https://legislature.vermont.gov/.../shared-joint-committees. 
The failures of our unemployment insurance system to meet the immediate needs of Vermonters over the last year is one of the most pressing issues our state government is facing. Please spread the word. 
On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, the House Committee on Commerce and
Economic Development and the House Committee on Government Operations will hold a joint public hearing to listen to employees and employers in Vermont about the issues faced with unemployment insurance during the COVID pandemic. 

______

Black Representation in Children’s Literature
Tuesday, May 4th, 2021, Online. 7pm.
For more information go to www.brattleboromuseum.org. This event will take place via Zoom and Facebook Live. Register for this free online event: https://www.brattleboromuseum.org/.../black.../
Rio Cortez is the New York Times bestselling author of "The ABCs of Black Histor"y (Workman, 2020) and" I Have Learned to Define a Field as a Space Between Mountains" (Jai Alai Books, 2015). She is a Pushcart-nominated poet who has received fellowships from Poet’s House, Cave Canem, and Canto Mundo Foundations. Rio has been the recipient of the Sarah Lawrence College Lucy Grealy Prize in Poetry, the Poets & Writers Amy Award, and a Jerome Foundation grant. She was a finalist for the 2018 June Jordan Fellowship at Columbia University. Born and raised in Salt Lake City, she now lives, writes, and works in Harlem.
Daniel Minter is an American artist known for his work in the mediums of painting and assemblage. His overall body of work often deals with themes of displacement and diaspora, ordinary/extraordinary blackness; spirituality in the Afro-Atlantic world; and the (re)creation of meanings of home. Minter works in varied media – canvas, wood, metal, paper. twine, rocks, nails, paint. This cross-fertilization strongly informs his artistic sensibility. His carvings become assemblages. His paintings are often sculptural. Minter has illustrated over a dozen children’s books, including "Going Down Home with Daddy," which won a 2020 Caldecott Honor, and "Ellen’s Broom," which won a Coretta Scott King Illustration Honor. He was also commissioned in both 2004 and 2011 to create Kwanzaa stamps for the U.S. Postal Service.
Javaka Steptoe is a Caldecott and Coretta Scott King Illustrator award-winning artist, designer, and illustrator. His debut picture book, "In Daddy’s Arms I Am Tall," won the Coretta Scott King Award, and "Jimi: Sounds Like a Rainbow" (written by Gary Golio) received a Coretta Scott King Honor. He has also illustrated "Do You Know What I’ll Do?" by Charlotte Zolotow, "A Pocketful of Poems" by Nikki Grimes, "Amiri and Odette: A Love Story" by Walter Dean Myers, "Rain Play" by Cynthia Cotten, and "Hot Day on Abbott Avenue" by Karen English, which received the Jane Addams Children’s Book Award. He is also the author and illustrator of "The Jones Family Express," as well as the Caldecott Award-winning "Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat." 

______

Marlboro Community Food Share
hosted by the Marlboro Community Center
Thursday, May 6th, 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)

______

A Silent Vigil of Loving Kindness
Thursday, May 6th, 2021 at Wells Fountain (298-250 VT-30, Brattleboro, VT 05301). 4:30pm-5:30pm. Please mask and observe social distancing. For further information and to be on the mailing list for future Loving Kindness vigils, please contact Tim Stevenson [email protected]
For a few minutes or the entire hour, we welcome everyone to join us in extending loving kindness to family and friends, neighbors and strangers, kindred spirits and adversaries, human and non-human beings, alike. And to ourselves, as well.
Standing, kneeling, or sitting in a chair that you bring, we are a silent, meditative presence under a banner that reads “Holding a Space of Loving Kindness for All Living Beings” .

______

Guilford Cares Food Pantry
Thursday, May 6th, 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.

______

Rewild Vermont
Starting Saturday, May 8th, 2021 at Scott Farm (707 Kipling Rd, Dummerston, VT 05301). 10am-1pm. At all plantings, please plan to follow COVID safety protocol including wearing masks and adhering to social distancing guidelines while on site, and staying home if you are sick. Questions? Contact [email protected].
Families and community members are invited to join 350VT in tree planting projects as part of our statewide effort to Rewild Vermont. 
Use this sign-up form to register for these local events: 

• Distributing trees from Scott Farm in Dummerston - Pick-up Sat., May 8th, 10am -1pm 
• Kampfires Campground tree planting  in Dummerston - Sat., May 8th,  3:00pm - 20 trees
• Sun Hill Farm in Putney - Sun., May 9th, 2pm - 45 trees
• Camp W in Brattleboro - Fri. May 14th, 10am - 22 trees
• 350VT and our partners around the state have set an ambitious goal of planting thousands of trees across the state by the end of 2022. Trees absorb carbon, build soil, limit erosion and are the keystones of most Vermont ecosystems. They can also feed people and ground us, giving us the patience and commitment desperately needed in these times. Join us and help sow the seeds for a vibrant, livable future!
  

We also ask folks to bring their own lunch and/or snacks, water, work gloves, and shovels (if you have them) to limit sharing of supplies. Plantings will take place rain or shine, so please dress for the weather and be prepared with sunblock, hats, bug spray, raincoats, etc. We will send a follow up email with more detailed information about each planting you sign up for. 

______

Singalong Concert with Annie Patterson and Peter Blood to Benefit the Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP)
joined by special guests Munit & Z Lovebugs and Emma’s Revolution
Saturday, May 8th, 2021, Online. 7pm. Admission is by freewill offering, with suggested donations of $10, $20 (supporter) or $50 (patron). Concertgoers can register on line at https://www.riseupandsing.org/events/repairing-breach-brattleboro and will be sent a Zoom link and a song sheet to sing along with Patterson and Blood. Further information about the concert is available by contacting Ursula Nadolny at [email protected]
BRATTLEBORO – Songs to repair the breach and support asylum seekers is the focus of an online singalong concert by Annie Patterson and Peter Blood Saturday, May 8 at 7p.m. 
   The benefit concert will support the work of the Windham county-based Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP) and is part of a tour that encourages the pursuit of social justice and charity within communities. A song sheet will be provided to participants so that they can sing along with performers from home. Tickets can be purchased at www.riseupandsing.org/events. 
   According to Patterson and Blood, Repairing the Breach, Songs for the Journey is inspired by the Rev. Dr. William Barber II and the Poor People’s Campaign and will focus on the specific theme of immigrants and asylum seekers among us, using music as a path to justice, spreading hope and putting a spotlight on the value of working together for a better world. 
   Patterson is an accomplished folk performer, recording artist and jazz vocalist, and a member of the swing band Girls from Mars. She performs regularly with The O-Tones and at folk venues in the U.S. and abroad. She carries with her a suitcase of incredible song knowledge and a repertoire that includes more than 2400 songs from many genres, including Americana, contemporary folk, ballads, gospel, country and jazz. She is a master song interpreter, accompanying herself on guitar and banjo. 
  Blood was publications director of Sing Out, the nonprofit publisher of Sing Out! Magazine, from 1988 to 1993. He edited Pete Seeger’s autobiography, Where Have All the Flowers Gone: A Singalong Memoir. He currently divides his time doing songbook, social justice, and interfaith work. 
   The duo has played a central role in creating a singing movement in North America and abroad with their songbooks Rise Up Singing and Rise Again. Together, have led hundreds of singalong concerts and workshops across North America, New Zealand and the UK, and have made it their lifelong mission to help create change for peace and justice through song. They accompany their songs with guitars, banjo, mandolin, autoharp, African drum and pennywhistle.
CASP provides basic needs and a supportive community for those in the process of seeking asylum in the U.S., including local host homes, financial support, legal aid, and other daily needs. Its largely volunteer-based network assists seekers while they navigate the asylum claim process and make the necessary connections to settle into the community.
   More information about CASP is available by contacting them online at caspvt.org or [email protected]

______

UPCOMING EVENTS

Outside Windham County
Black is the Body: Book Club
presented by The Rutland Area NAACP and Emily Bernard
Wednesday, May 12th, 2021, Online. 6:30pm.
To register, please click HERE.
We are relaunching our book club with UVM professor Emily Bernard’s wonderful book Black is the Body. This series of interconnected essays follow Dr. Bernard’s life, from growing up in the South to adopting her daughters in Ethiopia to teaching at majority-white schools like UVM. With insights on American culture, parenthood, marriage, and—of course—race, the book is an engrossing memoir and meditation on the world we live in.
Emily Bernard is the author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Mother’s Time and Mine, which was named one of the best books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and National Public Radio. Black is the Body won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose. Emily’s previous works include: Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year; and Some of My Best Friends: Writings on Interracial Friendship, which was chosen by the New York Public Library as a Book for the Teen Age; and, with Deborah Willis, Michelle Obama: The First Lady in Photographs, which received a 2010 NAACP Image Award. Her work has appeared in: O the Oprah Magazine, Harper’s, The New Republic, newyorker.com, Best American Essays, Best African American Essays, and Best of Creative Nonfiction. She has received fellowships from the Alphonse A. Fletcher Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the MacDowell Colony, the Vermont Arts Council, and the W. E. B. DuBois Institute at Harvard University. Emily was the James Weldon Johnson Senior Research Fellow in African American Studies at Yale University. She is the Julian Lindsay Green and Gold Professor of English at the University of Vermont, and a 2020 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. Emily lives in South Burlington, Vermont with her husband and twin daughters.

______

Watch Party: “Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street”
hosted by Windham County Democrats
Sunday, May 16th, 2021, Online. 7:30pm-10pm.
Registration for this event is at https://events.democrats.org/event/386698/?force_banner=true&share_context=event_details&share_medium=copy_link
Join the Windham County Democrats at Building Bridges for America as we explore the urgent issues in our world through watching a documentary and having a great discussion afterwards. Our discussions are lead by a guest and our volunteers. 
May’s viewing is "Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street", a documentary that explores issues of race and equality and how PBS and Sesame Street played a role in the growing discussion and how it continues to open conversations with parents and children today.

_____

Camp for a Cause with Groundworks Collaborative
Friday, May 21st, 2021, Online. 7pm. Contact Julianne Mills, Development Coordinator, with any questions or for offline registration: 802.257.5415 x1002 or [email protected]
Groundworks Collaborative's Our 9th annual Camp for a Cause will be a virtual event (again) this year.
Register here: https://groundworks.rallybound.org/camp2021
Camp out in a location of your choice, send us an update and/or a photo of your campsite, and we’ll post it along with our fundraising progress.
Ready to get outside?
Sleep out on a porch, in your garage, in your front or backyard, in your car, on a couch, or wherever makes the most sense to you and your teammates.
There is no fundraising minimum. ANY AMOUNT YOU RAISE IS HUGELY APPRECIATED and will go directly to work supporting Groundworks’ housing and shelter programming. All contributions are tax deductible.
REGISTER at the link above and make your own fundraising page to help Groundworks raise critical funds we need to continue working to end homelessness in our community.
CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO DONATE—make a tax deductible contribution to support the fundraising efforts of a participating camper.

______

Red Cross Blood Drive at the Winston Prouty Campus
Saturday, May 22nd, 2021
Saturday, June 26th, 2021
Saturday, July 24th, 2021
Saturday, August 28th, 2021
Saturday, September 25th, 2021
Saturday, October 23rd, 2021
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=

______

Putney Anti-Racism Book Group: White Rage
hosted by the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library
Sunday, May 23rd, 2021, Online. 7pm-9pm.
For Zoom info to join or for more information, contact [email protected] or 603.504.2906 -- you can also send a message through FB messenger.
Please join the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library for a continuation of an anti-racism book group for all Putney families and community members.
Join us for a discussion of White Rage-The unspoken truth of our racial divide, written by Carol Anderson.

______

Monthly Seeing and Disrupting Racism
hosted by Peace & Justice Center
Monday, May 24th, 2021, Online. 6pm-8pm.
Registration is limited and required: https://secure.lglforms.com/form.../s/dkee0d8YakSfqh3KrjVFKw. Suggested donation $25 for residents of Vermont, $30 for those outside of Vermont, no one turned away for lack of funds. Not sure if you should pay less, nothing, or more? Check our Sliding Scale document for guidance. If you cannot donate, put 0. If you have any questions please contact [email protected]
Seeing & Disrupting Racism: This introductory-level workshop defines racism and white fragility, explores how white fragility perpetuates racism and its harmful impacts on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, and challenges participants to consider what steps they can take to disrupt racism at every level. This workshop was developed for predominantly white audiences, but all are welcome and encouraged to attend. Space is limited, registration is required.

______

Black is the Body: Author Q&A
presented by The Rutland Area NAACP and Emily Bernard
Wednesday, May 26th, 2021, Online. 6:30pm.
To register, please click HERE.
We are delighted to be bringing Dr. Bernard to a virtual Q&A to wrap up our book club discussion! Please join us! All are welcome, but preregistration is required.
Emily Bernard is the author of Black is the Body: Stories from My Mother’s Time and Mine, which was named one of the best books of 2019 by Kirkus Reviews and National Public Radio. Black is the Body won the 2020 Los Angeles Times Christopher Isherwood Prize for autobiographical prose. 

______

Vermont Food Bank Food Drop
hosted by the Putney Foodshelf
Thursday, May 27th, 2021
Thursday, June 24th, 2021 at Putney Meadows (17 Carol Brown Way, Putney, VT 05346). 9:30am-10:15am. Everyone is welcome. No questions asked!
The Vermont Foodbank will be bringing food to Putney. There will be lots of produce along with other nonperishable food. The Vermont Foodbank truck will park on the side of the road in the big U (Alice Holway Drive).
Drivers: Shoppers will stay in their cars until called. Until further notice, shoppers can pick up for no more than two households.
Walkers: Stay tuned for instructions.
If you have never participated in this before, volunteers will be available to explain how it works!

______

Abenaki Heritage Weekend
co-hosted by Vermont Abenaki Artists Association and Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, with support from: New England Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts Vermont Humanities Council
Wednesday, June 16th, 2021-Sunday, June 20th, 2021, Online. 7pm-8:30pm.
More details coming soon. We invite you to contact us with specific questions and comments. Email [email protected] or call 802-579-0049 after 5pm.
A 5-day FREE virtual celebration of Abenaki heritage. Meet Abenaki culture bearers and gain a richer experience and understanding of the Abenaki contribution to life in the Champlain Valley. Enjoy conversations and demonstrations with artists from participating tribes who invite you to share their indigenous arts, traditions, stories, language, and more.
Register in advance for Zoom sessions that will be announced shortly.
Sessions themed for all ages, with special programs for young audiences Pre-K to Grade 2, Grades 4 and up.
June 16, 7 pm - Wampum Reading
June 17, 7 pm - Abenaki Pottery
June 18, 7 pm - TBA
June 19, 1 pm- Abenaki Games
June 20, 1 pm - Abenaki Music and Crafts

______

Putney Anti-Racism Book Group: Caste
hosted by the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library
Sunday, June 20th, 2021, Online. 7pm-9pm.
For Zoom info to join or for more information, contact [email protected] or 603.504.2906 -- you can also send a message through FB messenger.
Please join the Putney Central School Leadership Council and the Putney Public Library for a continuation of an anti-racism book group for all Putney families and community members.
Join us for a discussion of Caste-The Origins of Our Discontents, written by Isabel Wilkerson.

______

COMMUNITY SUPPORT OPPORTUNITIES

Vermont Prison System Vaccinations
1 minute action to make a difference: Please call Governor Scott at (802) 828 3333 and ask that Prisoners in Vermont's system get vaccinated NOW. These folks are in a congregate system, many have underlying conditions with little to no control over their environment. Save a life today and make the call please. You can also email him HERE. 

______

COVID 19 RESOURCES: VERMONT

CURRENT COVID19 CASE INFORMATION as of 12pm, April 23rd, 2021

New cases: 124 (22,952)
Currently Hospitalized: 17
Hospitalized in ICU: 5
Hospitalized Under Investigation: 3
Deaths: 246 (+3 since last week!)

Vaccine Data
Total received one dose: 335,587
Total received both doses: 233,641 only 42% of VT's population. It's not time to stop wearing masks yet! Please continue to socially distance and keep masks ready if you take it off outside. 

_____

Vermont honors Abenaki culture, history and heritage next week

Covid 19 Pop-Up Testing

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

______

______

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-11:30am. 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! at the C.F Building (80 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 4pm-6pm. Masks required. PLEASE DO NOT ARRIVE EARLY.  If you have any questions visit https://www.brattleboro.com/everyoneeats/ or contact Frances Huntley [email protected]. Organizational ordering information is listed under our Free and Nutritious Food in Windham County section further along in this email. 
Everyone Eats! is a program which will distribute meals from Brattleboro restaurants to anyone in need who lives in Brattleboro, Dummerston, Guilford, Putney, or Vernon, free of charge, Monday-Thursday through June 2021. 
Pick up for individuals will be at the C.F. Church Building at 80 Flat St in Brattleboro and group/institution orders can be picked up at Mama Sezz in West Brattleboro. All meals are available Monday-Thursday between 4pm and 6pm until supplies run out.
If you have extra produce from your garden, there will be a wheelbarrow you can drop it off in on your way out of the pickup site. Participating restaurants will use the donated produce in making more meals.
The meals are free, but if you would like to make a monetary contribution to help make more meals possible for others, it will be gratefully received. The base cost of each meal is $10 but any amount will be appreciated.
Each restaurant will contribute meals two or more days a week. You will receive one individually packaged cold ready-to-eat or heat & serve dinner for each person you request a meal for. Meals will be distributed cold, so if you are driving a distance, delivering to other households, or distributing through your organization, consider bringing a cooler if you can.

______

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. 

______

We look forward to seeing you at an event or meeting soon! 

Your Friendly WeCAN Admins,

Joanna and Sam