Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

“Vermont is a small state which makes an enormous difference.”
Fred “Mr. Rogers” Rogers (b.1928-d.2003)
American television personality, musician, puppeteer, writer, producer, and Presbyterian minister

HAPPENING TODAY, SUNDAY, JULY 28th, 2019

Share the Harvest
hosted by Edible Brattleboro
Sundays through October 27th, 2019 at the Edible Garden at Turning Point (corner of Elm Street and Frost Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 11am-1pm. For information please email [email protected]. Please bring your own bags.
Edible Brattleboro’s "Share the Harvest" stand is open every Sunday from 11am-1pm, in their help-yourself garden at Turning Point, corner of Elm and Frost Street (diagonally across from NYET). All produce is free. 
Thanks to the generosity of local farmers and gardeners, Edible Brattleboro distributed approximately 2500 pounds of free produce last summer. Feel free to drop off produce from your garden during the Sunday hours. You may also visit either of Edible Brattleboro's two public help-yourself gardens to harvest whatever is ready. Simply look for the green flags and instructions on how to harvest. The two public gardens are located at the Co-op (rear parking lot) and Turning Point. Edible Brattleboro is fully volunteer run. If you would like to help out or would like more info, contact Marilyn at [email protected] or visit www.EdibleBrattleboro.org.

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Never Again Means #ShutDownICE in Vermont
hosted by Women’s March VT, Peace and Justice Center, Migrant Justice/Justicia Migrante, Rights and Democracy VT
Sunday, July 28th, 2019. March will begin at Vermont Technical College (corner of Helena Drive and Essex Road, 2108 Essex Road, Williston, VT, 05495) and will conclude at ICE Data Center (aka The Law Enforcement Support Center, 188 Harvest Lane, Williston, VT). 2:30pm-5pm. March beings at 3pm. Please meet at the ICE Data Center if you will be joining us after 3pm.
Children are being separated from their families at the border and imprisoned in concentration camps. ICE raids are increasing in frequency and severity, instilling fear and terror into immigrant communities. People are dying at the border as they flee for their safety. Cherished members of our local community are being rounded up as they shop for groceries and send hard-earned money to their families. We refuse to wait and see -- we know from history what happens next. 
On Sunday, July 28, we will gather at 2:30pm at the Williston branch of Vermont Technical College --  a recipient of ICE contract funds -- at the intersection of Helena Drive and Essex Road in Williston. At 3pm we will begin our march to the ICE Data Center (a.k.a. the Law Enforcement Support Center or LESC) at 188 Harvest Lane, Williston. For those who would like to join but are unable to march, please meet us at our destination point. We plan to arrive at 188 Harvest Lane between 3:45pm and 4pm. The ICE Data Center has been quietly operating in VT for years and is the national nerve center that aids much of ICE's work, providing data about people's immigration status to federal agents and local cops, which can lead to arrests. This center operates 24/7 and employs approximately 400 workers.
Protest Demands: 
The Trump administration and its predecessors have created a humanitarian crisis for immigrants and refugees in our country. Their economic and political policies have devastated Latin America and other parts of the world, driving millions of people to find sanctuary in the US. Once here, they have been met with super-exploitation as cheap criminalized labor, racist and xenophobic discrimination, threats of detention and deportation, and now under Trump, incarceration in concentration camps throughout the country.
Amidst this crisis, we demand that Vermont’s congressional delegation, as well as our local and state-wide elected representatives, advocate that the federal and state government:
1.      Close the concentration camps now, end family separation and the incarceration of children; cease discrimination against queer and trans migrants; free all the detainees; provide funds for their settlement and family reunification; and free Vermont’s own Ismael Mendez-Lopez, Mario Diaz-Aguilar, and Ubertoni Aguilar-Montero and stop their deportation.
2.      End Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, detentions, and deportations and vote to defund ICE, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), and the concentration camps.
3.      End collaboration and joint training between the Vermont state and local police with federal deportation officials and agencies, close all loopholes in the Fair and Impartial Policing Policy, and follow the example of Winooski to implement the comprehensive version of this policy throughout the state.
4.      Stop the racial profiling of Black and Brown people and conduct public hearings on the implementation of the Racial Disparities in the Criminal and Juvenile Justice System Advisory Panel.

HAPPENING THIS WEEK, MONDAY, JULY 29th, 2019-SUNDAY, AUGUST 4th, 2019

Alley Lane Cleanup
hosted by Ask the River, Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, VT Center for Photography, Town of Brattleboro, Brattleboro Area Hospice, Brattleboro Prevention Coalition, with artists Evie Lovett, Andrea Wasserman, and Elizabeth Billings
Wednesday, July 31st, 2019 and Wednesday, September 4th, 2019 in the Transportation Center Alleyway off of Flat Street (77 Flat Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301), between the VT Center for Photography and Experienced Goods. 4pm-6pm. Public metered parking is available directly across from the Alleyway.
Together we can do this! We invite you to help reimagine the transportation center alleyway off of Flat St. between Vermont Center for Photography & Experienced Goods. There will be three project days to clean up the area, mulch, garden and brainstorm.  The date: July 3rd, July 31st, and September 4th from 4-6 PM. 
This effort is part of a larger placemaking effort to transform the area into an inviting and inclusive area for community use and engagement. The effort will culminate with a  pop-event during the September Gallery Walk on Sept. 6th. 
Who is making this happen? Downtown Brattleboro Alliance, VT Center for Photography, Town of Brattleboro, Brattleboro Area Hospice, Brattleboro Prevention Coalition,  a team of regional artists– Evie Lovett, Andrea Wasserman, Elizabeth Billings and all of you! 

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Solutions Where Do We Go From Here? A Community Conversation
hosted by The Commons & 118 Elliot, evening moderated by Mac and Shanta Lee Gander
Wednesday, July 31st, 2019 at 118 Elliot Gallery (118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 6pm-7:30pm.
This conversation is an opportunity to invite everyone throughout the community to discuss some of the ways they are addressing some of the various topics that The Commons has covered in previous Special Focus sections—especially the most recent piece, Flying Signs.  
This is not about individuals from a seat of power or position helping individuals who aren’t in those positions of power. Instead, this is focused on asking the question what role do we all play as individuals who live and work in Brattleboro? How can we all see ourselves as a part of the solution and what does that look like for our community? Please join us as we explore what’s possible.

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Democratic Debate Watch Party, Round Two
hosted by Windham County Vermont Democrats and The Stone Church
Wednesday, July 31st, 2019 at The Stone Church (210 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 8:30pm-11pm.
Come out to the Stone Church to watch the second night of the Democratic Presidential Primary Debates, Round Two on the big screen. Join your fellow Democrats to participate in the conversation about our next president. The WCDC will be providing good food, the Stone Church will be offering an excellent drink selection, and we guarantee engaging conversation.

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Protest Vigil at TD Bank
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions
Friday, August 2nd, 2019 (and every Friday) at TD Bank Brattleboro (215 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT). In front of the building. 12pm-1pm. Signs will be provided
TD is a major investor in Tar Sands. TD helps to fund the Dakota Access Pipeline. What You Can Do (besides attending the vigils): If you’re a TD depositor, change banks! 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 in this era of global warming and climate change to develop sustainable, resilient , collaborative, and socially just communities leading to a self- and community-sufficient post petroleum society.

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Living Earth Potluck Picnic for Climate Justice
hosted by 350 Brattleboro, 350 VT, and Extinction Rebellion Southern VT
NOTE: DATE HAS BEEN CHANGED TO
Sunday, August 4th, 2019 at Living Memorial Park (Memorial Park Drive, Brattleboro, VT, 05301), at the Kiwanis Shelter at the top of the hill. 4pm-7pm. Bring food or drink to share if you are able, but please come either way! (Note: the venue does not permit alcohol.) RSVP (requested but not required) to Nancy at [email protected] or Mikaela at [email protected]. ALL PEOPLE ARE WELCOME!!! Please bring your kids! Please feel free to invite anyone you think might be interested to join us.
Come connect with local as well as regional folks in the climate movement. With invitees hailing from Southern NH, the Upper Valley, Bennington, Brattleboro, and in between, this will be a chance to meet new people and to connect our collectives into a larger movement.
This will not be a meeting. This is a time to gather, meet, reflect, intend, plant and water seeds, nourish, and prepare for what's ahead, including the upcoming youth-led global week of climate action, Sept 20-27.
We will have space for some updates and networking, plenty of freedom to roam and flow as you will (including creating art and music together), and optional structured activities to help us connect with why we show up for this work, and how to plant in further if you wish. 
Please bring your identities, your complications, your reservations, your griefs, your joys, your passions, your angers, your hopes. Please come if your ancestors have been the victims and survivors of horrific crimes against life ~ Please come if your ancestors have committed said crimes ~ Please come if you don't know who your ancestors are. Please come if you don't fit into the outlines of socialized constructs of gender or sexuality or other limiting categories. Please come if you don't think you know what you're doing, or if you feel like you kick a** and aren't afraid to say it. Please come whatever your scope of "ability" looks like.
We want this gathering to be accessible to all who wish to join. Our gathering space is wheelchair accessible. If there is anything else we could provide that would help you feel more welcome in the space, please let us know. We are happy to access interpreter services or other things we may be overlooking. 
** NOTE: We changed the date of this picnic to encourage people to go to the "Never Again Means #ShutDownICE in Vermont" action in Williston on Sunday, July 28th. More info on that event here https://www.facebook.com/events/525124998026054/

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UPCOMING EVENTS

The Ripple Effects of the Opioid Epidemic with Randy Rieland
part of the Strolling of the Heifers Brown Bag Lunch Series
Friday, August 9th, 2019 at The Robert H. Gibson River Garden (157 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 12pm-1pm. The event is free, open to the public, and accessible to people with disabilities. For more information, please contact [email protected].
The public is invited to attend “Ripple Effects of the Opioid Epidemic,” a presentation by renowned journalist Randy Rieland on Friday, August 9, from noon to 1 p.m. at Strolling of the Heifers’ Brown Bag Lunch Series at the River Garden, 157 Main Street, Brattleboro.
Much of the attention of the opioid addiction epidemic has been focused on the staggering number of deaths it has caused, particularly in rural communities. But it has had many other ripple effects that could be felt for years – from how it has torn apart families to how it has affected police, EMTs, health workers and local businesses. Randy Rieland will share how some communities are coping.
About Randy Rieland:
Randy Rieland was a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for 22 years before switching to digital media, where he was a content producer and director for 20 years, including a senior vice president for digital media for the Discovery Channel. He now writes regularly for Smithsonian.com and Next Avenue, a PBS website for people over 50. 
He also writes for Foothills Forum, a journalism nonprofit serving a community in rural Virginia. For the past three years, he was awarded first prize in explanatory journalism by the Virginia Press Association for newspaper series on the challenges of rural healthcare, the deficiencies of rural broadband and cell service and the complications of sustaining a farm economy in an aging community. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Carol Ryder.
Strolling of the Heifers’ Brown Bag Lunch Series happens weekdays at noon at the River Garden, 157 Main Street. Join us for interesting, entertaining, informative sessions with musicians of many stripes and speakers on many subjects. It’s free! Bring your lunch!
Strolling of the Heifers is a nonprofit organization dedicated to growing the food and agriculture economy by investing the communities, businesses, farmers and food producers that support it. For more information visit www.strollingoftheheifers.com

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August Meeting with Extinction Rebellion
hosted by The Putney Huddle
Sunday, August 11th, 2019 at the Putney Public Library (55 Main Street, Putney, VT, 05346). 1:30pm-3:30pm.
Extinction Rebellion Vermont representatives Maria Ogden and Ward Ogden will share a presentation on the work that their group is actively engaged in. More details to come! All are invited!

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Recovery: A Fables Storytelling at Next Stage Cafe Event
hosted by Peter “Fish” Case
Wednesday, August 14th, 2019 at Fables (`5 Kimball Hill, Putney, VT, 05346). 6:30pm-8:30pm. Show starts at 7pm. Entry is by donation with a portion of the evening going towards Turning Point of Windham County.
On August 14th at the Next Stage Arts Project in Putney Vermont four stories of recovery will be told. Afterwards there will be a Q&A for those interested. Doors open at 6:30pm and the Show starts at 7pm.

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RePeopling Vermont: The Paradox of Development in the Twentieth Century (part of the Community Conversations Series)
hosted by the Vermont Historical Society, Brooks Memorial Library, and the VT Dept of Libraries. A joint project of VHS and the Vermont Department of Libraries. Support provided by the Vermont Humanities Council and Northern Vermont University
Tuesday, September 17th, 2019 at Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 6:30pm-8pm. Free and open to everyone. For more information please go to www.vermonthistory.org/community-conversations.
Join fellow Vermonters in your community to learn about how the state has handled questions of development and progress in the past and how we might use those lessons to discuss a path forward to the future. The programs will open with Northern Vermont University professor Paul Searls, who will review themes and events featured in his newly-published book "Repeopling Vermont: The Paradox of Development in the Twentieth Century". In the book, he highlights the stories of different communities and their responses to difficult questions as part of his inquiry into how Vermont balanced competing visions for the state in the last century.
Following Searls’s presentation, attendees will be invited to share their own perspectives on their communities. How can we use the lessons of history to frame our planning going forward? What is important to preserve, and when is it important to move forward? How can we balance different interests and create a Vermont that works for everyone?

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Looking Back, Moving Forward: 4 Decades of Queer Activism in VT
hosted by the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center
Friday, September 20th, 2019 at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center (10 Vernon Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7:30pm-9:30pm. Admission is free.
Vermont is widely regarded as one of the most queer-friendly states in America. In 2000, the state was the first in the nation to legalize civil unions for same sex couples, and in 2009, Vermont became the first state to allow same-sex marriage by legislation rather than by court ruling.
But how did that come to pass? At least one important factor has been the tireless activism and advocacy carried out over decades by, and on behalf of, Vermont’s LGBTQ+ community. Presented in partnership with the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont Prevention and Out in the Open - formerly Green Mountain Crossroads and sponsored by The Samara Fund of the The Vermont Community Foundation, this event looks at the key individuals, organizations, and moments in the history of queer activism in southern Vermont from the 1980s to the present day.
This event is presented in conjunction with DONA ANN MCADAMS: PERFORMATIVE ACTS, a retrospective of work by the acclaimed photographer and activist Dona Ann McAdams. McAdams credits her friendship with civil rights icon Harvey Milk with inspiring her lifelong devotion to using photography for social change. The exhibit includes McAdams’ photographs of queer liberation and AIDS activism protests across several decades.

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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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STANDING REGULAR MEETINGS  
Women Veterans Weekly Coffee and Tea Social
Thursday Mornings at Brattleboro Legion Post 5 Inc. (32 Linden Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 9am-10am.
All female veterans are invited to join in the Women Veterans group coffee held at the American Legion.  All women veterans are welcome. You do not need to be a Legion member.

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Youth 4 Change
Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month from 5:30pm-8pm. 
For more information please contact Youth 4 Change at [email protected].
Agenda:
5:30pm: Drop in homework time and art making
6:00pm: Food
6:30pm: Meeting and Organizing
Youth 4 Change is for local-area youth 12-22 interested in political organizing around local/state/national social justice issues that are important to them. Brattleboro area advocates and educators are holding a space, and assisting youth in building a strong personal tool kit to organize for change. Using a variety of creative methods, we aim to enable youth with tools for resilience, courage and compassion, while fostering their ability to speak up about issues that matter to them, and to take action in the name of love and liberation for all people.  Come explore issues of racial, economic and gender justice through art, movement, first-hand accounts and contemplative practices. Connect with area youth around the issues that matter to you and strengthen your tool kit for action! 

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Windham County NAACP Regular Meetings
Monthly community meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month at The Root Center for Social Justice (The Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) on the First Floor from 6pm-7pm. Upcoming Meetings: 3/21/19; 4/18/19; 5/16/19. For more information please email [email protected]. All are welcome. 
The meetings are open to anyone interested in racial justice. The Mission of the NAACP is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

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ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 
Indigo Radio
Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FMTo 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.