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News | March 28, 2024

Proposed STR regulations sent to selectboard and trustees for review

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News | March 28, 2024

Easter services are happening throughout our area this weekend

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Features | March 28, 2024

Windsor County Mentors celebrates 50th anniversary, plans to extend its reach

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News | March 28, 2024

‘New norm’ road conditions leads Barnard to establish roads committee

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News | March 28, 2024

Judge to hold hearing on settlement claims by skier paralyzed at Okemo

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Features | March 28, 2024

Woodstock’s Blanchard was an amazing seamstress and generous volunteer

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    News

    Proposed STR regulations sent to selectboard and trustees for review

    The Woodstock Planning Commission held a hearing on Monday night to gather comments from the community on its proposed short-term rental (STR) ordinance, where Woodstock residents were overwhelmingly skeptical of the proposed changes to current regulations.

    If passed, the new ordinance would standardize the STR rules that are currently in place in the Village and the Town and create more robust enforcement mechanisms, which would go into effect in January 2025.

    The proposed regulations would set a cap on the number of STRs at 110 units and it would loosen current rules by allowing permitted operators anywhere in Woodstock to rent their properties as frequently as they would like year-round.

    The regulations would also enact a base annual fee of $750 for owner-occupied STRs and $3,000 for non-owner-occupied STRs. These base fees would be in addition to an annual $250 processing fee and a $250 annual charge per allowable occupant.

    As regulations are being evaluated at the local level, the Vermont House Ways and Means Committee is considering imposing a 10% statewide surcharge on STRs. However, the Woodstock Planning Commission says it does not currently plan to alter anything about its proposed ordinance or its fees should the state tax pass.

    Many present at the meeting made the point that with Woodstock’s high cost of living, renting out part of a house can make the difference in being able to live here. “I can assure you that these proposed fees are so exorbitant there’s virtually no way to make a sound business case for continuing to offer our homes for STRs,” said Kat Gray, a Woodstock Resident and STR operator.

    Woodstock zoning administrator Steven Bauer noted that the details of the ordinance are far from being set in stone. Before they vote on the proposal, the Woodstock Selectboard and Village Trustees will be able to send the ordinance back, make edits, or implement changes that respond to residents’ concerns.

    For further details please see our March 28 edition of the Vermont Standard.

    Easter services are happening throughout our area this weekend

    By Lauren Dorsey, Staff Writer

    This weekend, the area will be brimming with services and celebrations for Easter:

    The First Congregational Church of Woodstock will host an Easter Sunday sunrise service at the Mount Tom Star at 7 a.m. Participants can meet in the church parking lot at 6 a.m. to hike up to the top together. The event will be followed by a worship service at 10:30 a.m., which will be available both in person and over Zoom.

    The Christian Science Society in Woodstock will hold an Easter service on Sunday at 10 a.m. “Though there are no special Easter observances in the Christian Science church, the significance of Jesus’ resurrection remains central to [our] members,” said Christine Henderson. “The Bible Lesson sermon that will be read during the Easter service this week includes [the verse], ‘God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.’” 

    On Sunday, the Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship will be continuing the congregation’s long-standing tradition of a “crosswalk,” which stretches back to 1984. “We carry a large wooden cross to the hill behind our church,” said Steve McCloskey, the pastor at the Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship. “We do five stations, where we stop at five different points along the walk to do a reading.” After the crosswalk, which begins at 7 a.m., everyone will walk to the top of the hill and sing a hymn. The church will host a potluck breakfast, and then the congregation’s worship service will begin at 9:30 a.m.

    As part of St. James Episcopal Church Holy Week, the Woodstock church will host a Holy Eucharist and Stripping of the Altar at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, and a Good Friday Liturgy at noon on the 29th. On Easter day, the church will have a Festival Holy Eucharist with music at 8 a.m. followed by a Festival Holy Eucharist without music at 10 a.m. All of the services will be available both in person and by Zoom. 

    On Thursday, March 28, Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Woodstock will have a Mass of the Lord’s Supper at 7 p.m., followed by confessions. On Good Friday, the church will have a 3 p.m. Celebration of the Lord’s Passion, and on Saturday, there will be a Solemn Easter Vigil at 7 p.m. On Easter day, the congregation will gather for a Solemn Easter Mass at 10:30 a.m.

    The Brownsville Community Church in West Windsor will hold a series of Easter events beginning with a Maundy Thursday service at 7 p.m. on the 28th. On Good Friday, the church will host a concert at 1:30 p.m., which will be followed by a service beginning at 2:30 p.m. Easter Sunday will start at Ascutney Outdoors with a sunrise service at 7 a.m. before a community breakfast at the church at 8 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. the congregation will complete the weekend’s Easter events with the church’s Easter Sunday service. 

    Woodstock’s North Chapel will bring Gwen Groff, the retired minister of Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgwater, to lead the congregation’s Easter service at 10 a.m. “She’s an amazing woman,” said Mary Blanton, the co-chair of North Chapel’s trustees. “Even though we’re not really a Christian church, it will be celebrated as Easter. We’re pretty ecumenical, and we have Buddhist speakers, Catholic speakers, and Jewish speakers. We’re interested in all of it.” The service will be followed by a coffee hour.

    The First Congregational Church of Hartland will host a Maundy Thursday service at 7 p.m. on the 28th. It’s a really somber, very moving service,” said Pastor Amy Davin. “It’s actually my favorite service of the year. It’s really beautiful.” On Good Friday, the church’s musician, Janet Hughes, will be playing music in the sanctuary from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. and from 5 to 7 p.m. “People are welcome to come in and just sit vigil, just be, just pray, just listen to music, whatever they want to do,” said Davin. The church will have an Easter sunrise service on Sunday on Hammond Hill. It will be immediately followed by a community sunrise breakfast of ham and pancakes before the church begins its traditional Easter service at 10 a.m. 

    The Quechee Church will commemorate Easter this year with a Good Friday Service at 7 p.m. and an Easter service at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning. 

    The North Pomfret Community Church will be hosting a Maundy Thursday service, with soup and communion, on March 28 at 5 p.m. On Easter Sunday, the church will have an Easter sunrise service on Zoom at 7 a.m., which will be followed by an Easter service at 10 a.m.

    'New norm' road conditions leads Barnard to establish roads committee

    Worsening road conditions have affected a number of communities across Vermont, including hard-hit Barnard. Frequent freeze-thaw cycles seen throughout the winter have been compounded with repeated flooding, creating even more hazardous conditions for motorists than in previous years.

    In response to this “new norm” and to address concerns of Barnard residents, at its March 20 meeting, the selectboard authorized the formation of a new six- to eight-person Barnard Roads Committee. This motion follows several meetings where worsening road conditions were a major topic of discussion, including at the March 5 Town Meeting .

    While the exact details of the committee’s formation have yet to be fleshed out, Ramrath says that, functionally, it will act as a “conduit to the selectboard” for information it has gathered from various sources on how to better improve road maintenance operations. 

    Dan Leavitt, a Barnard resident, says the end goal is to present the selectboard with a strategic plan, which may contain a “menu of options for the selectboard and town to consider.” The plan would suggest best practices, available resources, manpower and equipment, and details on affordability and seasonality. The committee will also identify possible funding sources for projects through state and federal grants, citing the “Better Roads” program of the Vermont Agency of Transportation as an example.

    Members will be appointed at a later date.

    For more on this, please see our March 28 edition of the Vermont Standard.

    Judge to hold hearing on settlement claims by skier paralyzed at Okemo

    A federal judge has agreed to hold a hearing on a claim by a New York skier that he had accepted a multi-million dollar out-of-court settlement minutes before a jury last month rejected all the legal claims he made about an accident that left him paralyzed at Okemo Mountain on Thursday, Dec. 19, 2019.

    The legal dispute for the trial centered on whether Okemo and Vail were negligent in any way.

    Richard Grajeda of Long Island, then 21, was heading down a beginner’s trail at Okemo when he fell and slid into the padded pole of the snowmaking gun located in the middle of the trail and became a paraplegic, court papers note.

    Judge Christina Reiss has scheduled a two-hour hearing on May 30 to allow arguments by lawyers on behalf of the novice skier, and the defendants, Okemo Mountain of Ludlow and its parent company Vail Resorts of Bloomfield, Col.

    After the jury deliberated for about seven hours on Feb. 16., Grajeda’s lead lawyer, Andrey J. Smiley of New York City, said his client was willing to take the last settlement offer just before the jury said it was ready to deliver the verdict about 9:20 p.m. However, a defense lawyer said the insurance carrier directed that the verdict be received.

    The plaintiff lost, but his lawyers are now seeking a second bite at the apple by getting a judge to enforce an undisclosed private settlement offer that the defense maintains was off the table before the verdict was announced.

    The defense has asked the court to reject Smiley’s motion.

    “Having gambled and lost his recovery on the prospect of the jury returning a $97-million verdict, the plaintiff now makes a frivolous attempt to enforce a ‘settlement’ that he admitted to this Court never existed,” the defense said in court papers.
    Grajeda’s lawyers also have filed an appeal of the judgment by the jury to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.

    For more on this, please see our March 28 edition of the Vermont Standard.

    Winter weather returned with big snowfall

    Snowfall beginning on Friday afternoon and resuming through Saturday required locals to pull out snow gear for one of this winter’s most substantial accumulations. Area towns contended with over two feet of snow with reported totals of, Woodstock (28 in.); Hartland (31 in.); Barnard (22 in.); Windsor (33.1 in.); and Pomfret (23 in.)

    Woodstock’s town manager Eric Duffy stated that as of right now, Woodstock area roads are “passable,” but will be monitored throughout the week.

    Woodstock Inn employee Zach Benz clears snow from sidewalks by the Inn.

    For more on this, please see our March 21 edition of the Vermont Standard.

    Features

    Windsor County Mentors celebrates 50th anniversary, plans to extend its reach

    ‘It’s kind of like an unconditional friendship’

    By Lauren Dorsey, Staff Writer

    After spending half a century generating countless success stories and matching more than 2,000 mentor-mentee pairs, Windsor County Mentors is honoring its 50th anniversary by moving its goalposts. 

    The organization has spent five decades serving the same 24 towns, but in 2022, it began spreading into a few schools in New Hampshire. Now, Mathew Garcia, the Windsor County Mentors executive director, is looking to grow even bigger. “We want to provide our services as broadly as possible, and wherever that takes us, I think we’re willing to go,” said Garcia. “I don’t think that we’re looking to become, say, a statewide organization, but you never know what will happen.”

    Windsor County Mentors was founded in 1974 by George Ellison, a local judge, and Charles Gibbs, an attorney, who were looking for a way to help kids stay out of the juvenile justice system. “At first, they worked mostly with teenagers, and their goal was really to intervene to help these kids who were already headed for trouble,” said Megan Culp, the president of the Windsor County Mentors Board of Directors and former Hartland school counselor. “But by around 1980 or so, the organization began to shift from working with kids already in the system to working with younger kids to keep them out of the system. Now our goals are more focused on prevention.”

    Mentor Bill Stillson and his mentee Danny Sheridan on Mount Cardigan in 1982.

    The organization also began taking on mentees who were facing a broader set of challenges. “There are [all kinds] of stressors on families that are really difficult and so to have an extra adult in a family’s life to help support their child through all of those [bumps] is often very welcome and can make an enormous difference,” said Culp.

    Now, Windsor County Mentors serves kids aged five to 18 through two main programs: School Pals, where kids and mentors meet on school grounds, and Community Pals, where pairs meet anywhere six hours a month for at least a year. “The sky’s the limit in terms of what you can do. [People] go to museums, movies, and bowling. They hike with their mentees or go camping,” said Culp. “It depends on what the kids want. My last two mentees have really loved cooking and baking, so we’ve spent time learning to follow a recipe and how accurate you have to be to make something turn out as opposed to just experimenting.”

    Joe Paduda, who lives in Plainfield, has been mentoring Jonathan, a 13-year-old in Claremont, N.H. for a little over a year and a half. So far, Paduda has found that spending time with his mentee has been much simpler and more rewarding than he anticipated. “Just from the first time I walked into Jonathan’s house, we seemed to hit it off and do well,” said Paduda. “Sometimes when you have an interaction with someone you’re like, ‘wow this person and I just have a really easy rapport,’ and I would say that that’s the case with Jonathan and me.”

    A few weeks ago, Paduda took Jonathan to watch a lacrosse game at Syracuse University. “It was just a great experience. We toured the campus, and he got to go into the Newhouse [School of] Communications TV studio,” said Padudla. “On the way home, there was a bit of a surprise. I’ve always wanted a dog and [my wife heard] about one in the area that [needed] a home.” Paduda decided to check it out and immediately bonded with the dog, Oakley. “Jonathan is the most loving, caring, kind person when it comes to animals,” said Paduda. “And I think the best time of the whole weekend for him was sitting in the back with Oakley for five hours as we drove back.”

    Many mentor-mentee pairs also spend time doing community service. “My current mentee has made [cards] and Christmas ornaments for the nursing home nearby where we live,” said Culp. “Last summer, we worked with Willing Hands to pick blueberries. It’s about [sharing] experiences. It’s really nice as a mentor to learn to do new things, and it’s great for the kid to be able to join in on something that the mentor is really passionate about.”

    Mentor Richard Dybvig and staff at High Horses lead mentee Trenton Geno on a ride in Sharon, VT.

    Because mentors are not parents and they’re also not teachers, they’re often able to create a unique relationship that children might not otherwise experience. “We’re not there to take the family’s place, we’re just there to support the child,” said Culp. “We want to give kids the confidence that if they’re facing any kind of a hurdle, there’s another adult there to coach them, encourage them, or [help] them get back up.”

    While being a mentor can be great fun, it requires consistency and dedication for it to really pay off. “It takes a little while sometimes to set up a trusting relationship with the child, but once that happens, the kids really take advantage of having another adult in their life who sees them from a different perspective,” said Culp. “It’s kind of like an unconditional friendship.”

    As a school counselor in Hartland, Culp saw firsthand the positive impacts Windsor County Mentors had on students. “I began referring a child here and there and was just absolutely dumbfounded at the change that happened with the kids who got a mentor,” said Culp. “The teachers would notice that something was going on. They would come to me and say, ‘What’s going on with [Jane]? She hasn’t been absent for over a month, she’s getting her homework in, and she seems so much happier,’ and I would tell them, ‘Well, she has a mentor now.’”

    Windsor Country Mentors is already relatively large compared to other mentor-based organizations in Vermont, and before two years ago, Garcia says they never seriously considered expanding. However, after several people approached the organization and asked them to begin offering some of their services in New Hampshire, they decided to give it a try. “The response over there has just been crazy,” said Garcia. “Vermont is very well mentored, but there’s not a lot [of other mentoring organizations] in New Hampshire. People are just dying for mentoring over there.”

    The organization began by offering programs in Claremont and Newport. “Now, this past year, we started an incredibly successful school mentoring program in the QSR Regional School District, which is part of Sulivan and Merrimack counties in New Hampshire,” said Garcia. “We’ve actually also had several queries from Grafton County, in New Hampshire, so I think we might look at expanding there [next].”

    However, Windsor County Mentors will not be neglecting the towns it already covers in favor of new ground. To mark their half-centennial, Windsor County Mentors are putting their outreach in places they already serve in overdrive. Garcia hopes they will be able to host at least one celebration, and one recruitment event in every town they cover. “We’re also trying to have 50 new mentor-mentee matches this year. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen, but we’re trying,” said Garcia.

    “We’re pretty thrilled to celebrate this milestone,” concluded Culp. “When we celebrated our 40th, I didn’t think we knew we were going to make it to 50, but now, I hope we’ll make it to 200. Mentoring never grows old.”

    For more on this, please see our March 28 edition of the Vermont Standard.

    Total eclipse in VT: the cosmic experience of a lifetime?

    By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer

    umbraphile n. an avid observer of, or a person with a great interest in, eclipses.

    ORIGIN: From Latin umbra ‘shade’ + Greek philos ‘loving.’

    Upper Valley umbraphiles — and umbraphile wannabes — take note: in the parlance of a NASA spacecraft launch, it’s T-minus 39 days and counting until a total eclipse of the sun will cut a path across a wide swath of Vermont on Monday afternoon, April 8.

    Regional sky watchers are gearing up for what for most people is a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle of immense proportions. And now a pair of Quechee residents — Lynn Luczkowski and F.X. Flinn — have emerged as the Green Mountain State’s premiere eclipse gurus, helping Vermonters navigate through the maze of information online and in print regarding eclipse chasing. In December, Luczkowski — a retired publicist in the worlds of academia and athletics — established a website called Moon Over Vermont that is chock full of detailed information and how-to instructions for the best ways and places to experience the 2024 total solar eclipse. For his part, Flinn — an avowed umbraphile and an information technology consultant who is currently the chair of ECFiber, the East Central Vermont Community Fiber Network — is blogging about all things total eclipse, including posting on his friend Luczkowski’s stellar website.

    The key thing that both Luczkowski and Flinn want Upper Valley residents to know about the upcoming eclipse? Don’t cut yourself short and view only the partial eclipse that will be visible in Woodstock and its immediate environs. Make plans to travel to one of the many locations in the state that will experience totality for anywhere from a little over one minute to three-and-a-half minutes. Flinn says that experiencing a total eclipse is so profoundly moving and inspiring that it’s not to be missed. He had what to date is his one and only experience with totality on a beach in South Carolina in 2017. He insists that it’s the cosmic experience of a lifetime.

    “I was really not prepared for what witnessing totality was like, which is why I’ve been trying to impress upon people that they really need to see this for themselves — that there is no photograph, there’s no video that is going to allow you to experience totality,” Flinn said in a phone conversation from his Quechee home last Saturday. “As a matter of fact, I have a photographer friend who my blog-posting has motivated to go and witness it — and he immediately started talking about how to photograph it. I sent him a chart that I’d come across about the whole complex ways of photographing different aspects of the eclipse. He looked at the chart and said, ‘So this is exactly to your point, that totality is something to just go and experience and not try to capture because you’re not going to be able to capture it in full.’”

    F.X. Flinn, of Quechee, is a passionate umbraphile — a devotee of total solar eclipses — who is blogging about the upcoming total eclipse that will cut a path across significant parts of central and northern Vermont on Monday afternoon, April 8. Courtesy of Moon Over Vermont

    Immersing oneself in the 100% totality of a solar eclipse is essential, Flinn stated emphatically. “I don’t think you can stress enough in your writing that the 99.5% partial eclipse that people will experience in Woodstock is just not sufficient. It’s only a partial eclipse. Only totality is totality. You can’t be 99.5% pregnant. You’re either pregnant or not pregnant. It’s a binary thing. You either witness totality or you do not, so if you are putting energy into this eclipse — when partial eclipses are, frankly, fairly routine — you really need to make a commitment to be under clear skies and in a place where totality occurs. Find a place to park in the path of totality, even up in the parking lot of the Berlin Mall, where you’ll get a minute and 20 seconds of totality. Believe me, you won’t regret it.” Keeping an eye on the weather forecast for 24 hours before the startup of totality is also critical to choosing a viewing site with the clearest possible skies, Flinn added.

    Asked if there is really a substantive difference to be noticed between 99.5% and 100% totality, Flinn was adamant, recollecting his South Carolina experience of seven years ago. “I’ll tell you why there’s a big difference,” he offered. “There we were, standing on that beach, when totality arrived. You can take off the eclipse glasses then because the sun is completely covered. And then you can see the sun’s corona and you can see the stars around you and you can see the deepest, blackest black hole you’ve ever seen in your life. It’s right there — the size of the moon or the sun — and it’s a freaky thing. And then when the two minutes and twenty-one seconds of totality were over in South Carolina and the first little bit of sun started coming around the side, you had to put the glasses back on if you wanted to keep looking at it, because immediately it was the brightest day again and you could feel the heat of the sun on your skin. That was at 99.5% totality.

    “One of the things you find out when you witness totality is that you get this amazing physical realization about the power of that star that is in our sky every day,” Flinn continued, the awe still palpable in his voice years later. “After that period of totality, when the sun peeks out from around the edge of the moon, it’s just unbelievable. You realize that sunlight has this power and you really feel it. It’s just an incredible experience. For a human being, it’s simply not to be missed.”

    Lynn Luczkowski, the creator and webmaster of the Moon Over Vermont site, also experienced totality for the first and only time in her life in 2017. “Back then, I would hardly have considered myself a stargazer, but now I’m definitely one. I have a new friend in the sun and the moon. Experiencing that first total solar eclipse was not like anything I could ever have imagined. It was just this beautiful day — blue skies. And then all of the sudden this surreal change happened, with not just the darkness, but the temperature drops and the birds are chirping. It was just an incredible experience.”

    Some projections say that as many as 200,000 people may travel to Vermont to experience the upcoming total eclipse, swelling the population of the state by as much as 40% percent during the weekend leading up to the afternoon of totality on Monday, April 8. Hotels, motels, and AirBnBs in towns within the swath of totality have been booked solid for months. Even here in the Upper Valley, where the eclipse will only be a partial event, hospitality providers such as the Woodstock Inn & Resort, The Shire Woodstock, and Sleep Woodstock are already nearing or at capacity.

    Given the expected onslaught of umbraphiles from away, Upper Valley residents seeking to experience totality would do well to make plans and plot their courses to totality viewing sites well in advance of April 8. Both locals and visitors alike can avail themselves of the Moon Over Vermont website, where nascent umbraphiles will find a wide array of tools, educational and research materials, and information about eclipse-related programming at Vermont museums and nature centers, including the Montshire Museum of Science in Norwich and the Vermont Institute of Natural Science in Quechee. There are even details of an eclipse and STEM merit badge program that’s being offered by Girl Scout troops in the region through a collaboration between Moon Over Vermont and the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.

    If you miss the solar spectacle on April 8, Luczkowski warns, you’ll have to wait 20 years until the next total eclipse of the sun strikes the United States — and you’ll only be able to witness totality in that event in Montana and the Dakotas. The Moon Over Vermont webmaster shared additional insights on the experience of a total eclipse in an email she sent to the Standard,

    “We witnessed a few magical minutes and that’s when I gained a newfound appreciation for the magnitude of our great planet. We were serenaded by birds — it was eerie and beautiful. We sat in awe, still and quiet amidst thousands of stargazers. And Mother Nature just did her thing,” Luczkowski concluded.

    With less than 40 days to go until a momentous natural event here in Vermont, it’s time to get moving and figure out how and where you’re going to perch yourself for the experience of a lifetime on April 8.

    Web Resources for Umbraphiles & Skywatchers

    Moon Over Vermont (moonovervt.com) is a Quechee-based online resource and merchandise line that offers creative, fun, and educational ways for people of all ages to experience the celestial extravaganza of a total solar eclipse. The website is collaborating with astrophysicists, educators, NASA, and the Girl Scouts “to empower all to better understand and chronicle” the upcoming eclipse.

    Eclipse 2024 (eclipse2024.org) offers a wealth of eclipse tracking tools and detailed scientific information for potential eclipse watchers throughout the United States. There’s even a web page on the site that’s devoted to identifying all Vermont cities and towns in the path of totality for the April 2024 solar event, including the precise length of totality in each location (eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/total/vt).

    Woodstock's Blanchard was an amazing seamstress and generous volunteer

    ‘Never met anyone who was a stranger for more than a few minutes’

    By Lauren Dorsey, Staff Writer

    Skilled seamstress, dedicated photographer, and avid traveler Christa Blanchard, who lived in Woodstock for more than 60 years grew up in Germany, but her daughters say that Barberry Hill was her chosen home. “She loved this community. Even in the last few years when we drove through Woodstock, she’d always say, ‘we just picked the prettiest place to live,’” said Sonja Blanchard, the youngest of Christa’s two daughters. “From the community to the aesthetics of main street and everything in between, she was always really expressive about her love for the town.” Christa Blanchard passed away on Feb. 19 at the age of 85.

    Blanchard’s deep appreciation of the area manifested in more than just her words. It was evident in the countless times she opened her door to strangers, in each of the 50 years she volunteered at Glad Rags, and in the unyielding support she gave to Vermont 4-H.

    Born in Stettin, Germany in 1938, Blanchard spent her first 18 years in her birth country. “It was not a great period in her life,” said Christa Davis, Blanchard’s oldest daughter. Her father fought in WWII, leaving her, her mother, and her younger brother to fend for themselves. Shortly afterward, her mother died of cancer. “She was left on her own to take care of her seven-year-old brother,” said Davis. “It was pretty traumatic. [Once] she got to Woodstock, she felt like [she] had escaped.”

    Blanchard mostly refrained from dwelling on her early life, and although she visited Germany a few times during adulthood, she never wanted to return permanently. “It was definitely a rough childhood,” said Sonja Blanchard. “It sculpted who she was and made her a very strong, independent person.”

    When she first arrived in New York, Blanchard worked at the American Kennel Club and as a clothing model. Blanchard Family Photo

    When Blanchard first came to the United States, she began working at the American Kennel Club in New York City. “She really loved it,” said Davis. “She learned a lot of her English by working for them.” She also took up modeling. “She always talked about how she was in one of the Vogue magazines,” said Davis. “But she did a bunch of different modeling jobs [over] the year or two she was there.”

    Then, Blanchard married her first husband, and the couple moved to Woodstock just four days before she gave birth. “I just lucked out,” said Davis. “I easily could have been born in New York.”

    Shortly after moving to town, Blanchard began working for the McHughes clothing store on The Green. “She worked for a really long time for both the women’s clothing store and the men’s clothing store,” said Sonja Blanchard. “She did alterations, and she would work part of the time in the store and part of the time at home.”

    Blanchard originally learned the trade from her father, who had been a tailor. “He taught her an incredible amount,” said Davis. “It was amazing to watch what she could do. My sister and I are both pretty good seamstresses, but neither one of us can pull off the miracles that she could.” Blanchard typically sewed without patterns, preferring to drape the fabric to create the right shapes. “It was miraculous. She would just sculpt it on to a bust and then sculpt it on the person,” add Sonja Blanchard. “She was always able to fit everything perfectly.”

    When the McHughes store closed, Blanchard opened her own alterations business, which she ran out of her house on Barberry Hill. “I think it was her way of staying home because she had two young kids,” said Davis.

    When she did have to go out to take measurements or talk to clients, she often brought her daughter with her. “When I was small, probably six or seven, she went to a house on River Street to do alterations for several people,” said Davis. “I was sitting in the front hall, and it was taking forever. This woman came out. I guess my mom had just finished doing the fitting on her. She [saw me waiting and asked], ‘would you like to come have tea with me?’” Davis agreed and spent the afternoon listening to stories about the different kinds of animals in India. “[Later] I found out it was Indira Gandhi, [the] Prime Minister of India. She was staying there and mom had gone to do work for her.”

    In addition to doing alterations, Blanchard also made countless wedding dresses from scratch, including those that her daughters wore down the aisle. “I told her to make whatever she wanted, just no poofy sleeves,” said Davis. “I was living in Virginia at the time, so I sent her my measurements, and she showed up at my wedding with my dress. It was beautiful.”

    When she wasn’t sewing, Blanchard documented the world around her. “She took pictures of everything going on in Woodstock,” said Davis. “Her camera was always with her. [We] don’t have a whole lot of pictures of mom, but we have a whole lot of pictures of mom’s life.”

    Blanchard unfailingly brought her camera whenever the family went on the road, which was sometimes weekly, as she and her second husband, Clyde Blanchard, loved to travel. Many weekends, before the sun rose, they would pile into either a Volkswagen Bug or bus and go on some adventure. “The bug was named Zippy,” said Davis. “The bus was just the bus. [We] went everywhere. [We’d] go to Washington DC during the cherry blossoms or air shows because my dad was in the Air Force for 30 years.”

    Blanchard volunteered for 50 years with Glad Rags, and over the half-century she lent her time to the program, she never missed a single sale. Blanchard Family Photo

    They’d also visit friends all across the area. “We would be up in the backwoods somewhere, and we would pull up to some house — us kids had no idea where we were, but Mom and Dad apparently knew — and we would have dinner. It was crazy,” said Davis.

    The trips were far from exclusive. On the contrary, Blanchard would invite everyone to come along. “Sometimes there would be 10 kids in that bus,” said Davis. “Because there weren’t seatbelts at the time, we just all piled in and off we went.” Some days, instead of packing the car with friends, they’d pack the road with cars. “They also belonged to a VW club,” said Davis. “When I was a kid, we would spend lots of weekends out in a line of 20 or 30 Volkswagens going up Mount Washington or going hiking.”

    Part of the family’s dedication to Volkswagen stemmed from Clyde Blanchard’s job as a foreman at the Woodstock Volkswagen garage.

    Through his work, Blanchard’s husband would frequently meet people who were stuck and could only leave town once someone had fixed their broken-down car. “The only place there was to stay at the time was the Woodstock Inn, where nobody could afford to spend the night, or, at least, not the people that were traveling around in a Volkswagen,” said Davis. As a result, the family frequently invited the stranded travelers to stay with them. “We never knew who was going to be at the dinner table or sleeping on the couches. My mom was pretty open that way. [She] never met anyone that was a stranger for more than a few minutes.”

    Their generosity made a serious impression on many of the people who it touched. “My dad died a long time ago and there were over 600 people at the funeral that had come from all over the place,” said Davis. “A lot of them were people that only met us that one time.”

    Blanchard also expressed her love for the community in more formal ways, volunteering for half a century at Glad Rags. “She never once missed one of their sales in over 50 years,” said Davis. “Our garage and part of our basement would be filled with Glad Rags. Anybody who needed to drop off [clothing] would drop it off at our house, and there would be enough to fill two tractor trailers in there before they had the Glad Rags room.”

    Blanchard showed a similar tenacity in her work with 4-H. She was a leader of the Woodstock chapter for thirty years, and she spent long hours teaching kids how to sew riding clothes and outfits for regional and state sewing competitions. “The 4-H program could always depend on her to be there to help make those regional days and state days happen,” said Blanchard. “She was also a judge, for many years, at the competitions.”

    “She was a very open and sharing person, [and] she lived a pretty full life,” Davis concluded. 

    Woodstock Inn hosts the culinary event of the winter season

    Touché, Cassoulet!

    By RJ Crowley, Standard Correspondent

    On a recent Thursday evening, within the rustic confines of Richardson’s Tavern at the Woodstock Inn & Resort, there was frost on the windowpane, a buzz in the air, and a three-day-old crust on an ancestral meat and bean stew. Culinary anticipation was sky-high, as wine was being poured and glasses clinked. At the far end of the room, the occasional loud crackle of wood burning in the fireplace rose above the din.

    As guests settled in and management worked hastily to erect a last-minute table to accommodate the overflow, Sylvie Bigar, the award-winning food and travel writer, floated from table to table, gracefully welcoming her guests.

    Bigar’s recently published memoir, ‘Cassoulet Confessions,’ was, after all, the catalyst for what would turn out to be the culinary event of the winter season.

    “An Evening of Cassoulet,” as it was billed, attracted an overflowing roomful of eclectic patrons, all of whom paid $95 each for the mouth-watering opportunity to savor the slow-cooked carnivorous orgy of pork, duck, beans, and herbs known as cassoulet.

    Standing tall near the entrance was Executive Chef Matthew McClure. He surveyed the room, then strode toward Bigar, who embraced him warmly. It seems the two co-stars of this evening’s feast share a bit of history together. The two had originally met when Bigar did a feature article on “Chef Mac” for Forbes. Then, last February, Bigar was engaged in a book signing for “Cassoulet Confessions” in Manchester, N.H., when McClure arrived with a cassoulet, which he then served to the audience members in cardboard cups. This anecdote, as apocryphal as it may sound, was confirmed by both during a pre-dinner Q&A session hosted by Maria Buteux Reade of Edible Vermont.

    As Bigar and Chef “Mac” fielded questions, the first course of mixed greens (butter lettuces with mizuna and arugula), shaved radish, and Asian Pear, lightly drizzled with a maple vinaigrette was served. Parker House rolls (soft, warm, and baked in-house) appeared simultaneously.

    Servers, seemingly ubiquitous, offered refills of Old Vine Rose — Chateau Saint-Roch, Roussillon, France.

    Chef McClure makes an entrance with a large cassole of cassoulet, cooked to perfection over three days. Courtesy of Woodstock Inn & Resort

    “How long did it take to prepare tonight’s cassoulet?” queried a guest.

    “We began three days ago,” replied Chef Mac. “We used a recipe from Sylvie’s book. It’s a classic recipe. The most important thing is the broth. We used trotter hocks, hambone skin, house-made sausage, duck confit, and bouquet garni. We’re seeking a gelatinous, high-protein stock. That’s what makes the crust.”

    “It’s all about the crust!” Bigar confirmed. “Also, I want to say that in the book there is a recipe that uses store-bought stock because just maybe there are people who do not want to spend a week to prepare this. So, I have a recipe called the ‘Gateway Cassoulet.’ You start in the morning and eat your cassoulet at night.”

    “That’s not what we have tonight,” Chef called out with the timing of Johnny Carson. The room erupts in laughter. “We’re going to reel you in with authenticity!”

    Another question is asked regarding the type of bean used. The answer: Cannellini.

    “I had an inside track on a local bean trader,” the chef admits — Vermont Bean Crafters. Note: Another popular bean choice is called Tarbais. It’s a big French white bean that turns ultra-creamy as it’s cooked. Great Northern Whites are also a worthy substitute.

    The first course plates were being cleared, when a guest asked Bigar about her “cookbook.”

    “I want to be clear,” she replied. “‘Cassoulet Confessions’ is not a cookbook. Yes, there are recipes in the back, but this book is actually two stories. First, it’s the story of my obsession with cassoulet and how and why I was drawn into this small, intimate, exclusive society of chefs who are dedicated to preserving the authenticity of this dish.” Bigar continued, “Secondly, it’s my story. My own personal adventure of discovering what ‘home’ really means. And, the quest to unearth truths about preparing authentic cassoulet, led to greater truths about family, ancestral heritage and ultimately spiritual fulfillment.”

    The book — a copy of which was included in the evening’s prix fixe — is a spell-binding chronicle of adventures that lead Bigar to a small town in France (Carcassonne) to apprentice under the strict eye of Eric Garcia. Garcia is the co-founder of the ‘Academie Universelle du Cassoulet.’ A French magazine has dubbed him ‘the pope of cassoulet.’ Along the way, Bigar delves deeply into her family history. We learn of her wealthy upbringing in Geneva, Switzerland, and can only marvel at the privilege she was born into. Yet, dysfunction and dark secrets lurk close to the surface, and, by the time she sets out for Columbia University in the 1970s, the reader’s sense of wonder (and possibly envy) is replaced by horrified sympathy.

    Sylvie Bigar signed copies of ‘Cassoulet Confessions’ during the dinner. Courtesy of Woodstock Inn & Resort

    The question and answer session ended, McClure re-entered the dining room carrying an enormous pot (called a cassole) which contains the true star of the evening: Chef McClure’s Cassoulet. A bubbling cauldron of crusty white beans, fresh herbs, duck confit, garlic sausage, and smoked ham hocks!

    McClure moved slowly as he weaved his way around the room, proudly displaying the dish, the way a matador might stand proudly over a felled bull. Spontaneous applause breaks out. The chef disappeared briefly while a second bottle of wine — Kerbucchio Red, Chateau Saint-Roch, Roussillon, France — was poured to pair with the main course. 

    Within minutes, an army of servers had swept into the room, deftly dropping earthenware bowls of cassoulet at every place setting. A notable hush falls over the room as dinner guests collectively clasp their spoons. The moment of truth has arrived. 

    A sustained period of quiet pervades the room, save for the sounds of silverware scraping against the dish, and the barely discernible, guttural moans of self-satisfaction emanating from the crowd.

    Succulent, buttery, crispy, and deeply sumptuous. The complex flavors of herbs, garlic, duck fat, beans, broth, and more all meld together creating a symphony of sensuous, gastronomic delight. Yes, it was that good.

    Table conversations remained muted for the remainder of the meal as guests seemed lost in the aroma, taste, and fulfillment of a truly exceptional culinary achievement. At length, dishes were cleared. When McClure reappeared, a final round of spontaneous applause was offered.

    At a neighboring table, Woodstock residents Michael and Nancy Sargent were effusive. Said Michael Sargent, “It’s nice to see Woodstock having these events, and bringing great food, the author, and the community together.”

    “We had cassoulet together in Paris many years ago,” Nancy Sargent exclaimed, “And this was just fantastic. I said to Michael, ‘They need to have this on the menu all the time.’”

    Not to be given short shrift, a dessert course of warm apple tart was served. A house-made flaky puff pastry infused with warm apples with a Calvados Caramel drizzle.

    As dinner guests filed out of the Tavern, Bigar sat behind a table outside in the hallway, signing books and chatting with her newfound fans. She could be heard quoting from her mentor, French chef Eric Garcia: “Cassoulet is more than a dish, more than a meal. It’s a way of life.”

    The indomitable Coach Dan, Danny Jones remembered

    By Tom Ayres, Senior Staff Writer

    Daniel “Danny” Jones, a beloved husband,  father, friend, coach, and icon of the youth sports world in Woodstock and beyond, passed away on Jan. 28 following a two-year-plus fight with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Courtesy of the Jones Family

    Family, friends, fellow athletes, mountain bikers and outdoor adventurers, and the legions of youths he coached and mentored in Woodstock’s youth hockey and lacrosse programs are mourning the loss of Daniel “Danny” Jones, who passed away on Sunday, Jan. 28. The beloved Woodstock resident had battled the deleterious effects of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, for the past two-plus years.

    “You never know what is missing until it’s gone,” Jason Merrill wrote in a text message to the Standard on Sunday. Merrill, the owner-proprietor of Worthy Kitchen in Woodstock, shared a deep-seated friendship and many a biking and off-roading adventure with Danny Jones over the course of two decades. “I find myself wanting to reach out to my brother (by choice) on a daily basis,” Merrill continued. “Danny always made time to take care of his friends and family. If you were having a casual conversation about a random bike or Jeep part, he would take the time to research it and become an expert on it.

    “Family, he loved unconditionally and like no other,” Merrill added. “Friends, he always asked the question, ‘How are you doing?’ He wanted to know how you were personally — he cared. Our town and community is better because of him, coaching hockey, coaching lacrosse, riding his mountain bike on Mt. Peg, cruising the dirt roads in his Jeep. He loved Woodstock and everything it had to offer. Danny touched many peoples’ lives in our community and he will always be remembered.”

    Danny Jones did indeed touch many lives in the Upper Valley profoundly over the years — and none more so than the lives of the young people he guided through Woodstock’s vaunted youth lacrosse and hockey programs.

    Declan Roylance, 13, of Woodstock, was coached in both sports by Danny Jones over the course of several years prior to Jones’ ALS diagnosis in October 2021. “Coach Dan would always give out the Grit Award after every game,” Roylance recollected Sunday afternoon. “It helped teach me to give the most effort I could in every game, all the time. He would always stay positive on the bench. He taught us that hockey was not about scoring goals and making highlight reels — that it is about working hard and connecting with your teammates. I still think about that now as I participate with different teams.”

    Will Coates played both youth lacrosse and hockey under Danny Jones’ tutelage and he was active in each of the sports at Woodstock Union High School (WUHS), from which he graduated last June. Coates, now a freshman at the University of Vermont, often teamed with Trey Jones, Danny’s son and a fellow WUHS graduate, as the two were coming of age and honing their skills on playing fields and rinks throughout the region. “I first met Coach Dan while playing youth lacrosse when I joined Trey’s team back in elementary school, probably around second or third grade,” Coates said in a phone conversation last weekend. “Later on, he coached me in hockey as well — he coached my Under-14 Bantams team. We actually went to the state championship with him as our coach.”

    Asked about what kind of person Danny Jones was and how he influenced the athletes under his charge, Coates, with affection palpable in his voice, said, “I just remember he always had a smile on his face. He was always in a good mood — and he always wanted to make sure we were having fun while keeping the competitive spirit. I remember playing in Bantams that the practices were always really fun. He made it really enjoyable overall and he allowed for everyone to get equal playing time. He wanted to make sure that we were all having a good time, while also trying our hardest and getting better.”

    Keaton Piconi plied the same fields and ice as Trey Jones and Will Coates while growing up in Woodstock. Now a sophomore playing lacrosse at St. John Fisher University near Rochester, N.Y. Piconi first met Coach Dan back in elementary school, when Jones coached youth lacrosse with Keaton’s father, Lou Piconi. “Trey and I have been good friends throughout our lives. Dan coached me in hockey, later on, beginning in eighth grade. He played college lacrosse when he was in school — and he always had his long pole with him. He was always bright and happy on the sidelines, just out there about lacrosse and making it a fun game to play,” the younger Piconi noted on Monday.

    Piconi remembered another aspect of Danny Jones’ coaching style that others have celebrated as well. “On a team, there’s always some guys who pick things up faster and then there are some who take a little longer,” the veteran lacrosse and hockey player commented. “I always noticed that Dan would be picking up the guys who took a little longer to get things going. He coached one of my buddies who was in his first year of playing hockey and even though he was a bit behind then, he just stuck with it over the years. He just loved it. And when I talked to him, he’d talk about how Dan Jones made such an impact on him in terms of just having fun playing hockey – just going from here to there, growing into the game and finding a way to love it. That’s what Dan Jones showed us how to do.

    “Any time he spoke with us, it was always ‘Play creative and free — but you can also have fun.’ We were having fun — and we were winning a lot of games, too,” Keaton Piconi concluded.

    Video features

    Interview with Woodstock Planning and Zoning Director Steven Bauer

    Obituaries

    Allen Dougherty

    After a long and graceful struggle with Alzheimer’s, our loving husband, father, grandfather, and friend Allen Dougherty passed away peacefully in the arms of his family on March 4th, 2024. Born in 1934 in Pearl River, New York, he was the son of Harold and Margaret (Hattick)Dougherty and had three older sisters.

    He graduated from Pearl River High School with honors and entered Antioch College in Ohio, the first member of his family to attend college. Having worked his way through the four years, he went on to SMU law school, graduating with high honors. He then served in the U.S. Army Reserves and was honorably discharged in 1962.

    He went on to join the law firm of Covington & Burling in Washington, D.C. After ten years there, he moved to Philadelphia to join the law firm of Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis as a partner. For this firm, Allen represented UPS, among other clients and corporations in the field of corporate tax law. When the UPS headquarters relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, he opened an office for his law firm there and moved to Atlanta with his family in 1992, where they lived until his retirement in 2000. He then retired to Woodstock, Vermont where he had often brought his family on ski trips and holidays. There, Allen, with his wife Gail, enjoyed being able to ski, sail, fly, and hike. He also enjoyed entertaining his family and friends in the new town he loved.

    Allen enjoyed serving this community. He gave his time and talents to Pentangle, where he was a board member and president for six years. He also chaired the board at HCRS of Southern Vermont for ten years. He was a faithful member of Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church and a leader of the Vermont Liturgical and Classical Music Society. He loved Woodstock and always had a wide smile for everyone. Allen leaves behind his wife Gail and his five children, natural and adopted, Tim, Crysta, Robbins, Sean, and Anton, as well as 11 grandchildren. He is predeceased by his parents and three older sisters.

    In lieu of flowers, his family hopes you will consider making a donation to the Thompson Senior Center (https://www.thompsonseniorcenter.org; 99 Senior Lane, Woodstock, VT 05091), or to the Norman Williams Public Library (https://normanwilliams.org; 10 The Green, Woodstock, VT 05091).

    A memorial Mass to celebrate Allen’s life was held on Saturday March 9, 2024 at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Woodstock followed by a reception at the Woodstock Inn.

    The Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family.

    Joyce W. Piper

    Joyce W. Piper, 92, passed away surrounded by her family on Sunday
    evening March 10, 2024, at the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative and
    Hospice Care in Lebanon, NH.

    A complete obituary and service information will appear in a future
    issue of the paper.

    The Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family.

    Leona "Lee" G. Stetson LaFountain

    Leona “Lee” G. Stetson LaFountain passed away peacefully in her daughter’s home in Hyde Park, MA on February 18, 2024. She was surrounded by lots of love
    from family and friends.

    Leona was born at home in Pomfret, VT on November 15, 1934, to Wayne Wilson Sr., and Marion (Roberts) Wilson. At the age of ten after the sudden loss of her mother, Leona went to live with her “Grammy and Grampy” Roberts whom she adored.

    After attending school in Woodstock, VT Leona met her first love, Harvey J. Stetson. They married and together raised five beautiful children. Spending time with family was very important to them, whether it was a weekend barbecue, meeting other families for picnics, or taking long drives in the country. They also shared their small family farm and each child enjoyed raising their own pets. Leona and Harvey created their own special memories. They loved to go out dancing on Monday and Saturday evenings at the local Grange Hall and jitterbugged, waltzed, and danced the polka until the wee hours of the morning.

    After Harveys’ passing in May 1993, Leona eventually remarried Earl “Lefty” O. LaFountain, Jr., and gained 13 children, 21 grandchildren, 10 great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. They shared the love of the outdoors-canoeing, hiking, and camping throughout New England. They also enjoyed spending time on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada, and on Martha’s Vineyard. Their true passion always led them back to the ocean waters of Maine where they walked the shorelines collecting sea glass, sea shells, and driftwood.

    When Leona wasn’t busy traveling she was heavily involved in serving her community. She volunteered at The Brookside Nursing Home, The Historic Homes of Runnemede Senior Center, The White River Senior Center, and she was the activities coordinator for Merten’s House. She also earned the top Avon representative outstanding achievement award for the state of Vermont. She held this position for several years, while at the same time cared for Woodstock families over the span of several generations. Caring for these multi-generational families became one of her life long passions during the day, and she was also a self-taught baker during the evening. She perfected a homemade biscuit recipe, which her children praised her for and pleaded her to make for all family gatherings. Her biscuits and other sweet treats were also delivered and sold to the Co-op at the Bridgewater Mill Mall.

    Leona was a devoted mother, grandmother, friend and confidante to those she loved. She expressed her love with intense passion, whether it was towards a person, animal, or place, and with unconditional regard. She lived laughed and loved with her entire soul. She will be missed deeply by all.

    Leona was preceded in death by her husbands, Harvey J. Stetson, and Earl O. LaFountain, Jr.; her mother Marion (Roberts) Wilson and father Wayne W. Wilson, Sr.; sisters Mary (Wilson) Chamberlin of Windsor, VT, and Marge (Wilson) Thibodeau of Hartland, VT; and brother Wayne W. Wilson, Jr. of Woodstock, VT.

    She is survived by her five children; Barbara (Stetson) Chamberlin and husband Wallace Chamberlin of Woodstock, VT; William (Bill) Stetson of Woodstock, VT; Roland (Ron) Stetson of Fair Haven, VT; Donna (Stetson) Arnold and husband Raymond Arnold of Northfield, VT; Lynn Stetson of Hyde Park, MA and grandchildren; Steven Chamberlin and wife Terri (Lamson) Chamberlin of Pomfret, VT; Wendy Chamberlin of Woodstock, VT; Jeffrey Chamberlin and wife Christina (Henderson) Chamberlin of Killington, VT; Christina Chamberlin (companion Jim Morgan) of Pomfret, VT; Aimee (Stetson) Pollard of Monroe, North Carolina; Andrew (A.W.) Stetson of North Carolina; Roland (Ronnie) Stetson, Jr. (companion Elesha Larrow) of Middlebury, VT; Amanda Runnells of Fair Haven, VT; great grand children: Justin Chamberlin, Rylie Pollard, Lukas Pollard, Morgan Stetson, Avery Stetson; and a great great grand child: Bria (Chamberlin) White.

    A private memorial will be held in the summer at the Hewittville Cemetery in Pomfret, VT.

    In honor of Leona, please consider a memorial gift to her favorite charity, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at stjude.org

    Joyce Louise Piper

    Joyce Louise Piper, 92, a longtime resident of Hartland, Vermont passed away on Sunday evening, March 10, 2024, at the Jack Byrne Center surrounded by family and friends.

    She was born in Hanover, New Hampshire on April 08, 1931, to Wayne W. Sr. and Marion (Roberts) Wilson and attended School in Woodstock, Vermont.

    The oldest of seven, Joyce left home at fourteen and got a job as a maid where she met Kenneth Piper. Together they built a snowmobiling camp in Island Pond, Vermont, and were often “tearing up the trails”. She was a lifelong New Englander and loved spending time at camp and taking family trips to Maine, often commenting on the “flatlanders”, always offering to cook – and when she cooked there was always enough for an army of people. She enjoyed crocheting blankets and helping others in any way she could. Jo and Ken basically raised her six siblings and couldn’t wait to start a family of their own. In May of 1963, they were blessed with their daughter, Marian who meant the world to them. Once Marian grew up, Jo continued to help her family take care of their children, until her grandchildren were born. Her grandchildren were the twinkle in her eye – she thought the world of Joseph & Kendra. After her two grandchildren were more or less self-sufficient she became a surrogate grandmother to all, she insisted on being called “Grammy Jo”, even by strangers – she took to babysitting her great nephew and all the neighbors’ younger children up until just a few years ago. She was always fiercely independent and was able to remain active right up to her passing – just one month shy of her 93rd birthday! Her sharp wit remained intact as well, and as a result her granddaughter began keeping a list of her unique sayings including such favorites as “fourteen axe handles right across the beam”, “ripped him a thyroid”, and “he struts around like King Tut in turd alley”.

    It’s easy to be sad about her passing but also easy to be thankful for all she gave to others. She never missed her grandchildren’s concerts, graduations or extracurricular activities and quite often told them how proud she was of them. 

    She was preceded in death by her husband Kenneth V. Piper, mother Marion (Roberts) Wilson and father Wayne W. Wilson, Sr.; sisters: Mary (Wilson) Chamberlain of Windsor, VT; Marge (Wilson) Thibodeau of Hartland, VT; Leona (Wilson) LaFountain of Hyde Park, MA; and brother: Wayne W. Wilson, Jr. of Woodstock, VT.

    She is survived by her daughter Marian (Piper) Comstock and husband David Comstock of Hartland; grandchildren: Joseph Michael Comstock (companion Sandi Louzier) of Hartland; Kendra Michelle Comstock of Boston, Mass.; two step-sons: Norman Poutre (wife Jennifer Poutre) of Underhill, Vt. and their two children: Jacqueline Poutre (husband Matt Beck) of Tampa, Fla., Merlin Poutre (companion Tessa Scott) of Bellingham, Wash.; John D. Piper (wife Virginia Piper) of Tulsa, Oka.; and their son: Robert Piper and his husband; and granddaughters: Debbie, Donna, Dana and their families; one sister: May E. (Wilson) Pierce of Quechee; one brother Ernest Wilson of Woodstock; many nieces and nephews, great nieces and great nephews, and “surrogate grand babies” and families.

    A gathering to celebrate the life of “Grammy Jo” will be held at Damon Hall in Hartland on Saturday, March 23, starting at 2 p.m. and will go until 4 p.m.. At Joyce’s request a private committal service will be held at the convenience of her family at a later date in the Hartland Village Cemetery.

    In lieu of flowers, please consider a memorial gift to St. Jude Children’s Hospital at stjude.org.

    An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

    Patricia Ann Crozier

    Patricia Ann Crozier, age 76 of Round Pond, Maine passed away March 4th at Round Pond Assisted Living. 

    She was born in Fair Haven, New Jersey on June 6th, 1947, where she attended Rumson High School. It was there she met her soulmate, James (Butch) Gettis (deceased). Together they moved to Bridgewater Corners, Vermont, and were happily married. 

    With their combined talents they owned and operated The Corners Inn fine dining establishment. This became a well-known venue for local and distant travelers alike. Patricia Gettis catering company was her personal joy. She took great pride in catering the most beautiful events for private parties and weddings. 

    Known affectionately as “Patti”, her encouraging words of praise to others, as well as her creativity in the kitchen, gave her a warm place in the hearts of those who knew her. She loved good food, socializing, and traveling. Her laughter was contagious and Vermont was her piece of heaven. When faced with life’s many challenges she met them “head-on” with courage and determination. 

    It goes without saying that Patti will be missed by all who had the privilege of knowing and loving her. 

    She is survived by Jamie Susan Gettis and Joel James Gettis; granddaughters, Cara Brown and Jessica Lee Pirkey; great-granddaughter Collins Lee Brown; and siblings Carol and Calvin Monsma, Catherine Crozier, and Edie and Bob Marass. 

    She loved all her nieces and nephews.

    She is predeceased by her parents, Jean and Wesley Crozier, brother Britt Crozier, and Husband James (Butch) Gettis. 

    No service announcement at this time.

    Robert "Bob" Wilson

    Robert “Bob” Wilson passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 7, 2024, in Pasadena, California.  He was 99 1/2 years old.  He is survived by his son Charles and daughter Anne.

    Bob was born on September 26, 1924 in Findlay, Ohio.  Upon graduating high school he attended Ohio Wesleyan University for one year before enlisting in the US Army, where he served 2 1/2 years in Europe at a supply depot in England before seeing combat in Germany as an infantryman and combat engineer with the 99th Infantry Division.

    After the war, he returned to Ohio Wesleyan to complete his undergraduate studies, after which he attended MIT, where he earned a master’s and doctorate degrees in Chemical Engineering.

    He worked for Exxon for most of his career, which began at the Bayonne Refinery in New Jersey, before he was promoted to their headquarters in New York.  Soon his desire to travel found him working in Exxon’s International Division.  In 1965 Bob, accompanied by his wife and two children, moved to Buenos Aires, Argentina for two years, where he was in charge of manufacturing.  In 1967 the family moved to London, England, where he worked as the director of Supply and Transportation for Esso Europe.  In 1969, with his two children now in college, Bob was sent to Madrid, Spain as the General Manager of Esso Spain.  His wife Mary joined him there.

    The two of them returned to the United States in 1971, but found life here unfulfilling.  He continued to work for Exxon while Mary explored the possibilities of returning to Europe.  In 1980 he took early retirement and they moved into a villa Mary had overseen the construction of on the Mediterranean coast in Altea, Spain.  This became their primary residence for the next 20-plus years, affording them easy access to travel throughout Europe.  It was undoubtedly the happiest years of their lives.

    Bob and Mary returned to the US in 2002 and made Quechee, Vermont their home.  It was a reunion of sorts with their son Charles, who owned and operated the Taftsville Country Store a few miles away.  Mary passed away in 2012.  In 2015 Bob entered a Continuing Care Facility In Pasadena, California, close to his daughter Anne’s home.  He spent the last years of his life there.

    Besides his love of travel, Bob was an avid genealogist.  Over the years he researched and compiled an impressive tome documenting his family tree.   He also wrote a memoir of his experiences during WWII, a copy of which resides in the archives of the National WWII Museum in New Orleans.

    An interment service will be held at the Taftsville Cemetery in June of this year.

    Ann Taylor Debevoise

    Ann Taylor Debevoise, 98, of Woodstock, Vermont, passed away at Mt. Ascutney Hospital on Monday, February 19, 2024.

    She was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 25, 1925, daughter of Nell (Bowen) and Rogers Clinton Taylor, and grew up on the family’s dairy farm in Woodstock, Connecticut. She attended The Arke School, a small independent elementary and middle school her mother ran at their house. Following that, she attended Abbot Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, graduating in 1942.

    She then attended Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, graduating in 1947 (having taken one year off to help at home during WWII) with a degree in economics.

    After her graduation, she was an assistant to Clair Wilcox, an economics professor at Swarthmore who was also an advisor to the US government during discussions with Britain concerning details of the Marshall Plan. She was crossing the Atlantic in connection with that when she met her future husband, Tom Debevoise. They were married at the Arke Farm in Connecticut on Thanksgiving Day, 1951. They lived in, and then near, New York City while he finished law school and began his law career. Their first two children, sons Whitney and Clay, were born during that time. They moved to an old farm in the Cox District of Woodstock, Vermont, in 1956, while her husband practiced law.

    Ann looked after the family and started restoring the farm. She was also active with the nursery school on the lower floor of the Woolhouse by the Rec Center and with St. James Church. She had their third child, Tom, in 1957 and their fourth, Anne, in 1961, both at Mary Hitchcock hospital in Hanover.

    Her husband accepted a position with the Federal Power Commission in Washington D.C. early in 1962; the rest of the family moved down before school started that fall. They kept their place in Woodstock, however, returning during holidays and school vacations- and finally for good in 1974 when he took on the deanship at the nascent Vermont Law School. While in Washington, Ann maintained her commitment to service, volunteering at her children’s schools and the Corcoran Gallery of Art.

    Once back in Vermont, and with only one child at home, Ann could concentrate on the farm and the community. She ran Polled Hereford cattle and Polled Dorset sheep, and worked on improving pastureland and reseeding hayfields. She served as a director of the Vermont Beef Producers Association and as a supervisor of the Ottauquechee Natural Resources Conservation District.

    Over the years she also served as a trustee of the Norman Williams Public Library, the Vermont Achievement Center, and the Woodstock Historical Society; she was a board member of the Vermont Center for the Book and member of the Vermont Arts Council. Not least of all, she was the full partner her husband needed during the stressful early years of the Vermont Law School and served on its board of trustees after he died. The Law School awarded her an honorary degree in 2005 and she continued to serve as an actively participating trustee emerita until her death. Despite being in the hospital and knowing she would be unable to attend, she requested and reviewed the materials for the February 2024 board meeting.

    Ann was devoted to her husband whom she loved and respected just as he loved and respected her. She cared deeply for her family, her friends, her neighbors and her community and woke up every morning with a list of things that needed doing or should be set right. Her attitude while in the hospital after her stroke in January was “I feel lucky I have been able to do so much for so long.”

    Ann was predeceased by her parents, her husband, her sister Joan Sodestrom, her son Clay, and her great-granddaughter Sabine. She is survived by her son Whitney and his wife Heidi, her son Tom and his wife Laurie Livingston, her daughter Anne and her husband Andrew Ostby, her son Clay’s widow Linda Derick, nine grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, three nephews, and a niece.

    The family is deeply grateful to the many providers and staff at Mt. Ascutney Hospital whose skilled and compassionate care helped Ann navigate the many challenges she faced in the last weeks of her life.

    There are no services planned at this time.

    An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com

    Norman H. Boynton

    Norman H. Boynton, 99, passed away on March 26, 2024. A complete obituary will be published at a later date. The Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family.

    Stephen Troy Carr

    Troy Carr, February 8, 1979 – February 17, 2024

    The family of Troy Carr is saddened to share the news that he has passed away, leaving a trail of accomplishments far beyond his years.

    He grew up in Bridgewater, Vermont where he lived with his parents, Steve and Bonnie, and his older brother Aaron.  Following in the footsteps of their parents, he and Aaron attended Woodstock Union High School.

    Troy became an accomplished snowboarder early on, in Killington.  Following graduation from high school, he went to a Professional Golf school in California. From there, he traveled to Port Charlotte, Florida where he lived with his paternal grandparents, Pauline and Donald Carr.  He began teaching at Riverwood Golf Club in Port Charlotte.  While in Florida, he was hired by Mercury Boat Engines to test the mettle and endurance of Mercury’s engines on the water.

    Troy then got certified as a Massage Therapist, giving him a complete understanding of the physiology of the human body.   In the meantime, he and his brother Aaron purchased adjoining acreage high atop one of Chittenden’s mountains.  Before they lost their dad, they cleared the land and worked on completing Aaron and Amy’s house, and planned to build Troy and his previous wife Tatiana Dobush’s home.  As it turned out, Troy ended up clearing his own land and overseeing the construction of his home.  After that, he and Tatiana purchased a home in Florida and they split their time between Vermont and Florida, along with their son, Tucker Stephen Carr, who was born June 28, 2011.

    Later on in his life, Troy moved back to his Vermont home full-time.  The final occupation for Troy was the formation of his own company (he was “the Milfoil Man”) to remove invasive milfoil from Lake Bomoseen, Fern Lake, and Lake Dunmore.  In order for him to accomplish the task, he had to become a certified scuba diver – which he did.  The company was eventually sold to a larger outfit, Lake Dunmore Fern Lake Association with Troy staying on as advisor of the Vermont operation.

    Once Troy was living full-time in Vermont again, he met Stephanie Senecal who became his girlfriend, a close confidante and someone who showed him kindness and understanding.  She also introduced her two children to Troy, and in time, Troy introduced Tucker to them.  He shared his love of snowmobiling, riding bikes, boating, and fishing with Tucker.  Troy had a lifelong love of animals that he shared with his son.  Tucker is now the caretaker of his dad’s cats, Miss Kitty and Cascious, who have joined Tucker and his mom’s pets in Florida.

    Troy is predeceased by his father, Stephen Paul Carr, his grandmother, Mary Birmingham, and his grandfather, Donald Carr.  He is survived by his grandmother, Pauline Carr, mother, Bonnie Carr, his significant other, Stephanie Senecal, his brother and sister-in-law, Aaron and Amy Carr, and his beloved son, Tucker and his mother.  He is also survived by his grandfather, aunts, uncles, and cousins.  Troy left innumerable friends from all walks of his life and will be remembered as a stand-up guy who usually accomplished all he set out to do.  He leaves a large void in his wake.

    A graveside service for Troy will be held in Bridgewater at a later date.

    An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com

    Edna M. Johnson

    Edna M. Johnson, 94, of Kennebunk, ME, died peacefully on February 13, 2024, after a short period of declining health.

    Edna lived a strong, independent, and inspired life for 94+ years, building instant friendships with those of all ages and becoming “Mom” to many. 

    Edna was born on August 14th, 1929, in Woodstock, VT, the daughter of Elwin Williamson and Marion F. (Wardwell) Peoples.

    After graduating from South Royalton High School, South Royalton, VT, Edna moved to Westborough, MA where she met her first husband, Harold, and raised their family.  She was active in the Westborough Women’s Club, local bridge group, and area bowling league.  She was known for her exceptional sewing and clothing design skills, especially her imaginative children’s Halloween and dance recital costumes.

    Edna also enjoyed spending time at the family’s vacation home in Barnard, VT where she loved visiting local friends and family, hiking, snowshoeing and snowmobiling on area logging trails, and skiing the slopes of the former Sonnenberg Ski Area.  She and husband Harold especially enjoyed deer hunting season.    

    After being widowed at a young age, Edna attended college to study accounting, a profession she pursued until meeting her second husband, John.  In pre-retirement, they headed North and purchased The Village Confectionery, a candy and gift shop in North Conway, NH.  In 1985 they expanded the business to Kennebunkport, ME where it remained a local favorite for many years.

    Edna and husband John loved living near the ocean and embraced the year-round lifestyle of coastal Maine.  They especially favored Wells Reserve at Laudholm where they enjoyed the nature trails and wildlife.  

    To know Edna was to know her multi-decades love for square dancing.  Along with husband John, she was a lifetime member of the Nubble Lighthouse Keepers Square Dance Club in Wells, ME, where she served as past Club Treasurer until 2019.  

    Edna is survived by her three daughters, Theresa A. Lynch of Williamsburg, VA, Patti L. Duprey and husband Dennis of Kennebunk, ME, and JoAnn Thompson Gordon and husband David Hersh of Kennebunk, ME; three stepchildren; ten grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

    Edna is predeceased by her first husband of 25 years, Harold R. Thompson, Jr., second husband of 38 years, H. Conrad (John) Johnson, as well as her parents, sister Pauline Goodrich, and brother Richard. 

    At her request, there will be no services.  Burial will take place in the family plot in Pinegrove Cemetery, Westborough, MA.  Memories and condolences may be shared at https://www.bibberfuneral.com

    In honor of her memory, the family welcomes contributions to a new “Johnson Tree” to be planted at the Wells Reserve at Laudholm.  Checks may be mailed to Laudholm Trust, PO Box 1007, Wells,  ME 04090; online donations at https://www.wellsreserve.org/support/celebratory-gifts; Memo Edna Johnson.  

    Evelyn P. Paglia

    Evelyn P. Paglia, 83, died peacefully on Thursday, March 29, 2024, at the Jack Bryne Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire.

    Evelyn was born on December 27, 1940, in Plymouth, Vermont the daughter of Ralph and Myrtle (Haynes) Payson.

    Evelyn grew up in Plymouth, Vermont until she married James E. Paglia, Sr. on January 3, 1970, and they made their home in Woodstock, Vermont. In her early years, Evelyn provided child care and worked for a time at the Bridgewater Drug Store. After moving to Woodstock, she went to work at the Woodstock Inn where she was employed for over 30 years. Outside of work, she loved her family, flowers, gardens, and her cats and birds.

    Evelyn is survived by her son, James Jr. (Beverly); brothers, Ralph & Russell; sisters, Bessie, Vera, and Susan; a number of nieces, nephews, and cousins; and her beloved sister and brother-in-law, Bruce and Alice Paglia. In addition to her parents, she is predeceased by her Husband James, Sr., a daughter Nancy, brother Charles, and sisters Pricilla and Ruth.

    A graveside service is being planned for a later date. Those wishing may make memorial donations to the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative & Hospice Care, One Medical Drive, HB 7070, Lebanon, NH 03756

    The Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock is assisting the family. An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

    Nina Kay Laurent Kurtz

    Nina Kay Laurent Kurtz August 2, 1944 – February 28, 2024

    Nina Kay (Laurent) Kurtz, 79, of Barrington, RI, passed away on Wednesday, February 28, 2024. She was the loving wife of William Brownlow Kurtz, Jr. Born in Lansing, MI, she was the daughter of the late Don and Marjorie (Nixon) Laurent, Sr. and the sister of the late Don Laurent, Jr.

    Nina was a graduate of the University of Florida in Gainesville and went on to work as a Special Educator until her retirement. She was active in the Woodstock, VT school system for many years and had served as the President of the Barrington Garden Club in Barrington, RI.

    Alongside her husband William, she is survived by her beloved children, Matthew P. Kurtz (Jeanne) of Alpine, CA, Amy L. Robey of Mission Viejo, CA, and Ashley K. Phenix (Leo) of Cumberland, RI, her sister, Judie Rhodine of Orlando, FL, her grandchildren, Morgan, Cory, Madison, Max, Devyn, and Kinsley, and her great- grandchildren, Reese, Sheppard, Mila, and Dillon.

    Services are planned for April 8, 2024, at 2:00 PM at St. John’s Episcopal Church at 191 County Rd, Barrington, RI 02806

    In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Barrington Garden Club, PO Box 276 Barrington, RI 02806.

    The family is being assisted locally by the Cabot Funeral Home in Woodstock, VT.

    Albert Ira Pristaw

    Albert Ira Pristaw passed away at Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon, NH on February 20, 2024.  He was surrounded by family and friends as he passed.  Al was born on July 5, 1943 in Boston, MA.  The child of immigrants, he revered education, hard work, and working people.  He found his place in the world and embraced a love of the outdoors attending the University of Vermont, graduating in 1965.    After completing graduate school at Massachusetts College of Optometry, he married Judith Lewis Pristaw and moved to Vermont in 1973 where he started his own private optometry practice and ultimately became the President of the Vermont Board of Optometry.  He loved every covered bridge, fishing hole, and general store in Vermont and had a passion for rural America.  He was deeply devoted to his oldest friends.

    Al is survived by his loving partner, Pauline Drake Holt, his children Dara Sweatt and Josh Pristaw, and by his grandchildren, Finley and Wheeler Sweatt, and Charles and Oscar Pristaw.

    The funeral will be at Cabot’s Funeral Home at 32 Rose Hill, Woodstock, VT, on Saturday, March 2nd at 11:00 AM.

    The guestbook & zoom link for the memorial can be found at www.cabotfh.com

    Followed by a reception at Thompson Senior Center at 99 Senior Ln, Woodstock, VT 05091

    No flowers by request, donations if desired to Vermont Food Bank  (https://www.vtfoodbank.org)  in his memory.

    Michael (Mikey) Philip Daigle

    Michael (Mikey) Philip Daigle, 41, of Sharon, VT,  departed this earth unexpectedly on February 12, 2024. Those of us left behind are deeply saddened by the hole he has left here, but we are comforted by the thought that he has happily joined his beloved father Michael Sands on the other side.

    As a young adult,  Michael was naturally athletic and especially loved a good game of hockey with his friends.  He made many memories with his cousins and friends running through the woods of Vermont playing hide and seek. He loved playing video games – we still can’t sleep at night due to Silent Hill.

    He worked tirelessly on his property in Sharon to make it a beautiful place. He loved walking the land, exploring the woods, observing the wildlife,  pausing on the water’s edge, and grilling out at sunset. 

    Michael was a dedicated worker for his employers through the years, including The Timken Company and Hypertherm. He also enjoyed doing physical labor such as landscaping and carpentry and applied these skills in property management jobs. 

    Michael was best known for his intellectual curiosity, deep conversations, playful debates,  and love of friends and family.  He was always there for the people he loved,  often reaching out to check-in.  He would give you the shirt off his back if it would help. He would clear his schedule to make sure you were not alone in whatever struggle you were going through. His compassion, advocacy, and support was bountiful for the people he loved. His dad jokes would get you through the darkest days.

    Michael loved music, how it conveyed feelings that could not always be spoken. He had recently started learning how to play the drums. He also loved movies, books, and endless conversations about both of those subjects.

    Oh, and don’t forget the animals. He loved dogs, cats, turtles, even hermit crabs and hedgehogs!

    Michael was preceded in death by his father, Michael Sands; and his grandparents, Sidney and Irene Straghan. He is survived by his much-loved mother, Cindy Sands; his aunts, Lynne Vik and Heidi Straghan, and beloved cousins.

    In his honor- call that friend or family member that you haven’t talked with in a long time. Slow down for a few minutes and soak up some nature. Read a book, watch a movie, or listen to some music that heals your soul. 

    There will be a celebration of life for Michael in the spring at his family’s Farm in Waldoboro Maine. For more information please reach out to [email protected]

    Annual Appeal

    Making friends while trying to make ends meet

    By Dan Cotter, publisher

    Friendship. That’s what I’m thinking about as I publish this year’s fourth and final annual appeal article.

    Of course, that makes perfect sense given our heritage.

    If you’ve ever seen longtime Vermont Standard icon Phil Camp in action as he walks down Central or Elm Street, or when he’s seated near the fireplace at the Woodstock Inn, you know what I’m talking about. I nicknamed him the “Unofficial Mayor of Woodstock” because, like a campaigner, he seems to want to talk to everyone he encounters, whether it’s an old friend (he’s got quite a few, as he’s lived here almost 88 years) or a visitor from wherever. His opening line with those visitors — after complimenting them on their cute child or puppy — is “where are you from?” After giving them a warm welcome and trying to get to know them better, he typically tells them a little more about our area and then a lot about the Vermont Standard. He always closes these brief exchanges by encouraging them to check out our Vermont Standard THIS Week website or buy an eEdition subscription so that they can keep up with our beautiful Woodstock area after they return home.

    It’s as though he was commissioned by the Chamber of Commerce, but really, he just likes to make friends.

    And he does. On occasion he even hears back from folks he’s greeted, thanking him for being one of the highlights of their recent visit.

    Likewise, if not for the friends we’ve made, the Standard, like so many other newspapers around the country, would have closed up shop at some point in the past few years after losing access to such a large portion of the advertising dollars that traditionally supported community journalism. Thankfully our readers stepped up to fill the gap with their donations. Thanks to them — our friends — we’re still alive and striving to do our best, and I am still able to write this to you today.

    We may have struggled to make ends meet, but we have been able to make some good friends. And that’s a blessing.

    I’m reminded of Carole King’s song, “You’ve Got a Friend”

    If the sky above you

    Grows dark and full of clouds

    And that old north wind begins to blow

    Keep your head together

    And call my name out loud

    Soon you’ll hear me knockin’ at your door

    Some of our friends seemingly came knockin’ out of nowhere to support us, to support our community by preserving its journalism and to support its democracy. They asked for nothing in return, not even for recognition. We are eternally grateful to them. We hope to make them proud, and we hope they’ll continue to have our back. And we hope we’ll continue to meet new friends along the way.

    Four special friends have now come together to serve on the board of the new Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation: Charlie Shackleton, Darlyne Franzen, Rob Wallace, and Bill Emmons. As I announced a few weeks ago, the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation, which is dedicated primarily to preserving the Standard and its role in informing citizens and supporting democracy in our area well into the future, has formally filed an application for recognition of tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. These Foundation board members believe in us and they care deeply about our community and the value the Standard provides. Right now, they are encouraging their own friends to support this important cause at this critical juncture.

    If you’re willing to make a donation to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation, your contribution will be utilized in the form of project grants to support our mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance. And pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status – as to which our lawyers are quite confident – contributions will be tax-deductible dating back to the inception of the Foundation. Of course, we recommend potential donors discuss with their own advisors any specific questions about their particular contributions.

    Winter, spring, summer or fall

    All you have to do is call

    And I’ll be there, yes, I will

    You’ve got a friend

    You’ve got a friend

    Ain’t it good to know you’ve got a friend

    Indeed, it is good to know that you’re all our friends. So many community newspapers throughout the U.S. are braving their final hour. But, especially with the establishment of the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation, we’re hoping that the Vermont Standard is now embarking on its finest hour, hand in hand with you, our friends.

    To make a donation, please send us a check at PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at www.thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

    Pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status, your gift will be tax-deductible. We will send you confirmation of the IRS decision once it’s available in the coming few months.

    Let’s not lose our sense of place

    By Dan Cotter, publisher

    The main thing I remember is that it was always loud. And a bit chaotic.

    With seven children all just a year apart, there tended to be a lot of clamor and teasing as we’d prepare the dinner table in our house where I grew up. Dad was home from work and it was time to eat!

    This ritual took place more or less every day. Everyone had scattered to work and school and sports, part-time jobs, and all sorts of other activities throughout the day, but in the evening, we gathered for the one meal we ate together and to talk about what was going on. It was there around that table — where elbow space was at a premium — that we learned of each other’s latest achievements, trials, and disappointments, laughed at each other’s tales from the front, the foibles we had experienced or witnessed that day, found out about what’s coming up for the family, including challenges we faced, and on so many occasions, after expressing our opinions about one thing or another, we engaged in fierce debate.

    Sure, we spent moments with a parent or certain siblings during the day and we picked up bits and pieces of information or gossip along the way, but it was at the dinner table that we could count on hearing the straight story from our parents and each other. There, as we kept up with our family’s day-to-day news, we also strengthened our bond.

    Of course, the dining experience is probably a little different for families these days. Households tend to be smaller and parents’ work schedules aren’t as predictable. Plus, with all of the activities children participate in that cut into mealtime, it may not be possible for some families to gather together on a daily basis. The catching up and bonding may take place on a more infrequent basis or in a different setting, but it’s just as important nonetheless.

    Having a regular, ongoing opportunity to share news and information that we and only we are truly interested in gives everyone the sense that they’re in the know and an important member of the family. It helps us create our shared identity.

    I think it’s pretty much the same in a small community like ours.

    Technically, just by virtue of living here, everyone is part of the community. However, it’s the access to our own news and information — that regular habit of keeping up with what’s going on among us – that nurtures our sense of belonging, our shared identity, and it helps give our community its sense of place.

    When we are able to better know each other, and know more about our local businesses and organizations, our history and traditions, and all the constantly-changing issues and narratives that are playing out in our community, we can truly feel connected and at home in this unique place and we can participate in our community better.

    For example, in our community, and only in this particular community, the Wasps are both the king and queen when it comes to sports. Issues such as retiring public servants, accommodations for tourists, proposed new schools, and short-term rental regulations are headline news here. We have our very own natural disasters to contend with, as well as the local controversies and court cases everyone is following. We have a multitude of entertainment offerings to keep abreast of. We have people who are well-known and admired here, and there are always examples cropping up of ordinary people doing extraordinary things here that we like to hear about. Plus, we gather each year to vote on local candidates and topics that affect us personally, financially and emotionally. And people here certainly aren’t afraid to express an opinion and have a debate from time to time.

    All of those concerns are an integral part of life here. Our community’s identity then, is more than just a collection of pretty towns surrounded by farms and lush, rolling hills. It’s actually our shared interests and experiences that give this community its true sense of place.

    I liken the Vermont Standard to the “dinner table” of my youth, where we gather to keep up on things that are of interest to this community. Our reporters collect that news and information and we package it, deliver it, and make it possible for all of us to digest it each week so that we come away more informed and hopefully knowing and feeling a little closer to each other. In this way, we can more fully embrace our collective experience and be ready to participate, armed with a common, credible set of knowledge. Like with a family at mealtime, our shared identity is strengthened and we’re all better off.

    I hope you’ll consider joining our mission as we scramble to keep the Standard going despite the financial pressures that threaten its survival. We’ve got a large — though not insurmountable — operating deficit to overcome, and we just can’t keep this up without significant help. Our hope is that you agree with us that our local journalism is nourishment for our community and worthy of your investment. We hope you’ll make a donation to our 2023 Annual Appeal, and even better, consider adding us to the organizations that you make donations to each year so that we can achieve some staying power. If you own a business, we hope you’ll consider advertising with us as well.

    Some good news is that last month, the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation was created. The Foundation, which is dedicated primarily to preserving the Standard and its role in informing citizens and supporting democracy in our area well into the future, has formally filed an application for recognition of tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation has a board made up of local residents who care deeply about our community and the value the Standard provides. Phil Camp and I are on the board too. Together, we’ll work to continuously improve the paper’s print and digital journalism, and position it for long-term sustainability.

    If you’re willing to make a donation to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation, your contribution will be utilized in the form of project grants to support our mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance. And pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status – as to which our lawyers are quite confident – contributions will be tax-deductible dating back to the inception of the Foundation. Of course, we recommend potential donors discuss with their own advisors any specific questions about their particular contributions.

    To make a donation, please send us a check at PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at www.thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

    Pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status, your gift will be tax-deductible. We will send you confirmation of the IRS decision once it’s available in the coming few months.

    We’re betting on this community, at this time, for this mission

    By Dan Cotter, publisher

    If not us, who? If not now, when?

    These soul-searching questions have been pondered by leaders throughout history when faced with situations that required great courage and determination. In fact, longtime Vermont Standard publisher Phil Camp and I asked ourselves those same questions several years ago as we embarked on our mission to preserve quality local journalism for Woodstock and its neighboring towns, including Hartland Pomfret, Barnard, Quechee, Bridgewater, Reading, West Windsor, Plymouth and Killington. We were inspired by those questions as we set out to save the Standard’s print and digital journalism that informs and connects our community even though the advertising revenue that has supported the paper through the years has diminished.

    Just like other newspapers in large and small towns throughout the country, the Standard has been fighting for its life. Similar to everywhere else, advertising revenue is evaporating as smaller, independent retailers and service providers that traditionally supported local news organizations with their ads have been replaced by chains, big box stores and online sellers that typically do not support community journalism. And many classified advertisers now use dedicated help wanted, auto, and real estate websites instead of a newspaper. Plus, the residual effects of the COVID-19 economic shutdown have further eroded many businesses’ advertising budgets.

    Without sufficient advertising support, the Standard, like all newspapers, relies heavily on the public to help fund its local journalism. And that journalism is needed now more than ever in a society dominated by social media echo chambers, political and social division, and the proliferation of misinformation. Still, the Standard’s situation is dire. If not for contributions from philanthropic citizens who fully recognize the value of having local journalism in our community, the paper would lose several thousand dollars each week, and sadly — after a 170-year run — there would be no Vermont Standard.

    Saving this one small newspaper in Vermont is obviously important to the community here, but it also has national implications. Papers like the Standard are dying off at a pace of two per week. And far too many newspapers that are still alive have been acquired by corporations that have stripped them of their resources, turning them into “ghost papers” that are unable to adequately inform and serve their communities.

    Most newspapers are on the brink of insolvency. We must find a way in this country, both collectively and individually, to keep credible local journalism alive, to keep citizens informed and connected. Our democracy depends on it.

    The Standard is symbolic of this problem our nation faces. But if there is any place in the country where people truly love their community and treasure their newspaper — which is still produced by a small but devoted staff trying to do the right thing — it’s Woodstock, VT. If this community can’t find a way to sustain its local journalism, there is probably little hope for the rest.

    Unlike most other newspapers, the Standard, which already operates on a shoestring, has resisted the strategy of further stripping down its small operation to bare bones. Instead, we are attempting to preserve it as a quality newspaper that can continue serving our community well.

    Phil always maintained that the Standard actually belongs to the community. He’s right, and it’s in their hands now. If local journalism can indeed be saved, it will happen here, where citizens are so engaged and appreciation for the Standard is so strong.

    If not us, then who? If not now, then when?

    We’ve made significant progress. Last month, the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation was created. The Foundation, which is dedicated primarily to preserving the Standard and its role in informing citizens and supporting democracy in our area well into the future, has formally filed an application for recognition of tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation has a board made up of local residents who care deeply about our community and the value the Standard provides. Phil and I are on the board too. Together, we’ll work to continuously improve the paper’s print and digital journalism, and position it for long-term sustainability.

    We hope you’ll take a moment to make a donation to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation. Your contribution will be utilized in the form of project grants to support our mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance. And pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status – as to which our lawyers are quite confident – contributions will be tax-deductible dating back to the inception of the Foundation. Of course, we recommend potential donors discuss with their own advisors any specific questions about their particular contributions.

    Your contribution has the potential to make a real difference – to save our paper and give us a chance to put in place initiatives that ensure our long-term sustainability, to draw attention to the loss of quality local journalism across the country, and to motivate others to advocate for solutions to this crisis before it is too late.

    If you’re willing to make a donation to our 2023 Annual Appeal, please send us a check at PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at www.thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

    Pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status, your gift will be tax-deductible. We will send you confirmation of the IRS decision once it’s available in the coming few months.

    Since no news would be bad news, here’s some good news

    By Dan Cotter, publisher

    Anyone keeping track has probably noticed that the Vermont Standard’s annual appeal is starting late this year. In the past, I’ve written a series of four columns in August-September to let you know how we’re doing in Phil Camp’s and my quest to keep our local journalism viable for Woodstock and its neighboring towns. Here we are now at the end of September and I’m finally getting back to you!

    Still, I think the message I have to share today is one worth waiting for.

    Everybody knows by now that newspapers all throughout the country have been hanging by a thread. The Standard is no different. In the past, I’ve described our financial challenge to you here in the pages of the paper and Phil and I have met with a number of you personally to discuss the mission we’re on to try to ensure that the Standard continues to keep citizens here informed and connected well into the future, despite the loss of much of the traditional newspaper advertising revenue that supported local journalism in communities like ours for the past hundred years. We think that the public service newspapers like ours perform is critical to the health of our American democracy, and we believe that our community would be greatly diminished if we’re not successful in our quest to rescue the Standard.

    Just ask the more than 20 percent of Americans who now live in communities that have no trustworthy, in-depth, or independent news source reporting on their local issues.

    About 2,500 newspapers around the country have gone out of business in the past 20 years, and many, many of those that still exist are now just a shadow of their former selves, as corporate scavengers have acquired them and stripped them of their resources, leaving them alive but emaciated and wholly incapable of performing their duty to their community.

    We’re not trying to merely keep some semblance of a paper alive here. We’re trying to preserve a good, independent, 170-year-old purveyor of local journalism (both in print or digital formats) that our community can continue to trust, rely upon, and be proud of.

    And we are clearly not alone on this journey. For the past few years, increasing numbers of those who read and care for the Vermont Standard have pitched in to offer assistance. We’ve received donations and significant financial support from people who believe that having fair-minded, professionally produced, independent local journalism is extremely important to the quality of life here, and it’s a safeguard against sources that may otherwise spread misinformation and even disinformation in the community.

    All of these angels who helped us did so with no expectations other than that we’d continue to do our best to inform, entertain, and connect the community we exist to serve. They did it out of their love for Woodstock and the neighboring towns that make up our community. Without even the benefit of a tax deduction.

    Five years ago, wise friends of the Standard advised Phil and me to explore whether the paper could be operated by a nonprofit entity – which would enable it to receive tax-deductible contributions from donors and apply for grant funding. At the time, prospects for that route didn’t look promising. But with the ongoing counsel of those friends and others who have assisted us along the way, we have now identified and set out on a path forward that we hope will lead to the approval of a new 501(c)(3) organization to operate the newspaper.

    This month, the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation was created. The Foundation, which is dedicated primarily to preserving the Standard and its role in informing citizens and supporting democracy in our area well into the future, has formally filed an application for recognition of tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation has a board made up of local residents who care deeply about our community and the value the Standard provides. Phil and I are on the board too. Together, we’ll work to continuously improve the paper’s print and digital journalism, and position it for long-term sustainability.

    Now you can make a donation to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation and your contribution will be utilized in the form of project grants to support the Vermont Standard’s mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance. And pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status — which our lawyers are quite confident in – contributions will be tax-deductible dating back to the inception of the Foundation. Of course, we recommend potential donors discuss with their own advisors any specific questions about their particular contributions.

    We are very excited about this development, and we hope that more people will now be willing to support the Standard with a donation, and perhaps past donors will even consider increasing their contribution. For those who have family foundations, we hope that you’ll consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation to the causes you regularly support.

    Our need is quite urgent, to say the least. After many months of preparation, we are certainly pleased to now be in this position, but we’re late getting started with our annual appeal and we’ve incurred additional expenses to set this up, so that thread we’re clinging to is awfully frayed right now. We are profoundly grateful for anything you can do right away to help us get on firmer financial footing.

    If you’re willing to make a donation to our 2023 Annual Appeal, please send us a check at PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

    Pending IRS approval of the Foundation’s application for nonprofit status, your gift will be tax-deductible. We will send you confirmation of the IRS decision once it’s available in the coming few months.

    Hard to imagine Woodstock without the Standard 

    “View From Here”

    By Sandy Gilmour, Woodstock resident

    If you are reading this column right now, that’s good news for the community. It means you probably paid for this paper, hard copy or online, maybe even made a donation to it, and value its contribution to our lives in Woodstock and surrounding areas. We are so fortunate to have the Vermont Standard week in and week out. For years, small-town dailies and weeklies have been closing their doors, leaving communities without a soul. Papers like the Standard are dying off at the rate of two per week across America. 

    Such towns are called “news deserts.” Imagine weeks, months and years going by with no professional reporting on selectboards, trustees, school boards, taxes and roads. Zero stories about public school events, sports, student accomplishments, obituaries, gardening tips, neighborly cooking advice, local history, and no reports from towns from Brownsville to Pomfret. 

    We would know next to nothing about the interminable Peace Field Farm restaurant delay, the Ottauquechee Trail head fiasco, the high-stakes Woodstock Foundation controversy and the fatal shooting off Central Street, including the bravery of Woodstock Police Sgt. Joe Swanson. In my view, these stories have been really well reported. 

    To not get these stories delivered to us every week would be a news desert right in verdant Woodstock, for sure, a gaping hole left to be filled by rumor and mis- and dis-information, the precursors of community dissolution. So we are blessed indeed to have had the Vermont Standard around — nonstop — since 1853, and owned by beloved Woodstocker Phil Camp, now 87, since 1981. 

    But as Mr. Camp has pointed out many times over the years, the paper’s solvency hangs on a thread and now more than ever. In hundreds of towns across America, owners, beleaguered by losing subscribers and advertising to social media, simply folded or sold out to hedge funds and private equity firms, whose investors are bereft of community values. Not Phil Camp. He has always said, “I never sold out. I’m never giving up.” He made up for past deficits (difference between expenses, like staff, and income from subscriptions and ads) out of company savings from better times, week after week. He stayed with it after being flooded out by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011 and being burned out by the Central Street fire of 2018 (taking out his camera and snapping photos of the flames and rubble).

    The paper was in dire straits when COVID hit, saved by the forgiven federal PPP (Paycheck Protection Program) loans through 2021, when the largesse ended. Then beginning in January 2022, the community stepped up, responding to a fundraising appeal. I was rather stunned to learn from the Standard’s publisher, Dan Cotter, that the paper’s annual shortfall of $150,000-$200,000 is being covered by donations from local Woodstock residents. There are many (and appreciated) donations in the $50-$100-$200 range, but really heavy lifting is being done by donors of means who, Mr. Cotter says, highly value the contribution local journalism makes to communities. Several of these more-than-generous and anonymous donors contribute $20-25,000 and more — each — and, Mr. Cotter says, without any hint of trying to influence coverage. Without them, surely there would be no Vermont Standard in the mailbox or online, just the unreliable grapevine. At the same time, the paper is moving to create other revenue streams, including an online advertising app for Woodstock happenings and a magazine, in addition to improving thevermontstandard.com website for go-to news. 

    Still, the operation is bare bones. It seems to me a miracle the paper “hits the streets” without fail every Thursday with some pretty good and important stories that we need to know about, and many features that are good to know about. And there are just two, count them, two, full-time staffers who report stories: the seasoned and prolific Tom Ayres, and Tess Hunter, who is also the managing editor. Ms. Hunter says reporter staffing is the big issue; she has on hand freelance contract reporters that can be assigned to stories if they are available and if they want to spend the evening at yet another unexciting if important selectboard meeting. “It’s a constant juggling act,” Ms. Hunter told me, “between finding the right person for the story and just getting people to say ‘yes.’” Still, she is committed, saying, “Without us making the attempt, there would be no common base of understanding and little sense of the community spirit of the area or the hard news happening within it.”

    Volunteer contributors are crucial; regular community writers like Jennifer Falvey (insightful musings on life) and Kurt Stauder (pointed political observations) are popular. Mary Lee Camp’s business column is relentlessly informative. 

    Other key staff are listed in the box below — lean and spare!

    Publisher and editorial content director Dan Cotter, 64, hired by Mr. Camp in 2018 after years of informal consulting for the Standard, is not a household name in Woodstock, though he is hands-on every issue. He owns a condo in the area and is here about half the month, returning to his home and wife in Chicago for the remainder. He has decades in the industry as an executive and consultant, was head of the New England Newspaper and Press Association, and takes a no-nonsense hard line on newspaper independence and objectivity. It’s an unusual situation but Mr. Camp, still the president of the company, has total confidence in Mr. Cotter and has turned over the Vermont Standard, its operation, assets and its future, to his close friend. Mr. Camp has indeed not “given up,” but hopes to ensure his dear newspaper’s future with this arrangement. 

    So where does the Standard go now? Around the country, journalists are reinventing newspapers and online reporting. The most promising seems to be the non-profit model, where deductible contributions from community-minded supporters can be made even as the publication accepts subscription fees and what advertising there is left. There are indications that the Standard is moving in this direction, and the sooner the better, in my view. When I pressed Publisher Cotter on the issue, he responded with this very encouraging comment: 

    “In the past couple of years, members of the community have literally kept the Standard alive with their donations — and a handful of them have given very substantial sums, even without the benefit of a tax break. That’s how much they value the role our local journalism plays in the quality of life in our area. We are working now to put the paper on a path to where donors could indeed have a tax benefit. For it is essential to our democracy and our own survival that we have the financial support we need from the community to maintain a news organization — modest as it is — that’s capable of producing good local journalism that adequately informs our citizens.”

    I can’t imagine Woodstock without the Vermont Standard. The new business model provides great hope the paper will not only survive but as a Woodstock-based non-profit, continue to expand coverage to benefit all of us in this great community. 

    Note: This (unpaid) column originated with me alone! 

    Sandy Gilmour is a retired NBC News correspondent who lives in Woodstock.

    Newspapers Are In a Race Against the Clock

    Woodstock

    Throughout the country newspapers are in a fight for their lives.          Here too.

    Race Against The Clock VT Standard Front Page

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