The town of West Windsor has dared to imagine a community returned to a different time. Before streetlights blazed through the night and the fluorescent hue of stores and offices beamed into the wee hours of the morning, the world once knew darkness. True darkness. Devoid of light pollution. 

From April 13-20, West Windsor plans to have the opportunity to experience a star-filled sky unobstructed by artificial light. 

On Monday, March 23, the West Windsor Selectboard voted and adopted a proclamation, showing their support for their Sustainability Committee’s “Dark Sky Week” initiative, with two board members voting in favor, one abstaining. 

Susan Yost, chairperson of the committee, presented a proclamation to the board, which read, “The aesthetic beauty and wonder of the natural night sky is part of the shared heritage of all humankind. The experience [of] standing under a starry night sky inspires feelings of wonder and awe. It encourages an interest in science and nature, particularly among children.

“Light pollution is scientifically established, [with documented] economic and environmental consequences which result in significant impacts on the ecology and human health of all communities…80% of the world’s population, including many people in Vermont, live under a dome of light pollution. Excessive artificial lighting at night disrupts natural darkness and may [keep us from experiencing] the visual wonder or ecological health benefits of living under a dark sky. 

“Light pollution represents a waste of natural resources, amounting to roughly $3 billion per year of wasted energy in the United States, and contributes to diminished security. West Windsor is home to dozens of nocturnal wildlife species, including the endangered little brown bat, wood frogs, peepers, yellow spotted salamanders, frogs, fireflies and pollinating moths. These species rely on undisturbed night environments to hunt, mate and thrive.” 

Following a reading of the proclamation, the selectboard voted to adopt the initiative, which recognizes International Dark Sky Week as a means of raising awareness of the effects of light pollution, providing free educational resources and solutions to the public, and protecting the dark skies and those who rely on them most.

Vice chair Mark Harley raised concerns, stating that he was in favor of the ecological aspects of Dark Sky Week, but out of respect for the safety concerns that accompany limiting light in town at night, he chose to abstain from signing the proclamation. 

“If West Windsor decided, for instance, to turn off every other streetlight and some kid went shooting across the street, not looking carefully both ways, and was struck and killed by a car — that would be a huge tragedy. You know, something as simple as that could happen, even with the best intentions,” Harley said. 

Regarding this point, Yost told the Standard, “We’re not advocating that people turn off necessary lighting. Safety is definitely something that is foremost in our minds. But there are ways to mitigate bad lighting situations. Motion sensors are a great idea. Even warm lighting is better for the environment. The human eye is not made to endure bright, harsh lights, nor is our environment. We hope Dark Sky Week serves as an educational opportunity for those in our town, as well as a way to take a breath, stare up at the sky, and see the stars in a new light.” 

For more on this, please see our April 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Beginning this month and continuing through May, 28 acres of a grass wildlife opening near the Woodstock/Pomfret town line will be burned by the federal Green Mountain National Forest as part of a larger prescribed fire operation of over nearly 1,000 acres in southern Vermont. The area near the Woodstock/Pomfret town line is named the AT Upper Lewis, and it is located where the Appalachian Trail (AT) crosses Route 12.

“We estimate this work to continue through the spring as weather conditions allow. We use prescribed fires to help reduce overgrown vegetation to help protect local communities, infrastructure and natural resources from wildfires,” states a press release dated March 24 from Green Mountain National Forest, part of the USDA.

Ryan Hughes, forest fire management officer for the Green Mountain and Finger Lakes National Forests, told the Standard this week why this particular area was chosen: “The Forest Service is using prescribed fire in this location as a management tool to reduce heavy accumulations of grass and brush, which will also help to reduce the potential for large uncontrollable wildfires. These efforts allow us to restore critical wildlife habitat, regenerate early successional growth, and improve overall watershed conditions on the National Forest in Vermont.”

While some prescribed fires may last for only a single day, he said, others can last for several days, depending on weather conditions and the objectives for the prescribed fires. “The timing of each prescribed fire depends heavily on weather and vegetation conditions that meet very specifically defined limits — called the ‘prescription’ — so the ignition dates are subject to some adjustment, though the overall ‘burn window’ is not likely to exceed more than six weeks,” he said. 

For more on this, please see our April 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

In a time-honored spirit of song and solidarity that wove a common thread from the women’s suffrage and early American labor movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries through the Civil Rights and antiwar struggles of the 1960s, local singers are banding together to raise their voices in protest against the policies of the administration of President Donald J. Trump.

Singer-activists from at least 12 Upper Valley communities, including Woodstock and Hartland, have joined the nationwide Singing Resistance movement, which has its roots in Minneapolis in the wake of the police slaying of a Black man, George Floyd, in 2020. Fueled by indignance and wrath over the highly aggressive law enforcement actions of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in Minneapolis this past winter — including the killings of American citizens Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti — the Singing Resistance crusade has blossomed into a countrywide chorus of tens of thousands of people giving voice to simple, newly crafted songs of protest and solidarity, channeling public ire about Trump administration actions ranging from the immigration crackdown to the decimation of arts and culture programs to the ongoing war in Iran and more.

Here in the local area, the ascendency of the Singing Resistance movement asserted itself in abundance at No Kings gatherings in multiple communities last Saturday. Activists in the region began organizing community-based singers into musical “pods” roughly about six weeks ago to begin preparations for songful protest at last weekend’s No Kings events.

The Rev. Paul Sawyer, the minister of the First Universalist Society of Hartland, was a prime mover in bringing the Singing Resistance movement to the local area.

Left to right, Wendy Jenne of Bridgewater, Christina Manero of Woodstock, Shari Borzekowski of Killington, Anna Sessa of Reading, and No Kings rally organizer Courtney Hollingsworth of Woodstock, led the crowd in song at Tribou Park last Saturday.

“It’s been spreading pretty far and wide, gaining momentum following the ICE actions in Minneapolis,” Sawyer told the Standard on Monday concerning the Singing Resistance effort. “Some of us learned about it and reached out to the UV Rise Up [activist group] and put out a call for anyone who was interested. We got together a whole group of Upper Valley people about a month ago and then adopted the structure of the national movement, which is decentralized. In many places, statewide movements are broken down into regional efforts and then further down into local, community-based pods,” Sawyer explained. Singing Resistance pods based locally include those in Woodstock, Hartland, Lebanon, Norwich, Thetford, South Royalton, and Hanover. Town-based singing groups range in size from five to twenty-five-plus voices — and the UV Rise Up group, which is helping to coordinate the organization of new singing pods in the area, estimates that 150 to 200 people are now giving voice to their concerns in song at No Kings events and other protest gatherings in the region.

Anna Sessa of Reading is one of those singing activists. Together with Killington resident Shari Borzekowski and Pastor Christina Manero of Woodstock, the interim minister at the Bethany Mennonite Church in Bridgewater Corners, Sessa led the group sing at last Saturday’s No Kings rally at Tribou Park in Woodstock Village. The Woodstock pod of the Singing Resistance movement — now about 15 members strong — plans to continue meeting, rehearsing, and using song as a means of protest at many of the daily Tribou Park vigils that have been going on for the past 14 months.

Reached at her home as she was tucking a young child into bed on Monday evening, Sessa spoke of her ardent engagement with the Singing Resistance initiative.

“I’ve got very close family in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area — and seeing and hearing what their cities and communities have been going through has been heartbreaking,” Sessa offered. “We only get a little bit of what the media wants to share with us, but seeing all of the different ways that [people have been] coming out to support their neighbors and their community was really inspiring to me. There was a video on social media of the Singing Resistance there — and I thought, ‘Wow, what a cool way to approach supporting your community in so many different ways.’ They’re lifting up their community in really hard times,” Sessa added. “And I keep using the word community because unity is part of community.

For more on this, please see our April 2 edition of the Vermont Standard.

“Bookstock 2026” is officially a go. With a slate of impressive authors on hand, a new “Cookstock” event, and a number of partnerships in the works, the Bookstock board promises that our area is in for a book-filled extravaganza over the weekend of May 15-17. 

Among the many notable authors present for this year’s event, namely Katherine Arden, Patrick Bringley, Gesine Bullock-Prado, and Amity Gaige, Bookstock 2026 plans to expand into film with a screenwriting evening at Pentangle Arts, along with workshops and readings designed for teens in the area. 

This week, the Standard sat down with Bookstock board members Michael Stoner, Jonathan Spector, Julie Moncton, and Priscilla Painton to discuss what attractions attendees can expect and how this year’s event will differ from Bookstock in the past. 

Stoner explained, “From the standpoint of attendees, I think they’ll find that it’s going to feel a lot like last year’s Bookstock but with some tweaks. We have developed some key partnerships that really expand the way our opening night, our poetry events, and our Saturday film screening will operate. Our hope is to present opportunities for people to come to the festival and expand their horizons.” 

For the full story, please see our April 2 edition of the Vermont Standard.

By Justin Bigos, Staff Writer

This Easter weekend, churches in our area will offer many special services and celebrations.

The First Congregational Church of Woodstock will be hosting an Easter Sunrise Service. Participants should meet at Faulkner Park at 6 a.m., in order to hike to Mt. Tom, where the service begins at about 7 a.m. at the star. Afterward, Easter Breakfast will be served from 8-9 a.m. in the Billings Room, which is the auxiliary chapel attached to the church. Easter Morning Worship will take place at 10:30 a.m. 

On Thursday, April 2, Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Woodstock will host a Holy Thursday Mass at 7 p.m., followed by a Good Friday service at 3 p.m. On Saturday, April 4, the church will host a Holy Saturday Mass at 7 p.m. The Easter Sunday Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. 

The Our Lady of the Snows sister parish, Our Lady of the Mountain in Killington, will hold its Easter Mass on Sunday, April 5, at 8 a.m. 

The Brownsville Community Church in West Windsor will hold several services during Holy Week. On Thursday, April 2, at 7 p.m., there will be a Maundy ceremony commemorating the Last Supper. On Good Friday at 2 p.m., the church will host the Tenebrae (Latin for “darkness”) ceremony, symbolic of Christ’s passion and death. On Saturday, the annual Easter Egg Hunt will take place at 10 a.m. On Sunday, the community church will hold an outdoor Easter Sunrise service at Mt. Ascutney beginning at 7 a.m., followed by a Pancake Breakfast from 7:30-9 a.m. at the church, and the Easter service at 9:30 a.m.

The Quechee Church will celebrate Easter this year with a Good Friday service on April 3 at 7 p.m., followed the next morning by an Easter Egg Hunt at 11 a.m. The Easter Worship Service will be held on Sunday at 9 a.m.

The First Congregational Church in Hartland is having a Maundy Thursday Tenebrae service on April 2, at 7 p.m. On April 3, the church will host a Good Friday Vigil from 5-7 p.m. On Easter Sunday, the church will hold a Sunrise Service at 6 a.m. at Hammond Hill (behind Mike’s Store and Deli), followed by a free breakfast downstairs at the church. Finally, at 10 a.m., the traditional Easter Worship will be held in the sanctuary, with the Flowering of the Cross.

North Chapel in Woodstock will host an Easter Egg dyeing party on Saturday at 10 a.m. They will then hold an Easter Sunday service at 10 a.m. All are welcome.

The Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship will commence their events with a 7:30 a.m. Cross Walk, a short walk up the hill behind the chapel for “a time of prayer, reflection, and singing.” The chapel will serve a potluck-style breakfast at 8:30 a.m. at the chapel, and all are welcome. Then the church will hold its Easter Morning Service at 9:30 a.m.

The Christian Science Society of Woodstock will be offering its Sunday Easter Service on April 5 at 10 a.m. 

St. James Episcopal Church will hold a service on Maundy Thursday, April 17, at 7 p.m., including the sacrament of Holy Eucharist and the Stripping of the Altar ceremony. There will also be a Good Friday liturgy at noon, and Easter Sunday services at 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. All services except the one at 8 a.m. are also available via Zoom.

North Pomfret Congregational Church will hold a Maundy Thursday service at 5:30 p.m., followed by an Easter Sunday Worship service at 10 a.m. that will meet in the sanctuary and also via Zoom.

Junction Arts Media (JAM) and eighth-grade history and social studies students at Hartland Elementary School (HES) recently wrapped up a civic engagement and video production collaboration that resulted in the students videotaping the annual Town Meeting in their community on Tuesday, March 3.

During the course of the three-month-long civics and governance project, JAM producers also shared their expertise in covering political issues with the HES middle school youths and joined the students for a daylong sojourn to the Edward Kennedy Institute at the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, where the students took part in a mock U.S. Senate debate in chambers modeled after the Senate’s home in the federal Capitol building in Washington.

JAM, formerly Community Access Television (CATV), is a non-profit community-building organization whose mission is to “enable open public dialogue, expression, and government transparency by providing access to the expanding world of media.” JAM serves the towns of Hartford, Hartland, Norwich, and Hanover, as well as the SAU88 School District in Lebanon, N.H. “JAM delivers independent access to local political issues through hybrid production, live broadcasting, and archiving of local government meetings,” the organization’s mission statement states.

“Our partnership with Hartland Elementary goes way back,” JAM executive director Samantha Davidson Green told the Standard this week. “We had a project a few years ago where we collaborated to work with students to create a documentary about a compost building effort that they were doing. That resulted in engaging a wide range of kids. Some were involved in building the compost, others were doing the filming. That was as a result of the Vermont Arts Council setting up a visiting media artist structure with JAM,” Green added. “We had a great time having our producers go to the school and work with the teachers to make connections between media production, media literacy, and the curriculum, using the curiosity kids have about media to get them interested in other subject matters that they’re looking at through the lens.”

The most recent collaboration between JAM and the HES middle school students and history/social studies teacher Abbey Fusco was made possible by a grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, Green noted.

This week, Fusco spoke to the Standard about the partnership with JAM, the trip to the mock U.S. Senate venue at the Kennedy Library, and the impact the civic engagement collaboration has had on the eighth-grade students who participated in it. She also facilitated a joint phone interview with two of the students who took part in the collaborative project.

For the full story, please see our April 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

Woodstock Union High School sophomore Addison Blanchard has been making art for as long as she can remember — scrawling on the walls of her childhood home, filling sketchbooks, finding ways to say through images what she couldn’t quite put into words. She leaned into it seriously around sixth grade, but says it wasn’t until her freshman year when she picked up a brush in response to the 2024 election that her art became something more.

The piece was a self-portrait in acrylics, surrounded by quotes about radical indoctrination. She made it in response to what she described as executive order language aimed at curtailing speech in schools, and displayed it at a high school art show held right after the election. The response it got stayed with her.

That piece became the seed of what is now “The Art of Resistance Gallery,” a community exhibition Blanchard is organizing through WUHS’s Community Connections program (known as C3), which allows students to pursue independent study projects with real-world impact. The gallery opens May 15 at Mon Vert Cafe in Woodstock, where artwork will be on display for one month.

A print of “We’re Still Here,” an acrylic painting by Addison Blanchard, will be included in the gallery, as the original is currently competing at the state level.
Courtesy of Addison Blanchard

When Blanchard signed up for the independent study, she imagined a few of her own pieces on a school wall. “I thought I was going to have a lot more pieces than three or four,” Blanchard said. “But I spent a long time finishing one that’s not even going to be in the show.”

Around the midpoint of the school year, the plan shifted. Her art teacher suggested partnering with Mon Vert Cafe owner Sam DiNatale, who had previously hosted an advanced art show that Blanchard participated in. DiNatale agreed to host the new exhibition.

Blanchard’s personal project became a community one — a gallery open to artists of all ages and backgrounds, with submissions encouraged on any theme touching activism, social justice, equality, environmental justice, or human rights. The submission deadline is May 2. Details and the submission form are available at @art.of.resistance.gallery on Instagram.

For Blanchard, the gallery is inseparable from the political moment that shaped it.

“This administration has affected me more so than any other one has,” Blanchard said. “Especially since it affects me personally as a queer child. Children can’t vote and are often not taken seriously for their opinions on things, despite being directly affected by some legislation. Being able to voice my opinions and concerns about things has been really important to me.”

Art, Blanchard said, has always been the megaphone she’s felt most comfortable with.

For more on this, please see our April 2 edition of the Vermont Standard. 

By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter

Practices ran throughout the afternoon on Monday in Woodstock’s Union Arena, but the winter’s hockey sticks have been traded in for those of the lacrosse variety.

The Wasps’ lacrosse programs both feature long-tenured coaches with their sights set on the state’s top prize. Boys lacrosse will be led by Brandon Little in his 17th season as the unit’s head coach, his 20th on the coaching staff overall. The Woodstock native said last year’s team went through somewhat of a rebuild due to injuries to key seniors, but this year’s squad should be ready for success.

“We are always strong in Vermont’s Division I,” he said. “Every year starts with the same goal of trying to make it to the final four. Some years that happens, some years it doesn’t, but we should have a pretty good team.”

The team this season will feature a mix of fresh faces and veterans with 11 freshmen, 10 sophomores, three juniors, and 13 seniors. Among the three seniors are standouts Kyler Eaton, Asher Emery, and Rowan Larmie.

“We had a lot of new players last year who are going to be bigger and better this year,” said Eaton, a captain who Little said will be one of the team’s top scorers. “I’m excited to see what they can do. It is exciting to be in the role of leader after years of looking at the older guys and taking what they did into account.”

For Emery, the drive to play lacrosse comes from his love of physical sports. “I play other contact sports and bring a physical mindset,” said the senior captain, who was a big presence on both the basketball and football teams this year. “I like to run, and lacrosse has a lot of running. I like to speed things up.”

Larmie comes into the 2026 campaign as a three-year starter as a goaltender. “Being courageous and not scared,” he explained, is what makes him a good goalie. “I’m not scared to throw my body on the line.” The senior said a strong core of elder leadership and the team’s ability to communicate will be the key to their success this season.

This year, like in years past, Little said the team will take on an underdog persona to fuel success. “They are a group of super-hard-working competitors, who are underdogs in the state,” he said, as the team is always the smallest school in Vermont’s Division I. “We look forward to going against the best teams in Vermont.”

Eleven-year head coach Amanda Hull is hoping to get her team over the hump this year, after falling in the title game in 2024 and losing in the Division II semi-finals last spring. The class of 2004 alum played lacrosse at Woodstock before taking her talents to Saint Michael’s College in Colchester. She will be assisted by Amanda Ferris and Meg Roylance.

After Monday’s practice, Hull was very pleased. “It’s day one, and it seems like we never stopped playing from last year,” she said. “We have a good group of seniors who have been playing a long time, and hit the ground running today. We have a lot of potential.”

According to Hull, the Wasps’ strongest unit will be their midfield, led by seniors Aleks Cirovic and Maeve Roylance, and sophomore Betta Cirovic. “They were a really strong point last year,” she said. “They are a really helpful group to have together.”

Additionally, the head coach pointed to senior goalkeeper Jessica Baumann as a name to watch. “She started playing as a freshman, and every year has gotten better and better. I feel like this year she will be even better and is a solid rock for the team,” she said.

Sophomore Alaythia Lockhart, who said she wasn’t planning on returning to the team this year but came back to be a part of a strong team, praised her head coach. “She’s got great energy, is always upbeat and brings the whole team up,” she said. “When you are surrounded by positive energy like that, it makes the team better.”

Another underclassman, sophomore Addison Tapley, commented on the pressure she feels stepping into more playing time this season. “It is good pressure, especially since the upperclassmen are so welcoming and open,” she said. “I’m really excited for the season. We have a strong base built, and I think we are going to keep getting better.”

Hull is optimistic for the team’s chances this season. “They have a great energy, they work well together, and have a lot of potential,” she said. “I’m excited to see where this group of hardworking girls can go.”

Woodstock’s boys will open the season on Saturday, April 11, at 11 a.m. at Burr & Burton Academy, while the girls make the trip down to Manchester this Saturday afternoon for a series of scrimmages, before officially kicking off their season against BBA at home on Monday, April 13.

By Tyler Maheu, Staff Sportswriter

Monday marked the first day of practice for both the boys and girls tennis teams at the Woodstock Athletic Club. 

Returning for his second year at the helm of the girls team is Derek Pierce, who took the job last year at the behest of his daughters. “I coached last year, my oldest daughter was captain,” he said. “My youngest is a junior (Jess Pierce), and they begged me to take the job and got me at the eleventh hour.”

Last year’s team of 12 girls had a successful season, good enough for a seven-seed in the Vermont Principals’ Association’s Division II tournament, and a trip to the quarterfinals, where they fell to eventual state runner-up Burr & Burton Academy. According to Pierce, this year’s squad is set up for another quality run at the title.

“We have real strength in our one, two and three singles players, and our four and five starters will be competitive,” he said. “We have seven girls returning, with all of our one-through-five singles set, and a couple who have played doubles in the past.”

Pierce will rely on his two senior captains, Mia Zilian and Chiara Winawer-Stein, to anchor the team on the court and off. Both captains said an emphasis for them this year will be in returning the team’s sense of camaraderie.

“When both of us first came on the team in ninth grade, there was a sense of inclusiveness and community,” said Zilian. “As captains, we want to bring that back.” This was echoed by Winawer-Stein. “I was intimidated by the sport in ninth grade, so my big goal is to make this a space where new people can learn in a non-judgmental way and to help build a close team.” Winawer-Stein said her individual focus will be on taking a more offensive approach to the game by putting balls away to end points, instead of getting trapped in endless rallies.

For Zilian, the joy of tennis is what keeps her coming back. “It’s the excitement of hitting the ball,” she said about what she loves most about tennis. “I have been playing for a long period of my life; there’s a comfortability and it reminds me of childhood. The sport keeps me fulfilled, and the courts are a fun place to come back to.”

More than 20 athletes come out for the girls team on Monday, making cuts inevitable. Both Pierce and boys coach Michael Malik preached the importance of the school’s junior varsity program as a place where athletes who don’t make the varsity cut can learn and thrive. “We would like to keep the program’s momentum going by keeping the community alive with JV,” said Pierce. “It really helps the newer girls get into the sport. We want to make tennis as fun as possible while still being competitive.”

“We have 20 kids trying out for 11 spots,” said Malik. “Eliot Szwajkowski (junior varsity coach) takes the kids that don’t make it and helps them. The kids that didn’t make the team keep coming back stronger.”

On the boys side of the court, Malik is returning for his third year with the program, hoping for another leap in progress. The former college tennis player said that in his first season, the team featured one or two kids with experience while the rest had never played. “Then, last year, everyone came back to get better, and they are back again this year,” he said.

Last year’s team finished around .500, which earned them a nine-seed in the state tournament. After a first-round upset of South Burlington, they were eliminated by the number-one-seeded Burr & Burton Academy. “It was a good outcome for a young team with a lot of new talent,” said Malik. “We hope to win more this year.”

His team will be led by two standouts from last year’s junior varsity team in freshmen Arlo Clark and Keller Murphy, as well as his son, junior Vasco Malik. “We have a big new group,” said Vasco Malik, who will take on a substantial leadership role as the team’s top player. “We are going to focus on skills and focus on the little details in order to be well-rounded.” Individually, the junior is looking for growth more than results. “I will hopefully get a lot better,” he said. “I think improving all around is a goal.”

Like Pierce, Michael Malik preached the importance of keeping the sport fun. “It is great to see the kids coming back year after year,” he said. “The key to coming back is loving the sport. Then you can get better and see more wins.” 

The boys tennis team will open the season on Tuesday, April 14, at 4 p.m. in Rutland, while the girls will begin on Monday, March 13, at Mount Saint Joseph Academy at 4 p.m. 

Bruce Charles Gould, 85, of Woodstock, passed away peacefully on March 29, 2026, after a long and courageous battle with multiple system atrophy, surrounded by the family he loved so deeply. 

To the world, he was Bruce Gould. But to his family — and especially to his grandchildren — he was simply “Bubba,” a name that captured the warmth, love, and steady presence he brought to their lives. 

Bruce was born on Nov. 9, 1940, in Claremont, N.H., to Howard and Alice Gould. He was raised in Woodstock alongside his brother, Howard (“Toppy”), who predeceased him, and his sister, Nancy (Gould) Bebo. Together, they shared a close-knit upbringing that extended into a lifetime of strong family ties across generations. 

The extended Bebo family remained an important and lasting part of Bruce’s life, including Nancy and Nelson’s children — Nel, Todd, Stacy, and Deanna — and their families, all of whom shared in the close bonds and memories that defined those years. 

A 1958 graduate of Woodstock Union High School, Bruce went on to proudly serve his country in the United States Navy. Following his service, he worked for New England Telephone before entering the life insurance business and eventually building a long and successful career in insurance and real estate. In 1972, he established his own business, which continued for decades under Gould & Quinn, LTD, doing business as Gould Realtors. 

Bruce and his wife, Patricia Ann Gould (Quinn), built a life grounded in hard work, respect, and deep commitment to family. Together, they became well known throughout the Woodstock area not only for their professional success, but for the way they carried themselves — with integrity, professionalism, and quiet pride. 

Bruce was widely respected in his field. He was named Realtor of the Year and went on to serve as President of the Vermont Association of Realtors, along with leadership roles at the county and national levels. His career was not just about business — it was about relationships, trust, and doing things the right way. 

His impact on the Woodstock community was lasting and significant. Over the years, Bruce dedicated himself to public service, contributing his time and leadership to numerous organizations, including the Woodstock Town School Board, Planning Commission, Rotary Club, Woodstock Foundation, and many others. He served as Town Moderator for decades, guiding meetings with fairness, calm authority, and respect for all voices. 

He was, at his core, a quiet man. It is hard to recall a time he ever raised his voice. But when he did speak, people listened. He led not by volume, but by consistency, thoughtfulness, and example. 

Bruce was a worker in every sense — often in a suit and tie throughout his career — but just as often found on weekends cutting firewood, working around the house, and staying busy. He believed in 

responsibility, in showing up, and in taking care of what mattered. 

His generation knew how to do things the right way, and Bruce lived that every day. He did absolutely everything for his family. He sacrificed without hesitation and always put his family — both immediate and extended — before himself. That was simply who he was. 

Some of the most meaningful moments of his life were spent at Robert’s Roost on Highland Lake in New Hampshire, where his family gathered alongside the Bebos and the Doubledays. Even as recently as last year, Bruce was able to return to the camp and sit peacefully by the lake with his family. Though his voice had been taken from him, his presence spoke volumes. 

He also cherished time spent in Florida with his lifelong best friend, Jack Henderson, and Jack’s wife, Barb. Their friendship spanned decades—riding motorcycles and simply enjoying time together whenever they could. Beyond Jack, Bruce was fortunate to have a circle of lifelong friends — men he considered brothers — whose shared history, loyalty, and time together meant a great deal to him throughout his life. 

Later in life, especially around retirement, Bruce found a deep appreciation for golf. He often said he never played enough and always wished he had more time for it. Some of his most meaningful moments were simple Sunday afternoons spent on the course with his son Tim. He also looked forward every single week to family dinners at his daughter Leanne’s home, where she brought everyone together whenever possible. Bruce and Patricia truly lived for those moments — having their family together as often as they could. 

Above all, Bruce was a devoted husband and a deeply loving father. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Ann Gould (Quinn); his children, Christine, Tim and partner Rose, and Leanne and her husband Emo Chynoweth; grandchildren Ailene Faller, partner Nick, Tyler and his wife Haleigh, Ely and his partner Natalie, and Riley. He was able to experience being a great-grandfather to Bentley, born to Ailene and Nick, and Greyson, born to Tyler and Haleigh. 

Bruce will be remembered not just for what he accomplished, but for how he lived. For decades — through the 1970s, ‘80s, ‘90s, and beyond — he helped shape the Woodstock community simply by being steady, dependable, and kind. He did not seek recognition — he earned respect. 

He was an exceptional husband, a steady and guiding father, a proud grandfather, and above all, an incredible human being. The kind of man who set an example without ever needing to say a word. 

A private burial will be held on Saturday, April 11. A celebration of Bruce’s life will follow that same day from 1-5 p.m. at the Thompson Senior Center in Woodstock. All who knew Bruce are warmly invited to come and celebrate his life. An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

Fly high, Bubba. We all love you! 

Leslie (Deedee) Riffle-Van Alstyne, age 65, passed away peacefully on March 18, 2026, at her sister’s home in Quechee, Vermont. 

Deedee was born on March 6, 1961, to Peter Roland and Carol Virgina Van Alstyne (nee Carlson). Deedee grew up in Wilton, Conn. and graduated from Wilton High School in 1979. Following high school, she attended Keene State College and graduated with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree majoring in Art History and Archeology in 1983. 

Deedee’s love for art and museums persisted throughout her life. Whenever she visited a new town, her top priority was to visit a new art gallery or museum. She worked at a number of museums directing the gift shops and coordinating visitor experiences. She brought that love of art to her home as well. While Deedee moved frequently, she was always able to make a space uniquely her own by decorating with vintage knick-knacks, antiques, and well-curated art with each item carrying a special story. Deedee’s eye for style translated to her wardrobe as well where she was always able to pull together funky outfits with bright colors, scarves, and distinctive jewelry.

Along with her passion for the arts, Deedee loved to listen and dance to good music. At a young age, she enjoyed spending hours listening to new vinyls and traveling into New York City to see her favorite bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Whether she was in a large crowd, a small show, or just with family and friends, Deedee always was able to let loose and start the dance floor. 

A signature of Deedee’s presence was her humor and distinct laugh. Sometimes you could even hear her speak long monologues of French, only to reveal later it was completely fake and she never said a real word. She was open to adventure and unapologetically herself, traits that often created strong new relationships often and a wake of friendships wherever she had been.

Deedee married her former husband Bryan Riffle in 1988 and had two sons, Adam and Toby in 1990 and 1997, respectively. She was a devoted mother that sacrificed everything to give her children every opportunity. She taught them to persevere through life’s hardships, find humor in anything, laugh with friends, and dance like no one was watching. 

Deedee is survived by her son Adam and his wife Sarah Dymecki, and her son Toby and his partner Emily Johnson, her sister, Susan Van Alstyne and husband David Lechner, her sister Kristen Lessard and husband Brian, her brother, Peter C. Van Alstyne and wife Rosemary Halligan, her nieces, Cailin Lechner and husband Bryan, Kate Lessard, Jane and Natalie Van Alstyne, her nephews, Sam Lessard and his wife Liz, and Evan Lechner, along with numerous close friends. 

During her childhood, Deedee spent many happy times at her family’s second home in Vermont and summers in her beloved Martha’s Vineyard. She spent her final five years in Woodstock.

Deedee’s family is planning a celebration of life at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 30 at the North Universalist Chapel Society with a private reception to follow.

An online guestbook can be found at cabotfh.com.

John Joseph Wiegand, Sr., of Quechee, died at home on March 21 from complications related to skin cancer. He was 98.

Mr. Wiegand is survived by his five children: Claudia Wiegand of Rehoboth Beach, Del.; Linda Wiegand Packard of Quechee; Donna Wiegand-Bicknell (Raymond) of Beebe Plain, Vt.; John Wiegand, Jr. (Cindy), also of Quechee; and Michael Wiegand (Ghaddra Gonzalez) of Mercer Island, Wash. He is also survived by six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife of 72 years, Ruth; his brother, George; and his sister, Frances.

Born in the Bronx, N.Y., and raised in Flushing, Queens, Mr. Wiegand was a member of a generation shaped by duty, discipline, and perseverance. He served in the United States Navy during World War II and went on to attend Adelphi College and Hofstra University.

He and Ruth later settled on Long Island, where he began his career in industrial engineering at Fairchild Aviation. That role marked the beginning of a long and accomplished international career with HB Maynard Management Consulting, Indian Head Plywood, and Columbia Plywood. His work with Indian Head brought him and his family to Vermont, where they purchased their home in Quechee in 1964 — a place that remained central to his life for decades.

Mr. Wiegand concluded his career at Robert F. Lewis, Inc. of Woodstock. He was known for his strong work ethic, sound judgment, and steady leadership.

In retirement, he and Ruth traveled extensively and spent winters in Placida, Fla. He remained active in the game of golf and devoted many years of service to the Vermont Golf Association and the New England Golf Association, where he held leadership roles and supported the growth of the game for younger generations.

 Above all, he was devoted to his family and took great pride in their accomplishments. His life reflected a deep sense of responsibility, loyalty, and quiet strength.

A Funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Church in Woodstock on Saturday, April 18, at 10:30 a.m. Interment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in John’s name to the Quechee Library (quecheeandwilderlibraries.com) or the Vermont Golf Association Junior Golf Scholarship Fund (vgasf.org).

Arrangements are by Cabot Funeral Home, Woodstock, Vt. An online guestbook may be found at cabotfh.com.

Nancy Corwith Hamill Winter, a visionary conservationist, passionate equestrian, and student of the world, died peacefully on February 27, 2026, while spending time with her beloved horses and friends in Aiken, S.C. She was 83. Based in Woodstock, Nancy was a proud native of Illinois, where her family had deep roots. Nancy leaves a legacy of kindness, generosity, and collaborative leadership in numerous organizations and in communities across the country.

Born on March 9, 1942, Nancy spent her childhood in Wayne, Ill., exploring local fields and forests with her family and cadre of close friends involved in the Wayne-DuPage Pony Club. She attended the Masters School in Dobbs Ferry, Skidmore College, Bennett College, and George Washington University where she studied Asian language and cultures. In the early 1960’s, Nancy taught English in post-war Japan, an experience that shaped her lifelong commitment to cross-cultural understanding. Nancy went on to a distinguished career as an equestrian competitor, coach, and breeder, coming within reach of the 1984 U.S. Olympic Equestrian team. Nancy was also deeply invested in the emerging field of therapeutic riding as well as supporting young competitive riders and a next generation of elite equestrian eventers. One of her proudest accomplishments was owning and breeding the 2025 Connemara Sport Horse of the Year, No May Moon, trained and ridden by long-time equestrian partner Allison Springer.

Nancy traveled the world and embraced every journey with extraordinary preparation, an open heart, and an adventurous spirit that was infectious to all. She found humor and awe in her travels, making authentic connections and lifelong friendships with those she met along her way. Nancy held her most special places close to her heart: the remnant native prairies and burr oak savannas of Illinois, the rolling fields of Virginia in fall riding season, snowy peaks in the Rockies, Alps, and Himalayas, and her favorite trout streams. A tireless and conscientious traveler, she felt equally at home exploring exotic markets and visiting ancient sacred sites around the world.

Witnessing the loss of cherished natural areas and ongoing environmental degradation spurred a lifetime of activism and strategic action to conserve farmland and wildlife habitat. Nancy held significant leadership roles and was an active supporter of The Nature Conservancy (Illinois Chapter), Jo Daviess Conservation Foundation, Equine Land Conservation Resource, Teton Regional Land Trust, Bhutan Foundation, and other organizations. She applied a keen intellect, gave generously, and honed deep collaboration skills to advance environmental stewardship, equestrian causes, and democracy at the local and national levels. Nancy was an enthusiastic yet patient bridge-builder with allies dedicated to honoring and protecting nature. In her last decade, Nancy developed meaningful relationships with leaders of the Ho-Chunk Nation and other Native Americans who shared her land ethic.

Nothing brought Nancy greater joy than spending time with family, especially her children and grandchildren. “Nana” loved imparting her wisdom, humor, and lived experience, and she reveled in showing up for their special moments. Nancy treasured times when all her grandchildren were gathered under one roof celebrating a house full of laughter and commotion.

Nancy will be deeply missed by her loving family, legions of dear friends, and diverse collaborators whose lives she graced in so many ways. Survivors include Nancy’s two children: Ethan Hamill (Anne) Winter, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and Sylvia Corwith Winter (Aaron) Baggish of Woodstock and Buchillon, Switzerland; brother Jonathan Corwith (Nancy) Hamill, of Barrington, Ill.; sister Elizabeth “Betsy” Corwith (James) Bramsen, of Barrington, Ill.; six adoring grandchildren: Owen, Savannah and Kendall Winter, and Izzabella, Emmitt and Flynn Baggish; along with numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and god-children with whom she maintained loving connections throughout her life. She is also survived by her former husband, Wallace Winter of Grayslake, Ill. Nancy was preceded in death by her parents, Corwith “Corky” Hamill and Joan Birnie Smith Hamill of Wayne, Ill.

Nancy was always and to the end exactly what she believed the world needed more of: a compassionate ally who made herself present, asked hard questions, shared generously, and trusted that the land and the people who loved it would carry the work forward. She was a special flower and her considerable contributions will stand for generations to come.

A celebration of Nancy’s life is planned in the Chicago area in June for family, friends, and partners who wish to join in remembrance.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Woodstock Community Trust. 

Please email remember-nancy@winterworks.org for information.

Sign the guest book at legacy.suntimes.com.

To plant trees in memory, please visit https://www.legacy.com.

Robert “Bob” Merriam, age 90 has passed away peacefully at home on March 8, 2026, after a brief fight against cancer. He was born July 12, 1935, the son of Harold and Earline Merriam of Bridgewater.

Following high school in Woodstock, Bob attended Wentworth Institute of Technology and graduated in 1955 with an engineering degree. He resided in Ludlow, Vt. for over four decades, enjoying hunting, fly fishing, hiking (completing Long Trail End to End), gardening, and playing Double King Pead with family and friends at the family deer camp in Plymouth. He spent his working life, primarily at Jones and Lamson in Springfield, Vt. as a machine tools engineer during the industry’s heyday. He also had military service, being drafted into the Army Reserve in 1957, where he qualified as Expert Rifleman with a perfect score.

Bob married his high school sweetheart, Shirley Perkins in 1956, and together had four children, Michael, Stephen, Deborah and James. She preceded him in death in 1989.

Bob remarried in 1990 to JoAnn Thomas and shortly thereafter, they retired to Florida for the next 15 years, where they basked in the warm weather and enjoyed the excellent fishing and a vast expanse of friends and neighbors. Only Hurricane Ian in 2022 could change their retirement plans; they rode out being in the eye of the storm track with visiting daughter Deborah and it was a once in a lifetime experience! Shortly thereafter, they moved to Cavendish, Vt.

Bob is survived by sons, Michael, Stephen and James of Maine, Montana and Vermont respectively; daughter Deborah of Alaska; stepdaughter Jill Thomas of Henderson, Nev.; and adopted daughter Kathleen Ehlers of Ludlow, Vt.; nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. In remembering Bob, we know we “hit the lottery” to have him as a father and husband and learned the right way to live our lives through the standards of character, decency and humility he personified.

Bob wished for no service and in lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Bridgewater Congregational Church, PO Box 4, Bridgewater, Vermont 05034. A Celebration of Life will take place at a future date.

By Dan Cotter, Publisher 

Well, my friends, this is my fourth and final article of our 2025 annual appeal. 

Once again, this year, it’s been a privilege to talk directly with you about the mission we’re on at the Vermont Standard and the difficult challenges we face — to ask if you’ll please consider donating to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation in support of our efforts to connect our community and keep you informed on issues of public importance.

Today, the main thing I want you to know is that we are proud to work for you.

We know you’re counting on us to be your eyes and ears — filling you in about local government actions that affect you, about local crime, about court cases playing out here, about notable news items and occurrences, the accomplishments of our neighbors and local youth, about developments at our schools, churches, businesses, and charitable or civic organizations, about the happenings and things to do in the local area, and lots more. 

We are the one and only news source that’s entirely focused on our area; reporting news that’s primarily of interest right here. Our work — week in and week out — is entirely dedicated to the welfare of this community. 

That’s the way it’s been here for 172 years. And Phil Camp and I and our small team are now trying to produce a 2025 version of the Vermont Standard that’s the best it has ever been in the paper’s long history.

The Standard is for you. It exists simply to benefit you and your neighbors. We regard this responsibility and the trust you place in us as a badge of honor. We pledge to give it our best. All we’ve got.

As I’ve explained before, the financial pressures we face are intense. And, tragically, various powers that be are trying to exert additional pressure in a sad attempt to undermine the press. By extension, their actions undermine you, the public. That’s nothing new, really, but it’s pretty acute right now. Shame on them.

However, with your donations to keep us afloat, we’re hanging in there, staying strong and getting stronger. We are continuing to work, not only on improving this week’s Vermont Standard, but next month’s and next year’s too, as we attempt to set things up so we can produce high-quality local journalism for the long term. 

We’ll make sure your gift is put to good use as a worthwhile investment in one of the key components of the critical infrastructure that underpins this community.

As a citizen, it’s essential for you to be well-informed. That’s the only way we can have a functioning local democracy and a lively, connected community. As your eyes and ears, we’ll continue to follow the news closely and report it to you in new, better, and more engaging ways as time goes on. 

We hope to make you proud as we strive to do the best community journalism in the country. We believe that’s a realistic goal. This weekend — for the ninth time in the last twelve years — the Standard will once again be a finalist for the honor of being named New England Weekly Newspaper of the Year.

When it comes to journalism, we believe you deserve the absolute best.

We are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can offer in this year’s 2025 annual appeal. In fact, if you’re interested, Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you in person to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or 802-457-1313.

Also — very importantly — if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 93-3287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support. We’ll be deeply indebted to you.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity, so your gift will be fully tax-deductible. 

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.” 

By Dan Cotter, Publisher 

Lord knows, there are lots of fascinating people in our community.

At times, it seems as if every person you meet here in the course of a day is even more interesting than the last one. Sometimes, I marvel at how in the world all these wonderful and impressive folks are either from here or ended up here, in this little corner of Vermont.

Of course, I’m lucky. I get to participate in our story planning meetings at the Standard each week to decide who and what we’re going to write about next. Beyond the breaking news, what feature stories should we write – about which people, which organizations, which businesses?

It’s a joy.

There are always plenty of nominations. And then, even though you think you pretty well know who someone is or what an organization does and stands for, our reporter does a deep dive and provides new insight about them or their work or their cause in an account that’s simply breathtaking. Who knew? Right here among us! 

I often refer to the Vermont Standard as a kind of “glue” for our community. It’s a paper everyone can turn to in order to stay informed about the local news — the goings-on, the things to do. Something to look forward to each week to catch up on the latest. A common experience shared by those who live here or care about this place.

But maybe the best part about the Standard is the way it enables us to connect as a community. The way it helps us get to know each other better by introducing us to that really interesting person who lives next door (sometimes literally). And I’ve found that typically the more impressive people are, the less likely they are to talk about themselves. They’re too modest. So, it takes a nosy reporter to get them to tell their full story.

And the same goes for some of the incredible organizations in the area, including charities, nonprofits, schools, churches, arts organizations, libraries, history centers, and many more. They aren’t always focused on touting or telling their story – about what they do, who they help, what they accomplish. Often, they toil away under the radar. But the Standard is eager to bring their story to the public’s attention. We want to shine a spotlight, applaud their work, and make the folks who might decide to join or support them aware of them.

Soon, we’ll be bringing you those kinds of stories on video too, as we roll out our Headliners and Inside Scoop programs this fall.

The bottom line is that living in a community is much more fulfilling for most of us when we get to know more about the ordinary people among us, who are doing some pretty extraordinary things. Reading about them and their aspirations and accomplishments in the Standard is fun, and, on occasion, when those stories also explain their struggles and failures, their resilience and ultimate triumphs, it can be touching to read, inspiring even. 

These stories help us all feel a deeper sense of kinship with the people and organizations in our midst. They connect us and make us feel that we all truly belong to this beautiful community.

As I said, being this glue that strengthens our connection? It’s a joy.

We are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can offer in this year’s 2025 annual appeal. Our effort to preserve quality journalism for our community is quite urgent, my friends. And Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or (802) 457-1313.

Also, if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 93-3287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity so your gift will be fully tax-deductible. 

Your donation 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. 

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to 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.” 

By Dan Cotter, Publisher

For the past 15-20 years, most local newspapers have been trying to “do more with less” in an effort to survive. And, of course, since that’s not a good long-term strategy, it has put our industry into a slow death spiral.

America has lost 3,200 of its newspapers in that same period of time, and currently, an average of more than two per week go out of business. Hundreds more papers are on life support, as they try to hang on by cutting staff, cutting pages, cutting the frequency of their publishing days, and eliminating their print editions. In their resulting emaciated state, those papers certainly can’t serve the need for local news and information in their communities.

Those withered newspapers are called “ghost papers,” because they are hollowed out shells of their former selves. Technically, they still exist. They continue to survive. But the communities counting on them? Well, they can no longer really count on them.

The handful of hedge funds and corporate raiders that bought up so many of our nation’s newspapers and ruined them wrote the playbook. In their effort to “rightsize” (meaning to dramatically downsize…) their papers in the face of diminishing advertising revenue, they chopped the expenses. Severely.

For newspapers, the primary expense is paying the people who work there. After many rounds of staff cuts, those papers barely cover any news at all, because they no longer have enough people to do it.

And as many of the small independent papers – like the Standard – encountered those same advertising revenue headwinds, lacking a better plan, they began following the same playbook. Consequently, in their efforts to survive, they now f ind themselves in that same never-ending spiral of cost-cutting.

Also, newspapers in that ragged state aren’t able to do the type of development work required to create a sustainable path for the future. In order to survive beyond just this week or this year, news organizations must create new services and revenue streams that will support them long-term. To do that takes time, thought, experimentation, risk-taking, and perseverance.

The beleaguered staff that’s left at most newspapers today simply lacks the energy for that.

“Doing more with less” (and less, and less…) was originally supposed to be a stopgap measure to buy time for newspapers to get their feet under them so they could forge a path to sustainability. Sadly, though, for most, it’s simply become standard operating procedure.

Fortunately, for our community here, the Vermont Standard has not followed that all too popular “survivor” playbook. We’ve never wanted to preside over a slow death march, just to be able to say we’re still publishing, but, in fact, failing to serve the very real need for local news, information, and connection in this community.

Thanks to your financial support, we’ve been able to go another way. Instead of doing more with less, we realize that we – and all local news organizations, especially in today’s political climate – just need to do more. Much more. And while doing that, we also need to create a sustainable path forward so we can live on to serve this community in even better ways for many more years.

Our efforts to survive are actually just the first step towards our real intention, which is to thrive.

In fact, with your help, we’ve upgraded our staff and improved our publication in recent years. The team we have reporting local news is now stronger than ever. They have a good deal of talent and a whole lot of heart, working for ridiculously low wages at this frugal newspaper, yet fueled by such a worthy mission. At the Standard, we haven’t forgotten why we exist in the first place. We are striving to provide wall-to-wall coverage of a steady stream of complex stories that are of great interest and importance to this community we serve.

We’ve also enhanced the look, feel, and utility of our publications.

And we’ve expanded our digital news and information products – we are doing more and more online programming with them. This fall, we are introducing our new series of “Headliners” interviews with local newsmakers that you’ll be able to view on our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website. Also, we’re introducing a new show called “Inside Scoop”, which will give you an in-depth, insider look at the goings-on at many of the businesses and organizations that make our community so special.

At the Standard, we are trying to save a real newspaper that offers the powerful local journalism our community needs to function properly. Not a ghost paper. The Standard has to be good enough to get the job done now and survive in the long run. “Right-sizing” here does not mean a diminished publication that’s essentially worthless, as it does in so many communities throughout our nation. Here, it means being just big enough to provide the essential local journalism that contributes mightily to the quality of life in our community, and break even.

That’s the kind of Vermont Standard we are trying so hard to preserve, while setting things up so we can provide the quality local journalism our community needs well into the future.

I sincerely hope you’ll join us on this very important mission.

As we begin this year’s 2025 annual appeal, we are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can give us. Our mission is quite urgent, of course, and Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or (802) 457-1313.

Also, if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 933287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity so your gift will be fully tax-deductible.

Your donation 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.

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at thevermontstandard.com to make a contribution with your credit card. Be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

By Dan Cotter, publisher

It’s been said that there are very few things in life that you can always count on. But there are indeed a few, and I believe you’re holding one of them in your hands right now (or perhaps reading it on a screen).

For 172 years, the people of Woodstock, Hartland, Pomfret, Barnard, Bridgewater, Reading, West Windsor, Quechee, Plymouth, and the surrounding towns have counted on the Vermont Standard to keep watch on things in order to keep them informed, empowered, and connected. Our columnist, Dave Doubleday, replays some of the top stories of the day that took place 10, 20, 50, 75, or 100 years ago in each installment of his brilliant “Olde Woodstock” feature. It’s amazing and quite reassuring that people here were reading this same paper all those years ago simply to find out what’s happening.

Just as you are today.

All this time, citizens – informed by the Standard — were able to fully participate in their local democracy as our area progressed to the state it’s in today. What a huge responsibility it must have been, and still is today, to produce this newspaper each week. To prepare a quality news report to help readers experience and enjoy day-to-day life here and make good decisions for their community.

It’s the honor of a lifetime to be entrusted with this responsibility. The Standard has a small crew of talented, fair-minded, and underpaid journalists doggedly pursuing their mission week in and week out — trying to produce an interesting local news report that will inform, educate, and entertain the people who live here. It’s a “weekly miracle.” We start with a blank page each Wednesday afternoon, and we work tirelessly to pursue stories and produce the very best finished publication we can by the following Wednesday, so that it will be in your mailbox or at the store for you on Thursday.

In the century and a three-quarters that this paper has existed, this is our time, and our team is attempting to make a proud contribution to its legacy.

Ours certainly isn’t the easiest time to be a journalist in the Standard’s and our community’s history. This is a time of transition, when traditional forms of funding for local journalism have waned. Now, we have not only to strive to produce an excellent news report each week, but we also have to hold our breath that we’ll even be able to stay afloat.

An average of more than two newspapers fold in the U.S. each week (3,200 have vanished in the past twenty years!), leaving their communities without this kind of “glue” – without the common experience of reading in print or online about issues that affect them and their neighbors and a comprehensive set of facts for all to know about what’s happening in their local area each week.

Making matters worse, hundreds of other towns throughout the nation now only have a “ghost newspaper” that is so financially compromised it can barely cover any local news in its meager news product.

Some people – perhaps taking a page from the playbook being used at the national level – might prefer that ours was a weaker, sleepier paper and that they could exert some kind of pressure to compromise the Standard’s coverage.

But they’re mistaken. It hasn’t worked in 172 years, and we won’t let it happen now. Count on it.

We’ve had many complex (and interesting!) local stories to cover just in this past year — news that people here are counting on us to follow and explain. From the Woodstock Foundation lawsuit, to school policy, budget and reorganization issues, to Peace Field Farm, to the water company purchase, to short-term rental ordinances, to the police chief demotion, to the proposed cell phone tower and farm outlet store in Hartland, to the ECFiber case, to the ongoing housing and child care shortages, to the impact of federal funding cuts on local organizations. And we’ve had many milestones and achievements to celebrate, from our football state championship team, to our local priest’s 50^th anniversary of his ordination, to the resurgence of Bookstock, to local artists and authors who released their latest works, to this year’s graduates, to a pair of brothers who achieved the rank of Eagle Scout, to the dedication and resilience shown by those remarkable protesters in Woodstock. Even the announcement of plans for a new performing arts center, and the sighting of low-flying military planes over Woodstock. Those stories aren’t easy or inexpensive to cover, but like the journalists at the Standard who were our predecessors throughout those many, many years, it’s our solemn responsibility to inform the public about the public’s business, the very best we can.

Indeed, we can, primarily because we now have the support of hundreds of residents and readers who truly understand and value what quality local journalism does — and has always done — for our community here. They respond to our annual appeal each year. They keep us afloat. They keep us encouraged. They harden our resolve to try ever harder to serve this community and this local democracy. We count on all of you.

Oftentimes, I’ve asked individual donors, “What can we possibly do to thank you for your generosity?” And, to a person, they always say, “Just keep putting out a darn good newspaper.”

In appreciation for you, our friends, the Standard has only one single objective and guiding light going forward: to keep trying to put out a better and better paper each week in service to this community.

You can count on us.

As we begin this year’s annual appeal, we are deeply appreciative of any financial help you can give us. Our mission is quite urgent, of course, and Phil Camp and I would be very grateful for an opportunity to meet with you to talk more about what’s needed and our plans. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at dcotter@thevermontstandard.com or (802) 457-1313.

We sincerely hope you’ll join us in our mission by contributing to this year’s 2025 annual appeal.

Also, if you have a family foundation, please consider adding the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation (EIN: 93-3287932) to the worthwhile causes you regularly support.

The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation is a public charity so your gift will be fully tax-deductible.

Your donation 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.

If you’re willing to make a tax-deductible donation to our 2025 Annual Appeal, please send a check to 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.”

By Dan Cotter, publisher

A huge sigh of relief and a fist pump were my first reactions, as well as a gaze skyward as I mouthed the words “thank you!” The tears welling up in my older friend’s eyes were his response when I told him.

Then we shared a long, hard hug.

After lots of research and preparation, and then six months of waiting for the application to be processed, Phil Camp and I recently learned that the IRS has approved the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation’s application for tax-exempt status under section 501(c)(3) and deemed the Foundation to be a public charity.

The approval wasn’t in much doubt, really. But now it’s official.

The Foundation was established last August and it is primarily dedicated to preserving the Vermont Standard and its role in informing citizens and supporting democracy in our area well into the future. The Foundation has a board made up of local residents who care deeply about our community and the value local journalism provides. Phil and I are on the board too. Together, we’re working to keep the 171-year-old Vermont Standard going while taking steps to position the paper’s print and digital journalism for long-term sustainability.

Recognizing the critical role the Standard plays in informing and connecting our community, this Foundation wants to avoid letting our area become a “news desert,” as has happened in hundreds of other places throughout the US in recent years. Newspapers like the Standard are currently dying off at a pace of 2.5 per week. Nor do we want to end up like the hundreds of cities and towns where profit-seeking corporations that have no devotion to the public welfare have acquired their local paper and stripped it of its resources, to the point that it is only a pathetic shadow of its former self and incapable of doing its job.

Providing accurate, credible, reliable news and information to its audience is a local news organization’s primary role. A functioning democracy requires an informed, engaged public. The Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation’s board members, advisors and friends will help Phil and I in our mission to raise enough money to keep quality journalism flowing here.

So, I’m glad to report that any donation you’ve made to the Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation to support the Standard’s mission to inform, connect, and educate our community on issues of public importance is indeed tax-deductible dating back to the inception of the Foundation in late August 2023, as all donations will be going forward.

At 88 years old, Phil feels a real sense of urgency about making sure that our community will always have local journalism – especially given the 40+ years he’s dedicated to leading the paper and his unrivaled love for Woodstock and its surrounding towns. We know we’re in a race against the clock. But now, with the Foundation’s charity status and your tax deduction confirmed, we hope there will be even more support from donors and family foundations that will help us accomplish this very important mission.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your encouragement and generosity. If you would like to contribute to our Annual Appeal, please send us a check at PO Box 88, Woodstock, VT 05091, or go to our Vermont Standard THIS WEEK website at https://thevermontstandard.com/annual-appeal/ to make a contribution with your credit card. Please be sure to make your check out to the “Woodstock Region Journalism Foundation.”

“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.

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

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