Charlotte Grange: Our Values and Vision – Welcome to our new monthly column. We hope you will enjoy learning more about the Charlotte Grange and how it is building on its proud 100+ year history in town and revitalizing its role in our community.
Do you feel that Charlotte is a welcoming community? Do you feel that we have the diversity you would like to see in our town? Do you think we have a good town plan?
After months of planning, the Resilience Survey has launched, and Charlotte Community Partners wants to hear from each and every one of you. Why are we asking you to take the time to complete this? Because we do not want to simply hear from a few folks, we want to hear from all our residents. Unless you tell us what you think about our town and what you would like to see in our town, planning the future of our town becomes a guessing game. Are we prepared for the future? What do you think?
As I write this update, we are close to finalizing the details of the community resilience survey. The unofficial COVID-19 team, Charlotte Community Partners, is busy making final tweaks to the community resilience assessment and figuring out how to make it as easy as possible for everyone to access, complete, and submit it. And, more importantly, how to make sure everyone knows about it and why it’s important to the future of Charlotte.
For the last print issue of The Charlotte News, a group of Charlotte citizens came together in a virtual brainstorming session to see how they could help all residents of our town. We started a listing of opportunities to help our residents cope with the current situation. That list has grown; as this continues, we will make information available through both the published edition of The News and also in periodic email versions.
Giving thanks November is the month for drawing people close, and the Food Shelf gives special thanks for all…
“There are a lot of heartwarming stories that go with the tractor parade,” is what Carrie Spear said in reflecting on this, the 18th year of the event, held in East Charlotte this past Sunday.
Here is a beautiful word I learned this past summer: deliquescence. It means having a tendency to melt or become liquid, to dissolve. I love it, the way it sounds, the idea, the imagery that comes with such a word. That something could kind of dissolve slowly, disappear … deliquesce.
We celebrate a community-spirited reaching out to embrace those who may need a little boost. This month, a special thank you to Teresa Meyer, Margaret Berlin, Mary Volk, Lili Ruane, and the Carmel Hill Fund, Friends of the Charlotte Library and library staff, and a host of anonymous donors.
We celebrate this community-spirited generosity – Thank you for the support this month from Michaela Ryan, farmer and founder of New Village Farm in Shelburne, who donated 50 pounds of ground beef.
I was in Panera on Shelburne Road the other day, and while I was waiting for my coffee, I looked around at the other customers, many of them sitting two or three to a table. There probably were 15 to 20 people there, of which more than half were devoting their time to some sort of mechanical device—iPhone, iPad, Mac or other portable computer.
I prepare my weekly lesson plan for the freshman writing course I teach at the University of Minnesota every Sunday. An integral part of the Ph.D. in English Literature program, teaching the basics of writing and research to students majoring in economics, agriculture and biochemistry can be an exercise in dues-paying, the kind of academic scrub work meant to inspire us to become scholars qualified to teach literature courses.
Thank you for the support this month from Charlotte Organic COOP, Julia and Daniel Cavanagh, and Barry and Susan Cluff in honor of Greg and Lynn Cluff. And thank you to Nancy Smith for donating 15 dozen fresh eggs from her flock.
Thank you to the following for your recent support: Charlotte Organic COOP and Anne Castle, Charlotte Congregational Church, Karol Jane Josselyn, Charles and Liz DesLauriers, Susan and Robbie Hall, Sharon Richards and Doug Weaver, Lori Racha and Damon Silverman for the donation on behalf of their daughters Kate and Chloe Silverman in honor of their teachers at Charlotte Central School.
Please join us to assemble the holiday/Christmas baskets for approximately 30 Charlotte families. We’ll meet in the Charlotte Congregational Church vestry on Friday, Dec.15, from 8 until about 10 a.m. This is a festive and fun occasion and all are welcome. The baskets will be distributed to families in need the following morning. Bring your friends and just show up, we love the help!
SCHIP (Shelburne, Charlotte, Hinesburg Interfaith Project) has announced its Fall 2017 grant awards. A total of $4,500 was awarded to the following nonprofit organizations: Hinesburg Community Resource Center, Lake Champlain Land Trust, Local Motion LaPlatte River, and Support and Services at Home Seniors (SASH).
Discussion: A discussion on efficiency and heat-pump technology will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Charlotte Library on Nov. 15, hosted by Peter and Carrie Fenn. Please RSVP to [email protected].
Playgroup: All children 0-5, with a caregiver, are welcome for free play, stories and fun. Please bring a snack and water. Mondays from 9:30 to 11 a.m. at the Charlotte Central School. Follows the school calendar. Email [email protected] for more information.
A crowd of prospective farmers, concerned neighbors and town officials gathered at Mt. Philo Hops on East Thompson’s Point Road to try to resolve fermenting tensions over their farming operations on Aug. 28. Though they have yet to put a single hop plant in the ground, just the prospect of things to come has been enough to put a bitter taste in neighbors’ mouths.
Reunion Champlain Valley Union High School Class of 1972 will host a reunion from 3:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at…