Archive - Dec 2009
December 30th
MIDDLEBURY — The Middlebury Union High School boys’ hockey team on Monday capped off its 2009 schedule by defeating Lake Placid, 4-1, in the consolation game of the Tigers’ annual tourney at Middlebury College.
Even though MUHS lost, 2-1, the day before in the tournament’s first round to Stowe (at 7-1 the top team in Division II), Monday’s result left the Tigers feeling encouraged.
ADDISON — Addison Central School officials have scheduled a Jan. 7 budget forum to explain to residents how their taxes could go up dramatically next year unless the ACS board slashes its draft 2010-2011 school budget deeply — much further than the lower spending that the board has considered already. Cuts on the table would affect ACS programs and employees.
On Saturday, when my cousins and I got back from skiing, we plugged my new camera into the computer and watched the videos we’d shot. On the screen, I licked the chairlift to see if my tongue would stick. My cousin Danny rolled his eyes.
“Maybe we should just record everything we do for half of our lives, then spend the other half watching it,” he said.
His comment got me thinking.
MIDDLEBURY — Seven years ago, the children of the Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society (CVUUS) set off to do some charitable work inspired by a simple quote from Mother Teresa:
“We can do no great things; only small things with great love.”
Last week saw the payoff to a project that yielded a lot of small things — around 200,000 pennies, in fact — that collectively will do some great good for local and international charities.
Despite my love of sleep, once the lights go off I often find myself doing the other thing people typically do in bed. And I don’t mean counting sheep.
I mean worrying, of course.
There is no trouble so overpowering that it can’t get infinitely worse in a dark room with eight hours of quiet for it to fester in.
Editor’s note: Part 1 of the Independent’s look back at the local sports scene in 2009 ran in the Dec. 24 issue.
ADDISON COUNTY — As the first six months of 2009 wrapped up, Otter Valley Union High School won the Division II softball crown, giving the area its first — and what would prove to be its only — high school sports team title of 2009. A number of athletes won individual championships in the year’s first half, including wrestlers from OV, Vergennes and Middlebury union high schools; two MUHS senior track stars; and a Mount Abraham junior golfer.
ADDISON COUNTY — This New Year’s Eve, thousands will watch the ball drop in Times Square. Here in Vermont, there won’t be police barricades or headlining pop singers, but there will be plenty of other events around the county to ring in 2010.
Bristol’s fourth annual Best Night celebration will feature a series of concerts and activities in three town venues — Holley Hall, First Baptist Church and the Walkover Gallery. Events will run from 3 until 11 p.m., starting with a fire organ on the Bristol Green and finishing with a dance party in Holley Hall.
It’s easy and fashionable to name the ways that things are getting worse. From global warming and overpopulation, to America’s two endless wars and the billions of people who go to sleep hungry every night, the list is always growing longer.
But what about all the things that are getting better? There are plenty of them, if you just take a little closer look
