The Monkton Municipal Building Grounds Committee is looking for volunteers to join a “Town Hall planting gathering” on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 10 a.m. The goal is to get plants and trees in the ground prior to the Town Hall grand opening. The trees and plants have already been delivered to the town hall. Please bring with you any of the following, if you can: shovels, rakes, hoes, buckets, gloves or any other items that will make this process easier. The more volunteers, the more fun and less time this will take. There will be at least one more volunteer effort in October for an additional planting prior to colder weather settling in. Folks will also be needed to help with watering about three times a week through the end of the fall.

Speaking of outdoor work, supervisors of the Bristol Trail Network have organized a volunteer work day on Sunday, Sept. 26, beginning at 1 p.m. at Sycamore Park. Bring a wheelbarrow, shovels, rakes and gloves. The task: A pile of mulch has been unloaded at Sycamore Park and it needs to get moved further into the property and spread onto the trails there. A trail volunteer who lives about a mile from the park is going to bring a tractor with a bucket to move the mulch, but volunteers are needed to help spread it on the trails. Please RSVP to [email protected]. Organizers are hoping to see around a dozen helpers.

“Ferrisburgh Day” is returning on Sunday, Sept. 26 and it’s shaping up to be a wonderful weekend with something for everyone in the family, including a Medivac helicopter, fire engine, antique cars and tractors at the Fire Station Open House from 10 a.m.–2 p.m., and an open house at the Rokeby Museum from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Events will also involve the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (10 a.m.-5 p.m.), and an open house at the Ferrisburgh Historical Society, with apples, donuts and cider (1 p.m. to 4 p.m.). You can start your day at 9 a.m. with a guided walk into the Town Forest. A tool demonstration at the Union Meeting Hall starts at 11 a.m., followed by a Vets for Quilts presentation at 1 p.m., and then music from 3 p.m. until 6 p.m. Make sure to check out the “Creative Ferrisburgh” exhibition at the Town Hall Community Center  — showcasing the work of more than 16 local artists and artisans and the schoolchildren from FCS — from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both Saturday, Sept. 25 and Sunday, Sept. 26. To learn more visit ferrisburghvt.org.

The Middlebury business community has indeed proven resilient during the recent challenges of a downtown construction project, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the dearth of available workers. Middlebury Town Manager Kathleen Ramsay recently disclosed that the community’s second-quarter local option tax receipts (covering April through June of 2021) were $311,190 — the strongest ever for that quarter and 27% more than the same reporting period last year. Ramsay acknowledged that while stay-at-home pandemic restrictions impacted second-quarter 2020 local option tax receipts, current-year receipts also outpaced results for the same period in 2019 by 11.5%.

The Vermont art community is pitching in to support the Middlebury-based Charter House Coalition, which runs a homeless shelter on North Pleasant Street and a offers a tremendous amount of free food to the hungry. Four artists have contributed works for the Vermont Artists’ Raffle, with 100% of the proceeds benefitting Charter House Coalition services. Entries for the online raffle can be purchased for each individual artwork, and the more entries you buy, the better your chances of winning. Four winners — one for each piece of artwork — will be randomly selected on Oct. 1, and the winners of each prize will be notified soon after. The artwork will be on display at the Ilsley Public Library in Middlebury throughout the month of September. If you can’t make it to the library, you can check out the artwork at tinyurl.com/ywnxs7nw, where you can also purchase raffle tickets.

The town of Lincoln will hold an Oct. 6 celebration to thank Willard Jackson for his donation of 134 acres of conserved land near Lincoln Village. As previously reported by the Independent, Jackson had purchased the property years ago as a potential development site. But he and his family enjoyed its trails, meadows, forestland and views, to the extent they kept the property as is. Others discovered the land through the years and the Jacksons have had a liberal policy of allowing ready access to the jewel. Then, earlier this year, Jackson worked with the Middlebury Area Land Trust to donate the property to the town of Lincoln, which will make it accessible to all. So folks who have come to love the property will gather from 4:30-6:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 to share their gratitude with the Jacksons, while enjoying a BYO picnic dinner, celebratory cake, campfire, ribbon-cutting, and trail walks. The entrance to the land is located about a quarter-mile east of the General Store (heading toward the school). There’s very little parking at the site, so please park in town and follow the sidewalk toward the school to where it ends. The entrance to the Jackson land is about 100 feet beyond that, on the same side of the road. Bring warm clothes.