Thirty years on call: Service is part of LaPete’s family

NEW HAVEN — The end of July marked 31 years as a rescue squad volunteer for Lisa LaPete, the Head of Service for New Haven First Response.“I really take pride in being an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) and serving to give back to community,” she said.LaPete, 55, served for more than 20 years in Milton, where she grew up and where her brother worked as a fire chief.She got a hint of how intense the work was right off the bat.One of her first calls was a former classmate who had gotten in a car wreck and … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY – The first open show of 72-year-old Bob Crosby’s art went up at the Ilsley Library on Sept. 1 and will be on view through the end of the month.“I’m excited…I want to do something good for people,” Crosby said.His medium is both out of the norm … (read more)

NEW HAVEN — Anthony Mastergeorge of Rockingham has been selling French fries for 65 years.Leaning out of his “AJ’s fresh cut French Fries” truck — which he built himself 26 years ago — at Addison County Fair and Field Days to talk to me last week, Masterg … (read more)

NEW HAVEN — Quiet can be hard to find at Field Days, but around the back of the cornfields, the “hand mowing” contest draws those who appreciate a practice of listening and focus.“We’re just out here cuttin’ grass,” said Tim Williams, a competitor from Ly … (read more)

“Morning happens when enough birds loudly declare the sun.” These words sang from a hand-painted banner at Bread and Puppet’s July performance in Middlebury’s Marble Works. That’s precisely what the 58-year-old, Glover-based performance troupe attempts to … (read more)

BRISTOL — Donna Wood remembers when she first heard the Bristol Band play in the summer of ’79.“We went to one concert and that decided it. I was playing the next week,” she said.Wood started playing flute in 4th grade and loved (and loves) being a part o … (read more)

NEW HAVEN — Lori Brown may run the Field Days event with the strangest name, but she said it’s also one of the more inclusive and family-oriented competitions on the program: the gymkhana.On Tuesday gymkhana celebrated its 10th anniversary at Addison Coun … (read more)

ADDISON COUNTY — Samantha Ryan always knew she wanted to be a mother.But when her son, Jamie, was three months old, the first COVID-19 cases started popping up in the U.S.“It was the most terrifying thing ever,” Ryan said.The Whiting resident had already … (read more)

VERGENNES — A jury has ordered the company that operates the Northlands Job Corps federally funded job training center in Vergennes to pay a former employee $3.2 million for firing him after he complained about alleged safety violations there.Two things h … (read more)

MONTPELIER — Vermont students will be able to return to fully in-person instruction when the school year begins this fall, with only a few state health recommendations in place, Gov. Phil Scott announced at a Tuesday press conference.With COVID-19 cases o … (read more)

Global thinking is supposed to save the world.Throughout my life — and particularly as a student — I have been told time and time again that we just need more universal understanding, communication and focus.We are, after all, “citizens of the world” and … (read more)

BRISTOL — Some days, the farm crew at New Leaf Organics piles into a van brimming with flowers. Other days, they tend tomatoes in the greenhouse while the rain pours outside or transplant seedlings of various vegetable crops in long rows among an abundanc … (read more)

LINCOLN — In 2005, Russell and Gillian Comstock began crafting a letter to their friends detailing what they were looking for. A piece of land with wild space and the capacity to farm. Community, quiet, beauty.They never sent the letter.Instead, 158 acres … (read more)

MIDDLEBURY — Self-described fantasy geek Alexandre Apfel first encountered the word “mead” while reading “Beowulf.” Little did he know he would wind up opening the first mead café in Middlebury in April of 2020.Golden Rule Mead, based in Apfel’s house on … (read more)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QTT0sMq9Uk MIDDLEBURY — Last week the iconic Vermont political puppetry troupe Bread & Puppet Theater performed in Middlebury’s Marble Works. Hannah Laga Abram captured these highlights from the show.