The Orleans County Fair has come and gone, but the memories continue. Over the next week or so we'll be posting photographs from Roaring Brook Park, starting now with a portfolio of Demolition Derby pictures from Richard Creaser. To view the derby gallery, please click here.
Challenges for Change
During its 2010 session the state Legislature adopted some of the recommendations of a study entitled Challenges for Change. To learn what the state is doing about its current budget problems and what effects they might have on education, please click here.
To read Vermont Department of Education recommendations for budget reductions in the 2011-2012 school year, please click here.
Blacksmith shop
Aspiring blacksmiths have a place to learn the craft now that the Old Stone House Museum has opened its new smithy. Bethany M. Dunbar visited the shop and came back with photos of the building and working blacksmiths. To see her gallery, please click here.
Derby Veterans Park
Derby residents gathered on Saturday, August 21, to rededicate the town's Veterans Park, built around one of the first municipal Civil War monuments in the nation. For an article about the ceremony please click here, to see photographs of the rededication events please click here.
Doug Garon, left, of Garon-St. Sauveur Granite Company in Newport points out some of the features of the park to U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and state Senator Bobby Starr. Mr. Garon and his partner, Jerry St. Sauveur, created a series of new monuments that honor the memories of those who fought in American conflicts since the Civil War. The new monuments echo the design of the older World War I monument, which was brought to the site in 2006. Photos by Joseph Gresser
DERBY — The Civil War monument in Derby may or may not be the oldest in the country, but for almost a century and a half the granite obelisk has stood in memory of Derby residents who fought to preserve the union and end slavery.
On Saturday several hundred residents, many of them veterans, gathered near the monument to rededicate the site as a place to honor Derby men and women who served in the Civil War and the many conflicts this country has fought in the intervening years.
The central monument remains untouched, but a concrete pathway now leads pedestrians on a circular journey from the new parking lot past monuments commemorating those who fought in World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the first and second Gulf wars, and in Afghanistan.
The historic grandstands at Roaring Brook Park have only a short time to wait before they are filled with crowds at the 2010 Orleans County Fair. Harness racing fans will be pleased to learn that more horses are slated to enter this year's races than in recent years and that the half-mile track has been resurfaced. Photo by Joseph Gresser
BARTON — If you go by what will be missing at this year’s Orleans County Fair — a star country singer — it’s possible to look forward to a disappointing experience. But you’d have to overlook an awful lot of improvements slated to premier at Roaring Brook Park between August 18 and 22 to stay unhappy.
According to fair directors Harvey Cleveland and Kim Brooks horses, cows and farmers will have a better time this year, and visitors to the one-hundred-and-forty-third edition of the fair will be the beneficiaries.
Gold Star father John Van Gyzen III of Somerset, Massachusetts, created this figure as a tribute to Marine Brandon Bury of Texas. Mr. Van Gyzen's son, Marine Lance Corporal John Van Gyzen IV, was killed in Iraq on July 5, 2004. Photos by Richard Creaser
NEWPORT — The Memphremagog Arts Collaborative (MAC) is hosting a unique tribute to soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. Titled "Remembrance — A Memorial," the display features thousands of figures handcrafted out of tea bags, sticks, scraps of cloth and other sewing notions.
The exhibit is the brainchild of Merilee Bowers, an art teacher from Somerset High School in Somerset, Massachusetts. MAC member Victoria Mathiesen of West Glover worked closely with Ms. Bowers to bring the exhibit north for its first showing in Vermont.
"Especially in this part of the state, people have really been paying attention to the wars," Ms. Mathiesen said. "It really seems that joining the National Guard is a right of passage for many of this area's young men and women. Because of that, people are very interested in something that much of the rest of the country has largely forgotten."
The Orleans County Fair has come and gone, but the memories continue. Over the next week or so we'll be posting photographs from Roaring Brook Park, starting now with a portfolio of Demolition Derby pictures from Richard Creaser. To view the derby gallery, please 
During its 2010 session the state Legislature adopted some of the recommendations of a study entitled 
Derby residents gathered on Saturday, August 21, to rededicate the town's Veterans Park, built around one of the first municipal Civil War monuments in the nation. For an article about the ceremony please 
