Founded in 1829, Burr and Burton Academy is an independent high school that serves the public, accepting all students from 13 sending towns, as well as tuitioned students from fifteen countries around the globe, and numerous other towns in southern Vermont. BBA’s mission is to offer the personalization that is the hallmark of the best independent schools coupled with the democratic ideal of education for all.

THE MISSION

The Stratton Foundation is a community-based nonprofit that cares about the health and well-being of children and families in southern Vermont. Our role in the community is to respond to the needs that arise as a result of crisis, economic challenges, and quality of life for the families who live, work, and raise their children within the shires and mountain towns of our footprint. Our mission is to address the challenges that stand between a child in need and the opportunity to be healthy, safe, and prepared to learn. Our major areas of focus include Hunger, Basic Necessities, Oral Health, Mental Health and Education. Our vision is to break the cycle of generational poverty.

Hunger

We support nutritious community food pantries, school backpack and summer food programs to end the injustice of hunger and malnutrition. Poverty and hunger is particularly high within our rural mountain VT towns.  Schools witness children not eating at all or gorging because there is no food at home, on weekends, or throughout the summer.

Education

We support educational programs that set youth on a path for success and help teens develop a vision for a future of economic independence. Our area has among the highest concentration of VT families living in poverty, and it has been unchanged for decades. Children in poverty are more likely to drop out of school, perform poorly, & have health and wellness issues.

Health

We provide funding to care for the health and well-being of our disadvantaged children. There are teens in our area that have never been to the dentist, and so many that go without basic necessities and mental health services.  Geographic and socioeconomic factors form barriers that prevent poor VT children from growing up happy, healthy, and successful.

Basic Necessities

We provide children with coats, boots and warm socks in the Winter, and sneakers in the Spring, as well as funds to area schools to care for basic needs on a daily basis year round. Caring for a child’s basic needs impacts their preparedness to learn, ability to play, and capacity to thrive.  Children in poverty endure a painful stigma of economic difficulty, all for the lack of what they cannot afford.

Emergency Gifts

We provide financial assistance to those who experience hardship due to an emergency or crisis that prohibits them from caring for the needs of their family and children. A child’s care is our main priority. Help is provided to families who experience a house fire, transportation urgency, warmth crisis or other situation where the children’s safety or needs are at risk.

Scholarships

We provide First Generation and Personal Life Plan Scholarships to local high school teens to solidify their path to success and reach their future goals . Demonstrating need and potential, these young adults will go on to be educational groundbreakers for themselves and their families to break the cycle of generational poverty.

The Manchester Journal is a weekly newspaper in Manchester, Vermont. The paper, founded by Charles A. Pierce, published its first issue on May 28, 1861. The Manchester Journal has a weekly circulation of 7,088 and is distributed every Friday.

Sign up HERE with your email to receive their newsletter titled, “The Manchester Minute”.

News contact
Sue Allen
sallen@benningtonbanner.com
802-447-7567 x 105

Greg Sukiennik
gsukiennik@manchesterjournal.com
802-447-7567 x119

Advertising Contact
Susan Plaisance
splaisance@manchesterjournal.com
802-447-7567 x 127

Maple Street at a Glance

Maple Street School is an independent, Pre-K-8, co-educational day school in Manchester, Vermont. Our rigorous and stimulating curriculum helps students master core academic skills including writing, reading, language development, public speaking, mathematics, and science, while also integrating critical thinking, creativity, and collaboration. We help cultivate a child’s natural curiosity, inculcate values, and with our beautiful campus nestled in the Green Mountains, we engender a dedication to stewardship of the environment.

Our exceptional teachers believe in nurturing and guiding students to a full awareness of the world and a respect for cultural differences.  The Maple Street School curriculum is carefully calibrated to provide a series of incremental challenges that spark intellectual growth and build confidence.  We believe in academic excellence, meaningful engagement in the visual and performing arts, participation in athletics, and the development of individual and social responsibility.  Students at Maple Street School, through a joyful journey of learning, discover and develop what is finest in themselves.

NEW PRE-K IN FALL 2022

Now accepting applications for our NEW Pre-K program, beginning fall 2022. The Pre-K, for ages 3 & 4, will be held at the campus of the Southern Vermont Arts Center. Tuition assistance is available.  Contact admissions@maplestreetschool.com or call 802-362-7137 to learn more.

MISSION STATEMENT

To create relationships that enrich the experience of recovery and preserve our history as the birthplace and childhood home of Bill Wilson.

VISION STATEMENT

To be the destination for people in recovery.

In his role as co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, Bill Wilson was by far one of the most influential people of the 20th century. In creating this program, Bill has been instrumental in literally saving the lives of millions of people across the globe and created a transformative, universal support system for those in recovery. The Twelve Step program he and Dr. Bob founded continues to do the same in the 21st century.

Bill’s story starts with his birth in East Dorset on November 26, 1895, in the Wilson House, his paternal grandparents’ hotel in East Dorset, Vermont across the street from the train station He lived nearby for the first five years of his life. The family then moved to Rutland, Vermont, until his parent’s divorce in 1906. That same year, his mother made the decision to go to Boston to train as an osteopath. She left Bill and his younger sister Dorothy with her parents in their East Dorset home across the street from the Wilson House. The grandparents’ home, complete with Bill’s second floor bedroom, is part of the Wilson House property and open to the public.

Bill spent a happy childhood and adolescence in and around East Dorset. He hunted small game, fished in small streams and at nearby Emerald Lake, and learned to play the violin. His grandparents had the means to send him to the then-private high school, Burr and Burton, a few miles away in Manchester. He was class president, captain of the baseball team and played lead violin in the school orchestra. From this, one can perhaps gain an early glimpse of Bill’s drive to be the best at everything he did. During his senior year, following the death of a young woman with whom he was in love, he suffered his first bout with depression, which delayed his actual graduation for a few months following commencement exercises. While nobody could foresee what was to come, Bill Wilson went on to become the most consequential person ever to graduate from his high school alma mater.

When Bill attended Norwich University in Northfield, Vermont, he frequently returned home to spend time with his grandparents. This is a pattern that would continue for the rest of his life. He and his wife Lois, who had her own connections to East Dorset, visited for extended periods of time every year. This was home. Naturally, when Bill died, he was buried here.

Today, East Dorset remains the small town of Bill’s childhood. The main street still contains most of the tidy colonial homes he walked among for so many years. . Stately Burr and Burton Academy, nearing its two-hundredth year of operations, and where Bill spent four formative years, is a stop for any visit. Emerald Lake, where Lois’s parents owned a summer cottage, is a beautiful Vermont State Park. The East Dorset Cemetery where Bill, his mother, sister, grandparents, and his wife Lois are buried in a family plot, is just a couple of minutes away and a pilgrimage for most Wilson House visitors.

Bill Wilson’s soul resides at the Wilson House, where he was born, where his work continues, and which remains at the heart of the town he never really left. Just as the Wilson House gave birth to Bill W, it remains a life-giving refuge for those in recovery. You will feel welcome, and leave enriched by the experience of your visit.

GNAT is a 501c3 not-for-profit community media organization.

GNAT-TV Services at a Glance

GNAT-TV maintains community television studio facilities, lends high quality video equipment and provides technical training to anyone living or working in our service territory. GNAT-TV offers gavel-to-gavel government meeting coverage, community bulletin board, video announcements , weekly event listings, comprehensive community events calendar, and local news.

GNAT-TV cablecasts Public, Education and Government programming to 7000 homes on the Comcast Cable system and online at www.gnat.tv. We serve 11 towns in Southwest Vermont: Arlington, Dorset, Londonderry, Manchester, Peru, Rupert, Sandgate, Stratton, Sunderland, Weston, Winhall.

Address:

6378 Route 7A Sunderland, VT 05250

Mail to: PO Box 2168 Manchester Center, VT 05255

Mission

Bennington County Habitat for Humanity is part of Habitat for Humanity International, a global, nonprofit housing organization operated on Christian principles. We are dedicated to eliminating substandard housing locally and worldwide. We do this by constructing, rehabilitating, and preserving homes; advocating for fair and just housing policies; and providing access to resources to help families improve their shelter conditions.