UVM students participating in the 3rd annual Local Community Initiatives course will be making their final presentations to the MRV on the evening of 12/7, 6-8 PM, at The Big Picture.
Students and community members have been hard at work on four projects through the fall semester:
Compost Power - Students are researching the Jean Pain Method, developing educational materials for agricultural enterprises in the MRV, surveying potential users, and providing a final report.
Waitsfield Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) Program - Students are researching PACE programs nationwide, identifying barriers and opportunities for PACE, providing a synopsis of key housing data metrics, and provide a report that will serve to inform best practices and next steps.
Mad River Valley Health Center - Students are developing a snapshot of the MRV from a health perspective by mapping local health resources, developing a strategy and survey to assess community health needs, collect data, and providing a final report and recommendations for improving the health status of MRV residents.
MRV Solar Farm - Students are researching other co-operatively owned/managed solar projects nationwide, surveying and compiling responses regarding potential interest in such a project, developing education materials, and providing a report on education materials and survey responses.
Please come out and make this a true celebration of the students hard work and community togetherness!
The MRV is awash in challenges in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene’s 8/28 visit. As is the case across VT and the northeast, we are assessing damages and picking each other back up. The community effort so far has been astounding and humbling. Feel free to use the VFN Blog as a method of connection and sharing info along in addition to the many other useful sources, such as http://www.facebook.com/MRVpostIrene and http://vtresponse.wordpress.com/.
On Tuesday, 12/7 from 7-9pm at the Big Picture Theater, the Mad River Valley
Planning District presents an opportunity to understand the Mad River Valley’s current energy consumption and explore a new tool that helps Vermont communities assess the potential for renewable energy alternatives.
The Mad River Valley Planning District and The Vermont Center for Geographic Information are teaming up to provide an overview of current energy trends in the Mad River Valley and demonstrate the Renewable Energy Atlas of Vermont (www.vtenergyatlas.com). The “Atlas” is a state-of-the-art Geographic Information Systems-based web application tool for identifying, analyzing, and visualizing existing and potential sites for renewable energy projects. It is the first tool of its kind in the United States created to enable individuals to explore the range of renewable energy options available in their town, county or watershed. With its experience exploring and implementing renewable energy alternatives, the Mad River Valley is an opportune place to explore the utility of applying this tool at the community level.
This event is dedicated to enhancing renewable energy discussions in the Mad River Valley. This event is free and open to the public.
The Mad River Valley has a history of serving as a testing ground for idea innovation and refinement. Hot off the press is the result of a recent effort to examine our local middle and high school’s existing woodchip heating system and wood fuel supply. The popularity of large-scale biomass heating systems have continued to grow in the State – over 35 are currently in operation in Vermont public schools. Harwood Union’s system has started firing for its third season. This report is designed to help procurement and verification of locally harvested and processed woodchips from well-managed forests. Woodchips continue to provide an important locally produced energy source. The report was made possible through a partnership between the Northern Forest Alliance, University of Vermont’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Vermont Family Forests, UVM’s Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, the Forest Guild, and the Biomass Energy Resource Center.
Thanks to our fearless email designer Craig Goss, ANYONE can now sign up for ANY of our VFN lists with a simple email request.
To subscribe to ANY OF OUR VFN LISTS, send an email to: listname-request@valleyfutures.net
replacing ‘listname’ with the name of the list you want to subscribe/unsubscribe.
For example:
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You can even subscribe someone else adding their email address to the subject line
Subscribe address=yourfriend@madriver.com
All subscribe/unsubscribe requests return a confirmation email to the person target email. The person who received the confirmation must reply in order for the action to take effect. This means that you can’t subscribe/unsubscribe anyone without their permission.
Crowdsourcing is a neologistic compound of “crowd” and “outsourcing” for the act of taking tasks traditionally performed by an employee or contractor, and outsourcing them to a group of people or community, through an “open call” to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions.
More than 160 Vermonters threw down $50 per ticket Monday night to join hometown heroine Grace Potter at the Big Picture Theater in a musical benefit for the people of earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The Eames Brothers warmed up the lively audience with an hour of upbeat roots-y blues, accompanied by Nocturnals drummer Matt (a.k.a. Cado) Burr, before Grace took the stage at 9:30 in a rare solo (and I use the term loosely) performance for the standing-room-only crowd.
Big Picture owner Claudia Becker introduced Grace by thanking everyone for raising more than $10,000 for Haiti to be channeled through a local nonprofit called Amurtel. The fundraising included young Mad River Valley’ites who contributed their art to the Waitsfield Elementary School art auction currently on display in the Big Picture lobby. (Don’t miss it!)
Amurtel’s Joni Zweig, who was on the ground in Haiti assisting earthquake victims just two days after the January 12 disaster, spoke movingly about the tragedy, the resilience of the Haitian people, the importance of music and dance, and her hope that Vermonters would remember to support Haiti and the Haitian people in the weeks ahead.
With “Creature From The Black Lagoon” playing on the giant movie screen behind her, Grace kicked off the evening with a soulful acoustic guitar version of “Take Me Down To The Water,” followed by an acoustic version of “Ah Mary,” a thinly-veiled critique of the U.S. Empire and the first track of GPN’s most recent release “This Is Somewhere.”
Like so:
She’s the beat of my heart/
She’s the shot of a gun/
She’ll be the end of me and maybe everyone/
Ah Mary Ca…”
Grace then moved to the keyboard where she introduced “Colors,” a gorgeous song to be featured on her soon-to-be-released new album exploring Americans’ varied reactions to the Obama 2008 presidential election, written, she explained, when she was in St. Louis.
Here is a bit of the chorus:
This is the greatest time of day/
When all the clocks are spinning backward/
and all the ropes that bind begin to fray
And all the black and white turns in to colors.
Grace then led into another new Nocturnals collaboration, with Benny (GPN’s newest guitarist) and Matt Burr jumping up on stage to help sing about a woman who’s “got the medicine that everybody wants,” with a rousing instrumental finale that infused the Monday night crowd with renewed energy. They followed this up with an electric guitar screamer featuring both Grace and Benny on the six strings (times two), and an “Oo La La call and response” format that got the crowd going.
Explaining that a Nocturnals trio (Grace, Benny and Matt) was soon heading to London for a series of gigs during their official time off, the band then moved into “Ain’t No Time” from “This Is Somewhere,” playing it as a straight-ahead rocker with some tasty Hammond B organ licks for solo fodder. (Grace confided that the band hadn’t played that one in a year.)
The moment of transcendence, for me anyway, came late in the evening, when Grace performed both “Apologies” and “Big White Gate” solo with just the organ, lit by Big Picture lighting technician James Kinne’s deep green pinpoint laser light arrangement, before closing with a few classics, including a shimmying version of an old Otis Redding favorite – “Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay.”
All in all, a beautiful evening of music for a good cause. Mad River has much for which to be thankful, as our community reached out to the people of Haiti on a clear winter night.
Starting this month, valley residents are invited to join monthly community potluck suppers for the pleasure of enjoying each other’s company and getting to know neighbors. “It’s just like the good old days!” says local farmer David Hartshorn. The suppers will be held at the Waitsfield United Church on Sundays at 6 pm. This month’s supper will take place on January 24th and subsequent suppers will be held the last Sunday of the month through May. Bring your family, friends, visitors, and a dish to share. (Also bring your own place setting to avoid extra trash. Compostable tableware will be available as well.) The suppers are sponsored by the Valley Futures Network, a grassroots, citizen effort focusing on building a healthy and sustainable 21st century future for Mad River Valley communities. For more information contact Jill Arace (jarace@gmavt.net, 496-9974) or visit valleyfutures.net
For the Pleasure of Knowing our Neighbors: Community Potluck Suppers Begin this Month
Starting this month, valley residents are invited to join monthly community potluck suppers for the pleasure of enjoying each other’s company and getting to know neighbors. “It’s just like the good old days!” says local farmer David Hartshorn. The suppers will be held at the Waitsfield United Church on Sundays at 6 pm. This month’s supper will take place on January 24th and subsequent suppers will be held the last Sunday of the month through May. Bring your family, friends, visitors, and a dish to share. (Also bring your own place setting to avoid extra trash. Compostable tableware will be available as well.) The suppers are sponsored by the Valley Futures Network, a grassroots, citizen effort focusing on building a healthy and sustainable 21st century future for Mad River Valley communities. For more information contact Jill Arace at jarace@gmavt.net, 496-9974.
Free music will begin at 7:30 provided by the Mad River Valley Music Bank.
