Thetford Town Newsletter

No. 46  DECEMBER 2007

 

 

RECYCLING REMINDER

The company that picks up our paper products does not want GIFT WRAP included.  PLEASE put gift wrap with your regular trash that goes into the truck. Thank you again for all your recycling efforts. Have a great holiday season.

 

Submitted by Frank Bonnett

 

 

RECREATION PROGRAM NOTES

All recreation program information may be viewed at http://www.thetfordvermont. us/recreation.htm, which is updated weekly. Registration forms are available in the quick links section as well.

 

Stop by to meet me, put a face to my name, ask questions and give me your thoughts and ideas for new recreation activities you would like to see in Thetford, December 6th at 7 PM at Latham Library.

 

**Basketball and Alpine Ski Registration will be closing early registration after the first week of December.  Please get those forms in (if you haven't already) to avoid a late fee! Best to drop off the form and payment at the Town Office Building, the TES school office or you can mail it. Look for Cross Country Skiing and K-2 basketball registration this month.

 

**As an alternative to alpine skiing, a cross-country ski program will also be offered on Friday afternoons until 3 PM. Skiers will meet in the TES school cafeteria by 12:30 on Fridays. Adult volunteers are needed to ski with the children.

 

**Cross-country ski equipment is needed for students to borrow/rent. Contact the recreation department if you have equipment for the program.

 

**Adult Open Gym is available at TES on Sunday Nights from 7-8:30 PM.  Contact Andy Boyce for details.

 

Submitted by Hilary Linehan, Recreation Director
Town of Thetford 785-2922 ext 6

 

 

BUGBEE SENIOR CENTER

BAKE SALE & COOKIE WALK
Saturday, December 15th 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
262 North Main Street White River Jct., VT
Silent Auction concludes at 11:30 AM

 

Submitted by Ransom J. Ackerman Jr., Volunteer Coordinator, Bugbee Senior Center

 

 

PEABODY LIBRARY EVENTS

Wednesday, December 5th 7:00 PM
Yankee Magazine essayist and author Edie Clark will read from her new book "Saturday Beans and Sunday Suppers," musings on the pleasures of simple food with recipes from her collection. She returns to Thetford by popular demand, having been here last summer to read from her previous book of essays "The View from Mary's Farm." Copies of her books will be available for sale.

 

Wednesday, December 19th
Annual Winter Solstice Celebrations
Come light up the Library with candles and your smiles to celebrate the darkest day of the year.
Holiday stories for children by the children and Simon Brooks from 3:30-4:45.  Peter Blodgett will read for adults at 7:00 PM.  Refreshments will be served at both events.

Peabody Library--the oldest library building in Vermont--is located on Route 113 in Post Mills.
Peabody Library Hours

Tuesdays    3-8 PM
Wednesdays     2-8:30 PM

 

Submitted by Margo Nutt

 

 

UNITED CHURCH OF THETFORD EVENT

The United Church of Thetford will present, The Living Light, a dramatic musical experience for Christmas on Saturday, Dec.15 at the North Thetford Fellowship Hall, US Route 5 in North Thetford. This will be a "dinner theater" and will include a Pasta Dinner to be served at 5:00. The musical (which is a Christmas Pageant) will be presented at 6:00. There is no charge but donations will be accepted. Reservations are needed.

 

Please call Ginny Southworth, 333-4635 or Lois Paige 785-2687.

 

Submitted by Gail Dimick

 

 

PLANNING COMMISSION FORUM
The Planning Commission will be hosting an Educational Forum on Flood Hazard Regulations with presentations by the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation's River Management Program and Two-Rivers Ottauquechee Regional Commission.  The Forum will be presented at our regular meeting to be held at 7:15pm on Tuesday, December 4, at the Town Offices in Thetford Center.  

All are welcome.

 

Submitted by Wayne Parks, Chair, Planning Commission

 

 

TA NOTES

*On Friday, December 7, the Norwegian dance troupe Smajondolene will perform at 1:00 pm in TA's Anderson Hall.  This award-winning youth folk dance group has performed worldwide, and they will be accompanied by Hardanger fiddler Hans Erik Rua and directed by choreographer Karin Brennesvik.  We appreciate the cooperation of Revels North and producer Sherry Merrick in making this exceptional performance available to our school.  Parents and members of the public are welcome to attend.

 

*The Human Geography class will present its projects at 7:00 pm in the TA Library on Wed., December 12.  Mark your calendar for this annual presentation of original research focused on historical and spatial analysis of local community topics.       

 

*The annual Winter Instrumental Concert will be held on Tuesday, December 18, at 7:00 pm in Anderson Hall.  Please join us for this wonderful musical evening. 

 

*Basketball season at TA starts this month.  The Varsity girls open at home on Wednesday, December 5, against Danville; the Varsity boys' first home game is Saturday, December 8, TA vs Twin Valley.

 

*A “For Sale” sign is up in front of Goddard Hall! A building full of history and fond memories, Goddard has served Thetford Academy well as a dormitory, home of the Alumni Association, and the location of our Development Office. Proceeds from the sale of this historic building will help fund the new construction planned for the Science Building and Anderson Hall.  Also on the market is a portion of the land Thetford Academy owns that lies between Academy and Godfrey Roads.  Approximately ten acres, fronting on Godfrey Road, is being subdivided. Sale of this property will also go toward the building project on campus.

 

*If you’ve been on campus at all this fall, you’ve probably noticed the new practice field taking shape to the west of (and up the hill from) the boys’ soccer field and baseball diamond. This field will provide more space for physical education classes and team practices. The Academy will lose the use of the small field just west of Anderson Hall once construction begins in that area – the new field will fill that gap and take the pressure off our two main fields. Work on the new field has stopped for the winter, with just a few tasks to complete. In the spring, the remaining topsoil will be spread, followed by final grading and seeding. The Woods Trail has been rerouted and now climbs up above the new field before dropping to the north end of the boys’ field. We invite you to walk the trail and enjoy the new view east to New Hampshire!

 

*December recess begins on the 24th, and school resumes on January 2.  We wish a warm and happy holiday season to everyone.                                                                          

 

Submitted by Wendy Cole                                                                                                                            

 

 

LATHAM MEMORIAL LIBRARY NEWS

"Community Corner", Thursday Dec. 6 at 7 pm 

Join us as we welcome Hilary Linehan, Thetford's new Recreation Director!  She's hard at work organizing Thetford activities for this winter and the rest of '08 & she's eager to hear your suggestions and questions.

 

"Native American and European Encounters in the Connecticut River Valley", Thurs. Dec. 13 at 6:30pm

Professor Colin Calloway, Chair of Dartmouth's Native American Studies Department, will discuss how the Connecticut River Valley functioned as a corridor of contact and conflict between 18th century Native Americans and European settlers.  If you have ever wondered what this region was like in the years before Thetford's establishment, or want to know more about the diverse cultural heritage of the Connecticut River Valley, this is a don't miss opportunity! Co-sponsored by the Thetford Historical Society.

 

Phone book reminder

A new Thetford phone book is in the works! If you (1) are new to town & want to make sure you're included in the book (2) were in the previous Thetford phone book or are in the local phone company phone book and don't want to be listed in the Thetford phone book (3) have edits to your listing from the previous Thetford phone book or other concerns, please email Lynne O'Hara at LOH@sover.net.  If you don't have access to email, please call her at 333-4846.  

 

Submitted by Elise Tillinghast

 

 

ANNE SLADE FREY CHARITABLE TRUST

Thetford’s Fall recipients:

SERG, Thetford Center, VT: $1000 in support of their program to increase community awareness of energy issues and participation.

Thetford Academy, Thetford, VT:  $1000 in support of the program Operation Day's Work to create two brochures, one to describe its goals and philosophies, the other describing the project and country chosen this year. These will be included in the ODW-USA kit, which demonstrates how to start ODW from the ground up and is sent to schools around the country. The grant will also cover a New England ODW-USA Meeting for participating schools.

Founded in 1992 by long-time Upper Valley peace activist Anne Slade Frey and a circle of friends, the Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust was established to promote innovation and creativity in education, the arts, nonviolence and social justice. Twice each year since autumn of 1993 the Trust has awarded a round of grants to individuals and groups involved in projects that are in harmony with the Trust's goals which are to:

* Teach nonviolent, cooperative approaches to international and interpersonal conflict.

* Respect cultural diversity as well as human and ecological interdependence.

* Encourage creative thought on social, economic and political questions

* Involve children and adults in theater, music, dance and the visual arts.

* Reach people who have been neglected by conventional schooling.

* Seek to eliminate poverty and inequality.

* Foster democratic participation.

 

Submitted by Cynthia Taylor

Administrative Coordinator

The Anne Slade Frey Charitable Trust
P.O. Box 520, Hanover, N.H. 03755

 

 

THE PORCUPINE, PRACTICALLY PREDATOR-PROOF

The wild apple tree at the end of Poor Farm Road bore a strange fruit two weeks ago.  A large, fibrous ball had mysteriously lodged in the branches. On closer inspection this proved to be a porcupine, latched onto a perilously slender limb.  It was oblivious to my approach and kept its eyes shut to the wintry morning. Supremely confident in its defenses it had chosen to sleep off its meal of apples in full view of a group waiting for the school bus.

As many a dog owner knows, the porcupine is a remarkably well-protected animal thanks to its unique coat of about 30,000 quills. Hence the name ‘porc epine’- french for thorny pig. Quills are actually specialized hairs with hollow, lightweight shafts and needle-sharp points. The tip of a quill is covered with scales that gradually curl up into backward-facing barbs once the quill penetrates the flesh of an attacker. The barbs make quills hard to dislodge and also cause them to work their way deeper with the attacker’s movements, sometimes piercing vital organs.  People ask if porcupines ever get stuck by their own quills, and the answer is ‘yes’. A surprising 30 percent of porcupines fall out of trees, sustaining fractures and quill pricks. For that reason both the skin and quills of a porcupine contain a natural antibiotic and quill injuries rarely become infected.

It is untrue that porcupines shoot their quills at attackers. Their quills are quite firmly attached to the skin and it takes about 3.5 ounces of pull to detach a single quill (from an anesthetized porcupine.) However when a porcupine is threatened its skin tightens causing the quills to stand up.  The charge of an attacker then drives the bases of the quills into the tightened skin with a force sufficient to shear them from their roots.

Although porcupines are well protected, an encounter with a predator still carries a risk of injury and is best avoided. Thus they have evolved a series of warning signals to deter would-be attackers. Firstly they raise their quills, making the body look bigger, and they turn their backs. This reveals the prominent white of the quills against the contrasting the black fur, an effect reminiscent of the skunk’s black-and-white warning display. For good measure, the white markings on the quills have a natural fluorescence that makes them more visible at night.  Porcupines also rattle their quills, chatter their teeth and make other sounds. To complete the warning, they release a pungent odor from an area of specialized quills on their lower back known as the rosette.  If the predator presses on, undeterred by this visual, auditory and olfactory warning the porcupine tries to keep its back to the attacker and swats it with its stout tail. The short quills on the tail can actually inflict more harm than the longer, more menacing quills on the neck and back.

The porcupine is second only to the beaver as largest of rodents in the US with males weighing up to 18 pounds. While most rodents have legendary reproductive capacity and huge mortality rates, the porcupine enjoys a low mortality and a proportionately low birth rate. Pregnancy lasts for almost seven months, and the female nurses the single baby for another three and a half months.

Porcupines were never evolved to flee rapidly, they move along at a slow shuffle. Unafraid by nature they are easy to approach, to the benefit of many a hungry native and lost hunter who has been saved by a meal of porcupine meat. From their quills came the native tradition of decorative quill-work on hides, mats and birch bark baskets, while their fur is used to this day in quality fishing lures.

Submitted by Li Shen
Thetford Conservation Commission

 

 

 

Thetford Diversity Update (in 2 parts)
November 11, 2007

Part I.
Great things are happening at Thetford Elementary School. Just this past week, Ms. Ruby Bridges, the youngest front-line civil rights activist who integrated a public school in Louisiana back in 1960 came to TES on Wednesday to speak with students and faculty about her experiences. She kept two separate groups of students at rapt attention for 2 hours each in the TES multi-purpose room. Her teaching style was highly interactive with children answering questions, giving applause to friends who responded, watching video clips and slides, and also coming up to the microphone to ask questions of Ms. Bridges about her life. Ruby Bridges promotes and encourages the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences with the belief that prejudice and racism can be eliminated. For more on Ms. Bridges life and her foundation please see http://www.rubybridges.org/home.htm< /a>. While this visit is certainly a high point for the TES community, the school continues to build on the diversity policy adopted by the Thetford School Board of Directors a few years ago. Events leading up to the Bridges visit have included welcoming Ms. Patcharee Sridakum, an exchange teacher form Thailand, for a year to teach at TES, a multicultural festival that took place last year, the Reading to End Racism program in all classrooms, and curricular enhancements that included reading the Ruby Bridges Story and watching the Disney movie about her life. As Ruby said, if you haven't seen the movie yet, rent it and watch it. See http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges_(1998_TV_Movie) for information on this wonderful movie.

Big thanks go to the entire staff of TES for their support of the Bridges visit. It was time consuming and took many thoughtful meetings of the TES Diversity Leadership Team to make this happen. Principal Alice Worth was instrumental in spearheading this effort at the school, as were several teachers including Joanna Waldman, Abby Logan, and Meredith Moore, all as members of the diversity leadership team.

Those organizations who so generously dedicated financial resources to fund this visit to TES and which allowed the school to purchase many copies of the Bridges book, "Through My Eyes" (which Ruby signed!) are:
1. The Vermont Community Foundation
2. The Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation
3. Friends of Thetford Education
4. Thetford Elementary School
5. Thetford Academy
6. The Dartmouth College Office of Institutional Diversity and Equity
7. The Thetford PTO

Without this critical funding we could not have paid for Ms. Bridges' honorarium and travel expenses to allow her to present three separate, age-appropriate sessions to TES student in grades 1, 2 and 3, then a session to grades 4, 5, and 6, and finally a separate session to TA 7th and 8th graders many of whom had helped pave the way to prepare for the Bridges visit last year when they were 6th grade students at TES.

Also working to help coordinate the many needed people and resources to help make the Bridges visit a reality was Thetford Diversity Forum co-chair Annelise Orleck to whom I extend many gracious thanks.

This was a true community-wide effort that resulted in new learning opportunities for our children.  The collaborative spirit and eagerness to work as a team in peer-to-peer style came from the educators at TES without whose help and guidance this visit would not have been successful. Ms. Bridges commented at the end of the day on Wednesday how incredibly well-prepared the TES students were for her visit, how engaged they were in the information she had to impart, how thoughtful were the questions they asked, and how well they knew U.S. history!

As Ms. Bridges states on her website: "Each and every one of us is born with a clean heart. Our babies know nothing about hate or racism. But soon they begin to learn - and only from us. We keep racism alive. We pass it on to our children. We owe it to our children to help them keep their clean start." --Ruby Bridges

Below is an excerpt from last week's TES newsletter describing the day in more detail.  I hope you'll make a trip to TES to see the student writing covering the hallway walls that is impressive and thoughtful.

Thetford Elementary School
News and Views
November 8, 2007
Issue 6
From The Principal's Desk:

Ruby Bridges Visits TES:  On Wednesday Ms. Ruby Bridges visited TES and conducted an amazing interactive session with the children beginning with a two hour presentation for the 1st-3rd graders at 9:00 and ending with a presentation to the 4th-6th graders at 12:30.  In between Ruby was able to tour the school and visit with the kindergarten children. Her message of opening one's heart and mind to others even if they are different from you, set in the context of her own experiences, really touched the children and spurred wonderful questions and dialogue throughout the day.

This visit was a rare gift.  Ruby was genuinely impressed by our students and the work they have done to celebrate diversity as well as recognize the challenges of persevering in the face of adversity. I hope all TES families can view the students' writing, which is up on the walls in the "primary wing" and the corridor outside the art room and library.  Your kids are amazing.  During the presentation they were thoughtful, insightful, polite and patient.  I was very proud of them.  Their work is a testimony not only to the quality of their thinking and writing but to our dedicated staff who has worked at helping the students understand Ruby's message.


Part II.
Also at TES, a group of dedicated parents and students have been meeting for several weeks to develop the first-ever Thetford FIRST LEGO League (FLL) teams. These teams constructed Lego robots that they then programmed to perform various tasks on a 4 ft X 8 ft competition table.  FLL is an international program for children ages 9-14.  It combines a hands-on, interactive robotics program and a research presentation with a sports-like atmosphere.  Teams consist of up to 10 members and focus on such things as team building, problem solving, creativity, and analytical thinking. http://www.firstlegoleague.org/ for more information on this exciting program.

What, you might ask, does FLL have to do with diversity?  Well, when you enter a classroom after school and see TES girls and boys being mentored and coached by men and women who are involved Thetford community members, and combine it with Dartmouth Thayer School of Engineering women students working side-by-side with children to help them learn to program robots, it's a remarkably diverse mix of people and skill sets. The teaching, and even more importantly, the learning and team-building skills children acquire through this type of interaction is extraordinary.  Finally, seeing the FLL competition that took place on Saturday, November 3 at the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, one quickly realizes just how incredibly diverse a mix of people and talent there are in this region.

The many Thayer School students, budding young men and women engineers, who coordinated the Dartmouth Area Robotics Tournament (DART) did so without pay, without academic credit, and with a strong desire to impart to our children the many skills they had to share. It was exciting to see a young woman from the Thayer School working with a group of TES 4th and 5th graders to help them figure out the technical difficulties of programming a robot to turn an extra few degrees to the left so that it could get a solar panel from point A to point B.  This year's topic for FLL is "Energy Resources - Meeting the Global Demand."  Children were intensely engaged in the program and, surprise, the two Thetford teams each won an award at the regional competition!  Thanks go out to all the Thayer School students who helped our children learn so readily.

Huge thanks go to Bryant Patten, Bob Wells, Jean Graber, and Greg Gundlach who served as parent mentors, coaches, and motivators for the students.  All the children came away with newfound knowledge, a strong sense of team play, and just how much fun it can be to think, create, design, and test their skills against others in a nurturing (and exciting) environment.  Bryant and Bob, you guys are truly brilliant geeks (really, positively in every way!), and my hat is off to you for coming up with this great idea and moving the ball forward. TES, Thetford, and our students are lucky to have you, as we are so fortunate to have teachers and a principal who came to the competition on Saturday morning.  Thanks to TES teachers Abby Logan, Jen Pratt, Meredith Moore, and Principal Alice Worth for offering their support for the kids on an early weekend morning.

Below is an excerpt from last week's TES Newsletter describing FLL in more detail.  Enjoy...

Congratulations to the two TES First LEGO League teams!  This fall two teams were developed at TES to explore the science of robotics, including designing, building and programming. This after school program was created and supported by parent volunteers, and the students have done an amazing job coming together and working collaboratively to investigate challenges and produce solutions. It has been fun and rewarding. On Saturday, team "Mindbreakers" and team "Munchkins" competed in the Dartmouth Area Robotics Tournament (DART) and did an amazing job!  Dartmouth College hosted the event that brought 17 Upper Valley teams together to compete throughout the day in 4 main areas of judging - Robotic Challenge, Project Presentation, Technical Knowledge and Teamwork. This year's Energy Puzzle challenge required that the teams design and build their LEGO robot to perform certain missions all having to do with energy use, transfer, and disposal.  Their presentation was a result of an energy audit each team performed on a community building of their choice and required research in energy use, alternative energy, and energy sources to come up with their list of recommendations to save energy for that building.  The Mindbreakers won the Presentation Award for their research and skit based on their energy audit of TES. The Munchkins were awarded the Caught in the Act of Teamwork Award, which goes to the team that was (unknowingly) observed and caught acting as a team. The team members worked hard in getting their challenge and presentation together, working with/around the obstacles at the competition, and having FUN!  It was truly amazing to see the abundance of excitement, energy, and teamwork that shone throughout the day.  Thanks to all the parents that came to volunteer, corral, cheer, and support their children and teammates. Team members include: Matt Borst, Camille Celone, Cole Chapman, Ella Chapman, Jack Fordy, Josh Graber, Liam Gundlach, Kippy Haviland-Hack, Eric Lavik, Ethan Levine, Eleanor Patten, Wylie Seace, Andrew Sharp, Henry Vansant, Gannon Walsh, and Christopher Wells. A special thanks to the parent coaches, Bob, Jean, Bryant and Greg.
(End of TES newsletter)

That's it for the moment on diversity in Thetford.  Hope you have a terrific week.

[Note that if I omitted anyone's name who helped with either of the above projects it was purely unintentional.  All TES teachers have been involved in one way or another with this long-term diversity effort, and I am extremely grateful for your help.]

Submitted by Dave Celone

 


THETFORD TOWN NEWSLETTER SUBMISSION INFORMATION 

The deadline for submissions is the 20th of each month. Send news including contact name and telephone number to Cathee Clement at 785-2668 or turtlepond@netzero.net.

Please list Thetford Town Newsletter in the subject line.