Burlington’s most beloved roadie trafficked in tales of adventure and street wisdom gleaned from his life on the road and was like a second father to at-risk youth.
Derek Brouwer
Derek Brouwer was a news reporter at Seven Days 2019-2025 who wrote about class, poverty, housing, homelessness, criminal justice and business. At Seven Days his reporting won more than a dozen awards from the Association of Alternative Newsmedia and the New England Newspaper & Press Association. In collaboration with Vermont Public, he co-reported an investigative series on poor care at Vermont eldercare homes that won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative journalism. Before that, Derek reported for daily and weekly newspapers in Montana. His work includes a September 2024 cover story examining the devastating consequences of cybercrime on older Vermonters and a February 2024 cover story about drug use and homelessness in a low-income apartment building in Burlington, Vt.
