Jun 20-26, 2018
Special Report on Vermont Nonprofits, Week 1: Executive Compensation, How to Start a Nonprofit, Surprising Nonprofits; Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in Morrisville; Self-Publishing Urban Fantasy
Cover Story
How Vermont’s Nonprofit Sector Became a $6.8 Billion Industry
When Christine Graham joined the nonprofit world in 1969, “The vast majority of community organizations that we have now simply didn’t exist,” she recalled. Churches, Grange halls and fire companies had long brought Vermonters together to help one another. But it would be years before the Vermont Land Trust, the Vermont Foodbank and the Vermont…
Seriously: You Serious?
In this episode, Bryan catches up on the state budget stalemate and discusses Seven Days’ new multi-part series. CREDITS Written, filmed and edited by: Bryan Parmelee Artwork/photography by: Josh Kuckens, John Walters, Thomas James, Bryan Parmelee, Dreamstime Backdrop mural by: Anthill Collective Logo/art direction by: Don Eggert Audio by: Bryan Parmelee, Freesound Related Stories
![Countryman Peony Farm [SIV537]](https://i0.wp.com/www.sevendaysvt.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/episode537-6-e1755132017505.webp?resize=640%2C360&ssl=1)
Countryman Peony Farm [SIV537]
6/17/18: Dan and Ann Sivori did not intend to become peony farmers. Dan is a former Connecticut State Trooper and Ann worked with the FBI for three decades. After searching for the right home in Vermont for 8 years, they heard about the scenic spot in Northfield while they were living in Austria. The former…
Free Will Astrology (6/20/18)
CANCER (June 21-July 22): I suggest you ignore the temptation to shop around for new heroes and champions. It would only distract you from your main assignment in the coming weeks, which is to be more of a hero and champion yourself. Here are some tips to guide you as you slip beyond your overly…
Scarlett Letters: Was I Wrong Not to Give in to His Sexual Fantasies?
Dear Scarlett, I am middle-aged and have never been married. I was dating a man for about a year and was convinced that he was the one. A few months ago, he started talking to me about his fantasy to have sex with total strangers. He kept pressuring me to “make his fantasies a reality”…
Album Review: Subversive Intentions, ‘Variations on the Seinfeld Theme’
(Histamine Tapes, cassette, digital download) Subversive Intentions is a one-man experimental noise operation run by Nick Dentico, who currently hails from the Montpelier area. He’s been toiling in these strange fields for quite some time, with a catalog dating back to 2010. His latest project, Variations on the Seinfeld Theme, comes courtesy of a new…
Harsh Words: Dueling Rhetoric on the Budget Battle
And so it continues. Leaders in the Vermont House tried to override Gov. Phil Scott’s latest budget veto on Tuesday but fell short of the necessary two-thirds margin by four votes. The final tally was 90 yes, 51 no. Minority Republicans maintained caucus discipline as their leadership convinced those who’d voted in favor of the…
Junior’s Italian in Colchester Closes After a Quarter-Century
In Colchester, Junior’s Italian closed on June 15. In a Facebook post announcing the 25-year-old restaurant’s immediate closure, owner Franke Salese Jr. cited ongoing financial issues as reasons for the restaurant’s demise. “We have been working extremely hard over the past few years to make day-to-day adjustments and financial investments to improve our operations and…
Short Takes on Five New Vermont Books
Seven Days writers can’t possibly read, much less review, all the books that arrive in a steady stream by post, email and, in one memorable case, a scold of jays. So this monthly feature is our way of introducing you to a handful of books by Vermont authors. To do that, we contextualize each book…
A Local Expert Decodes the New Food Labeling Regs
It’s no secret that many Americans could benefit from eating better. Over the last few decades, the country has seen a steady increase of health issues such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes, all attributed at least partially to poor diet. Not only have our food choices racked up billions in…
These Vermont Gubernatorial Candidates Have Roots in the Nonprofit World
Three of the four Democratic candidates in this year’s gubernatorial race hail from the nonprofit world. The only one who doesn’t is 14-year-old Ethan Sonneborn, who’s not old enough to work. Incumbent Republican Gov. Phil Scott also has experience in the sector: For more than a dozen years, he’s run the annual Wheels for Warmth…
Liz Cooper & the Stampede Gear Up For Debut LP ‘Window Flowers’
Liz Cooper & the Stampede are on the verge of busting out of the corral to tear off into the wild. With the imminent release of its debut LP Window Flowers, due out August 10, the Nashville-based trio is poised for a breakout. On the band’s latest single, “Mountain Man,” the group concocts a psychedelic,…
What’s Up With the Giant Spider by Barrio Bakery?
The sight of a spider makes many humans recoil with fear. Not so much with a particular specimen on Burlington’s Crombie Street, even though it is extraordinarily large. The strangely fuzzy arachnid dangles upside down from a utility pole just outside Barrio Bakery, clutching a bottle of maple syrup. Its back legs are strapped together…
Art Review: Rachel Moore, Edgewater Gallery in Stowe
A delicate darkness emanates from “Traces,” Rachel Moore’s solo exhibition at Edgewater Gallery in Stowe. For Moore, who joined Helen Day Art Center as curator in 2010 and succeeded Nathan Suter as executive director in 2016, this is the first comprehensive showing of her work in Vermont. As such, the show, curated by Edgewater’s Kelly…
Eat This Week, June 20 to 26, 2018: Eat Your Heart Out
The Burlington Wine & Food Festival kicked off on Tuesday, June 19. Beyond the marquee Grand Tastings at Waterfront Park this Saturday, June 23, the weeklong event offers dinners, classes and workshops in Chittenden County and beyond. Winemakers and importers will be in residence for collaborative tasting suppers at area restaurants. Diners can get to…
Theater Review: ‘Gypsy,’ Stowe Theatre Guild
Studded with classic songs, Gypsy carries audiences back to the days of vaudeville as Rose, a single-minded stage mother, seeks stardom for her daughters. A young Stephen Sondheim wrote the clever lyrics for Jule Styne’s lush music. Arthur Laurents’ book is based loosely on Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoir of her mother’s controlling force on her…
So You Want to Start a Nonprofit? Here’s What It Takes
When someone asks certified public accountant Wallace Tapia how to properly set up a nonprofit organization, he always recommends hiring an attorney to stay on the right side of the Internal Revenue Service. But I didn’t know that in 2015. For three summers, I had been running a leadership and mentoring program for middle school girls…
Movie Review: Parents Are the Real Heroes in an Entertaining ‘Incredibles 2’
In 2004, when Pixar’s The Incredibles was a smash hit, superheroes had yet to take over the blockbuster landscape. Like the graphic novel Watchmen, Brad Bird’s animation found both comedy and commentary in imagining how ordinary Americans would really receive super-humans in their midst. Alarmed by the collateral damage of super-battles, the citizenry eventually makes…
Why Are Fraternities and Sororities Exempt from Federal Taxes?
It’s not just animal shelters, churches and food shelves. The host of that kegger you crashed in college might have been a nonprofit. About 20 fraternities and sororities are registered as tax-exempt organizations in Vermont, recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as social clubs for “pleasure and recreation.” But it’s a selective bunch. Only Greek…
Movie Review: Heist Flick ‘American Animals’ Plays Brilliantly With Expectations
Something wicked cool this way comes. Bart Layton, the Brit who gave us 2012’s hybrid documentary The Imposter, unveiled his narrative feature debut at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The film proved a sensation. It should arrive in Burlington in upcoming weeks, sensational news for anyone with a taste for the cinematically audacious. American…
Album Review: Bison, ‘Drive Fast, Love Hard’
(Self-released, digital download) We have good news and bad news. The good: Next-big-local-thing Bison have released a four-song EP, and it is a straight home run, just a killer record. The bad news? As of this writing, Bison are dead. The Burlington trio dropped its second record, the appropriately named Drive Fast, Love Hard, in…
Some of Vermont’s Highest-Paid Execs Run Nonprofits
When Tom Lovett moved to the Northeast Kingdom in 1984 to teach high school English, he wasn’t expecting a six-figure salary. “I come from a family of teachers,” he said. “I did not get into this profession for any kind of financial benefit.” But after 34 years at St. Johnsbury Academy, including 17 as its…
A Vermont Distance Runner Plans to Tackle the Long Trail for Opioid Abuse Awareness
A West Bolton ultramarathoner is planning to run the Long Trail this summer to raise money for — and awareness about — opioid abuse treatment. Phil LaCroix, 35, said he was inspired to take on the state’s signature 274-mile mountain route after seven close friends fatally overdosed, beginning with the 2016 death of Sean Stem,…
Soundbites: 50 Shades of Night
This weekend marks the return of the Nightshade Festival. Born out of electro-R&B wunderkind Guthrie Galileo’s Nightshade Kitchen — a series of intimate, food-centric house concerts — the daylong fest heads into its second year on Saturday, June 23, at organic farm, nursery and wedding venue Red Barn Gardens in Williston. With a bill practically dripping…
Burlington Couple Find Success Self-Publishing Sci-Fi Fantasy
Two years ago, Christine Mancuso was a school psychologist and her husband, Nick Crawford, was a biology researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. Now they work from home, writing books about boot-clad young women who discover magical powers, fight otherworldly monsters and swoon before “disturbingly” seductive demons. The couple has been self-publishing urban fantasy novels…
Letters to the Editor (6/20/18)
Hobo Reunion [Re “The Ballad of Feather River John,” June 13]: Thanks to your entertaining article on my hobo life of yesteryear, Rattlesnake Joe called (collect) from Pueblo to tell me that he, Overcoat Dan and Radio Jake would be heading east to spend the winter with us. Frisco Bob and the Hardrock Kid out…
Geoff Gevalt Hands Young Writers Project Reins to Susan Reid
When Geoffrey Gevalt created the Young Writers Project in 2003 as a monthly feature in the Burlington Free Press, he had two goals: to teach kids to write and to showcase their work. “A lot of teachers weren’t teaching writing correctly,” said Gevalt, who was then the paper’s managing editor. He had first-hand experience. Gevalt…
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner in Morrisville
Between breakfast and lunch last week in Morrisville — or was it Morristown? — I thought I should find out where I was. So I walked into the Morristown municipal offices on Portland Street for the official word. The building’s Morristown designation offered a big hint, but it wasn’t enough. Nearby street signs announced that…
Burlington Drink Entrepreneurs Move, Aptly, Into the Soda Plant
The Soda Plant in Burlington’s South End will return to its original use — as a beverage-production center — in coming months, as several beverage-related businesses move into the former ReSOURCE space at 266 Pine Street. Landlord and project developer Steve Conant said on Monday that initial tenants for the 20,000-square-foot building include Brio Coffeeworks,…
