The Innovation Issue 2019
Vermont’s Skateboarding Community Rallies to Resurrect a Beloved Skatepark; Streaming Inspiration to Students; Finding Patches of Urban Nature; Confessions of the ‘Queen of Halloween’
Savory Pumpkin Stew Makes a Hearty Fall Meal
For better or worse, it seems that pumpkin products are everywhere you turn in the fall. While I enjoy the occasional pumpkin-spice coffee, and a hefty slice of pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving, I think the pumpkin trend has gone too far. This fall, I saw an ad for pumpkin-spice Spam. And on NPR recently, I…
Teen Conservationist Stands Up for Elephants
Name: Taegen Yardley Age: 16 Town: Stowe In 2015, when she was in sixth grade, Taegen Yardley shared her passion for elephants by testifying at the Vermont Statehouse in support of H.297, a bill to ban the sale of ivory in Vermont. As she began speaking, she noticed one senator set down her knitting and…
Family Portrait: Hannah, David, Adah and Senyah
Kids VT: Hannah, you’ve been hard at work on the new Talent indoor skateboarding facility. You must be busy! Hannah: Yes, I’m working a full-time job and doing this right now! It’s a labor of love, and the time I spend working on Talent doesn’t feel like work because it’s a passion. And it needs…
Confessions of the “Queen of Halloween”
“Halloween is fun to decorate,” Martha Stewart proclaimed on a visit to the “Today” show last October. “You do not have to spend a lot of money; it’s just creativity,” she said, gesturing casually toward an eight-foot tree on the set behind her. Its trunk and branches were painted black, and it was festooned with…
Yoga Pose of the Month: Tree Pose
This balancing yoga pose is a great way to bring focus and calm to your body and mind while building strength in the ankles, calves and abdominal muscles. Steps: Stand tall in mountain pose with arms by your side. Lift one foot and place it on the calf or inner thigh of the standing leg.…
Autumn’s Bounty
Fall is arguably the busiest season of the year for my family. My husband, Jeff, is a middle school teacher, and my kids just started seventh and fourth grades. Between fall sports, extracurricular activities and open houses, the span of time between the first day of school and Thanksgiving sometimes feels like a never-ending hamster…
Graphic Novelist Chronicles Ups and Downs of Pregnancy
In Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos, Lucy Knisley shares her struggles with conception, miscarriage, depression and a dramatic childbirth with nearly fatal complications. Smart, sweet and often funny, Knisley doesn’t hold back on the nitty-gritty details. She renames morning sickness “perpetual and unrelenting nausea” and wonders how anyone survived pregnancy before Netflix. Sandwiched…
Apple Picking & Animal Petting at South Hero’s Allenholm Farm
The air was cool and the leaves had started to change color on our family’s annual trip to Allenholm Farm in South Hero in September. The seventh generation Vermont apple orchard was started in 1870 by Reuben Allen and his son, Horace, and is now run by Ray and Pam Allen. In the span of…
Behind the Music: Rockin’ Ron the Friendly Pirate
In July, Rockin’ Ron the Friendly Pirate released his latest full-length record, Talk Like a Pirate. The rollicking collection of nautically themed children’s tunes is the affable Vermont buccaneer’s fourth album and follows 2016’s The Flying Pirate Circus. That recording drew consideration for a Grammy nomination, along with several dozen other kids’ albums. Though it…
St. Albans Website Streams Inspiration to Students
A 10-minute health lesson teaches children how humans benefit from geting into nature and escaping the stress-inducing noise of traffic, crowds and electronics. A 13-minute arts lesson explains to kids how music can rewire the brain and help people with traumatic brain injuries learn to communicate again. An 11-minute history lesson explores how two sisters,…
Burlington Wildway Gives Access to Urban Nature
As winter approaches, it can feel harder to interest kids in outdoor nature expeditions. One thing that keeps my family willing to bundle up and head out? Permission to keep it small. Since my son was tiny, we’ve had a family tradition of spending time in nature on Sunday mornings. When we’re too lazy to…
South Burlington’s City Center Park: A Natural Place to Play
Need a cute-as-a-button mint green desk lamp or a package of cauliflower gnocchi? You’ll definitely find them in South Burlington. But a peaceful spot to play and contemplate nature? The suburban community — which boasts Vermont’s only Target and Trader Joe’s —might not be the first place you’d look. But it exists — and it’s…
VT Youths Join Climate Protests
Thousands of young people in Vermont joined peers around the world on Friday, September 20, to protest the failure to adequately address global warming. “We are skipping our lessons to teach you one,” read a sign that a girl held up in a crowd packed shoulder to shoulder in front of Burlington City Hall. The…
Monkey Do Play Space to Open in Williston
Several years ago, Claudine Safar of Williston was vacationing with her husband, Jeff Teplitz, and two young children in Mont-Tremblant, Québec. The family was enjoying an action-packed itinerary of hiking, rock climbing and kayaking when it started to rain. Safar googled indoor kids’ activities in the area and came across a local play space in…
Hannaford and Healthy Living Roll Out New Parental Leave Policies
Two supermarkets — regional chain Hannaford Supermarkets and local chain Healthy Living Market and Café — recently announced new parental leave policies. Hannaford, which operates 181 stores in the Northeast and employs around 27,000 people, will provide associates of all genders, who have worked at Hannaford for at least one year and average 30 hours of…
VINS’ Canopy Walk Gives Visitors Bird’s-Eye View
Wonder what it’s like to be a bird fluttering from tree to tree? This October, the Vermont Institute of Natural Science (VINS) provides a window into that world when it opens its Forest Canopy Walk, which supports the science center’s mission to provide place-based education by actively immersing visitors in nature. Following the natural slope…
Community Rallies to Resurrect Talent Skatepark as a Nonprofit
Reid Hathaway was in kindergarten the first time he visited the now-defunct Talent Skatepark in South Burlington. “I remember dropping him off the first time for a lesson and thinking, Wow! This is an awesome place and an awesome community!” recalled his mother, Melissa Hathaway. “He immediately took to it.” When Reid was 8, Hathaway…
