Top Stories for Tuesday February 23, 2010

Hearing The Whistle Blow - Trains History And Historian Ron Nimblett
By Cookie Steponaitis
    The sound of a train whistle means one thing to most Vermonters, having to stop at the railroad crossing and wait until the train goes by. Some of us wave to the engineer but most of us look for the caboose signaling the end of the train. Then we go about out day, with little or no thought being given to the train we saw or the role of the railroad in our country or town. However, that is not the case when it comes to train enthusiast Ron Nimblett who taught Social Studies at VUHS from 1987 to 2006. Every student of his knew when the train whistle blew, class stopped and the group went to the window to get a glimpse of the train and to hear a piece of history from their teacher. Spending time with Ron Nimblett is to see first hand how passionate he is about this form of transportation, its role both today and in the past in American history.
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Cheer Brother Cheer! Celebrating VUHS Cheerleading Program Success And Longevity
By Cookie Steponaitis
    When Deb Hall started coaching VUHS cheerleading as a JV cheer coach in 2001, the Commodore program was already an established presence in the state, but it lacked a solid feeder program. Coach Hall was quick to expand the offerings to area youth to include summer cheerleading camps, summer tumbling camps and helped spark youth programs in local elementary schools. In the meantime, she began taking her cheerleaders to camps across the state and New England to train with some of America’s finest collegiate athletes. “My first goals for the program were to bring respect to the sport by holding the cheerleaders to higher standard of respect for themselves and their school,” shared Coach Hall. “Respect is earned by showing respect. My second goal was to unite them as a team and bring more updated material to the program and require more strenuous physical fitness requirements. While at the same time making sure they understood that their grades were more important than the sport.”
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