Top Stories for Tuesday July 13, 2010

Forty-Seven Years Of Service And Going Strong
By Cookie Steponaitis
by Cookie Steponaitis
Verna Durpey was about fourteen years old when she was first introduced to the American Legion and the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary. She was invited to a meeting by local auxiliary member Jane Austin and the rest is history. Verna was born in Vergennes in 1934 and can not remember a time when she along with local people was not involved in community service. “My mother and father were both very active in veteran and community organizations,” shared Verna. “I grew up in Vergennes and people here gravitated toward organizations that gave help and made a difference.” The American Legion Ladies Auxiliary provides programs for youth, education, and civic organization and most importantly helps the families of the veterans.   [ more ]

Auditions Slated For Middlebury’s Got Talent! At Town Hall Theater

    It has become an end-of-summer institution, a wild mixture of singers, tap dancers, Irish dancers, stand-up comics, musicians, jugglers, and a whole lot more.  It’s Middlebury’s Got Talent, and it always plays to sold-out houses the final week of August.
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Grand Opening Of Boat Exhibit Building At Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Small Boat Festival

Grand Opening Of Boat Exhibit Building At Lake Champlain Maritime Museum’s Small Boat Festival
On Saturday July 17 at 10:30 a.m. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum will officially open the doors of its newest exhibit building, the Hazelett Watercraft Center. The centerpiece of this exhibit is the 35 foot long, 1902 ice yacht Storm King, given to the museum by William (Bill) and Dawn Hazelett. It’s a great place to visit in a summer heat wave – cool and comfortable, Storm King towers above a two-story array of dugout and bark canoes, kayaks, rowing skiffs, and sail boats from the LCMM collection, and digital displays of vintage postcards and film footage of ice boats in action. “We can’t find enough words to thank Bill and Dawn Hazelett and their family for their generosity,” commented LCMM director Art Cohn. “What a great way to celebrate the museum’s twenty-fifth season. The Hazelett Watercraft Center fulfills a long-cherished vision of a facility at the Maritime Museum that celebrates the lake’s legacy of wooden watercraft and their makers, and the sport of iceboating.”   [ more ]