Top Stories for Tuesday April 16, 2013

Watch That First Step, It’s A Doosie! Exploring Vermont Skydiving
By Cookie Steponaitis
   The staff of Vermont Skydiving Adventures (VSD) has for the past twenty one years, with nineteen of them in West Addison been jumping out of perfectly good planes on purpose and repeating it with joy and enthusiasm. It may seem like a crazy idea for those of us grounded on terra firma but each year more than 600 people make the trek to West Addison and experience a tandem jump, many for the first time. Vermont Skydiving Adventures offers a lens through which to learn more about the people who work there and this wonderful and unique opportunity available located in Addison County.
  [ more ]

Swimming with the Fishes: The Beauty of Nature Captured by Vermont Artist Nick Mayer
By Cookie Steponaitis
   Vermont artist Nick Mayer was raised on art and remembers drawing as some of his youngest memories. Inspired by his father who is a Professor Emeritus in art and his mother who is a microbiologist it is no surprise that Mayer was inspired by both art and science.  His parents saved all of his sketchbooks and Mayer can literally trace his work back to age one. Now a full time artist Mayer sends an enormous thanks to both his parents and to Fred Polhemus who connected him with the current Catalina book project that is coming out on the stands Memorial Day weekend.
  [ more ]

Funding Shortage Continues For Local Boys & Girls Club
By Cookie Steponaitis
One part of our community hardest hit by the economic downturn is the non-profit organization that provides services depended upon by the community and is currently reaching down deep to find support for planning the future. The Vergennes Boys & Girls Club has been fortunate to receive federal grant funds from the national office of the Boys & Girls Club of America since opening its doors in 1999. The funds annually range from $75,000-$100,000 and comprise a considerable part of the budget of the local club. During the past year the U.S. Justice Department funds were cut in half for programs nationwide. Nationally for the Boys & Girls Club it meant the pool of money decreased from $46 million to $24 million and at the local level, the Vergennes Boys & Girls Club funding decreased from $100,000 to $30,000 in one cut. The massive cut is staggering to many clubs nationwide and does not reflect any lack of performance but a much smaller pool of funds to be divided nationally and spread further.
  [ more ]