Top Stories for Tuesday April 3, 2018

Sharing Memories Of Service With Reverend Gary Lewis
By Cookie Steponaitis
Stepping into the Vergennes Congregational Church on a Friday evening, the visitor is treated to the sound of laughter, running conversation and the smells of home cooked food. Pausing at the doorway to the community room and kitchen there is a strong awareness of companionship and shared purpose visible from the forty or so seated and congregated there. The meal is clearly more than the eating of food. It is the celebration of a day, a week and a time together in life.
    The Congregational Church is one of a group of area churches which provide this monthly meal in their space. This particular month another area church was providing the meal.  Greeting you upstairs is Reverend Gary Lewis who has just finished meeting with a soon to be married couple and in the same afternoon having to plan for a funeral of a man who passed away unexpectedly which is all in the day of a man who serves people through his ministry and a presence that has long been associated with the Vergennes community. Yet come May 6th Reverend Gary Lewis will have delivered his last sermon, baptized his last child, held the hand of a dying person, shared the word of God with the children and teens of his church and will be retired which for Reverend Lewis the turning of a page in life and the Vergennes community the end of an era for many.  [ more ]

UVM Health Network/Porter Medical Center Receives 2018 Governor’s Excellence Award

The UVM Health Network/Porter Medical Center has received the annual Governor’s Excellence in Workplace Wellness Award for the fourth consecutive year.
    The award recognizes Vermont employers for initiatives that promote onsite wellness activities for their employees.
    “Employers in Vermont have come to understand that physically fit workers are more productive, engaged and invested in their careers,” said Janet Franz, chair of the Vermont Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. “There’s a clear link between healthy, happy employees and an organization’s success.”  [ more ]

Patricia A Hannaford Students Earn National Technical Honor Society Membership
By Mike Cameron
In an ever expanding, technology driven, global society, students at Patricia A. Hannaford Career Center in Middlebury have demonstrated that they are ready and willing to meet those challenges.
On Tuesday evening March 27th 2018, 36-new members were inducted into NTHS.
The students represented the school's twelve technical and six foundational programs including Design and Illustration, Diesel Power Technology, Medical Professions, Culinary Arts, Engineering, Sustainable Agriculture, Automotive Technology, Addison Repertory Theater, Industrial Design and Fabrication and Natural Resource Management.  The students attended Middlebury Union High School, Mt. Abraham Union High School, Vergennes Union High School and Home Schooling.  
  [ more ]