Firefighter Danielle Morse
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Spirit lift Playoffs Cancer facts François Clemmons can’t be quiet; Running, hitting, scoring. Local Know someone affected by cancer? he invites folks to hear his singing high school teams competed in Our Health & Well-being section meditation. See Arts + Leisure. their fi nal matchups. Page 1B. tells you more about the disease. ADDISON COUNTY INDEPENDENT Vol. 75 No. 23 Middlebury, Vermont ◆ Thursday, June 10, 2021 ◆ 52 Pages $1.50 Meet Miss Vt.: Firefi ghter Danielle Morse Consolidation plans Whiting woman also would close Mt. Abe serves as a nurse But elementary schools would stay By CHRISTOPHER ROSS By CHRISTOPHER ROSS repairs and renovations in recent WHITING — Danielle BRISTOL — If the community- years, at a cost of millions of Morse is about to be the most authored facilities proposals dollars. photographed person in the submitted to the Mount Abraham Since 2014 the district has three state. Unifi ed School District board times tried to persuade 5-Town It comes with the territory. last month are any indication, residents to support multimillion- Late last month, just days after the writing is on the wall for the dollar renovation bonds, but the earning her bachelor’s degree district’s high school in Bristol. community rejected its overtures. from Castleton University’s Mount Abraham Union High Now, some residents are nursing program, Morse, 22, School currently educates calling for the school to be was chosen as Miss Vermont students in grades 9-12 from the decommissioned altogether. 2021. district’s fi ve towns of Bristol, In all four of the community- Over the next year, while Lincoln, Monkton, New Haven authored proposals that outline working as a surgical nurse at and Starksboro. The 52-year-old school attendance at the elementary, Porter Medical Center, she’ll building had required numerous (See Mount Abe, Page 14A) be traveling around the state, raising money for University of Vermont Children’s Hospital (formerly known as Fletcher Allen Children’s Hospital), inspiring young women as the ambassador for the Miss Vermont Scholarship Program, and posing for photographs at civic functions and other special events. In December she’ll travel to Mohegan Sun in Connecticut to compete for the title of Miss America. For Morse, who grew up in New Haven and now lives in Whiting, this is relatively new. There are no photo albums to commemorate childhood or teenage pageants. But her Miss Vermont story does have a sort of origin photograph. It’s unusual MALT PROGRAMS COORDINATOR Caleb Basa (in truck) and in this context, and she has MALT board member Chris Anderson deliver gravel to a wet section of the Trail Around Middlebury. A recent $100,000 donation will referred to it as “embarrassing.” ensure perpetual stewardship of the popular trail. It depicts a 13-year-old Photo courtesy of MALT girl recovering from surgery in a low-lit room at Fletcher Allen Children’s Hospital. Her arm pokes out from under the $100,000 gift to fund blanket just far enough to give a thumbs-up. The photo is grainy and the child looks somewhat TAM upkeep forever weary, but she is obviously By JOHN FLOWERS year anniversary as administrative Danielle Morse. Just look at the MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury leader of the nonprofi t conservation smile. Area Land Trust Executive Director organization that will soon release a GRATITUDE Jamie Brookside is more likely to be new strategic plan mapping out its In October 2012, in the found on cloud nine these days than priorities through 2025. middle of the night, Morse was NEW HAVEN NATIVE Danielle Morse was chosen Miss Vermont 2021 last month at the Vergennes on any of her organization’s 4,700 And the cherry on top of the transferred from Porter Hospital Opera House. The 22-year-old, who now lives in Whiting, will spend the year promoting the Miss acres of conserved lands. sundae: A $100,000 donation from Vermont Scholarship Organization and the UVM Children’s Hospital, to which she feels a very special to Fletcher Allen Children’s connection. In December she will compete for the title Miss America. That’s because she and her MALT a local couple that will ensure (See Miss Vermont, Page 13A) Independent photo/Christopher Ross colleagues have a lot to celebrate. long-term maintenance of MALT’s One, she’s marking her four- (See TAM gift, Page 16A) She happily did it her way at Agway Midd cop By the way Bearor retires after who served 50 years at the store While there will be no the longest July 4 parade in Bristol for a By JOHN FLOWERS second summer in a row due MIDDLEBURY — Fran Bearor is retiring to an abundance of COVID-19 has rubbed shoulders with an precaution, there WILL be untold number of people during Sgt. Christopher fi reworks. The fi reworks will her half-century as the bookkeeper, be held on Friday evening, July manager and jack of all trades at mentored many 2, with a rain date of Monday, the Agway Farm & Garden store July 5. The fi reworks will be set in Middlebury. So talking to people By JOHN FLOWERS off in the same place as usual tends to come naturally. MIDDLEBURY — — the Mount Abraham Union Except last Thursday — and Middlebury Police Department High School sports fi eld — by that’s only because the person in Sgt. Mike Christopher has had Northstar Fireworks. Parking question was a reporter asking varied assignments during his will be provided by the Masons, her to say good stuff about herself lengthy career, ranging from and there will be several food as she prepared to exit a business minor traffi c stops to facing (See By the way, Page 16A) to which she has given her entire down armed suspects. adult life. But one of his biggest But Bearor, 70, did what she’s challenges was making a fi nal done for Agway since 1971 — she exit from the Middlebury Index rose to the occasion and got the job police headquarters on May 28, after a 35-year career that Obituaries ........................6A-7A done. She’s always had a mind for made him the longest serving Classifi eds .....................9B-10B offi cer in the department’s Service Directory ............7B-8B math, a yen for the business world, and a desire to be with other people. history. Entertainment ..... Arts + Leisure “It was kind of tough Community Calendar ............6B So she tailored her education accordingly while at Vergennes FRAN BEAROR WILL retire from Middlebury’s Agway Farm & Garden store this month after 50 years walking out the door for the Arts Calendar ..... Arts + Leisure at the same job. last time,” Christopher, 64, Sports ..............................1B-5B Union High School, from which Independent photo/Steve James she graduated in 1969. said during an interview on “I took offi ce courses — typing, actually at the old Kerr-McGee that burned in 2018. Kerr-McGee “It’s a terrible story, but the Monday. shorthand, running different fertilizer plant off Meigs Road in needed a short-term bookkeeper, manager there was cutting a drum, His introduction to the machines,” she said. the Little City, at the site of the and Bearor fi t the bill, starting in it exploded, and he died,” Bearor world of law enforcement (See Christopher, Page 12A) Her fi rst job upon graduating was former Feed Commodities barn April of 1970. (See Fran Bearor, Page 15A) PAGE 16A — Addison Independent, Thursday, June 10, 2021 By the way (Continued from Page 1A) edges to dig nests and lay their eggs. and other vendors at the Bristol This will continue for the next month Recreation Department fi eld. At and it provides the easiest time to this time, the number and variety fi nd and document them. Watch out of vendors as well as the presence for them on the roads. You can help of music is uncertain, according to them by moving them across the road organizers. in the direction they were heading — but always check for traffi c fi rst. There’s a new gallery in town, If the turtle is colorful with red and and you are the artist. It’s the “Free yellow stripes, it is a painted turtle Little Art Gallery,” and it’s located and you can move it safely. If the in the garden of Middlebury’s turtle has no red, yellow, or orange Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont colors, it is probably a snapping History at 1 Park St. Anyone can turtle. Snapping turtles are nervous participate by creating a mini work on land and will defend themselves. of art in any medium. Bring your Keep in mind that their necks can art to the Sheldon and place it in the reach just about as far as the length Free Little Art Gallery. If you see a of their shells, so keep your hands work you like, you are welcome to out of that area to avoid a serious take it home with you. The Sheldon bite. Small to medium-size snappers curators may select pieces from time can be safely lifted by the back of to time to display in a future mini their shells (head pointed away from exhibit. For reference, the scale of you). It is best not to lift a snapper the gallery is 1:12 (1 inch equals by its tail, as you can do damage to 1 foot). Keep that in mind as you their spine. However, you can slide create your work. Spread the word, a large snapper along the ground by tell your friends and family. Stop by grabbing the tail and a hind leg.