Editor’s Note: For a few years now, the Norwich Times has been featuring our young people thinking, doing, and living outside the box. Rather than follow the traditional four-years-of-high-school onto four-years-of-college route, these adventurous souls are recognizing that there are many paths, and that some may lead to a whole new world to explore. Read about Ebben Whitehair, Gabrielle Alexandrescu, and Sarah Bibeau as they tell us about their exciting travels to distant lands and about their humbling experiences back home.

Ebben Whitehair

I don’t plan anything in advance. Just ask my Mom. I started out my gap year knowing that college immediately after high school wouldn’t work for me.… Read More

In the Upper Valley, members of various faith and secular communities have come together to form the Upper Valley Refugee Working Group. The Working Group focuses both on refugees coming to the immediate area, as well as helping the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program based in Rutland, VT. In January, The Upper Valley Refugee Working Group hosted Light the Way, a benefit for both the Upper Valley Haven and the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program.

Light the Way announced goals, “on a practical level, every household needs a lamp or two to brighten the home! …Light the Way will collect gently used table and floor lamps to be given to resettling refugee households to brighten the years ahead.”… Read More

With spring just around the corner, Norwich residents are looking forward to the return of greenery and spending time outdoors. As the weather warms, the volunteers who keep Norwich green are rolling up their sleeves and ready to get to work maintaining the town’s trails, forests, parks, and conservation easements. These eager volunteers are supported by a large network of organizations both in Norwich and across the Upper Valley.

The new pump track at Huntley Meadow is maintained by a wide range of volunteers, including Emily Biolsi’s class at the Marion Cross School. This fall, the students worked together with community volunteers and Ryan Johnson, a member of the Norwich Recreation Council.… Read More

Publisher’s Note: The Norwich Times’ mission is to uplift, inspire and build positive community through the printed page. We do not publish anything pertaining to national or even local politics or any other sensationalist or potentially divisive content.

While running this article, seemingly about the Women’s March, could be construed as political, my intention is not about politics at all. What inspired me to walk this fine line, and to tell the stories of local people who attended one March or another, was the overwhelming takeaway for each was peace and love. No matter which side of an issue one is on, it’s hard not to agree that peace and love are common values among all humans.… Read More

John Pepper is living proof that even during these turbulent times in which we now live, the American dream of achieving corporate success is alive and well. However, spending time with Norwich resident John Pepper will quickly convince you that even with his history of

overwhelming corporate success, he has broken the mold for a top executive. No fancy board room for John. His Norwich home serves as his corporate headquarters, as well as a single desk in shared office space across the river.

John serves as CEO and cofounder of Boloco that was once described as “A Boston-based family of 22 restaurants and over 450 team members that serves globally inspired burritos, bowls, salads, smoothies and shakes with locations in MA, VT, MD, RI, DC, and of course, Hanover, NH.”… Read More

Ever since Root Schoolhouse, a 1937 one-room schoolhouse located across from Hogwash Farm on Union Village Road at the intersection of Goodrich Four Corners Road, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2013, interest in this historic treasure has spread far beyond Norwich. This year, Boston-based Historic New England, the nation’s oldest, largest, and most comprehensive regional heritage organization, gave the Root District Game Club a $1,000 Community Preservation Grant to support its efforts to rebuild the schoolhouse’s deteriorating foundation and reopen the building for public use.

Every year, Historic New England distributes six awards to historic preservation projects in each of the six New England states.… Read More

On a recent October morning, Mr. Bill had field trips on his mind. “What I like about field trips is that they are not just about going out to see something and enjoying it,” says Mr. Bill. “It connects back.” Whether it’s kindergartners picking apples and then selling them to the rest of the school to learn a little about entrepreneurship, or fourth graders going to the Tunbridge Fair to see pig races at an old-time fair as part of their unit on Vermont history, the value of these excursions extends far beyond the undeniable fun they provide.

Through field trips, children are able to recognize that “…although a lot of learning happens in schools, schools are not the only source of learning,” says Mr.… Read More

On September 24th of this year, a beautiful thing happened.

Close to 350 kids of all ages (2-40+) gathered at Riverside Community Park in West Lebanon to celebrate the renaming of the skatepark and to commit to its revitalization. As with most successful endeavors, this was and continues to be a joint effort between dedicated individuals and public and private entities.

As is often the case, it seems that when tragedy occurs, magic soon follows. Thus is the case with the new life and energy being poured into the recently named Rusty Berrings Skatepark. Yes, “Rusty” knew how to spell “bearing” but being more than a little unconventional was how he rolled (no pun intended!).… Read More

Over February break, twenty American kids, mostly from the Upper Valley, will spend two weeks in Zambia, developing their circus skills alongside kids from Chibolya, an impoverished section of the Zambian capital of Lukhasa. For many of the kids from the U.S., this will be a return trip after their first journey there last winter.

The seeds were sown for this unlikely pairing of circus-loving kids from far ends of the earth during a snowstorm in New York City on Valentine’s Day of 2014. Norwich resident Brooke Ciardelli, who had recently ended her tenure as Founding Producing and Artistic Director of Northern Stage, was directing for a short play festival in Greenwich Village.… Read More

Don’t forget to get your tickets to see Dark Star Orchestra to benefit the Rusty Berrings Skatepark in memory of Tyler Kirschner.

Dark Star Orchestra recreates set lists from some of the most legendary Grateful Dead shows in the Dead’s 30 years of touring. If you’ve ever wondered why the fans were/are so loyal to what the Dead was offering, you now have a chance to experience what it was like to be in an intimate venue, with a couple thousand of your now closest friends (because that’s what seems to happen), and just let the music carry the evening. When the seven members of DSO play, they remind us that the music never stopped and it definitely isn’t stopping any time soon.… Read More