KILLINGTON - The Killington Parks & Recreation Department (KPR) on May 9 announced several new summer programs and events upcoming for this summer.

KPR will offer three new youth camp programs: D&J Music Camp, Superhero Camp, and All About Learning Camps.

MUSIC
The D&J Music Camp is for students K - 6, beginner to experienced musicians, and will offer junior musicians the opportunity to try out a variety of musical instruments and acquire basic theoretical knowledge of music, including songwriting.The camp will culminate in a Project Showcase party for families and friends where campers can share their efforts with the ones they love! D&J Music Camp takes place on Tuesdays from 9 a.m. to 12-noon, July 16 - August 13 at the Johnson Recreation Center. Cost: $65, plus an optional $5 materials fee (families may choose to bring items to waive the $5 materials fee.)

SUPERHERO
At Superhero Camp, your superhero-in-training will take part in games, arts and crafts projects to learn lessons in trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. Participants will sling webs like Spiderman, create masks and shields for their costumes, and learn how to jump tall buildings and roll out of danger! The last day of camp will feature a ceremony in which participants will show off their new skills to their families and friends. Designed for ages 4 - 7. Superhero Camp takes place August 5-8 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the Johnson Recreation Center. Camp is available for 3, 4, or 5 days, and the fee is $100, $120 f, and $140 respectively.

LEARNING
Does your child love to build? All About Learning Camps utilize science, technology, engineering, and mathematics concepts and 21st Century educational skills of critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, agility and adaptability, curiosity and imagination. Killington will offer two such camps - Junior Engineering 1 and Collision Cars.

Junior Engineering 1 is designed for grade 1-3. During this course, students will creatively build and modify machines such as race cars, windmills, and merry-go-rounds, through basic engineering skills using LEGO kits.

The Collision Cars course is designed for grades 4-8. During this course, students will use LEGO kits to build a variety of battling machines such as Arm Bot, Blade Bot, Flipper Boy, Armored Bot, through exploration, problems solving and risk taking.
Both courses will take place August 12-16 from 9 a.m. - 12 p.m. at the Sherburne Memorial Library. The fee for both courses is $120 for residents and $125 for non-residents.

BOOT CAMP
Also new this summer is Kids Boot Camp. This is a fun interval style class focused on teamwork, endurance, strength, speed and agility drills. The one-hour class includes a warm up, cool down and stretching. This camp takes place on Wednesdays from 10-11 a.m., July 9 - Aug. 14 at the Johnson Recreation Center. Designed for ages 7 and over, the fee for the six sessions is $40; drop-in fee is $8.

CHILI COOK-OFF
Thursday, July 25, will be the 1st Annual Killington Chili Cook-Off. Join the competition and bring your finest chili to compete, or stop by the Cook-Off to taste the competitor's creations. Participant applications and tasting tickets are available at the Recreation Office. The Cook-Off will take place at the Sherburne Memorial Library from 5-8 p.m.

SWIM-A-THON
On Saturday, Aug. 10, a Swim-A-Thon will be hosted at the Johnson Recreation Center Pool. Participants will earn money by swimming lengths of the pool. Swimmers get pledges from family, friends, local businesses and neighbors to support their efforts. Proceeds benefit the Killington Aquatic Club and the USA Swimming Foundation.

POPULAR PROGRAMS
In addition to these new programs and events, KPR will continue its traditional summer programs and events such as Camp Loads of Fun, Rek & Trek Adventure Camp, Swim Team, Challenger Soccer Camp, Circus Camp, Top Spin Tennis Camp, and swim lessons. Splash Theater, the River Road Concert Series, and the annual 4th of July Celebration will return to River Road as well.
For more info. about these programs visit www.KillingtonRec.com, or contact Lyndsay at 802-422-3932 or Recreation@KillingtonTown.com.

The investigation started May 9, at approximately 5:17 p.m. when the Vermont State Police in Rutland Barracks received a phone call from someone stating that a female juvenile approached their car. The caller indicated that she had been hurt, and exhibited physical injuries. The reporting party was unable to keep the child at the vehicle and the female juvenile was last seen running into the woods.

The unknown female child advised her name was "Angel" or "Angela". She appeared to be approximately 6-years-old and is described as a white female, with dark brown straight shoulder length hair, and was missing her left front tooth. She was last seen wearing a red skirt, white t-shirt, white flip flops, and a mood ring.

As of Monday, May 13, police reported that no information had been obtained independent of the initial report of the caller regarding a possible endangered juvenile female and no juvenile female was located in the area as a result of search efforts. The Vermont State Police still have not received any reports of a missing 6- or 7-year-old female, from within Vermont or surrounding states.

During the course of the investigation, detectives have conducted numerous interviews of neighbors, business owners in that area and followed up on tips from the public.  None of the interviews have resulted in any leads for detectives to follow up on nor did anyone else report seeing this juvenile.

State Police Capt. David Covell, head of the state's criminal investigations unit, held a press conference at 12-noon Friday outside the Rutland Town Volunteer Fire Department in Center Rutland. Covell declined to describe the physical injuries on the girl and also did not say who made the call, although he did say the caller was identified and was cooperating with police.

Covell said state police, criminal investigators and a multitude of other law enforcers from various agencies include the county sheriff's department and the National Guard were not speculating, at that time, that the tip was a hoax.

A helicopter hovered over Center Rutland, Proctor and West Rutland all afternoon Friday and a command post was set up at the fire department all day with dozens of police cars lined up.

A West Rutland Fire Department trailer hauling an ATV pulled up just before 12-noon.  

Lead investigator Lt. Reg Trayah said it was his job to act like the girl was missing, and try to find her.

All children from area schools were accounted for and no one matching the description was reported missing from a school or home in Vermont or New England.

Police did say they were working with other states to determine if any girl matching the description was missing.

Neighbors near the West Proctor Road neighborhood, however, were speculating Friday, after the search had gone into the 19th hour.

Michael Alexander, 13, and sister Deanna Garrow, 17, from nearby Flory Heights in Center Rutland had taken the day off school to search for the missing girl. Garrow said neighbors were questioning if the girl reported missing was abducted from California in 2007 because Facebook was spreading information that the mother of the girl kidnapped her and settled in West Rutland.

"I'm not giving up," Garrow said Friday afternoon.

Cristina Kumka is a corespondent for The Mountain Times, she can be reached directly at cristina_kumka@yahoo.com

During 2012 there were a total of 77 fatal crashes in Vermont. In over 30% of those crashes the driver and or passenger were not buckled up.

According to the Vermont 2012 Safety Belt Use Study, in Rutland County 80.3% of male operators wear seatbelts while 93.0% of female operators wear seatbelts.

The study furthermore correlates seatbelt use with the type of vehicle being operated. In Rutland County, 92.2% of operators wear seatbelts in SUV's, 88.9% in cars, 88.1% in vans, and 74.6% in pickup's.

The scheduled increased patrols and checkpoints are an opportunity to use high visibility enforcement to turn the tide, across the state, in the number of traffic fatalities. Using state and local data, engaging task forces, and working with other agencies, we can have an impact in Vermont.  In addition to the checkpoints, Troopers will be aggressively patrolling and enforcing motor vehicle laws with specific regard to aggressive driving, speeding, and seatbelt usage in high crash areas.

Recent numbers can be found at http://highwaysafety.vermont.gov/index.htm.

"This is typically when most people would prefer to curl up on the couch. By having a challenge of walking just 1 mile a day, people get and keep moving. This is wonderful because it helps fight that winter weight gain," says Wendy Reese, WalkRutland Coordinator.
This year, walkers who completed the challenge logged 29,212 miles, and average of 188 miles per walker, up 28 miles per walker from 2012.

One woman, Joyce Underwood, logged 1,011 miles! Deborah Stearns walked 656 miles and Jean LaMarre both walked 601 miles.
Walkers reported losing a combined 1,259 pounds during the challenge, almost 50% more than last year, despite the fact that there were fewer walkers. 98% of the walkers reported that they will continue walking.

The meeting, attended by about 20 Killington residents at the Sher­burne Memorial Library at 7:30 p.m.,was for information sharing and for Montgomery to ask for the public's help in keeping their streets safe.

"We have 44 square miles of roads and alot of second homes. Even if we had five full-time officers, it wouldn't be enough," Montgomery said, reporting that there had been seven burglaries to unalarmed homes in Killington this year so far.
"The more eyes out there, the better," he said.

The constable, a resident himself, is helping to form the town's first police department, starting with the hiring of a police chief, which is ongoing.

For now, the town still relies on out-of-town state police, sheriff's deputies and Montgomery to react to crime in the mountain town.
Montgomery and residents feel, however, that more community policing, or crime prevention, is needed.

Residents on Thursday discussed ideas ranging from installing game cameras on their blocks, to going door to door meeting their neighbors, to getting the town to help pay for refrigerator magnets with the contact information of Montgomery and State Police printed on them.

Locking doors, garages and keeping lights on are also effective in deterring crime, the constable said.

Montgomery assigned "block watch leaders" to head up Neighbor­hood Watch groups, took down email addresses to be used for email blasts on any suspicious cars or activity in town and suggested that if residents see something, they say something, or, at the least, write down the description and license plate number of any suspicious car in question.

Montgomery said the seven home burglaries reported this year thus far have been copper thefts of second homes mostly, which could have been deterred using new security equipment that captures images of cars pulling in and out of a resident's driveway and then instantly emails that image to the resident's Smartphone, no matter where they are.

One resident said she had one installed at her home in North Sher­burne after her house was burglarized a few years ago.

She showed some audience members a recent email image on her phone, of her own car pulling in and out.

Another audience member said he was told to sleep with his car keys next to him and press the panic button if a possible home invader was near.

Montgomery told the audience he has asked for more of a police presence up on the mountain and was assured that the State Police and Rutland County Sheriff's Department would be closer by, espe­cially on targeted streets like Thundering Brook Road, River Road, and Telefon Trail.

For more info on the town's community policing effort, call Mont­gomery at 802-236-5030. For non-emergency calls, call 802-773-9101. For emergencies, dial 911.

Hawaii-based singer/guitarist/songwriter Donavon Frankenreiter will be this year's headliner, and will perform on August 24, the final date of the series. Additional musical acts will be announced soon.

Long Trail Brewing Company has also confirmed it will return as the presenting sponsor of the Cooler in the Mountains concert series. The renewed alliance marks the third consecutive year of the town's partnership with the Vermont craft beer maker.

"We are thrilled to welcome Long Trail Brewing Company back as the presenting sponsor of our concert series," says Killington Town Manager Seth Webb. "Their partnership has helped us grow this series by attracting bigger names in the music industry which draw larger crowds. This has resulted in sustained growth over the last three years. Over 3,500 people attended the Cooler in the Mountains concert series in 2012, which resulted in close to a $300,000 estimated economic impact alone."

A beer garden, outdoor grill and outdoor lawn games will accompany the live music, and guests are encouraged to bring lawn blankets and chairs. This year Long Trail plans to host weekly beer tastings to sample new and specialty beers. Concerts begin at 3:30 p.m. and features a variety of acoustic, folk and pop-rock artists.

The concert series rounds out a very busy summer calendar of events, and as in past years, concerts have been scheduled to compliment and coincide with other special events taking place in Killington. For more information on upcoming events visit www.discoverkillington.com.

For additional locations stocking schedule visit www.vtfishandwildlife.com.

Last weekend the market moved downtown and outside, until fall.

Organizers were keen to keep those good feelings and support alive and during a 'blessing of the farmer' ceremony at the year's first Rutland Farmer's Market in Depot Park. Tracy Weatherhogg from Grace Church, UCC, in Rutland was there to give the blessing to ensure a productive and bountiful growing season. During the ceremony, Althalia Young sang the 'Garden Song.' Then, songwriter, Ron Pulcer and friends performed a special song written, especially for the occasion.

Saturday's market brought a crowd of people downtown despite the threat of rain.

Mother Earth herself also appeared at the event as a large puppet created by Grace Brigham. Mother Earth thanked local farmers and proceeded to make the rounds amongst the vendors who packed into every available space in the park.

Dennis Duhaime of Radical Roots Farm was glad to be selling outside again. "We do have to deal with the elements out here though," he said as the wind picked up a little and a light rain began to fall. Business was brisk though and customers were undeterred as they bought tulips in vases for Mother's Day as well as the variety of greens, vegetables and plants at the Radical Roots table.

Les Leeson of Leeson Glass said he was impressed by the number of people came out despite the wet weather in the afternoon. "It really was a super day and I can't wait for the next few months of these Saturdays," he said.

Photo by Nathan Allen

Dismas will present the 2013 Jack Hickey, OP Award to Dr. Maria J. Stephan, a North Clarendon, Vt. native and Mill River Union High School graduate. Maria now works as a Lead Foreign Affairs Officer for the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations in Syria, previously being assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Kabul Afghanistan. She has also worked for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, was an adjunct professor at Georgetown and American Universities, and has worked with the European/NATO policy office in Brussels and with civil society organizations in Sri Lanka, Russia, Israel, and Palestine.

In 2011 Maria co-authored the book, "Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Non-Violent Conflict". Due to the ideas expressed in this book of how non-violent resistance brings about political change much more effectively than the use of violence, Maria and Erica Chenoweth have won the 2013 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. This same book also won the 2012 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for best book published in the United States on government, politics or international affairs.

During the summer of 1996 during her break from Boston College, Maria lived as a student resident at the Rutland Dismas House. We are privileged to honor Maria as she has taken the heart of Dismas to an international level.

Richard Stack will be the Keynote Speaker. Richard is a Professor from the School of Communications at American University in Washington DC. His latest book, just out in April 2013, is titled "Grave Injustice: Unearthing Wrongful Executions". Previously, in his work to encourage continual dialogue to bring state-sanctioned killing to a halt, he wrote Dead Wrong: Violence, Vengeance, and the Victims of Capital Punishment. Richard will look at his work and the work of Dismas to show how works of forgiveness and second chances are better for the world in the long run.

Professor Lillian Jackson will be honored with the Mary O' Award. Lillian teaches in the Social Work Department at Castleton State College. She has supervised many of the student interns who have come to Dismas over the years. She also volunteers as our Public Relations/Media chair during our annual Dinner Auction Event every year. Lillian has been a faithful supporter of the Rutland Dismas House from the beginning days.

Cooks from The United Methodist Church will be honored with the Loving Spoonful Award. For many years a group from the church has come on the second Wednesday of every month, faithfully cooking for the residents, bringing conversation and support to the men and women living at Dismas.

The Honorary Chair for the event will be David Wolk, president of Castleton State College. David offers great auction items every year for our event and the partnership between Dismas and the students and professors of Dismas continues to be strong.
Rutland Dismas House offers transitional housing to men and women coming out of prison. Its mission is to "Reconcile prisoners with society and society with prisoners."

For tickets or information call at 802-775-5539. No tickets will be sold at the door.