Spring 2013 (January-May)

Programs are held at 2 pm Tuesday afternoons at the Nolin Murray Center,
Next to St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Pleasant St., Springfield, Vermont

January 29
Haiti, How Helping Can Harm

Kathleen R. Fellows, English-trained nurse, Canadian-educated midwife and clinical instructor for midwives, pilot and FAA certified aviation mechanic.

Kathleen was sent to Hinche, on the northern plateau of Haiti, shortly after the 2010 earthquake. Hear her firsthand account of the effects of international help, which give pause for much thought, and see recent photographs from one of her trips.

February 12
Lost Covered Bridges of the Connecticut River Valley

Bill Caswell, Author

A century and a half ago, there were about a thousand covered bridges in Vermont and New Hampshire. Over the years, 85% of them have been lost to fire, flood, progress and neglect. One single event, the great flood of November 1927, swept away a third of Vermont’s covered bridges along with hundreds of homes, barns and businesses. Learn about some of the structures that used to stand in your town, maybe even on roads that you travel every day. Take a journey back in time to hear their stories and see the historic photographs from the archives of the National Society for the Preservation of Covered Bridges and various private collections.

February 26
Newsmagazine Vermont Vignettes

Marselis Parsons, Former WCAX-TV News Director and Anchor

View segments from Parsons’ Emmy award-winning WCAX Channel 3 newsmagazine “Dimension.” Discover additional information about interviewing these citizens, giving us insight into these special Vermont stories.

“Logging with Horses” from 1979 features a Vermont couple using horses to do the logging and clearing paths in the woods for utility lines. Although using logging skidders could do the same work, but at significant environmental cost, they elected to use their method. Find out about Parsons visiting Paul Smiths Forestry College, where even today they teach horse logging as part of the curriculum.

We will also hear about Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who lived in nearby Cavendish. Through his interviews you will learn more about this reclusive Russian author and his wife, who was far more accessible and was often seen around town and attended the Russian Orthodox Church in Springfield.

March 12
Alternative Energy Resources

Denis Rydjeski, Betsy Eldredge, Sierra Club
Co-Sponsored by the Ascutney Mountain Audubon Society

Hear a brief review of our past and present energy resource use: wood, coal, hydro, human and animal power. This will provide a context for a discussion of our energy future and the alternative energy resources that are available to us: wind, solar, nuclear, fossil fuels. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of each. There will be ample opportunity for questions and comments.

March 26
Woody Guthrie: America’s Balladeer

Mark Greenburg, Educator, Musician

In his songs, Woody Guthrie chronicled the plight and hopes of Dustbowl refugees, migrant workers, and others hit hard by the Great Depression and the terrible dust storms of the 1930s. Many of his songs (“This Land is Your Land”; “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know You”) have become American classics. Understand how he influenced a whole new generation of songwriters, including Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Experience readings from Guthrie’s prose writings, recorded and live examples of his music, and slides of his art and photographs documenting Woody’s life and times.

April 9
Precious Pollinators: Bumblebees and Butterflies of Vermont

Vermont Center for Ecostudies
Co-Sponsored by the Springfield Garden Club

Pollinators are critical for both wild and cultivated plants. Bumblebees and butterflies, among the most familiar and showy of insects, are silent messengers of environmental health. They can speak volumes about the state of the environment under forces of changing land-use practices and other human-induced and natural pressures. Realize that in the last 200 years, Vermont and other areas in the Northeast have undergone both extensive and intensive landscape changes which have undoubtedly affected populations. Learn why there is widespread understanding that pollinators are at serious risk or in decline due to habitat change and loss, pollution, and climate change. Join us as we explore the natural history and conservation of these insects in the Green Mountain State.

April 23
Roman Influence on English Literature

Nancy Nahra, Author, Poet

The very idea that Roman influence infused our literature is a notion that people used to understand intuitively; it was commonplace, taken as a given and agreed to by everyone. That was due to the fact that Latin was once a conventional part of the high school curriculum. Realize that, while they were studying Latin, along the way students painlessly learned about the rich legacy of classical literature and its lasting influence. Gentlemen, it was expected, could count on other gentlemen to recognize a quotation from Virgil in Latin, and to reply using another Latin quotation. Those days are gone. Explore some vestiges of the strong literary tradition of ancient Rome, present in literary works of famous poets we know from the past and in some literature being written today.

May 7
Thomas Jefferson’s Vermont Vacation

Willard Sterne Randall, Historian and Founding Fathers’ Biographer

After writing an award-winning biography of our controversial third President, presenter Willard Sterne Randall discovered that Jefferson vacationed –and did a little politicking–in Vermont with his closest friend, James Madison, in the summer of 1791. This was just months after Jefferson, the first Secretary of State, signed the papers that at long last ushered Vermont into the Union. From a daily log Jefferson kept on blank back pages of his almanac and a tiny palm-of-the-hand sized journal Madison kept, see how Randall was able to reconstruct their travels, their secret and not-so-private meetings, the good meals and the bad, the good fishing and hunting in their 35-day sojourn in Vermont away from the hubbub of the First Congress.

May 14
Beethoven’s Revolutionary Masterpieces

Bill Cotte, Professor-Fine & Performing Arts Faculty-Lyndon State College

Beethoven’s Symphonies #3 (“Eroica”) and #9 (“Choral”) represent both a personal and musical turning point that changed the way we understand the creative artist and the power of music for self-expression. These two masterpieces opened wide the door to the “Romantic Revolution” of the 19th Century for ALL of the arts. We will explore in sight-and-sound the inner workings of this music which is truly “interior” Beethoven!

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Membership Information

SEMESTER MEMBERSHIPS:

$40 for all 9 programs and admittance to the other Vermont Osher Institute Programs; Single program fee: $8

Send Memberships to:
OLLI–Springfield
JOYCE LINDAMOOD, TREASURER
P.O. BOX 92
SPRINGFIELD, VT 05156
Make checks payable to: The University of Vermont

Become a member today!

Membership in the Springfield Osher Lifelong Learning Institute entitles members to attend programs in other Osher Institutes established in seven other locations throughout Vermont, as well as EEE-Burlington (Elder Education Enrichment). Your active OLLI membership also entitles you to the discounted member rate for the new OLLI on UVM campus programs. Simply present your membership card during the corresponding semester.

For a complete listing of all programs, see our listing in a pdf format.