Central Vermont OLLI

with Susan Bettmann – Filmmaker

In Painting the Dandelion Resurrection, Vermont icon, Peter Schumann, co-founder and creative force of the Bread and Puppet Theater, begins and completes a painting. Over the course of the half-hour film, Schumann narrates his creative process and gives us an opportunity to observe the working of an “artistic heavyweight.” Bettmann will help us take an inside look at this extraordinary artist―still active as a nonagenarian. 

with Sue Richardson – Vice President, Jericho Historical Society

Richardson’s presentation will focus not only on the extraordinary gift that Wilson Bentley gave the world through the beauty of his snowflake photographs, but also the struggles he faced in perfecting his process and in gaining acceptance from the scientific community, as well as among his family and friends. Great-grandniece of Bentley, Richardson will help us get to know him on a more personal level through photographs, family stories, and his writings. 

with Spencer Hardy – Biologist, Vermont Pollinator Group

Vermont Center for Ecostudies biologist Hardy will introduce us to the mesmerizing world of native bees. He will focus on the 350 species found wild in Vermont, leaving participants with a deeper understanding of these important pollinators and the small actions we can all take to make our communities more bee friendly so these critical insects can do their vital work. 

with Anne Greshin and Caitlin Roseen – Program Directors

Anne Greshin, Director of AmeriCorps Seniors RSVP Program and Caitlin Roseen, Director of Community Engagement for Central Vermont Council on Aging, will share research from AmeriCorps regarding trends in volunteerism and civic engagement nationally and in Vermont. They will also describe how RSVP volunteers contribute to the resilience of local communities and discuss how the program addresses “the epidemic of loneliness” in America. Volunteers from local communities will contribute their perspectives. 

with Angie Harbin – Executive Director, Downstreet Housing and Community

Harbin will introduce Downstreet Housing and Community Development, its mission and current work in Central Vermont. She will outline affordable housing needs in the area and the vital role the organization fills in Central Vermont. Harbin will also discuss successes and challenges, what’s working and what’s not, including ideas for future projects. 

with Bill Torrey – Woodsman, Author, Storyteller 

Torrey will share numerous short stories of his childhood growing up during the ’60s in Vermont and of his 40-year career working in the woods. No doubt he will bring back fond memories of the audience’s own experiences as kids. Torrey will delve into his professional life and give us a sense of the challenges and dangers that a logger faces while scratching a living form the forests of Vermont. 

with Pablo Bose – Professor & Director of Global Studies, University of Vermont 

Dr. Bose will describe the unprecedented changes the U.S. Refugee Program has undergone in the last two decades. For smaller, aging states like Vermont, the program has brought new vitality to our communities, our schools, and our industries. Bose will examine the benefits, challenges, and barriers to US resettlement in time of changing federal policies and priorities. 

with Richard Watts – Director, Center for Community News 

The director of the Center for Community News at UVM will discuss how the service leverages University resources to provide enriching experiences for students while filling local news gaps in Vermont and across the nation. We will learn how talented student reporters are matched with the needs of media platforms while maintaining a central wire-service filled with stories ready for republishing. 

Produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, the film is a fantasy-romance set in World War II England. A British war pilot (David Niven) is supposed to have died but finds himself in a strange limbo. Also starring Raymond Massey and Kim Hunter, the work was originally released in the United States as Stairway to Heaven. 

Anthony Minghella’s film tells the story of a bereaved widow (Juliet Stevenson) whose husband (Alan Rickman) mysteriously comes back to life. With its serious themes and comic scenes, strong acting and music, it was well received by critics including Roger Ebert who called it a Ghost for grownups. 

This category-defying film from Hirokazu Kore-eda is set during the harsh years of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. It focuses on a professor who is banished to a labor camp―a way station between death and afterwards―where the recently departed must choose one memory from their lives before they can go on.