Updated February 8, 2012

 It’s true — the Northeast Kingdom is not a university.  But if you have lived here, or visited often, it’s likely you learned something or at least have a good story about it.  Where are you now?  What are you up to?  Share your news by sending notes to me:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Or type them into the comment box at the end of this page.  Looking for someone who used to live here?  We can post queries as well.

North Country alumni's film in Newport Saturday

Two North Country Union High School graduates are hosting a double feature at the Waterfront Cinemas in Newport on Saturday, February 11. The award winning films being shown are “Soul Keeper” and “Tin Can”. The shows begin at 7 p.m. Tickets are $7 for adults and $5 for children 2-11 and seniors 65 and older (please note these unrated films are not appropriate for young children). The two producers/actors are Tim Kavanagh (1984), the son of James and Judy Kavanagh of Newport, and Steve Maas (1996), the son of Dr. James and Billie Maas of Derby. They will be joined at the showing by prominent Vermont author Joseph Citro of Burlington and other members of the cast and crew. People with questions can contact Tim Kavanagh at (802)-373-9024 or by email him at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Or contact Scott Wheeler at (802) 334-5920 or email him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it This photo of the production team for Tin Can was taken at the Buffalo Film Festival where Tin Can won Most Artistic Film. Left to Right: Tim Kavanagh, Eric Clifford, Logan How, Steve Maas. — submitted by Scott Wheeler

Mike Mason

My name is Mike Mason.  I grew up in Barton, VT, and graduated from Lake Region Union High School in 1990.  After taking a six-and-a-half-year hiatus from the news business I am once again working in television.  I am an investigative reporter for the Fox affiliate in Fort Myers, Florida, WFTX.  After graduating high school I obtained a partial scholarship to attend college in Miami and have stayed in Florida ever since.  I began working in television again about six months ago and was just nominated for another Emmy.  The awards will be announced next month.  Although I've found many of my old friends on Facebook I still wonder where others have ended up.  My personal e-mail is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and I'd love to hear from you.  Take care, Mike Mason.

Stephen Maas and Tim Kavanagh

Stephen J. Maas and Tim Kavanagh have created a feature-length science fiction movie about three astronauts on a trip to Mars called Tin Can that has won an award at one film festival and is headed for another one this month. The film will be shown as an official selection of the Vermont International Film Festival in Burlington on October 21. It was named most artistic film at the 2011 Buffalo Niagara Film Festival in September.

Mr. Maas grew up in Newport and graduated from North Country Union High School in 1996. Mr. Kavanagh also grew up on the shores of Lake Memphremagog, and one of the scenes in the movie is at his parents’ house. He works at WCAX and was the host of a talk show for two years called Late Night Saturday — a scene of him interviewing the astronauts on the show is included in the movie. The company that made Tin Can is called Intrinsic Films and is based in Milton. For more information about the film, look online at: www.tincanmovie.com. For more about the Vermont International Film Festival look at: www.vtiff.org. Tin Can will be shown at Palace 9 Cinemas in South Burlington, October 21 at 8:30. The showing is free with a suggested donation of $5.

The next day, another film of Mr. Kavanagh’s will be shown. Called Soul Keeper, the 28-minute movie is based on a story by Vermont writer Joe Citro. More on that can be seen at www.soulkeepermovie.com.  In the photo above, Stephen Maas is in the middle and Tim Kavanagh is on the right.

Ray Cloutier

I am a former resident of Barton, raised there in the 1940s and early ‘50s.  Shortly thereafter  I was "invited" by our government to help our cause in the Korean War.  I served with the USAF for four years and flew on two- and four-engine bombers.

After my Honorable Discharge I became an airline pilot flying two- three- and four-engine Boeing jets around the world.  In the late ‘90s I lived in Monrovia, Liberia, while flying on the Presidential Jet for the Head of State Samuel K. Doe and his entourage. One unforgettable trip we took was to New Delhi, India, for the annual meeting of the world's  Unaligned Nations.

At that time our entire crew was introduced to Indira Gandhi. Very pleasant surprise.

 After that contract ended I lived and worked in Russia for about three years training Russian Aeroflot Airline pilots how to fly their newly acquired American Boeing  jets.  The Iron Curtain had  recently dropped which, for the first time, allowed them to purchase items from the western world.

 Shortly after that period I worked and trained members for MIAT. That is the national airline for Mongolia. Was there in January and can only say that it is colder than blue blazes up there on the Mongolian plateaus.   

 Following that extremely cold weather hiatus I picked a warmer climate and  went to Istanbul, Turkey, and worked with their Flight Operations people.  They had just purchased several eight million dollar Boeing jets from Seattle and needed an experienced instructor for that airplane. 

 Over the years I have also worked in Bangkok, Korea,China, Egypt, Japan. and Hawaii, to name a few.

 I am now semi-retired, living about 50 road miles out of San Francisco, have two daughters, (Portland, Oregon and Mt. Shasta, California ) and the same wife for over 40 years.

 Hopefully I can now stay put at this point in my life ! --  Raymond Cloutier    www.raydenair.com  

Maggie Churchill

They don’t come much bigger than this!

Maggie Churchill, who grew up in Barton, shot this monster moose in the backcountry interior of Alaska, about 20 miles east of Healy, Alaska.  The rack spread on this bull is 66.2 inches, and will be fully measured for a Boone & Crockett scoring.  Maggie, who now lives in Anchorage, won a permit through the Alaska resident moose lottery.  Mags ventured out on the hunt with her friend, Conor Halloran, who is a licensed Alaska Hunter-Guide.  Conor also bagged a moose on the same hunt. 

Heather Poginy

I grew up in Newport, swimming in Lake Memphremagog and riding my bike through town.  Born into a gigantic (understatement of the century) family, most of which stayed in northern Vermont, I always ran into someone I was related to everywhere in the NEK.  I managed to meet so many more people, all of which were so friendly, during the seven years I worked at Hoagies Pizza & Pasta in Newport and Lyndonville during college at Lyndon State.  (If anyone runs across this, I love pen pals! And I will be sure to write back.)

After graduating from LSC in 2010, I moved to the DC area for a job offered to me at an FDA consulting firm in Alexandria.  My primary duties include administrative accounting, event coordination and making sure everything runs smoothly for our consultants who live across the country and travel internationally frequently. 

Moving to corporate America was quite the change from the NEK, but it certainly makes me appreciate home, which I've been fortunate to visit four times since moving last September.  I struggle most with not being able to find an ice cream shoppe or good diner that is owned by local people, not a corporation!

I miss the NEK, and I'm proud to call Vermont my home, but I look forward to seeing where life takes me now that I've moved away.                                                                                                         Photo by Hannah N. Manley

E-mail me at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it and my snail mail addres is:  6521 Delia Drive, Alexandria, VA 22310

Phil Weingart

I moved across the country to Vermont during high school in the early ‘90s. I left many friends out west that I still keep in touch with today; so moving was very difficult at the time. When my west coast friends would call and I would mention I was off to the local police station, I think they initially thought that I had got myself into a bit of trouble in my new stomping grounds. So I would have to assure them I was just off to play basketball. I learned very early that you had to find your own fun in the Northeast Kingdom, and hopefully it was harmless fun. Most notably, one evening my buddies and I were driving around looking for something to do, and to this day I’m not sure which one of us said it, but we should make our own construction site out of some construction signs that had recently been taken down and put in a vacant lot.

Between us we had a station wagon (obviously one of our parents'), a truck, and some tools. We loaded up all that we could and headed to a nearby highway and started setting up the signs. We directed traffic to the mountain roads on the north side of the highway and we watched from a plateau that overlooked our new constructed detour. I remember watching car headlights being routed up into the mountain roads and driving aimlessly around; we laughed and cheered till the early hours of the morning. My stomach felt like I had been in a sit-up marathon the next day.

I still think about it from time to time and chuckle. I would imagine there were some frustrated people that evening and hopefully the crew that had to come to recover their construction signs found it somewhat humorous.  I would say the group of guys I hung out with had some creative ideas and I think we fed off each other.  I only got to experience living there for two years which helped me grow as a person and provided so many memories.  My family has often said I should write a short story book on some of the things we came up with to keep ourselves entertained.

I no longer live in the Northeast Kingdom but make it back every few years.  I moved back west after graduating high school and ended up in the Midwest were I was born. I have three children and I often wonder what kind of mischief they will get into…

Regards, Phil This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it '; document.write( '' ); document.write( addy_text31797 ); document.write( '<\/a>' ); //--> This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

My husband, Spencer, and I moved to Lancaster County, PA, at the end of 2009 to be closer to aging parents and Spencer's job.  After living in the Northeast Kingdom for 12 years (four in Craftsbury and eight in West Charleston), we had to be within spitting distance of cows and open space, so Lancaster County does the trick.  I have been keeping busy fixing up our 100-year-old house and teaching high school English at a nearby Christian school.  The kids are grown and pretty much flown, leaving more time for canoeing and checking out local restaurants (many more choices in this department, I must say).  We miss the Green Mountain State and try to get back at least twice a year -- and I still am and will always be a fanatic Red Sox and Bruins fan, although I am now reduced to watching the games on my laptop.  by Melissa Phillips

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Betsy and Wayne Sylvester

Betsy and Wayne Sylvester make wooden Vermont snowflake ornaments.· This summer they are living at the Grand Canyon.Wayne has lived in the Northeast Kingdom all of his life and Betsy lived in the NEK for the majority of her adult life. In 2004, we bought a RV travel trailer to weekend camp in the area. That’s all we ever intended. Then, in 2006, we sold our home in Irasburg and hit the road. Since that time, we’ve made several attempts to settle back down in Vermont, but the road tends to call us back.
Our first cross-country trip took us south as far as Key West, FL, since neither of us had ever been there. We traveled from there up the west coast of Florida, catching the country’s largest RV Show in Tampa on the way through; and headed west across the country to the Pacific Ocean along I-10. Little did we know that we would be attending the same RV show in Tampa two subsequent years! As we traveled, we took photos and pulled together a power point show of our destinations. We traveled back along Route 66, as much as weather allowed during early springtime.
The following winter, we settled back in Vermont for the birth of our first grandchild. But, for Betsy, the Fairpoint position in WRJ just never felt right, and she moved back to the kingdom to accept a position at CRMI. But, as cold weather approached, warm weather seemed more appealing to both of us. So, we headed west to Arizona and searched for work. We found a position 1,100 miles east in McKinney, TX; so we hitched up the RV and headed east. It didn’t

 work out, so now in the middle of the country, we were faced with a decision: do we go back to AZ or go closer to home, on the East Coast, to FL? Being near the holidays, we decided to head to FL to spend the holidays with friends and “regroup.” We stayed in Florida until spring that year, never really regrouping, just settled and searched the job market there, finding small positions.

In the spring, we ended up in central Vermont in the WRJ/Bethel area with two new employment positions. But, alas, they bore the same dead end, poor management of companies that we had become accustomed to. So, once again, as cold weather approached, we packed up the RV and hit the road. Winter passed in warm weather for us, in Tucson and then in the Phoenix area. In early spring came the call we had waited for during the past year: a position at the Grand Canyon for the summer! And here we are, for now, loving each day, whether working or enjoying our days off. We are living at one of the seven natural wonders of the world for six months!

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it     www.snowflakesfromvermont.com

Snowflakes from Vermont is always on the road with us. We have spread snowflakes to the south in several states. Traveling to Arizona has allowed a new product to emerge, having developed a relationship with a water jet operator. We now offer beautiful steel snowflake ornaments, finished with a white glitter coloring, along with our traditional maple hardwood ornaments. We are hoping to catch the interest of a venue at the Grand Canyon while we are here.

Daniel J. Shea

For the past nine years I've worked as an Administrative Investigator for the State of New York out of offices in the State Supreme Court Building in Brooklyn Heights. I am a consulting member of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Barrier Free Justice Program and I sit on the District Attorney's Domestic Violence Task Force. At times I work in collaboration with patrol officers and detectives from the New York City Police Department and CSIs from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City. I am also a student of Fashion Design and Construction at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan where I am pursuing the Certificate Program in Haute Couture Sewing and Design. I have also studied make-up artistry with Lindsey Ebbins of Elizabeth Arden at FIT and I've worked as a make-up artist at fashion shows in the city. I am a Fellow of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, a member of the Human Rights Campaign in New York State, a member of the International Foundation for Gender Education and a member of the National Organization for Women. I plan to open a Paris-style haute couture dressmaking atelier and vintage fashions boutique in Westchester County within the next three years. It is a supreme pleasure to work here with highly accomplished professionals at the very top of their game in both law enforcement and the arts in this outstanding city where challenges never sleep.

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Helen Joy Gardener (Helen Loske when she lived in Barton):

After leaving Barton in 2007, I spent a couple of years in New Hampshire, did some traveling in 2008.  Visited my brother in New Zealand and a friend in Brisbane, Australia.  Some of her family I hadn't seen in 40 years, having met them in England when I lived there. She had actually visited me in Barton two years before.

After a couple of unhealthy winters in New Hampshire, working with pre-schoolers, I moved to the west coast of Florida, house sitting for a year and then buying a lovely little home here.  I continue to offer Polarity Energy Balancing, which I have been doing since 1991.  Still doing some art, latest work being what I call 'Spirit Maps'.  Also nanny/child care as well as part time teaching at a pre-school.  Gardening continues to be a Joy, one of the reasons I changed my last name to Gardener.

I love living in Florida, have many friends here and with my acupuncturist friend, I am traveling across the southern U.S., during the month of July.  Staying with friends and family, including a couple from Irasburg who are working at the Grand Canyon this summer, one of the many beautiful places we will visit, ending up for a week with a friend in San Francisco, before flying home to Florida.

I enjoyed, and miss my garden in Barton and am finding out just how entirely different gardening in Florida is.  I still miss New England after over 30 years living there.  However quote from Helen Keller "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all"

Blessings,

Helen

blog at helenjoygardener.com "Thoughts from the Gardener"

email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it also on Facebook

www.thepurpledragonfly.com

Donna Gile Costey:

My family have been on Shadow Lake since 1922. I have been coming to the lake for 62 years.  I used to sleep in the back of an old station wagon at Barton Fair as my Grandfather Elmer Gile used to police it.  I use to mountain bike on Perron Hill but don't tell Darren.  Ha.  I remember when the back side of Shadow Lake was woods.  Yupper.  What else you want to know............oh I was born in Newport at a hospital that is no longer there I believe. Donna Gile Costey.

Darren Perron and Lance MacKenzie

Darren Perron, originally from Barton, got an Emmy award in Boston on May 14, for his coverage of the war in Afghanistan.  He and photographer Lance MacKenzie each got an Emmy for their project for WCAX.  In an interview with the Chronicle, he thanked WCAX for the support for long-form journalism.  Lance MacKenzie, a graduate of Lyndon State College, is featured on the cover of the college's alumni magazine, Twin Tower Topics, with his Emmy.

Mr. Perron anchors the 6 o’clock news at channel three in Burlington.  He started at WCAX in 1995.  In the 1990s he worked as a news reporter at the Chronicle.

He went to Lake Region Union High School and Castleton State College.  He has won numerous awards including two Edward R. Murrow awards for series about children convicted of murder and prison overcrowding.

You can reach Darren Perron at:  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Jules and Effin Older:

Jules and Effin (a.k.a. Ethelyn Lawes) Older lived in two Kingdom villages, Brownington and Albany.

Effin was born and raised in Brownington; after years spent in New York and New Zealand, they bought their Albany home from George and Olga Hallowell, across New Street from Kate Davis.

New Street?  As opposed to Old Street — Albany is a limited street zone.

The Olders moved from the middle of Albany to the middle of San Francisco, where they've lived ever since.  But since they have grandsons in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Auckland, New Zealand, they spend some of their time in New Zealand.

Both writers, Jules and Effin now make videos (at www.YouTube.com/julesolder) and have co-created two apps.  The first is San Francisco Restaurants, which, as Jules says, "takes visitors off the Tourist Reservation and into the restaurants San Franciscans love." The second is Auckland Insider which introduces visitors to the Olders' other favorite place.

And Jules has a children's book coming out in 2012 that’s closer to Vermont than to San Francisco. It's Snowmobile.  It tells the story of Joseph-Armand Bombardier who invented the Ski-Doo in rural Quebec, just a little way north of Orleans County.

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Benjamin Thurber:

Benjamin Thurber, Craftsbury Academy, class of 2004 valedictorian, received a Governor's Award for Outstanding Community Service at a ceremony held at the State House on Saturday, June 4, 2011.  After graduating from Middlebury College in 2008, Benjamin joined  AmeriCorps in the Mobius Mentoring program.

The Award Program Description:

"Benjamin Thurber is a dedicated second -year AmeriCorps member with the Vermont Youth Tomorrow VISTA program.  He currently serves at Mobius, where he is highly involved in outreach efforts to recruit mentors, expand public relations efforts, and in addition to furthering the mentoring program of Mobius, Benjamin volunteers his own time mentoring at the Boys and Girls Club of Burlington."

Matthew Mientka:

Matthew Mientka grew up in Albany.  He is a writer based in northern Virginia and the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.  Matthew attended St. Paul's School and Lake Region Union High School in the Kingdom and enjoys tae kwon do, kayaking and chainsaws.

Get in touch with Matthew by e-mailing:

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