The Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce sends a warm and fuzzy thank you to everyone involved in getting town open and up and running so quickly. Writing this one week after so much destruction poured into our town, it is hard to believe how much progress has taken place in only seven days. There are temporary and permanent changes to downtown and personal and business losses throughout town. But, Brandon is open because of so many angels and hard-working dedicated people! The Chamber's Brand-Aid Fund is growing daily and funds will be put in the hands of business owners who suffered out-of-pocket expenses. Please continue to support Brandon's business community.  

IMPORTANT LINKS:

Donate Now to the Brand-Aid Fund 

Flood Related Resources 

Flood and Clean-up Related Photos (this page links to our flood newsletters + more photo links) 

THE BRAND-AID FUND currently has more than $12,000 in pledges and donations. There are upcoming fund-raisers scheduled at Brandon Music and Brandon Town Hall. This fund will put money directly in the hands of business owners who suffered out-of-pocket expenses last week.  

SPECIAL ORDERS NOW AVAILABLE FOR NEW BRANDON T-SHIRTS - EXTENDED DEADLINE BY ONE WEEK BUT PLEASE GET IN YOUR ORDERS NOW! 

Have you seen the new Brandon T-shirts the Chamber is selling?   

Shirts are on display in the windows at the Brandon Inn. 

There have been a number of requests for this shirt but in a different color or in long-sleeve.

This is the opportunity to place a special order for the size, color and sleeve length you would like.

Orders MUST BE PRE-PAID 

• Short sleeve shirts are $15
• Long sleeve shirts are $18

See all the colors available on the manufacturer website 

Would you like the commemorative "250" logo on your shirt? (requests without stipulation about the"250" logo will be printed without it) 

SEND YOUR ORDER (size, color, sleeve length, and 250 logo) WITH PAYMENT TO: BACC, PO BOX 267, BRANDON VT 05733 or see Janet

The goal is to put in a shirt order on Tuesday, September 13.

The weekend of September 9 and 10, Brandon Music is pleased to present two concerts of contrasting styles. A program of chamber music presented by the faculty of Point Counterpoint Music Camp will take place on Friday, Sept.9and on Saturday, Sept. 10. We are excited to offer a concert of vocal selections in the barbershop style by Maiden Vermont, central Vermont's a cappella women's chorus, in their first appearance here. Both concerts begin at 7 PM in the Music Café.

Tickets for Point Counterpoint are $10 and part of the proceeds will go to help Brandon's flood relief effort. Tickets for Maiden Vermont are $15. Both may be reserved by calling 465-4071 or by email to linda@brandon-music.net. Seating is limited; so, book early!

Maiden Vermont to donate proceeds from concert to flood relief. In a unanimous decision at a recent rehearsal, Maiden Vermont has decided to join in the efforts of the arts community to help with Vermont's flood disaster. Their performance at 7PM in the Music Café at Brandon Music on Saturday September 10 will be an expression of good will and compassion towards their fellow Vermonters in this time of great need. As one member put it: "The pictures you see don't begin to really tell the extent of the devastation state-wide". And since the performance is being hosted by a Brandon business, a good portion of the proceeds will go to the local community. Tickets are $15 and can be reserved by calling 802-465-4071 or email to linda@brandon-music.net.  Brandon Music - Vermont's Classical Music Haven - is at 62 Country Club Road, opposite Neshobe Golf Club on Rte 73E. 

NEW ADDITION TO THE PHONOGRAPH ROOM AT BRANDON MUSIC

Visitors to Brandon Music's  recently opened exhibit of phonographs  have been delighted at the display of 'talking machines'  which first brought recorded  music to the homes of our grandparents and great grandparents.  Proprietors Stephen  and Edna Sutton don't believe that the exhibit is large enough yet to be called a 'museum'  but the aim is to develop it into a museum of sound recording and home entertainment focusing on the period from 1890 to 1970,   including a section for vintage radios, just started with four lovely sets from the 1920s  - these have been refurbished and are to be rewired so that they will all work as new.  Meanwhile the exhibit has just received a most interesting addition which will be on display soon. Mr Theodore Conant of Hanover, NH, a member of the famous and historic Conant family and leading sound engineer and film maker,  has donated an example of one of the earliest high quality  'music centers' made in the USA, designed in the late 50s, to replace the older and very large console radio-phonographs. The maker, KLH, went on to be one of the leading loudspeaker manufacturers. Mr Conant was a good friend and colleague of the designer and KLH founder Henry Kloss, and has given a unit he purchased for his mother in 1970.   Mr Conant's grandmother was a concert pianist, and in the 1930s gave a concert in Moscow. She met (and performed for) Joseph Stalin who presented her with part of his own record collection,  which has also been generously donated to Brandon Music.  These new items will be on display in the near future.

The phonograph room  is part of the Brandon Music complex on Rte 73  east of Brandon, also housing the headquarters of Divine Art Recordings Group and  the Music Café. It is likely to be relocated to larger property by next spring to allow for expansion and the provision of video and listening areas.  For further information call 802 465 4071.

Lillian Gish, passed out on an ice floe, is only minutes from a watery doom in 'Way Down East' (1920), director D.W. Griffith's silent film drama set in rural New England.

D.W. Griffith blockbuster, filmed partly in Vermont, to be screened in restored edition accompanied by live music

BRANDON, Vt. - The iconic image of silent film star Lillian Gish trapped on ice floes and headed for a raging waterfall will once again come to life when the film 'Way Down East' (1920), one of the top movies of its era, is revived the big screen on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Brandon Town Hall in Brandon, Vt. Admission is free; donations are encouraged.

The movie, a blockbuster melodrama directed by cinema pioneer D.W. Griffith, is set in old-time rural New England, and was filmed partly in Vermont. It stars Gish in an acclaimed performance as a wronged woman trying to make her way in an unforgiving world. Can she find love and redemption, or will she ride to her doom on the ice floes of the raging river?

 'Way Down East' will be screened with live music played by Jeff Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based silent film accompanist who performs at venues across New England. Rapsis provides music for the Brandon Town Hall's monthly silent film series. All proceeds of the series will be used to support the historic town hall's ongoing renovations.

 "These films were created to be shown on the big screen to large audiences as a communal experience," Rapsis said. "With an audience and live music, they come to life in the way their makers intended them to. The Brandon Town Hall screenings are a great chance for people to experience films that first caused people to first fall in love with the movies."

 Much of the acclaimed ice floe sequence was filmed in March 1920 on location in Vermont on the Connecticut River and the White River, as the winter pack ice was breaking up. Gish later said that she suffered frostbite by following director Griffith's command to always keep one hand in the water. Accompanist Jeff Rapsis has written new musical material to help capture the film's rural atmosphere and also bring out the dramatic power of 'Way Down East.'

 "This picture was a huge hit when it was released, and it still holds up well today, even with all of Griffith's moralizing," Rapsis said. "As a melodrama, it's a great film for an audience to cheer on the good folks and boo and hiss the bad guys. But there's an additional level of interest now because the film captured a way of life that's long since disappeared. With the passage of time, seeing 'Way Down East' is now like seeing a historical photograph come to life."

'Way Down East' will be shown on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. at Brandon Town Hall and Community Center, Route 7, in Brandon, Vt. Admission is free; donations are encouraged, with proceeds to support ongoing renovation of the town hall. For more information, visit www.brandontownhall.org. For more info on the music, visit www.jeffrapsis.com.

FOOD SAFETY CERTIFICATION COURSES

ServSafe® Managers Certification  Best course for proprietors, chefs, managers, cooks and key associates

Sessions held at library or local Inn from 8:30am to 5:00pm. Class special $169.00 pp regular fee $189.00 fee includes book, answer sheet, food safety session, viewing real life DVD's, exam and ServSafe® Certificate.

Next sessions on September 16 or 27and October 18 or 25 register early.

Food Handlers Food Safety Essentials

Excellent course for full and part time front and back of house associates.

Four hour session held at library either 8:30am to 12:30pm or 1:00pm to 5:00pm. Class special at $39.00pp regular fee $45.00 fee includes employee guide book, food safety session, viewing real life DVD's, exam and Certificate of Completion.  

Now accepting class registrations. TRAINING TO EXCEL

Norm Milot, Certified ServSafe Instructor and registered Proctor.  

www.trainingtoexcel.com or email info@trainingtoexcel.com Call 802.247.0098 

UPCOMING EVENTS & HAPPENINGS IN THE AREA
in their own words 

NEW ENGLAND MAPLE MUSEUM  

New England Maple Museum is open 8:30AM to 5:30PM daily.  As a  historical note, we remained open during the storm last Sunday, thanks to our dedicated employee, Reba Wilkins of Forestdale. We didn't twist her arm either, she wanted to stay and surprisedly had considerable business until we insisted that she go home around 2PM. Thanks to our dedicated staff, like Reba, we successfully weathered the storm.

Maple Sugar Candy Making Demonstration. Visitors can watch maple syrup boiled into yummy maple candy and, of course, sample it fresh from the mold. Every Wednesday thru September, 10:30 AM- 1:30 PM. No Charge. New England Maple Museum, Rt 7, Pittsford. 802-483-9414. info@maplemuseum.com.

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SEPTEMBER 8   

FROM 12 - 5:30 PM 

BLOOD DRIVE

FIRE STATION  

MANY MANY MANY disaster resources are available on our website and state-wide. This is one snippet we thought very important to call out. Taken from a state official's email about help:  

Business Interruption Insurance: "For anyone being told "NO" by an insurance company providing a "business interruption" policy, I have some advice from one banker. He reports that many businesses in Montpelier were told "no" by their insurance companies but, once they read the policies, they were indeed covered and collected."

ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITY

The Chamber is putting together a color co-op ad in the Vermont Vacation Guide 2012. This is the magazine which the State of Vermont and the state Chamber of Commerce use as fulfillment. There are 200,000 printed and they bring them to trade shows - both industry and consumer. 

If you would like to advertise in this premier tourism-based magazine, please contact the Chamber with your interest. The ad is in the development stage at this time. Each participating business pays $275. The Chamber subsidizes the cost of the ad. The more advertisers we get, the larger the ad we can place! Contact the Chamber if you are interested.

FOR CHAMBER MEMBERS ONLY:  

Your award- winning local newspaper, The Reporter, (now on-line!) believes a strong local economy benefits everyone. We support the efforts of the Brandon Area Chamber of Commerce and our local business community by offering special discounts on our already favorable advertising rates for new and existing members of the Chamber.

*Get a 4.25"x 4" ad as low as $38.25 per insertion - Contact us for details *Special discounts on subscriptions for Chamber members too.

As always, advertisers in The Reporter receive free graphic design services, general marketing assistance and high visibility to your core market, our readers.

The Reporter is a paid weekly publication that focuses on balanced, timely news coverage for the communities we cover, from Brandon to West Rutland and everywhere in between.

Contact Alyssa Zollman at 247-8080 or email ads@brandonreporter.com. Offer expires September 30, 2011.

What is Vermont Get Your Business Online? A Google-led program dedicated to helping to drive economic growth by providing Vermont local businesses the tools and resources to get online and succeed.

Why is Google doing this? Small businesses are vital to America's economic future; the nation's 27.5M small businesses comprise half the US GDP and create two-thirds of all new jobs. While 97% of Americans look online for local products and services, 63% of American small businesses do not have a website or online presence. That's a lot of small businesses that are virtually invisible to potential customers looking online.

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GET YOUR BUSINESS LISTED

Do you have a business in which you rely on tourists, the traveling public, or good reviews? TripAdvisor is one of the largest on-line review websites. Any business owner or site manager can list their property. Then all you have to do is encourage your guests, customers or patrons to go on-line and provide positive reviews!

Click here to get yourself listed

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