When Kathy Petuck joined the Lebanon Garden Club in the late ’80s, she and her husband Clifton Below were the youngsters, and the club had a strong social aspect with monthly meetings and guest speakers. Since the club’s founding in the 1950s, the seasoned gardeners of the time had been enjoying each other’s company around their shared love of gardening. The group planted hundreds of flowers for the many public gardens in Lebanon and West Lebanon.

More than 60 years later, Lebanon Garden Club members are still planting around 600 plants each spring, providing Lebanon residents and visitors with joyful mounds of three-season color.… Read More

People look up to Steve Gordon, and not just because of his commanding height. He has turned part of his second career – massage – into a service for cancer patients, the Hand to Heart project, which sends massage therapists on home visits to cancer patients. Though more acquainted with dying than most people, he radiates a serene calm that perhaps grows from spending so much time thinking about and dealing with death and our journey to it.

“All I ask is that you not be afraid,” the woman from his massage class said to Steve, as they discussed practicing on each other.… Read More

I’d been thinking about Haiti even before the [2010] earthquake, looking for avenues to do something useful down there,” says Lebanon’s Janet Hall. “The earthquake just broke my heart.” Before long, she made her way to the island nation, to the village of Sous Savanne, near the epicenter of the quake. “People were living under blankets and tarps, because they were afraid that what was left would fall,” she recalls. Janet was inspired to organize the Regenesis Project, a non-profit whose “goal is to work alongside of hardworking individuals to help them develop a sustainable income.”

With the encouragement and participation of her Christian community in Lebanon, Janet, whose career has largely been in food service, is finding a market for crafts produced by a handful of Haitians.… Read More

The Lebanon Police Department had to say farewell to a pair of dedicated servants who have opted for retirement after a combined 54 years serving and protecting the residents in the City of Lebanon.

Lebanon Police Chief Gary J. Smith officially retired May 1st of this year following 28 years on the force, while Lieutenant Scott M. Rathburn completed his last day on April 17th leaving behind 26 years of service. Both look back proudly at their accomplishments while looking forward to whatever lies ahead.

Chief Smith originally hails from Boston, MA and moved to the Upper Valley back in 1985 when he accepted an open position as a Lebanon Patrolman, but the move had a tentative start.… Read More

Never underestimate the power and determination of a dedicated group of senior citizens.

A shining example, a group of residents at the Quail Hollow Senior Living Community in West Lebanon raised money to send Quail Hollow military veterans on a trip to Washington, D.C., to view firsthand the war memorials that a grateful nation bestowed upon them.

A committee of Quail Hollow residents was formed, and U.S. Army Veteran Stanley Kenison took over the role of chairperson, quickly discovering that he had inherited a daunting task.

“Fellow Quail Hollow resident Philip Diana first came up with the concept, and I kind of took over in midstream,” Kenison explained.… Read More

While we remain held firmly in winter’s icy grip here in the Upper Valley, many residents can’t resist the opportunity to let their minds drift off to the lazy, hazy days of July.

Specifically, July 12, 2014, when once again hordes of excited, dedicated, and determined individuals from every walk of life will descend upon the town of Hanover for the 33rd Annual Prouty fundraiser, staged by the Friends of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center in Lebanon.

That prestigious event has become legendary and established itself as the biggest charity fundraiser in Northern New England, incorporating more than 4,500 people from more than 30 states who gather to celebrate life, hope, and the defeat of cancer, an insidious disease that has struck down so many.… Read More

Join Robert Plante for coffee and a muffin outside Cravin’s Country Market & Deli at Dartmouth-    Hitchcock Medical Center on a given weekday morning, and you’ll feel like you’re dining with a celebrity. Nearly every person who walks by knows him, and more than one stops for a hug, a quick chat, and to share words of love and admiration for Robert with a local reporter. Clearly his presence in the Lebanon community has made a positive difference in many lives.

Robert’s crowning – and continuing – achievement is his work on behalf of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (CFF).

In September, Robert celebrated the silver anniversary of the Robert Plante Fall Foliage Walk, and his personal fundraising of more than $250,000 for CFF in the past 25 years.… Read More