We like to think that education as a “gateway” is open to all, but the reality is that for some that gateway is hidden, slams shut as they approach, or just won’t open at all.

Many young people struggle to find their own way to that gateway. However, there is a man who knows where that gateway is and, furthermore, has the key to unlock it.

He is John Higgins, executive director since last July of the six-year-old Ledyard Charter School (LCS) in Lebanon. As I spoke with Mr. Higgins in his office on the third floor of the Whipple Building overlooking Colburn Park, it became increasingly evident that his passion is to try to help every person “find that gateway.”… Read More

About four years ago, Barbara Hirai, chair of the Lebanon Energy Advisory Committee (LEAC), walked the streets of Lebanon counting streetlights. The existing maps of the network of lights weren’t matching, and she was looking to get an accurate record. Determined, she set out to map every streetlight in Lebanon and make sure that each one was where it should be. What she found surprised her.

“Some lights just weren’t there anymore,” she told me during a LEAC meeting one October evening. What had happened was that, while the city maintained streetlights, removing or moving some when needed, the official count of the streetlights wasn’t updated.… Read More

Living in the north as we do, where winters are long and, shall we say, a tad frosty, a body needs a compelling reason to get outside and recreate. When the temperature dips into the low 20s for days on end, Storrs Hill Ski Area in Lebanon becomes a winter sports lover’s paradise.

Occupying a place of honor in the middle of the city since the early 1930s, Storrs Hill is one of a handful of small ski areas in the East run almost entirely by volunteers.

“You could sum it up as only one paid employee, that’s our hill manager, from November through April.… Read More

When you give someone a great big smile, do you think about what your smile looks like first? If you don’t, then you are very fortunate. Feeling good about your smile is a special gift. It probably means that your teeth have been well cared for during your lifetime. Sadly, there are many people who are not so fortunate. It is hard to believe that nearly 50 percent of three-year-old children in the U.S. already have tooth decay.

Here in the Upper Valley, there are people who are passionate about helping children to get a good start on a healthy smile.… Read More

Like many Lebanon residents, the summer Lebanon Farmers’ Market holds a lot of personal meaning for me. For years it meant that, on Thursdays when he came home from work, my dad would bring pies. The “Pie Lady” (as we called her) sold pies at her tent in Colburn Park. They were intricate, beautiful things; often the buttery crust was molded and layered in the shape of leaves. When the Pie Lady moved her operation to Norwich, it was a tragedy in our household, a testament to how the farmers’ market and what it offered had ingrained itself in the weekly rhythm of our lives.… Read More

There is some contention over when it starts – some say the beginning of the senior year, some say in the second semester of junior year – but when “senior-itis” hits, it hits hard. What is “senior-itis?” It can be a hazy, glazed-over look in an upperclassman’s eye, a telltale sign that his or her mind is not there in the classroom, but in what lies ahead for them after graduation. It can be seen in the lounging groups of seniors in the library, luxuriously enjoying the final moments of high school. It can include a sense of fear, too; “senior-itis” is just as much an admission of anxiety over the future as it is an eagerness for the future to come.… Read More

Jacqueline Clary, an art teacher at Lebanon High School, has an infectious passion for what she does. When I entered the large, open art room where she spends most of her time, she was pacing between students still working on their pieces, giving pointers and encouragement when she could.

Her passion carries over into her role as the faculty advisor for Students for a Sustainable Future, the long-running environmental group at LHS founded more than a decade ago by a small group of dedicated students.

The club was originally started with Mary Maxfield and Chrissy Morley, two LHS science teachers, as advisors.… Read More

Over the last decade there has been a resurgence of interest in musical theater. With the success of shows and movies like Glee and Les Misérables, breaking into song is once again en vogue.

One local group that never thought it went out of style in the first place is North Country Community Theatre (NCCT). Incorporated and based in Lebanon, NCCT has been providing the Upper Valley with opportunities not just to see musical theater, but to be a part of it on stage and behind the scenes for 40 years.

Since their very first production of The Music Man at the Lebanon Opera House in 1973, locals have been performing on stage, directing, producing, playing in the orchestra, working backstage, ushering, organizing the front of the house, providing food and support for exhausted actors, and donating their time and money to all aspects of the theater.… Read More

“I have taught in four schools in four states over the past 30 years, and I have found it increasingly problematic that most high school programs of study spend so little time on the current global situation. American history courses seem to struggle to get past Vietnam; world history courses seem lucky to get to the Cold War. Yet, how can we expect our future citizens to make intelligent voting decisions, let alone survive in a world that is now so interconnected, when they have virtually no understanding of contemporary global events? Not only do we need to teach more about the global community in which we live, but we have to teach about it in a way that will foster 21st century skills and a disposition to care about being active global citizens.”

Are we saying, here, that Steve Christy is a community champion, or that he has a community champion? Both, actually.

Let me tell you a little story about a big vision and the man who not only saw the importance of heralding the champions in our community, but actually did something about it. Steve Christy walks his talk and has become one of the City of Lebanon’s most active supporters.

In 1991, when I worked in Lebanon for Results Marketing, I met Steve Christy during a business meeting to discuss advertising and marketing strategies for Mascoma Savings Bank. At that time, the options in the area were limited to a few radio and print media choices.… Read More