Local artist Cathy McCarthy of Shelburne was feeling bummed back in January. She had just heard about the "The Cows Come Home to Burlington" art project to benefit the Vermont Campaign to End Childhood Hunger (VCECH), and it was too late for her to volunteer her own artistic interpretation to the project.

Once every five years the state of Vermont holds regional celebrations to honor local officials. The tradition began in 2000, and this year, 29 Shelburne officials will be honored.

Live music helped set the mood for frolicking in the sunshine.

Friday afternoon, April 2, the DRB came to a decision regarding Green Mountain Development Group's (GMDG) request to reconsider specific project conditions. See the attached pdf document for specifics on the decision, which was signed by all DRB members with the exception of Chairmen Peter Gibbs.

CVU students are invited to apply for partial or full scholarships to take part in a special yoga and mindfulness camp for teens to be held at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck N.Y. from August 15-21. Through the Talk about Wellness initiative, five students from three area high schools (CVU, South Burlington, and Burlington High School), will have the opportunity to learn yoga and mindfulness techniques and will have time to relax, swim, dance, and learn Thai massage.

March in Vermont is a veritable season full of ups and downs. Sugaring, an up, muddy roads, a definite down. March also brings a sport to our attention, like it or not - basketball.

Sergeant Al Fortin has been a police officer in Shelburne for 21 years. For the past 15 years, Fortin has been actively involved with the Vermont Governor's Highway Safety Program, (GHSP) and he recently won its Sergeant Michael Johnson Award. Sergeant Johnson was an officer that was killed in 2003 on Interstate 91 after placing spikes on the highway to stop a suspect who was being pursued by other officers.

It's always an uncomfortable question, but one that has been weighing on the parent: what do we do about the child that has stumbled from one problem to the next, and probably will never get on their feet? Or, is it OK to disinherit the ungrateful son or daughter who turned their back on the family?

John Freeman has owned the Small Boat Exchange in Shelburne for 26 years. This small boat dealer sells boats that can fit on a trailer or car top. From sail boats to power boats, and canoes to kayaks, Freeman is an expert in helping his customers pick out the boat that is right for them.

The last Shelburne Winter Farmers Market could have a definite summer feel to it. If the weather is as good on Saturday as the current forecasts predict, the market will be on the Parade Ground - just like the summer markets. If the weather isn't good it will be in the Town Center gym.

Rita Marie Johnson, the author of legislation adopted under Nobel Peace Laureate, President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica, is coming to Vermont.

A large audience was surprised on March 24 when Charlie Brush, a partner in the Green Mountain Development Group which had applied to develop Shelburnewood, read a letter advising the Shelburne Development Review Board (DRB) the Group was withdrawing its application.

The 15th Annual Burlington Penguin Plunge was an enormous success: more than 1,000 people participated in the Plunge to raise $325,239 for the 850-plus athletes of Special Olympics Vermont. It was the final plunge for Marc Lewis of Shelburne.

Members of the board of Shelburne Charlotte Hinesburg Interfaith Projects, a locally based non-profit were faced with difficult choices as they considered more than $64,000 in requests for grants in the first of three granting cycles of 2010.

This past Valentine's Day season, brownie treats ordered through Vermont Brownie Company said much more than "I love you." Between Feb.1-14, the brownie company pledged to donate 10 percent of its proceeds from heart-shaped brownie sales to Women Helping Battered Women (WHBW).

I met Shelburne resident Larry Eisinger three years ago at our local Farmers Market where we often discussed the publishing industry. He was a syndicated home improvement columnist for 29 years and wrote a bestselling home-building book. Eisinger also was the editor-in-chief responsible for over 75 million copies of "how-to" articles and special interest magazines that were sold in the 1950-1970 era.

Wind Ridge Publishing Inc. has introduced the new community Web site for Shelburne: www.shelburnenews.com. This fresh and exciting Web site is one of the many ways in which Wind Ridge Publishing is dedicated to bringing Shelburne residents vital community news.

If you enjoy volunteering in our community and get satisfaction from helping others, consider volunteering with the Shelburne Rescue Squad. Highlighted below is just one of many volunteer opportunities available to you: the position of ambulance driver.

Shelburne resident Victor Castro, or @vcastro on Twitter, is the vice president of product development for Commerce Generation, a leading software development company in Burlington.

Shelburne's Cub Scout Pack 607 gathered at the Scout Barn in Davis Park for its annual Pinewood Derby races on Sunday, March 7. The Pinewood Derby is a contest where Cub Scouts build a wooden racecar from a kit.

Volunteer members of the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department (SVFD) conducted an annual election of officers at its February business meeting. Serving another term are Fire Chief Craig Wooster,

Chris Gibbons, a Shelburne resident and business owner, recently made a presentation to the Shelburne Selectboard proposing that the Town apply to Google to place an ultra-high speed broadband network throughout Shelburne. Google will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans presently have access to, over one gigabit per second.

A group of Shelburne residents and other Vermonters recently returned from a service-oriented trip to Honduras. The Charlotte/Shelburne Rotary Club is involved with supporting relief efforts in Honduras, and a group of dedicated volunteers takes a trip each year to help in many needed endeavors. Some of these tasks have included buying school uniforms for local Honduran students and painting a schoolhouse.

Ah, train travel. You arrive at the station five minutes before departure; there is no security screening and you end up right in the center of town. You can sleep, read, and even text safely while traveling. Once a form of travel that inspired songs, but now... Vermont went the way of many other states, preferring the speed of air and the flexibility of the personal automobile. Over time, we have let our tracks deteriorate, or even disappear, decreasing the viability of passenger rail to an even greater extent.

Town Meeting Day has passed, and the days are getting warmer. This can only mean the sap is running and David Palmer is boiling it to make maple syrup. A long-time Shelburne business, Palmer's Sugar House has made maple syrup for decades.

The March 9 Selectboard meeting took place at Wake Robin, a tradition that began last year. As is the practice at each Selectboard meeting, the board opens the floor for community participation at the beginning of each meeting. Normally, this agenda item is short, but Tuesday night was a different story.

Shelburne residents do some extraordinary things. Shelburne News printed an article in February about three Shelburne residents headed to Haiti to help with relief efforts after the Jan. 16 earthquake. Husband and wife team Chuck and Kim Schmitt and Shelburne Rescue volunteer Cherie Schrader have returned to Shelburne and shared some of their stories.

Shelburne voters will gather on Monday evening beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the Community School's (SCS) gymnasium to discuss Town and school business, conducted by Town Moderator Tom Little. First on the meeting agenda will be the presentation of the Shelburne School Budget, followed by a question and answer session. The Selectboard will then present the Town Budget.

In October of 2009, the Shelburne Parks and Recreation Department conducted a survey among Shelburne residents to gauge the level of interest for a dog park in Town. The results are in and the majority approves.

Shelburne's Larry Eisinger has a wealth of knowledge in the world of home building and home repairs. Eisinger, the retired workshop and science editor of Mechanix Illustrated, spearheaded the national "do-it-yourself" (DIY) movement as the editor-in-chief of Fawcett's "How-To" book series and special interest magazines. Eisinger created Fawcett's "Mechanix Illustrated Do-It-Yourself Encyclopedia" and "The Practical Handyman's Encyclopedia," which had combined sales of almost 20 million copies.

On Sunday, Feb. 14, Shelburne Vineyard accepted an award for Sustainable Farm of the Year from the at Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Winter Conference. The award also honored Doe's Leap Farm of Bakersfield, Vt.

Sydney Hilker, a senior at CVU and resident of Shelburne, was the winner of the Charlotte Shelburne Rotary Club-sponsored Speech Competition. She attended a recent Rotary meeting to repeat the speech that won the first round of competition, and which she will give in the next round, the regional competition.

Stories are a vital component of a community. Recently, Shelburne Museum, Vermont Public Radio (VPR), The Arbors at Shelburne, Wake Robin, and the nationally renowned non-profit organization, StoryCorps, came together to collect stories from Shelburnites.

The CSSU Board Negotiation Team, representing the boards of the Charlotte, Hinesburg, Shelburne, Williston and CVU school districts, announced Tuesday that it has declared an impasse in its negotiations with the Chittenden South Education Association (teacher's union).

Often I hear that Vermont's working rural landscape is what Vermont is all about: the working landscape is what distinguishes Vermont from other places, and it is what makes our communities and connections so strong. I believe that the landscape is our connection to the past and to a time when "we had more cows than people"; it is also our connection to the future, and a time when buying local products is what we will do, automatically, to protect those rural working landscapes and communities. Even in this fast paced, competitive industrial world, our rural working landscape and its beauty can serve to keep us healthy and well grounded.

At the Champlain Housing Trust's (CHT) 25th Annual Meeting Shelburne volunteers were recognized for their work on behalf of the organization's efforts to provide secure and affordable housing, and members of the Trust elected six to serve on the board of directors.

Shelburne residents will vote on two items that have historically been line items in Shelburne's budget. The money allocated to the Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) and Social Services Committee (SSC) will be decided upon by public vote, separate from the Town budget. The Selectboard made that decision after looking long and hard at the budget to lower the tax rate.