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Obituary: Sharry Underwood, 1922-2022

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Obituary: Sharry Underwood, 1922-2022


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  • Courtesy

  • Sharry Underwood

Sharry Underwood was born in Harrisburg, Pa.,
on Could 4, 1922. Sharry acquired her bachelor’s diploma in theater
from Syracuse College, adopted by her grasp’s diploma in dance
from Texas Girl’s College. A self-proclaimed insurgent, Sharry ran
away from dwelling to pursue her life’s biggest ardour: dance.
Sharry’s talent and devotion to her craft led her to Jacob’s
Pillow within the Berkshires, the place she studied with trendy dance legends
corresponding to Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Quickly after, Sharry’s
distinctive expertise led her to New York Metropolis, the place she carried out as a
principal dancer on the good Broadway stage in Occasions Sq. and
toured all through america.

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Sharry Underwood - COURTESY

  • Courtesy

  • Sharry Underwood

One
summer season, Sharry left the bustling streets of New York Metropolis to show
choreography within the Inexperienced Mountain state of Vermont. As destiny would
have it, that very summer season Sharry would meet the love of her life and
great husband, the honorable Vermont supreme courtroom choose Wynn
Underwood. Sharry and Wynn moved to Middlebury, Vt., within the early
Fifties and had been married for 58 years till Wynn’s passing in 2005.

A
trendy girl, notably for the Fifties, Sharry raised 5 kids
whereas persevering with to handle her dynamic dance profession. Sharry frequently
integrated her 5 kids into her imaginative productions,
educating them quite a lot of types from ballroom to trendy ballet.

As
an envoy for Vermont’s dance neighborhood, Sharry additionally labored as
a dance critic for
Dance Journal
and
The Burlington Free Press.
Ceaseless in her advocacy for the significance of dance, Sharry left an
indelible mark on Vermont’s dance and theater neighborhood. She’s going to
without end be remembered as an important and achieved Vermont dance
pioneer.

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At
100 years outdated, Sharry handed away on Thursday, September 22, in
Burlington — a metropolis she grew to deeply cherish. Sharry Underwood is
survived by her beloved kids: Sky Underwood Cardile, Joel Traver
Underwood, Andrea Jones, Darcy Carter and Hillary Underwood.

Sharry
was a lady of motion in each sense of the phrase. With a robust sense
of self and a deep understanding of what was most vital in life,
she by no means wavered in her dedication to be the very best she could possibly be. A
treasured spouse, mom, grandmother, great-grandmother and dancer,
Sharry might be without end beloved, without end missed and by no means forgotten. We
know she is dancing along with her beloved husband among the many stars.



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Vermont

Made in Vermont: Allison Korn Designs

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Made in Vermont: Allison Korn Designs


BRATTLEBORO, Vt. (WCAX) – In Allison Korn’s small but sun-soaked studio, creativity is in no short supply.

“Earthy, rustic,” she says. “I want my jewelry to be meaningful.”

Down in Brattleboro, Korn turns silver into something special. It’s a totally different place than where she was even 15 years ago, living in Ecuador while working on a graduate degree in anthropology.

“[I] decided that I was done with academia, it was too much thinking in my head,” she says. “And I decided I just wanted to live my creativity.” Living her creativity meant taking a leap of faith.

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“I bought a little bit of the material and decided that if I could make a piece of jewelry out of that, then that’s what I was going to do,” Korn explains. She did it and went on to learn what it takes to run a business.

Ten years ago, it was time for a move from the tropics to Vermont’s snowy tundra. It was the perfect time to launch Allison Korn Designs, honing in on her skills and her style.

“We had to reinvent ourselves anyway,” Korn says.

Now, she makes mostly earrings and necklaces. All of her pieces are made in one of two ways — either traditional metalsmithing, or by using precious metal clay.

“It feels like clay, but it’s made out of pure silver particles,” says Korn. “Fire it in a kiln and then it turns into pure silver.”

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She does dabble in gold, but for the most part, everything is silver. No matter the material, her goal is to add a little extra to everyday life.

“You know, they put it on in the morning and they feel a little bit happier, or more brave, or a little bit more confident in their day… that’s why I want to do this,” Korn explains.

Despite a big geographical jump, Korn says the community feel in Brattleboro is roughly the same as it was in Ecuador. It’s why she sells at the local farmers market in addition to online. While life looks different than it did, it’s a change that Korn can get behind.

“There’s so much that we have to offer and creativity is one of the ways that I can give back to the world,” she says. That creativity is taking shape in Vermont.

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Annual Vermont Home Show creates connections

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Annual Vermont Home Show creates connections


ESSEX JUNCTION, Vt. (WCAX) – The Annual Vermont Home Show wrapped up on Sunday.

“It has been a good show so far. It is a hit or miss with how busy it gets. I think the biggest thing is just getting our name out there,” said Richie LaFond from the Energy Co-op of Vermont.

LaFond spent his Sunday talking to lots of people about saving money and cutting back on fossil fuels. The company he works for specializes in heating peoples homes and in times like these the best way to connect with customers is at events like this.

“Right now we are having a tough time just because there is some uncertainty about the new president. As far as where the rebates are going to go. Are they still going to be here. But you are starting to get a lot of people that are starting to think about cutting their bills a lot,” said LaFond.

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The Vermont Home Show has been a tradition for many years, this year hosted by Jenks Productions. About eighty vendors show off their products from landscape design, home re-models, banks & mortgage companies, energy efficient heating systems and more.

A thousand plus people came to the event hoping to save some money.

“There is rebate programs that you don’t really know about. They are obviously more educated than I am on some of those things. Being able to find out what programs are actually out there to help get things done,” said Greg Lang from Chittenden.

The show was once managed by a different company and went into a Covid hiatus during the pandemic. Jenks says they hope the event grows in the future.

“We have had some really positive feedback. Everybody remembers what the show was a long time ago. We are just looking to re-build it,” said Wes Jenks of Jenks Productions.

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Afghans helping Afghans: Case workers in Burlington outline their struggle to respond to federal funding freeze  – VTDigger

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Afghans helping Afghans: Case workers in Burlington outline their struggle to respond to federal funding freeze  – VTDigger


Drukhshan Farhad is a program worker at the Vermont Afghan Alliance in Burlington. Seen on Thursday, Feb. 20. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

BURLINGTON— At 17, he was on the front lines in Afghanistan, shoulder to shoulder with foreign soldiers, fighting America’s longest war.

Now he is a case worker at the Vermont Afghan Alliance teaching new refugees how to drive and helping with translation and interpretation.

Originally from Herat in Afghanistan, Hamed Noorzai didn’t know how to drive when he arrived in the United States in October 2023. But when he saw a driving instructor job advertised by the alliance, he applied. Then he hopped into the Toyota Corolla the alliance uses for training, learned the ropes and got his license. 

Since then he has helped roughly 40 people secure their driver licenses in Vermont.

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That driving program stalled last month in the aftermath of a Jan. 21 White House memo freezing federal funding for refugee support.

“Since then, we’ve faced a rollercoaster of uncertainty,” said Molly Gray, executive director of the Afghan Alliance, a small Burlington-based nonprofit. “We’ve had to prepare for a future where we go without federal funding. We’ve had to revise our budget for 2025, let a staff member go, and urgently seek new sources of funding.”

The organization, which started in 2022 as a scrappy volunteer-led effort with locally raised dollars, was one of 15 nationwide to win a three-year $256,000 Ethnic Community Self Help grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2023. That money helped open an office, hire Afghan program officers and provide direct services to the Afghan community statewide, Gray said. The alliance now has seven paid staff offering services ranging from English and driving lessons to training on legal rights and citizenship. And, Gray estimated, it has helped more than 200 of the estimated 600 Afghans relocated in Vermont.

The Trump administration’s recent halt on refugee arrivals from Afghanistan and Pakistan and the funding freeze represent “a shameful, systematic abandonment of those who risked their lives in support of U.S. military and diplomatic missions,” Gray said in an email today.

She learned of the funding freeze when she tried to log into the federal payment management system on Jan. 28. 

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They weren’t able to access the system for three weeks, she said Thursday. Access has since resumed thanks to a temporary restraining order put in place by a federal court judge in Rhode Island. A hearing on the case — in which Vermont is a plaintiff along with more than 20 other states — took place Friday, though the judge’s order is not expected immediately.

Meanwhile, the future is uncertain for initiatives such as the driving program, which helped 35 Afghans get their licenses last year, 10 of whom were women.

A woman in a patterned shirt sits at a table, engaged in conversation with a person next to her.
Molly Gray is executive director of the Vermont Afghan Alliance in Burlington. Seen on Thursday, Feb. 20. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

On the front lines

For Noorzai, the Trump administration’s actions are a slap in the face. But he chose his words carefully during an interview this week. He talked about honor. And he talked about betrayal.

“I was a good fighter. I was translating Taliban passwords in radio chats,” he said. His work on the frontlines in Kandahar helped save dozens of American lives, he estimated. 

Afghans like himself supported America for two decades so helping the Afghans who have made huge sacrifices and are here now would be the honorable thing for America to do, he said.

Noorzai, 32, didn’t finish school and his family didn’t know he had joined the military. And it was his American brothers in the military who helped him escape after the country was overtaken by the Taliban, he said.

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He said he loves his American friends. That feeling doesn’t extend to the current federal government. 

He once dreamed of being a doctor. Someday he hopes he can follow that dream. For now, Noorzai said he is happy he is helping other Afghans improve their lives and take a step towards independence by learning how to drive in Vermont.

His colleague at the Afghan Alliance, Drukhshan Farhad, also takes deep pride in the work she does to help fellow Afghans. Again, it is not without some conflict.

“There are days when I think, is my work really helping people or am I making them co-dependent,” said the 27-year-old program officer.

Suspension of federal funding hits Vermont refugee resettlement agencies and dozens of new arrivals

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“Then there are days where I’m like, oh my goodness if I got hit by a truck today, how many people will lose their minds tomorrow? Because their livelihood depends on me. Basically, I am their eyes and ears, sometimes in the most important ways,” she said.

This includes something as mundane as sorting through their mail to weed out important notices from junk mail, she said.

Originally from a small village in Badakhshan in northeast Afghanistan, Farhad came from a progressive family, didn’t cover her head, went to study alone in Kabul at 17, and attended the American University there which involved going through multiple checkposts daily during the war. There was an outer wall riddled with bullet holes, she recalled, and sometimes they had to pause lessons because of the gunfire raging outside.

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A brilliant student, Farhad recounted the many hurdles she overcame to come to the United States on a full scholarship at Norwich University in August 2017. She was the first and only female student from Afghanistan there, she said. 

Far away from home and family, the news of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 “felt unreal,” she said, as her family moved to Pakistan to escape the Taliban.

In 2022, she helped the university organize an international event on campus to celebrate Nowroz, the Afghan New Year, as vice president of intercultural student organization on campus. It involved kite flying, henna, Afghan food and music. That’s where she met Gray, Vermont’s former lieutenant general, who would later hire her to work at the alliance

When Gray received news of the federal grant in September 2023, she called Farhad because she knew she would need someone with strong language and translation skills.

Fluent in English, Dari and Pashto, Farhad now helps with interpretation, translation, case management and leads the alliance’s legal rights training and community engagement programs.

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Now Farhad’s work is potentially at risk. 

“So we now have to move forward without those funds, or at least presume that we will not have consistent access to them,” Gray said.

Man in a plaid shirt sits in dim lighting with a neutral expression.
Sayed Yassin Hashimi is a caseworker at the Vermont Afghan Alliance in Burlington. Seen on Thursday, Feb. 20. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger

‘An incredible ambassador’

Sayed Yassin Hashimi, a case worker at the alliance, said it’s always a good feeling to help people, especially, his own. 

Last year he closed 92 cases which included helping to connect new Afghan refugees to jobs, English lessons, driving classes. He also helped create a free tax filing clinic and a program through which the alliance can serve as an intermediary between an employer and a new Afghan employee if a problem arises.

Hashimi, 29, was one of many U.S. allies in Afghanistan when Kabul fell to the Taliban in August 2021. “That was like the darkest night in my life,” he recalled.

With an undergraduate degree in political science, journalism and English literature from an Indian university, Hashimi said he dreamed of being an ambassador to help bring peace and democracy to the world. Originally from Bamyan in central Afghanistan, he helped the U.S. embassy as an interpreter during the war. But that night changed everything.

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After months of terror — including the Taliban showing up at his house in Kabul in an effort to track down those who had been helping the U.S. government and being separated from his large family — Hashimi escaped to Washington D.C. in June 2023. 

Three months later he moved to Georgia, Vermont for a job at Perrigo, a manufacturer of infant formula. While a far cry from his dreams, Hashimi said he was glad to take it to support his family, who, by then, had fled to Pakistan. “I did not have any other choice,” he said.

Months later he spotted a case worker job at the alliance, applied and joined the organization in January 2023.

“Yassin is an incredible ambassador for the organization and he is also extremely entrepreneurial. When he sees a need in the community, he finds a way to create a program to address the need,” said Gray.

Hashimi said he doesn’t know what to think about the federal freeze and the recent attacks on the country’s most vulnerable under the new Trump administration.

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“I think the existence of this organization is a must for this community, and that’s why we are trying our best to keep running and to maintain our existence here in Vermont,” he said.

Noorzai recalls how hard it was for him to navigate a new country and culture, especially with limited language skills. The new Afghan refugees will be lost without help, he said.

“If there is no resettlement agency, they will face lots of problems, especially those Afghans that cannot speak English. It will be like leaving them in the middle of a jungle with nothing,” he said.

Farhad doesn’t know what the future holds for her but she does know that she likes what she is doing. She knows people depend on her and because of that she said she cannot give up. 

“I would fight till my last breath to keep things going — like this program,” she said.

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