BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Students at Vermont’s newest college got their time in the spotlight.

Vermont State University’s first commencement saw almost 1,000 students graduate.

The university, which is a unification of Castleton University, Northern Vermont University, and Vermont Technical College included graduates from 200 Vermont towns.

They also say students graduated across 96 majors, including around 600 students who graduated from medical programs.

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The owner of the three clothing companies once owned by Vermont Teddy Bear is closing its Shelburne distribution center, putting 29 people out of work by June 5. But the stuffed-toy maker is staying put at its Shelburne location, officials emphasized Wednesday.

“We’re still here,” Katie Langrock, senior vice president of operations for Vermont Teddy Bear, said in an interview Wednesday. “You can continue to have the tours and make the bears.”  The complex, which is where most of the bears are manufactured, is a popular tourist destination and features a “hospital” where visitors can watch the bears being repaired.

Langrock said her job is to separate the companies after Vermont Teddy Bear’s stuffed animal operation was purchased by USA Brands of Indianapolis, Ind., the owner of Vermont Flannel.

Vermont Teddy Bear was created in 1981 when creator John Sortino started selling his hand-made bears from a cart on Church Street in Burlington. The pricey bears and other stuffed animals are still made mostly in Vermont and are guaranteed for life.

Vermont Teddy Bear’s owner, the New York City-based Lionel Capital, sold the company April 4 to Ohio-based USA Brands. An affiliate of Lionel Capital , PJ Acquisitions, now owns the three clothing companies, called Pajamagram, Pajamajeans and The 1 For U.  Those clothes are made overseas and are distributed from a large warehouse next to Vermont Teddy Bear’s complex on Shelburne Road, Langrock said.

PJ Acquisitions said last week that it was unable to reach agreement on terms for a new lease at that warehouse, and announced the impending layoffs to the Vermont Department of Labor. It’s moving the distribution functions out of state, Langrock said.

Vermont Flannel Has a New Operator

Vermont Flannel Has a New Operator

By Anne Wallace Allen

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Vermont Teddy Bear described the move in a letter last week to Matthew Lawless, the Shelburne town manager, saying the lease negotiations prevented PJ Acquisitions from giving employees more notice. The layoffs are scheduled to happen between Thursday and June 5, the company said.

Lawless said he had been working closely with the Vermont Department of Labor, which will provide job training and other services to the affected workers.

“Twenty-nine jobs is no small number for us here in this community,” Lawless said Wednesday. “I want to be the best neighbor I can in helping displaced workers. I made sure everyone was aware of the Shelburne food pantry, which has bus passes and lots of other good things.”

Lawless said he thinks the owner of the warehouse will find another tenant quickly.

“There aren’t a lot of buildings like this in the Shelburne or the Burlington region,” he said.

Vermont Flannel and Vermont Teddy Bear employ 70 people in Vermont, CEO Joe Van Deman said in April. Deman’s company, USA Brands, bought Vermont Flannel from its Vermont owners in 2022. Van Deman said Vermont Flannel has six stores in Vermont and two in Maine, and plans to open another in Waterbury this month.

He and Matt Bigelow, the Ohio-based CEO of Vermont Teddy Bear, have been busy dispelling concerns about the future of the teddy bear maker. Bigelow noted Vermont Teddy Bear held a well-attended event on April 8, the day of the solar eclipse.

“With the success of the eclipse event, we’ll probably be looking at the possibility of doing more events and getting more people to campus,,” Bigelow said.

The state has secured a waiver allowing Vermont to participate in a new federal program that provides low-income families with extra money to spend on food over the summer.

Vermont almost didn’t participate in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s “Summer EBT” program. Gov. Phil Scott’s administration initially opted out, saying they couldn’t afford the administrative upgrades needed to manage it. But officials later decided to try for a waiver, and this week received word that they had gotten it.

The Republican governor said during his weekly press conference Wednesday that he let out a sigh of relief when the state was notified yesterday that Vermont had been granted the flexibility it needed.

“I’m just thrilled that we were able to get through the bureaucratic nightmare that the feds had created and was going to prevent us from taking advantage of this program to help families and kids in Vermont,” he said.

Eligible families will receive $120 per child to use through an EBT card — a debit card that can be used at qualified retailers, including grocery stores and farmer’s markets. The state estimates that 45,000 children could participate.

That benefit is dwarfed by the kind of cash assistance that families received during the pandemic. But Anore Horton, the executive director of Hunger Free Vermont, said it will still make a difference.

“We have so many families in Vermont who are working hard to take care of their kids. And every dollar is actually a huge deal for a lot of families right now,” she said.

Some families will be enrolled based on existing benefits, and will see the extra cash automatically added to their EBT card. The state will open an application portal in August for families who qualify based on their income but aren’t enrolled automatically. More information is available at summerebt.vermont.gov.

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