Category Archives: Town Meeting Day

WASHINGTON — Folks in Washington sure do love a good round of applause, and they proved it time and again on Town Meeting Day.
They clapped for their Select Board, they applauded their school board; Principal Charles Witters Jr., who is leaving Washington Village School after five years, got a standing ovation, and so did resident Bill Woodward, who attended town meeting in his Army fatigues.
They clapped to welcome Sarah Costa, the new librarian at Calef Memorial Library, and to congratulate this year’s winners of scholarships that are awarded in memory of Katie Beede ($500 to Ellen Blanchard), who died several years ago, and Debra Sue Blanchard ($5,000 to A.J. Galfetti), who died last year.
Blanchard, like Beede, died after a long battle with cancer, and Tuesday the former school board member and active community volunteer was honored as Washington’s “Citizen of the Year.”
Blanchard’s mother, Harriet, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of her daughter, who left the town a rather handsome endowment that will fund annual community service-based scholarships like the one that Galfetti will use to attend Vermont Technical College in the fall.
The announcement that Blanchard had been named Citizen of the Year was greeted with (you guessed it!) a hearty round of applause at the outset of Tuesday’s meeting.