Vermont Business Magazine A central Vermont tradition continues August 16-17 with Gifford’s 14th annual Last Mile Ride to support end-of-life care for patients and their families. The two-day, family-friendly event includes a motorcycle ride, 5K run, and 1- and 2-mile walks to raise funds for palliative care and special services. Last year, the Last Mile Ride’s 415 participants and 53 business sponsors raised $110,000 to support end-of-life care for central Vermonters, bringing the grand total to more than $760,000 since the inaugural LMR in 2006. Proceeds are used to help ease the end-of-life experience and support grieving families.

Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Agency of Education has awarded seven Equity Literacy grants to 13 Vermont school districts and supervisory unions across the state. The grants, totaling nearly $200,000, will support individual and collaborative projects in addressing equity gaps in their school communities. The applications involved numerous partnerships and collaborative work. Grantee awards will range in funding from approximately $4,000 to $44,000. Summaries of the grant proposals can be found on the agency’s website.

Vermont Business Magazine The annual Rabies Bait Drop, a cooperative effort between the State of Vermont and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services to stop the spread of rabies, began on August 11. The week-long bait drop is part of a nationally coordinated effort to halt the fatal disease. Rabies vaccine — in the form of a sweet-smelling oral bait that is attractive to raccoons and skunks — will be dropped in rural areas of Vermont from low-flying aircraft and placed by hand in residential centers.

Vermont Business Magazine The Brattleboro Retreat will host the 10^th Annual Ride for Heroes event at 10:00 am on Saturday, Aug. 17^th with registration beginning at 9:00 am. The motorcycle ride starts and ends on the Retreat campus with a post-ride barbeque lunch. This is the 10th annual Ride for Heroes in support of the Retreat’s Uniformed Service Program (USP), which offers specialized trauma and addiction treatment for people who are, or have been, active military, law enforcement, fire fighters, veterans, EMS, and corrections personnel.

by John McClaughry In the wake of horrendous mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, leading political figures are once again demanding sweeping measures of gun control. Former VP Joe Biden, the front runner in the Democratic Presidential pack of twenty, said on CNN that he favored a ban on “military style rifles” He acknowledged that there’s no legal way of confiscating such rifles from private owners, but “we can, in fact, make a major effort to take them off the street and out of the possession of people,” suggesting a voluntary buyback program.