GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
A note about the schedule: Daybreak will publish through Thursday this week, then be off for its annual summer break from this Friday through Friday, Aug. 14. Back with CoffeeBreak on Monday, Aug. 17. Each Monday while I’m gone, you’ll get a “Week Ahead” email with a quick rundown of that week’s events.
A quiet start to the week. It’ll be sunny and pleasant today, with highs around 80 and comfortable humidity. Lows tonight in the mid 50s, with clouds moving in ahead of showers tomorrow—but we’ll talk about that then.
A luminous start to the week. Sunrise in Post Mills recently, from Laura Pulaski.
And a restorative end to last week. Scroll down in this morning’s Journal-Opinion newsletter and you’ll find Cynthia Shelton’s fine photo of a crew of volunteers helping to repair and clean gravestones in the old cemetery on Tucker Hill Road in Thetford Center Saturday. Some 25 people showed up. There’s not an un-capped head in sight.
Colby-Sawyer lands grant to boost training for mental health practitioners. The $1.1 million from the Burkehaven Family Foundation, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, will not just allow the college to double the number of students in its two-year masters of social work program (to 68, from the 34 who are in the pipeline now), but to provide additional support—things like emergency childcare or money for car repairs. Most students work full-time. “We have the means to be able to support students that have something arise in their lives…so that’s really incredible,” says program director Kate Turcotte.
In Pomfret, a lifetime of “minding” pipe organs. David Moore died May 29, at the age of 80. But before then, writes the VT Standard’s Tom Ayres in an appreciation of Moore’s life, he and his employees and apprentices at the A. David Moore Pipe Organs Company in Pomfret repaired organs both near—churches in Woodstock and elsewhere—and far, like Grace Episcopal Church in DC and St. Paul Catholic Church in Pensacola, FL. Moore’s most celebrated work, though, is probably in Boston, where he and his crew repaired and restored the Old North Church organ, of Paul Revere fame. It dates back to 1759. At the link, his colleagues remember him and his work.
SPONSORED: Discover Kyle Timothy Fine Art, the Upper Valley's newest fine-art gallery, just one block from the Hanover Green and the Dartmouth Arts District. Explore a beautifully curated collection of paintings, sculpture, photography, fiber art, and ceramics by Dartmouth alumni as well as regional, national, and international artists. Join gallerist Kyle Timothy Blood (D '90) and featured artists at this vibrant downtown community gathering and art space for its Grand Opening celebration Thursday, 7/23, from 4-6 pm, with works by Henry Isaacs, Larry Horowitz, Margaret Jacobs, and Ruth Douzinas. Sponsored by Kyle Timothy Fine Art.
Orange County’s high bailiff lives in Moscow (Russia) and has been hanging out in Iran. As Shaun Robinson writes in VTDigger, “Most people who hold the county office are never called upon to carry out its duties, which include taking over for the local sheriff in the event the sheriff goes to jail or is otherwise unable to do the job.” But that hasn’t kept Christopher Helali, elected Orange County’s high bailiff in 2025, from invoking his post recently “to honor, salute, and pray for Imam Khamenei and his family,” as he put it on X. He tells Robinson he’s been in Iran since the beginning of July—and that he’s not planning to run for the office again. Robinson digs into the story.
“We take very seriously the idea that we are growing and handling food that people eat.” That’s Danielle Allen of Root 5 Farm in Fairlee, talking to NHPR’s Olivia Richardson about food safety protocols on the 40-acre vegetable farm she and Ben Dana own and run. Like small-scale farmers around the region, Allen has been fielding questions from customers about the cyclosporiasis outbreak that’s been traced to lettuce grown in Mexico by Taylor Farms; she recently sent out a letter outlining the farm’s practices. “The biggest thing I wanted to demonstrate…is that when they're buying from a small local farm, they have that relationship with their farmer,” she tells Richardson. Yesterday, NH DHHS advised avoiding Taylor Farms’ iceberg lettuce.
SPONSORED: Help your kids take the 2026 Good Citizen Challenge! Open to Vermont kids in grades K-8, the Challenge offers 25 fun and educational activities, from following the news to visiting a historic site to attending a concert or performance. Elijah from East Thetford went to see “Schoolhouse Rock” at Artistree. “My favorite song was ‘I’m Just a Bill.’” Enter by Labor Day to win prizes — including a trip to Washington, D.C.! Learn more and submit entries at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Seven Days.
Could there be a more Vermont crime? We’ll just let the VT State Police report do the talking: “The Vermont State Police - Westminster Barracks received a report of a stolen pint of maple syrup from Bunker Rd, in the town of Dummerston (Windham County), VT. The maple syrup was stolen on 07/18/2026 at approximately 1645 hours. Troopers are asking anyone who may have observed suspicious activity in the area of Bunker Rd during this time frame, or may have information regarding the identity of the individual in the photos attached, to contact the Vermont State Police.”
A small organ museum that lives on $10 donations suddenly gets a “transformative” one. We’re not talking millions here, but recently, reports VTDigger’s Kevin O’Connor, the Estey Organ Museum in Brattleboro landed a $35,000 gift from the town’s historical society—the remaining half of a loan taken out two decades ago. It will go, among other things, to pay off the museum’s mortgage. “We know how hard it is to run an organization with little money,” says the historical society’s leader. For over a century, the old Estey Organ Co. sold mostly reed organs, which unlike pipe organs could comfortably sit in a parlor. You may remember Kelby Greene’s Roadside Vermont podcast for JAM about the company.
The Monday Jigsaw: Paul Sample’s Beaver Meadow. Actually, you’ve got two puzzle choices this week. This one is of Sample’s well-known 1939 painting of that particular corner of Norwich, which hangs in the Hood. But on his Curioustorian blog, Cam Cross leads with a more complicated jigsaw: the Beaver Meadow Chapel’s congregation around 1925, Sample’s painting, and two photos of the chapel itself. He also goes into the history of all of them—including the fact that the chapel’s bell came from the Sears, Roebuck catalog.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
At the New London Barn Playhouse, “The Music of John Denver and Friends.” You know the songs. “Audiences will be delighted to welcome back the lead singer—who appeared at The Barn last season as a member of A Band Called Honalee—bringing his signature charm and rich vocals to this celebration of one of America’s most cherished songwriters,” the NLBP writes. Today only, 8 pm.
And for today...
Oh, heck, the temptation’s just too great. Since we’ve got an organ theme going today: Here’s the Old North Church’s organ that was restored by Pomfret’s David Moore, as explained by music director and organist Libor Dudas.
See you tomorrow.
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