White River Resilience Festival

On the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Irene, you’ll be able to see — and participate in — many of the actions, emergency services and restoration activities that took place on or after that day in 2011. On Sun., August 28 (the actual anniversary) from 9 AM-3 PM, the South Royalton Green is the site for the kind of community building that was generated under the incredible duress of a great emergency. This time, it will be more about demonstrations, practice and knowledge for the next emergency. The Towns of Tunbridge, Bethel, Sharon and Royalton come together for this family event that features: a 5K (and 1 mile) fun run (and walk); volunteer work (within walking distance to the green) to clean up the streambank or help with landscaping at the library (both in the morning); emergency vehicles of every kind to explore (Green Mountain Power, fire and rescue trucks, Red Cross), more kids activities including a sand bag filling contest, demonstrations by the Swift Water Rescue Team, a “flume” table, live music, food vendors, and a display of photos from the 1913, 1927 and 2011 floods. Here’s your chance to build community, but not under the terrible stress of a devastating flood. Race entrants and those bringing food shelf donations gain a free raffle ticket!  Rain venue is the So Ro School. Sponsored by Community Resilience Organizations (CROs), GW Plastics, Mascoma Bank, Green Mountain Power, BALE (Building A Local Economy), White River Partnership, Bethel C+ and South Royalton Fire and Rescue. For more info, click HERE.