UPDATE:
Due to storms and heat tonight's event at Lareau Farms/American Flatbread has been canceled. From the organizers:
Greetings All,
After a lot of deliberation and in consultation with Sal, the creator of this event and our partners, we’re regretfully cancelling tonight’s even featuring Bill McKibben at Lareau Farm. We feel our community will want to come out in full force for a speaker of Bill’s caliber and given the heat, approaching thunderstorms and impact on people’s ability to hear over the din. Bill, we look forward to rescheduling and hope it’s not in flood, blizzard or paralyzing mud!
Thank you everyone for your input and consultation.
Vermont Youth Poet Laureate Harmony Devoe, Warren, will read one of her poems tonight in advance of climate activist Bill McKibben speaking in the pavilion at American Flatbread at 6:30 p.m.
She will be introduced by Friends of the Mad River’s climate resilience manager Luke Foley who will also explain how Friends of the Mad River is working with Harwood youth on climate, resiliency, and the environment.
The event is open to the public and there will be a cash bar.
McKibben is the founder of 350.org and the Third Act. In 2014, he was awarded the Right Livelihood Prize, often referred to as the alternative Nobel. Currently, he serves as the Schumann Distinguished Professor in Residence at Middlebury College.
Last fall, Sal Spinosa, Waitsfield, founder of Mad River Climate Action conceived of a plan to have McKibben speak in Vermont and gathered a coalition of partners including the Mad River Path Association, Mad River Climate Action (which he founded), Champlain College, American Flatbread and The Valley Reporter to present McKibben next week.
At the talk, McKibben will have books for sale and take questions from those present.
The last time McKibben was in The Valley was for 350.org Climate Impacts Day Connect the Dots Rally in 2012. Many who attended that event spent their morning volunteering at Green Up Day activities in and around the Mad River Valley, one of the regions hardest hit by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.
