Some herculean efforts have taken place in our community in the last seven days because of COVID-19.
The news and repercussions of the virus are evolving at the speed of light here and beyond. It’s hard to fathom that only 12 days ago we were celebrating the reopening of Mehuron’s Supermarket with Tom Mehuron and his mother Irene Mehuron greeting customers as they came through the door.
Our reality is much different now and many elected, appointed, paid and unpaid people are working overtime to plan for the coming days and weeks.
Extra credit goes to every single educator and administrator at the Harwood Unified Union School District for pulling off what has to be the fastest turnaround ever. Governor Scott called for schools to close on March 18 and hours later the HUUSD team went into action. Plans to get school lunches to students were announced on March 17. Those lunches were delivered March 18. Remote learning plans for Harwood students and local elementary school students were prepared and released March 18.
Extra credit also goes to Mad River Valley Television for its efforts to make sure public meetings were public. MRVTV filmed the Waitsfield Select Board this week, streamed it to its YouTube channel and from there broadcast it live to Waitsfield Cable. Waitsfield Telecom worked with Waitsfield (and will presumably work with other towns) on conference call capability so that the public could call in to listen and participate.
Local emergency management teams got themselves organized, met and created the Mad River Valley Emergency Response Team to support the local food shelf, Free Wheelin’, Meals On Wheels, the Mad River Valley Community Fund. Extra credit goes to these folks.
Extra credit as well to the Mad River Valley Chamber of Commerce for keeping the business community updated and for urging people to lead by example in self-isolating and social distancing. As painful as it is for businesses to close their doors for the short-term, it’s in all of our best interest long term. Please do what you can to support local businesses and keep your money in The Valley as safely as you can.
The Valley Reporter will continue to maintain and update a specific COVID-19 section of our website (www.valleyreporter.com) with updated news and information as it arrives. Send information to
