Event #1: The Painting of the BLM mural in Putney, Vermont. This event is happening this Sunday from 7am-12pm (noon) in front of the Putney Central School. Our branch fundraised around $1200 in just two-days to make this mural happen with the special help of Jaime Contois and Laura Chapman. Please also find a letter attached to this email from the Putney Co-op in support of this movement. We will send out a separate email with more details about this shortly.

Event #2: Branch President Steffen Gillom will be participating in a panel on Tuesday, September 29th from 4-5pm concerning the intersection of food systems, land ownership, and race in Vermont. This is a SUSU healing collective event. Here is a link to learn more information: https://fb.me/e/3Mu4lzEaG

Event #3: Panel with Congress-people Peter Welch and Karen Bass. Branch President Steffen Gillom will be participating in a panel discussion on Tuesday, September 29th from 5:30-6:30pm with Representative Peter Welch and Karen Bass (who is also the chair of the congressional Black Caucus). Kesha Ram, Xusana Davis, and activist Noel Riby-Williams will also be on this panel. The flyer is attached to this email for more information.

Event#4: 2020 Windham County Freedom Fund Dinner! This year, we are planning on having a virtual Freedom Fund Dinner. There is not much to report in regards to specific logistics for the dinner at this moment. However, if you are interested in helping with organizing the dinner, please do email either the branch president or secretary. We would like to especially thank Cliff Wood for his steadfast work towards the organization of this dinner.

Other Important News
1. The NAACP Executive committee plans to begin its officer election process soon, so if you have been a member of our branch since March 1st, 2020 and are interested in running for a position, then please do email president@windhamnaacp.org or secretary@windhmnaccp.org. Branch Vice President Rose Albert is overseeing this process and we will gladly connect you with her.

2. The NAACP executive committee plans to send a list of recommendations to the Putney Select board soon. We are hopeful that this list helps the board and the town manager move toward the creation of more equitable processes in putney as soon as possible. We will disclose those recommendations once they are finished at our community meeting.

3. Our community meeting time has changed and will now be held on the LAST Wednesday of every month. This means the next community meeting is happening NEXT WEEK on Sept. 30th from 6-7pm. Here is the meeting zoom link: https://antioch.zoom.us/j/92114847403

4. Branch President Steffen Gillom and branch Vice President Nader Hashim are currently creating a political engagement program aimed at educating and building a support network for folks of color who are interested in running for public office. We are very excited about this program and will have more updates about it as soon as we can. If you identify as a person of color (or know someone who is a person of color and you think they might be interested), please email us and let us know!

5. We would like to thank Ann Schroerder for assuming the role of Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee. She is already off to a great start! Lyndall Boal and Nader Hashim also sit on this committee and we also thank them for this work.