Looking through the work of the Valley News photo staff from a year ago tells the tale of the slow and then sudden change to life in the Upper Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here is a selection of captions from photographs published during the month of March. Find all of the photos online at www.vnews.com.
March 2: Shoppers are stocking up on groceries, preparing for the coronavirus while another searched the area for extra masks and hand sanitizer.
March 3: Town Meetings in Fairlee, Hartland, Royalton and Tunbridge are conducted as any other over the years as residents conduct their towns’ annual business.
March 6: Ahead of schedule, Lebanon firefighters update their N95 masks as two cases of COVID-19 were presumed positive in the Upper Valley earlier in the week.
March 7: Thetford Academy’s boys basketball team defeats Enosburg 54-44 before a packed house at Barre Auditorium for the VPA Division III state championship. Their fifth title set the stage for the girls team, who are to play Windsor in a semifinal game a few days later.
March 10: Lyme residents hold their annual Town Meeting, with ballots collected by volunteers wearing gloves. In West Lebanon, Ann Perbohner arrives at the polls wearing gloves and masks to limit her exposure to COVID-19, and limiting trips from home due to existing health conditions. “Maybe I’m over reacting, but I’m doing well,” she said.
March 12: Dartmouth College students say goodbye as they leave for spring break. College officials tell their 4,000 students to stay off campus until at least May 1, and to plan for the possibility of remote learning through the spring term.
March 12: The Windsor girls basketball team holds a practice instead of playing against Thetford in the VPA Division III semifinal game. Officials have decided to postpone high school playoffs due to COVID-19 concerns. The next day, winter postseason play was canceled in Vermont and New Hampshire.
March 13: Parishioners are served at Sacred Heart Church’s weekly Lenten fish fry in Lebanon. The church follows directives from the Manchester Diocese to encourage disinfection of surfaces; hand washing and using sanitizers, especially when administering communion; suspending the handshakes offered as a sign of peace as well as social hours after mass; and encouraging those who are sick or caring for the sick to stay home.
March 16: Teachers and staff say goodbye to Weathersfield Elementary School students as they begin remote learning, under direction from the governor until at least April 6. “We love you, we’ll miss you, stay safe,” school secretary BJ Esty told students over the intercom, “and wash your hands.”
March 17: Jennifer Goodspeed, of Post Mills, brings her daughter Adrianna Hayes, 10, with her to work as a housecleaner as Adrianna’s school has closed due to the pandemic.
March 17: Shyrl Rafus prepares to shift her West Lebanon diner into curbside takeout, under the governor’s orders that all restaurants had to close their seating to the public due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “I have employees who need to keep working because they have bills to pay and I have bills to pay,” she said.
March 17: Willy Walker, food service director for the White River Valley middle and Bethel elementary schools, distributes meals to families coming by, who are staying home during the schools’ closure due to COVID-19.
March 18: Brian Passeri disinfects and distributes books to patrons who stop by Converse Free Library in Lyme for curbside pickup. The library was closed to the public.
March 18: Amy Bray, of Hanover, takes time out of her first day of working remotely as an attorney for a workout in a West Lebanon church parking lot while her children ride their bicycle and scooter nearby.
March 19: Artist Margaret Dwyer, of Wilmot, N.H., paints in her studio in the nearly-empty AVA Gallery and Art Center in Lebanon that had closed to the public. Dwyer had to cancel five classes she teaches and an all-day workshop in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 19: Brian Luikart, co-director of UV Gear, drops off seasonal camping supplies to be given away after the Upper Valley Haven decided to close its seasonal shelter to avoid transmission of COVID-19 within the homeless community.
March 19: Teachers greet students standing outside their classroom windows at the Mount Lebanon School in West Lebanon to pick up supplies while learning from home. School districts were also delivering meals and supplies to students’ homes by bus.
March 20: As a steady stream of customers on member appreciation day begins to crowd the small South Royalton Market and its staff, General Manager Adam Smith steps outside to limit entry. Shoppers were asked to respect social distancing, touch only what they intended to buy and try to limit trips by purchasing a week’s worth of supplies at a time.
March 21: Jeff Hanissian, his wife Rebecca Perkins Hanissian and their family listen to a cello duet performed by their younger children in Lyme. Jeff Hanissian, an emergency physician at Valley Regional Hospital, has been involved in testing patients for COVID-19 and said he was wearing a surgical mask while home to protect others more than himself.
March 21: Wood sculpture instructor Jay Singh, of Norwich, works on a piece outside at AVA. Though the building was closed to students and would soon be locked down to COVID-19, Singh was taking advantage of the lull in his teaching to finish work for a planned show later in the year.
March 21: Deb Steele joins in song with her neighbors on Hough Street Lebanon. After the bells of the nearby Sacred Heart Parish struck the noon hour, residents of the street gathered at a safe distance to make music together.
March 23: Volunteer Keith Merrick, 74, of Post Mills, makes masks for medical workers at his dining room table. Merrick said he started making them when he didn’t have one to wear while going out of the house for necessary shopping.
March 24: From home, Hartford Selectboard member Alan Johnson raises his hand to be recognized in the chamber by chair Dan Fraser while meeting remotely as CATV Tech Coordinator Thomas Bishop watches in White River Junction. Changes to the state’s Open Meeting Law allowed for boards and commissions to meet from different locations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 25: Dismas House Assistant House Director Robert Burdette uses an infrared thermometer to take the temperature of resident Jonathan Alvarez at the residence for former prisoners transitioning out of the corrections system in Hartford Village as he arrives home after work. The house was no longer admitting visitors or volunteers and residents are having their temperatures taken daily and upon returning home if they leave the premises.
March 25: Geisel School of Medicine students Caroline Dodge and Cassie Kosarek build a snowman together after skiing at Oak Hill in Hanover. The week before, their rotations in the New Hampshire State Hospital and the VA Medical Center were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They were hoping to have the opportunity to return to work in non-clinical roles as the pandemic continues.
March 25: Bruce Post talks with customer Bill Peek, of Randolph, after bringing out a fill-up of raw milk at his farm in Royalton, where he had slaughtered a cow to share with his family earlier in the morning. Post, who drives a motor coach for Lamoille Valley Transportation, said he had just finished driving a final trip for the Norwich University baseball team when they closed campus and changed to remote classes for the spring semester due to COVID-19.
March 27: George Neuwirt, who owns a residential construction business, works with concrete contractor Victor Branch to lay out a foundation on a house site in Croydon. Neuwirt said his business is going “out of control” with several house projects in the area. Workers supporting housing construction were on a list of essential businesses exempted from the governor’s stay-at-home order.
March 27: Veterinarian Gracey Welsh speaks with Jesse Bacon, of Rockingham, Vt., after a preliminary examination of his dog Bruiser outside the SAVES clinic in Lebanon. The clinic returned to 24-7 operation to give relief to other clinics whose hours might be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 27: Vincent Bergamo, of Bethel, chooses to wear a mask while bringing his trash to the Bethel Royalton Transfer Station because he said he had been sick with a fever and cough, but was feeling better. Bergamo said he was unable to get tested for COVID-19 when he contacted Gifford Medical Center.
March 28: Customers wait in line to pick up free hand sanitizer on offer at Silo Distillery in Windsor. The business was giving out about 10 gallons, with a 16-ounce limit per person.
March 31: Instructor Lisa Dumont, of Rockingham, Vt., demonstrates an exercise for students during a Fit Body Boot Camp workout in the PowerHouse Mall parking lot in West Lebanon. Dumont, who owns the business and another in Rockingham, said the response to the social-distancing workout in West Lebanon had been positive.
March 31: Super 8 manager Travis Parent pulls on a fresh glove over a freshly sanitized hand while working in the office at the White River Junction motel. Parent said he only had four vacancies and was otherwise full with essential workers and homeless people from the Upper Valley Haven. “It’s a good time to be grateful with everything that’s going on,” he said.
March 31: Chris Hastings and his son Jack Hastings, 17, go through the Hartford High School girls hockey workout at their home in Thetford. Hastings’ daughter plays on the Hartford team. Jack is a student at Thetford Academy and has remote classes but has been trying to stay active during the day as well. His father was a ski jumper in the 1988 Olympics.