What's Good: Year 2

College students may have recently made their annual migration home for the summer, but before they can say "there are no jobs," they'll return to their Vermont wintering grounds, bringing with them the usual flock of newbies. Er, freshmen.

It's our responsibility, as the "What's Good" staff, to make the transition for these college hatchlings — if you will — as seamless as possible. But even as self-declared Vermont culture scholars, we admit that the breadth and scope of our knowledge is far from absolute.

So we're reaching out to you, upper classmen and area residents — was there something we missed in last year's guide? An update we might not be aware of? Something you saw and liked, or hated? We want it all. Leave a comment or shoot and email to [email protected] It's all much appreciated.

New Intern

So, I'm the newest intern here at Seven Days... My name is AlexaRae (but I go by Alexa) and I've never blogged before which makes this (officially) my first blog ever. 

A little information about me is necessary but it's nerve wracking, sitting here in the office, trying to come up with things that would make a stranger find me interesting... And hopefully intelligent.  I'll go with what is on my desk: my mac, my iPhone, wasabi peas, Earl Grey tea and a copy of Whats Good.

My computer is packed with pictures from my time abroad in Prague, and the last three years at St. Mike's (I sadly have only one year left). On my iPhone, I keep my favorites like Radiohead and Kings of Leon alongside pictures of my maltese Kobe and my pitt bull Brady. 

I'm a journalism and political science student at St. Mikes and will be the News Editor of our student paper in the fall. I spent last summer in Burlington and worked as a copy editor at the Burlington Free Press.  During my time in Prague, I studied media in a post-communist country and learned how to write stories from conversations in broken Czech-lish (a sorry mix of Czech and English).

Yesterday, myself and the other three interns here ventured out to Stowe, Smuggs, Mt. Mansfield, Johnson, Jeffersonville and more. Embarrassingly, even after three years here, it was my first time to all of the aforementioned locations. 

I'm really excited to be apart of the Seven Days team... And for the weather to get just a bit warmer...

One Person's Trash...

Burlington area residents and students scrapped their well worn couches, roller blades, skis and other miscellaneous bric-a-brac yesterday at the annual Spring Move Out Project (SMOP).

SMOP is a collaborative swap provided by the City of Burlington, Chittenden Solid Waste District, Recycle North, The Center for Community and Neighborhoods, as well as the University of Vermont, Champlain, and St. Michael's colleges. For the past 10 years they have invited Burlingtonians and local undergrads to a cluttered Loomis Street: a junkyard for some, a free IKEA for others.

SMOP not only recycles the city's undesirables, it keeps soggy and haggard goods off porches and curbs.

"There was a problem with materials being left on the streets and cluttering the streets. So we turned it into a community event where the locals benefit from what the students are leaving behind," says Marge Keough, the business outreach coordinator for CSWD, whose favorite running shoes came from the SMOP a few years ago.  

Aside from collecting, disposing, and keeping the local environment clean there was also a bake sale. One Loomis Street mother and her friends took the opportunity to raise money for their children's Fourth of July Parade. 

Free stuff and cookies always equals a good time.

Video edited by Will Ryan.