Millions
of dollars have been donated so far for Irene relief. The Phish benefit concert
alone raised $1.2 million. The newly-established Vermont Long-term Disaster
Recovery Fund already has $1.3 million. And there are a number of other funds
that have been set up to help individuals, businesses and farmers dealing with
serious storm damage.
We’ll
look at what’s happening to all that money that’s been donated for disaster
relief, from how funds are established and administered, to how eligibility is
determined, and the timeline for applying for and receiving aid with David
Coates, the newly-appointed chair of the Vermont Long-term Disaster Recovery
Fund, and Stuart Comstock-Gay, president of the Vermont Community Foundation.
Also
on the program, we talk to Vermont’s
new Poet Laureate: Newbury writer Sydney Lea. Lea has been described as "a man in the woods with his head full of books and a man in books with his head full of woods." We find out what he thinks of his new position and how he plans to use it to promote poetry around the state, including visiting as many community libraries as will have him! Lea’s latest collection of poems, from Four Way Books, is called Young of the Year.