Please plan to join us on the Townshend Common from 9 am – 3 pm for the 76^th Annual Hospital Fair Day! Free parking, free admission, $1 pony rides, specialty booths, auction, food, entertainment, a Hole-in-One contest sponsored by M&T Bank, a Birthday Parade led by the Stork, with The Taconic Bagpipes, and so much more. Come be part of the fun!

If you have items to donate for Hospital Fair Day, including books, jewelry, art, a car, a boat, antiques, or household items, or if you’d be interested in volunteering for an hour, a day, or more (before, during or after) contact Fair Day co-chairs Connie Holt and Helen Holt at gracecottagefair@gmail.com, or the Grace Cottage Foundation team at info@gracecottage.org.

Proceeds from Hospital Fair Day will go toward the construction of the new primary care clinic.

Voting in the 21^st Annual Readers’ Choice Awards is underway at The Brattleboro Reformer. Grace Cottage has won in all seven eligible categories for many years:

• Best Hospital
• Best Emergency Room
• Best Physical Therapy
• Best Doctor
• Best Pediatrician
• Best Pharmacy (Messenger Valley Pharmacy)
• Best Place to Work

Please show your love and cast your vote at reformer.com/readerschoice/

Voting closes on July 4^th!

You are allowed one vote online and one vote on the paper ballot found in The Reformer.

I’m very proud to tell you that Grace Cottage Hospital has recently earned three major accolades. The first is from the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines, recognizing efforts to address the health needs of rural communities like ours.

According to the American Heart Association, people who live in rural communities have a 40% higher likelihood of developing heart disease and face a 30% increased risk of stroke mortality. Grace Cottage is committed to changing that in our community.

For its efforts to optimize stroke care and reduce gaps in rural health outcomes, we have received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines^® – Stroke Rural Recognition Bronze Award. This is the highest possible status for the short time we’ve been involved with this program.

We’ve also achieved Silver Status in the American Heart Association’s STEMI Award. To earn this, Grace Cottage Hospital providers demonstrated high proficiency in treating patients experiencing ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI)—the deadliest type of heart attack.

And again, we’ve earned another 5-star rating in the 1^st Quarter of 2026 by the National Rural Rating System (NRRS), a program through the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) that recognizes excellence in rural healthcare.

We earned a 4-star overall rating in 2024 and 2025, based on our scores of 4 and 5 over the whole year. It’s a testament to our dedicated staff’s efforts to improve our patients’ experience.

Quarterly scores are averaged at the end of the year to determine the overall score. We are proud to remain at the top of this prestigious list!

We are serious about continuous training, particularly in procedures that we don’t do often at Grace Cottage. Although we closed our obstetrics program many years ago, our emergency staff keep up their skills in births and many other procedures that aren’t often seen, in case they’re needed.

The photo above appeared in the University of Vermont’s Spring newsletter, which can be found here: https://issuu.com/universityofvt/docs/vermont_medicine_spring_2026_

After last year’s challenging weather, we were overdue for the picture-perfect day we enjoyed on June 13^th. Twenty-two teams entered this year’s tournament and had a fantastic day of golf! Thanks to these players, donors to our auction and raffle, and our sponsors, the event raised about $53,000 before expenses. Temps were in the upper 70s, with a slight breeze, and the beautiful Haystack course was in excellent condition.

Congratulations to the winning teammates: Matt Scott, Ian Barusso, Trevor Reynolds, and Alex Kaiser; as well as second- place winners: Rob Lawrence, Paul Hoey, Wemyss Scott, and Steve Kruseiewski.

We’d like to give a special thanks to all of our sponsors. If they are a business, please thank them by making a purchase at their establishment; if they’re an individual, please thank them when you see them!

Grace Cottage Family Health & Hospital hosted its 17th annual Spring into Health 5K on Saturday, May 9. Despite the weather, we welcomed 65 enthusiastic participants: runners, walkers, and strollers, including almost twenty kids from area school running programs. Proceeds from this year’s 5K will go toward the Patient Care Fund at Grace Cottage, helping us to care for our community.

Congratulations to Al Claussen, who was the fastest runner at 19:59, and to Julie Wolf, who was the fastest female runner at 24:36. Special recognition goes to Ken Walker, our “most experienced” participant, as well.

Many thanks to our generous sponsors: M&T Bank, Linda Bastian, Big Picture Farm, Burrows Sports, Cota & Cota, Riverbend Farm Market, Smith Family Maple, and WEEI 93.7 Sports Radio. Thanks, also, to Rescue Inc. for helping to keep participants safe during the event; the Townshend Church and the town of Townshend for the use of their facilities; and to our volunteers for helping out.

Thanks to all for supporting Grace Cottage!