Vermont Child Care Apprenticeship Program
News

VCCICC Awarded Community Grant from Downs, Rachlin & Martin

12/8/03 We are pleased to announce that the VT Child Care Apprenticeship Program has been included in the Fall '03 Community Grant awards from Downs, Rachlin & Martin (DRM), of St. Johnsbury. The award of $1,000 was presented by Will Dodge and John Downs to VCCICC Secretary Linda Clark and Vice President Sherry Carlson. The funding will be blended with other community grants, along with federal and state support dollars to begin a cycle of 6 College Courses for the child care workforce in the St. Johnsbury area.

Will Dodge and John Downs present a check for $1000
to Linda Clark and Sherry Carlson

The check was presented at the Program Committee Meeting held at the Dorothy Alling Memorial Library in Williston on December 8, 2003.

Recruitment of Registered Apprentices will begin February 04 in the surrounding area, bringing our on-the-job training model to the North East Kingdom!

DRM Announces Fall 2003 Community Fund Grant Awards

(Burlington) The DRM Community Fund will help voters in Chittenden County decide on a regional technical academy, small businesses in Essex County, Vermont and Coos County, New Hampshire to market their wares, and educators in Middlebury to train effective childcare workers. It will help St. Johnsbury attract more conferences.

Thirteen organizations in Vermont and western New Hampshire were selected for their efforts to create jobs and train workers through grants of up to $1,000 each from the DRM Community Fund, a program sponsored by the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC. Awards were announced on November 3. The grants will be presented at a time and place convenient to the recipient by John H. Downs, a retired founding partner of the firm.

Winners of DRM Community Fund grants in the fall session are the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Hardwick Chamber of Commerce, Lamoille County Mental Health Services of Morrisville, ReCycle North of Burlington, St. Johnsbury Works! of St. Johnsbury, the Central Vermont Chamber of Commerce, Child Care Resource of Williston, the South End Arts & Business Association of Burlington, the Nulhegan Gateway Association of Lower Waterford, the Northeast Kingdom Workforce Investment Board, the Vermont Sustainable Jobs Fund in Montpelier and Vermont Child Care Industry and Careers Council, Inc. of Middlebury.

The DRM Community Fund program was begun in the fall of 2000, part of the firm's celebration of 50 years of service. Each year a different theme is chosen, and applicants compete for limited grants of up to $1,000 each.

The $25,000 in awards presented this year are awarded to private nonprofit, business development or educational organizations in Vermont or western New Hampshire to help stimulate economic development, job training and job creation in local communities. A committee representing the geographic and demographic diversity of the firm considers the applications and issues the awards. Although most of the applicants met the basic criteria, the committee allocates the limited funding among the most compelling applicants. It reviewed 87 applications during the year, including 40 in the group competing for fall awards. The $25,000 in grants being awarded this year will bring the three-year total giving from the program to $100,000.

Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC is the region's largest law firm with more than 60 legal staff and offices in Brattleboro, Burlington, Montpelier and St. Johnsbury, VT and in Littleton, NH.

DRM Spring 2003 Community Fund Grant Awards
DRM HISTORY

In 1950, founding partners Sterry R. Waterman and John H. Downs established Waterman and Downs, a St. Johnsbury, Vermont law firm practicing business law and litigation with associated work in government affairs. Five years later, Waterman left to become a federal judge. Downs worked alone for a while, until Robert D. Rachlin joined him in 1960. Among Judge Waterman's law clerks at the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City was a young attorney who, like Downs, had earned his law degree at Harvard Law School. Three years later, Allen Martin was persuaded to join the firm, leaving the city for rural St. Johnsbury.

In 1976, Rachlin opened a second office in Burlington. Martin followed in 1980, and the growth of the firm has accelerated since then. By adding highly-qualified attorneys with a passion for living in Vermont, the firm's two original offices prospered and grew, becoming a major presence in their communities. Since the middle 1980s, the firm has also opened new offices in Brattleboro, Littleton, NH and Montpelier. Legal professionals in these offices uphold the same standards of practice that characterize the firm's original offices.

Today, Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC is Vermont's largest law firm. By the magic of modern technology, its five offices are linked and operate as a one. Reflecting its small town roots, the firm continues to take pride in offering the personal attention of hometown lawyers and the breadth of interdisciplinary support typically found in larger firms.

DRM now provides legal services in the areas of bankruptcy, business law, captive insurance, commercial finance, creditors rights, environmental law, estate planning, health care, immigration, insurance defense, intellectual property, labor and employment, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, public utilities, real estate, tax law, and venture capital. It represents clients in legislative and regulatory affairs, and has a growing practice in mediation and alternative dispute resolution. Its small regional practice has expanded in scope. DRM today serves clients and their needs in the region, the nation and the world.

Vermont Child Care Industry & Careers Council. All rights reserved.
Revised: 4/24/06