Newpaper Article from Yesterday

Three protesters arrested during Barre anti-war rally February 16, 2006 Times Argus Staff

BARRE – Three elderly women were arrested late Wednesday afternoon for commandeering an office room inside a military recruiting office on North Main Street in Barre. Lea Wood, 89, of Montpelier; Mary Belenky, 72, of Marshfield and Barbara Grant, 69, of Plainfield were singing anti-war songs inside the recruiting office along with about a dozen other women. When the women, who said they represented the Women's International League for Peace and the Raging Grannies, refused recruiters' requests that they leave, Barre police were called to resolve the situation, according to a police report. All the women except Wood, Belenky and Grant acquiesced with police orders. The three holdouts were eventually escorted by police out of the building and issued citations to appear in Vermont District Court in Barre to answer charges of misdemeanor trespassing. The women who staged the sit-in were part of a larger contingent of protesters holding signs and singing outside the Main Street building, police said.