Message for the Week welcomes new editor

Staff report
CHESTER, Vt. — Donna Allen has been named the new editor of the Message for the Week.  

“I have been out of the newspaper business for about a year and a half. It is exciting to be back and learning new computer programs while putting together each edition for The Message for the Week. Stop in to say hello,” Allen said.  

Allen, a resident of Bellows Falls, has several years of experience as a newspaper editor and in education. She attended Castleton State College (now University) from 1969 to 1973, and taught Language Arts in grades 7-12  at Green Mountain Union High School from 1973 until her retirement in 2001. She ran the Chester Redemption Center with her husband until they closed it in 2006, and then ran The Animal Rescue and Protection Society for many years. 

Allen was an editor and reporter for The Vermont Journal and The Shopper for many years. She retired from that position, and has recently returned to the workforce to begin her role with the Message. 

She is replacing outgoing Message Editor Tory Jones Denis, who has transitioned to take on a new role as associate editor at the Eagle Times, a daily newspaper covering western New Hampshire and southern Vermont. 

Denis is the former managing editor and news director for the St. John Valley Times and news journalist for the Fiddlehead Focus, both part of the Bangor Publishing Co. in Maine. She moved to Claremont in April 2016 as a reporter covering southern Vermont for the Eagle Times, and was later named editor of the Message for the Week, a community newspaper covering southern Vermont and parts of western New Hampshire. She is also the recipient of several Maine Press Association (MPA) Better Newspapers awards, from 2011 to 2016, for journalism and news photography. 

Denis began her new role back at the Eagle Times the first week of March. 

She resides in Claremont with her husband, Bruce Denis, a son and their small Labhuahua, Shiney.