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May 1, 2025
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Students demand Statehouse voice BRIANA BRADY STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY IAN KREINSEN
Marianna Holzer demonstrates bookbinding process with her father’s old tools.
Family’s bookbinding business a page turning story of resistance, resilience IAN KREINSEN COMMUNITY NEWS SERVICE
Marianna Holzer leafed through a carefully bound photo book that tells her family’s story. On one side of her family, her Swiss grandfather passed the bookbinding tradition on to his son, who passed it on to her. On the other side, her German mother’s family resisted Hitler’s regime. Today, Holzer and her husband, Rik Palieri, run the Holzer Book Bindery from their basement in
Hinesburg. For Holzer, bookbinding is more than just a business — it’s a bridge to the past and a way to safeguard a legacy of activism. “Preserving books means preserving our history, so it all ties together,” she said. Her Swiss grandfather, Ulrich Holzer, learned the trade in Italy. But during his time there, a wave of disease and anti-foreigner scapegoating forced him to flee. Ulrich fled on a boat bound for the Holy Land, but when disease broke out onboard, he was cast
ashore along with the dead in Gibraltar. A passerby heard him crying for water, and he wound up on a different ship bound for Boston. Without speaking English or having any documentation, he gravitated toward a community of Italian speakers, who helped him establish a book bindery in Hyde Park. His son, Albert Holzer, later took over the business. Marianna See BOOKS on page 10
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Twenty-five students from across the state came to testify in person last Friday before a joint session of the Vermont Senate and House education committees. One by one, they sat at a small desk facing a horseshoe of senators and representatives and asked to be heard. “It is just wonderful to have so many students here and to have your voices and your input and your authentic engagement. It means so much to us, and it’s an important part of our process,” Erin Brady, D-Williston, who chairs the House education committee said before the testimony began. Brady, along with Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale and Champlain Valley Union junior, Zoe Epstein organized the testimony. While on the schedule the time was officially logged as related to H. 454, the education reform bill recently passed by the state House of Representatives, the students’ comments ranged across topics that they wanted to address such as diversity, equity and inclusion programs or school choice, sometimes giving opinions that put them at odds with each other. However, at the center of the testimony was a demand that echoed Brady’s comments at the beginning of the session: the students would like to be involved in the legislative process.
The four Champlain Valley Union students who gave testimony focused on a variety of topics even amongst themselves. “Being the only hijabi person and person of color (in middle school) and there being no DEI programs, I found it hard to engage with school and with other students as well. But that kind of changed while transferring to CVU and joining the Racial Alliance Committee,” Hibo Dahir said. Nicole Richie Asiimwe, a CVU junior who stated that she also represented the Vermont Student Anti-Racist Network, agreed, citing how her DEI coordinators had shown up for her again and again. “They would come to my classes to talk about kids’ microaggressions, and it wasn’t something awkward. They’d be very serious about it,” she said. “DEI education means creating an environment where all students, regardless of background, feel valued, supported and empowered.” For Chloe Ngu and Zoe Epstein, the two student representatives to the Champlain Valley School Board, the focus was more on the impact of the bill itself and how students could be involved in the decision-making process. Epstein, in particular, is passionate about student involvement. See STUDENTS on page 12