Capital City Grange

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Community Fundraising That’s Fun For All!

February 20, 2015 by Tova

DanceDineFundraiser

Join us for a good time, for a good cause–bathrooms!

Dancing with friends and family in the afternoon (a great opportunity to share your love of the Grange and community dancing with people who don’t usually come), followed by a delicious Thai Curry dinner (freshly made spring rolls, tofu or chicken plus a mild coconut milk curry sauce and brown rice), followed by more dancing.   What better way to support the next phase of renovations for the Grange Hall:  brand new bathrooms on the lower level!
Needed:  volunteers to help prepare food for the dinner, starting in the early afternoon, and to serve it for the multitudes, and to clean up afterwards.   Our stalwart chefs:   Alison Forrest and Gail England will direct the operations.   Call or email me to volunteer (swartztim15@gmail.com)!
Mark your calendars for the 2nd dance in our finish-off-the-fundraising series, on Friday May 1st with Will Mentor calling, and Perpetual E-Motion playing their exciting brand of dance music!

Another special dance coming this weekend – Saturday March 21:

In addition to the always-popular CDU dances, this “prequel” dance presents Will Mentor calling more complicated dances  from 2:00-5:00 PM for those ready for a challenge.   Here’s one description:
For Experienced Dancers: This means you know how to do a roll away, California twirl, pass through to a wave and the basic moves without being taught. You complete flourishes safely and on time without disturbing the flow of the dance.
There will be a potluck dinner afterward, before the regular CDU dance for all comers at 8:00, with Will and Nor’Easter on stage again.
Don’t forget that  Will is coming back to call on May 1st, for another benefit dance!  Many thanks for his support!

Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall receive $25,265 grant from the VT Arts Council! 

CheckReceipt

The picture above, taken by Peter Arthur Weyrauch for the Arts Council, shows Alex Aldrich of the Council on the left, just after handing over a symbolic (but impressively large) faux check to Patty Giavara and Carol Noyes (Chair and Treasurer of the FCCGH respectively), while I keep watch on the right.

This event is really a pledge–we only get the actual cash once we match the needed amount with cash and in-kind donations, and complete the project successfully.   We’ve still got a ways to go, but we appreciate the help we are getting.    This grant (administered by the VT Arts Council in conjunction with the VT Historical Society and the VT Division for Historic Preservation) is a huge help for  small, volunteer non-profits like the Grange and the Friends.   The VT State Grange has agreed to give us a no-interest construction loan, since we need to pay the bills for the project until the Arts Council accepts our final report.
And finally, we thank all the Grange community members who donate and volunteer to keep us going, and to fund and complete special projects like this, which benefit us all!

Filed Under: Grange Notes, The Dancers' News

Help Needed To Ensure Safety When Leaving Grange Hall

February 20, 2015 by Tova

HELP NEEDED!
The snowplows have piled up so much snow on the south side of the Grange driveway that it’s hard to see traffic coming from that direction.
If anyone can come by and do some shoveling, to reduce the height of the piles, it will make a big difference.   We have a lot of people using the Grange–a play being put on by River Rock School tonight (February 20), and dances in the afternoon and evening on Saturday (February 21).
There are a couple of shovels on the 2 entry porches, or bring your own; and of course please be careful of the traffic.
Please pitch in if you can and be glad our snow piles are not this high: SnowDrift3

Filed Under: Grange Notes

Grange website, updated and producing results!

January 1, 2015 by Tim Swartz

New website for CCG!
If you are reading this, you’ve found your way to our totally revamped website.   The new version is easier to update, with many more ways to increase the visual interest.  We have our consultant Rob Fish, from the VT Digital Economy Project to thank for this, as well as the “MailChimp” emails which I’ve been sending out, and the WiFi which now enlivens our Grange Hall.  Rob, whose work was funded by a grant from the federal government, introduced us to many new (to us) features of the digital world, and helped us see how we can make them work for us.
Patty Giavara put together much of the content for the site, working closely with Rob to configure the choices.  One of the features we’re most pleased to have is our Paypal link, to make donations to the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall.   Make sure you get your tax-deductible donations in before the end of the year!  You’ll  see the “Donate” button on many pages on the website, so it’s easy to find!
Long-time volunteer Tova Cohen has been happy to work with this new “WordPress” site, as she continues to update the CDU dances on the Calendar page.    Now it’s easier to update, and easier to see the information.  She can put in photos of callers and bands, too!   And the Calendar can exported to other web-based calendars:  GoogleCal, Apple iCal and other apps.
New Grange rental agent Merry Shernock has posted flyers about renting the Grange for special events, and for trainings and seminars.  Spread the word to everyone you know!
The website also features pages about the Grange and its history, about all the different kinds of dance and other events held at the Hall, and more–there are even videos!  Check them all out at:   http://www.capitalcitygrange.org, and spread the word.

Filed Under: Grange Notes

FCCGH renovation plan gets underway!

January 1, 2015 by Tim Swartz

As everyone should know  by now, the Friends of the Capital City Grange have ambitious plans to improve our basement level.   After lots of planning and work, our grant application to the “Cultural Facilities Coalition” was approved in August, pledging 50% of the funding for our project.   Other grants we’ve received, and generous donations from members of the Grange and dance communities have gotten a good start to the “matching funds” we need to go with the big grant.  We’ve just gotten approval of a no-interest “bridge loan” from the VT State Grange to finance the construction until we get the project completed–because we don’t get the big grant until the work is successfully completed.
New bathrooms are the most obvious amenity of the updated basement, and will be a big improvement–a bigger space with 4 uni-sex private stalls, a spacious shared hand-washing space with a new water-fountain, plus a separate ADA “accessible” bathroom.   That part of the project is planned for next spring, assuming the fundraising goals are met–see the article about the updated website for a link to donate directly!
The FCCGH decided that there was no reason to wait to get started with the other parts of the project, so we hired John Mallery to rebuild the fire exits from the basement.   The picture below right shows the re-worked fire exit stairs at the NW corner of the building, which lead to a ground-level fire exit door.   We have new storage space upstairs over the fire stairs.  We have a new “vestibule” around the stairs which go from the lower level to the main Hall.   And we’ve gotten preliminary approval from the Fire Marshal for an improvement in our basement level occupancy from 49 to 100–and expect a bit more soon, when he finishes his calculations.  All of these are important steps forward to making us an attractive space for community use!

 

The green paint shows the silhouette of the old, steep stairs
Looking down the new stairs at the NW corner of the Grange Hall, see the difference between old and new!
This door will also help control heating of the lower and upper levels
Fire egress improvements: fire-rated vestibule at the bottom of the basement stairs
We'll be keeping this door closed during the heating season, as a rule
The door in the vestibule is held open with an electro-magnet; if a fire is detected, it will close automatically.

Filed Under: Grange Notes, Hall Projects

Grange heating bill–going down!

January 1, 2015 by Tim Swartz

Thanks to Bill Chidsey for having the expertise to install this new burner for us!
Our new furnace burner, about 15% more efficient!
Thanks to Bill Chidsey for locating and installing this up-to-date thermostat!
New digital, programmable, wireless thermostat
New furnace burner and wireless, programmable thermostat
About the end of last-year’s heating season, we were warned that our furnace burner was on its last legs, and we would likely have to replace the entire furnace.  Scary stuff!    We were very lucky to have a new member join us, who was able to do a building survey, and to locate and install a new, more efficient burner in the existing furnace.   Bill Chidsey has about 40 years of HVAC experience, and has a special interest in increasing energy efficiency.   Between the more efficient burner, and the programmable thermostat, we are already saving money on fuel oil–so much so that I got a phone call from our heating oil supplier, asking me to check if our burner was working, since we were using so little oil!

Filed Under: Grange Notes, Hall Projects

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Contact Us

Tim Swartz, President, CCG#469
802-225-8921 (cell)
grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org

 

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