Grange Notes Archives - Page 4 of 25

Clothing, people, celebrations and meetings–all moving through the Grange Hall

November 18, 2018 by Tova

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) for October 23, 2018

New event this Saturday–11:00 to 4:00–get some “new” duds!

Come shop at the first ever Upscale Resale event! The Capital City Grange will be transformed into a pop up thrift shop and 20+ sellers will be bringing their great quality, gently new and used women’s clothing, shoes, jewelry and accessories to pass along to you at resale prices.

Some brands you’ll find will be Frye, Prana, Coach, Seven for All Mankind, True Religion, Patagonia, Lululemon, Salaam, Citizens of Humanity, and many more!

Please bring cash (a select few will accept cards and checks or PayPal) Get there right when the doors open at 11:00 am to snag the best items. BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) Admission to shop is free!
Vendor booth fees are donated to Circle, the shelter for battered women in Barre.

For more information, check out the Upscale Resale Event on Facebook!
Local note–organizer Heather Cook Collins grew up behind the Grange Hall; her family owned the land behind and around the Hall for many years!

Guess what…the holidays are coming

The Grange meeting on Oct. 6th started making plans for the holiday season, which can’t be far off now that some snow has started to fall.
Food Boxes to make holiday meals for needy families
Once again, we are asking Grange members, Grange Hall users and friends to help us make some delicious meals possible, for families who need some help.
Please help us fill up some good-sized boxes with tasty treats of all kinds, as we did last year (see the left photo). Cash donations will help us buy some turkeys and other fresh items–we ask you to bring in non-perishable food items to fill up the decorated boxes which will appear in the Hall very soon!
Our contacts at Washington County Head Start will easily find half-a-dozen families with children who will appreciate getting some help to have a really good celebration–help us help them! Contact me or Merry to arrange monetary donations, or to help out.
Holiday Carol Sing will warm hearts as well as vocal cords
Last December 23rd, in the middle of a snowstorm which dropped over 6″, we still got half-a-dozen singers, who were very happy to join Grange Musician Matt Nunnelly in singing all kinds of holiday songs–from Adeste Fideles to Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer, while Matt played. We’re going to hope for better traveling weather on Sunday, Dec. 23rd this year–stay tuned for more info on the exact time! Bring your songbooks, your warm hearts and some cookies to share, we’ll furnish some mulled cider.

State Grange session uses our “stations & staves”, ponders resolutions, and preps for the National Grange session

On Friday & Saturday, the Vermont State Grange held its 147th Annual Session at the Capitol Plaza in Montpelier. We were happy to loan our small wooden tables, known as the “stations” and the 4 “staves” which go with the Gatekeeper, Assistant Steward, Lady Assistant Steward and the Steward. Here’s a picture showing the staves, with their symbolic tops. Along with the stations, these were used in Grange opening and closing and other ritual work during the State Session.

So what does the State Session do?

Just like our “Community Grange” meetings, the State Session takes care of the business of running the statewide organization. This includes 36 Community Granges, which have a total of 1,102 members, plus one Junior Grange, in Ferrisburgh, for kids aged 5-13 years old.
As part of the Grange tradition of transparency, the State Session reviewed budgets for the State officers and the various committees which organize events like the Fall Festival, Educational Aid (scholarships for Grange members and also non-members), the Grange Center in Brookfield (a “summer camp” facility which is available for rental to both members and non-members), and many others. Voting delegates from all the Granges represented could ask questions about line items, suggest changes, and ultimately voted to accept the proposed budgets for next year.

We also discussed and voted on the Resolutions I told you about in the last Grange Notes. On Friday, committees like Agriculture/Environment, Education/Health & Welfare, Legislative and 6 others went over Resolutions which had been proposed in their areas. The Committees could propose re-wording of resolutions to make them more effective, and/or recommend Adoption or Rejection by the full State Session.
Each resolution was later presented to all in attendance from across the state, and delegates from each local Grange got to debate, ask questions, and ultimately vote to adopt or reject each one. My votes were informed by the discussions we had at our October CCG meeting, and emailed input I got from one member–your voice can be heard too!
The voting on all the Resolutions will be posted on the State Grange website soon–like our website, all that work is done by volunteers. Check there to see what the Grange decided.
We also heard about the upcoming National Grange Convention, which will happen Nov. 14th to 18th, at the Stoweflake–in Stowe as is probably obvious. For the National Convention, the State Grange is soliciting volunteers for everything from meeting delegates at the Burlington airport, to helping with registration, being hosts at the Hospitality Room and more. Please check out the list of things to do, and their schedules: National Grange Convention Volunteering Contact me to find out more, or to sign up.

If you’ve read this far, we know you are interested–thanks!

If you want more info, specifically on the contra dances put on by the Contra Dance Umbrella, we want to let you know that there is a new email newsletter from the CDU, which will send you reminders about upcoming dances, news about “Montpelier Contra Dance” nametags, any special dance events, and other dance news.
I don’t include dance news in the Grange Notes, unless there is a Grange connection–like the fundraising dance on Labor Day. For ongoing CDU dance news, sign up by emailing CDU Newsletter, or on the Grange website Contra Dance page.

Oct. 6th: meeting, greeting & eating

October 6, 2018 by Tova

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) for October 3, 2018

Window cleaning on Oct. 6th postponed–Hall is too busy

In case you heard me announce it at the Sept. 29th contra dance–we had originally hoped to do a Hall cleaning party before the Oct. 6th Grange meeting, but we’ll have to re-schedule that–there is a “Intensive Youth Musical Theater Workshop” happening, from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM. We’ll send out a new schedule as soon as possible.

October Grange meeting starting at 4:15 PM on Saturday

We’re starting 15 minutes earlier than usual, so we can deal with a good-sized agenda:

Elections of officers: every 2 years, we must hold Grange elections. We’d love to have some more candidates, some of us old war-horses are getting pretty creaky! We’ll happily train you!
Discussion of resolutions: the State Grange meeting on Oct. 18 & 19 will consider proposed resolutions from Community Granges like ours. They range from calling for more regulation of neo-nicitinoid pesticides, to changing the day of town meetings, state and national elections to Saturday, to supporting the Equal Rights Amendment, to eliminating Daylight Savings Time–and many more. You can see more info, and download all the Resolutions at the CCG website: 2018 vt state grange proposed resolutions Let us know what you think! I’ll have a number of printed copies for the meeting.
Continued discussion of how to better define the “mission” of our Grange–besides maintaining and improving the Hall, how can we best involve more people in the Grange and do more community service? After this meeting, we provide a chance to meet the local candidates; we’ve been sponsoring cooking classes, which have been very popular–are there other new things we could do? We’d welcome your suggestions!

After the meeting comes the greeting and the eating

The other reason that we want to start a bit early is that we want to have time to Meet the State Rep Candidates.
At the Nov. 6th election, voters in the Washington-1 district (Berlin and Northfield) will be asked to choose 2 of the 6 candidates. We’ve invited all of them to come by about 5:45, so anyone can come to meet them. They will be staying for the Community Potluck dinner, so you can meet them, then sit down and interrogate them over home-made food.The 6 candidates on the ballot:

Gordon Bock–Independent
Anne Donahue–Republican (unable to come because of a family reunion in PA)
Kenneth Goslant–Republican
Jeremy Hansen–Progressive/Democrat
Denise MacMartin–Democrat
Rebecca Trower–Independent

Community Potluck Dinner

Now that we are back to 1st Saturday meetings for the fall, winter and spring, you can put on your calendar the regular schedule of 1st Saturday potlucks, starting about 6:00. This month’s dinner will have special guests, as noted above, but like all of them, it will also feature tasty dishes brought in by our Grange members and friends. We usually have everything from chips to casseroles, salads to sweet treats. It’s a delicious way to socialize, and to get to know your neighbors–and your State Rep candidates this time!

Completing the landscaping

A dedicated crew went back to work on the flower beds by the “new” entrance–the one added to the building in 2008, which we put in to allow access to everyone.   Take a look at the photos below, to see a few pictures of the process, from moving stones to the finished product. There are more in the Photo Gallery at the CCG website: http://capitalcitygrange.org/category/gallery/
This group of volunteers is pretty much the same as the one which put in the first set of flower-beds in 2017–with a new Community Service Volunteer.   The bottom right picture shows the crew with the extremely helpful Kubota, which helped us place the rocks. From left to right: Gerold & Carol, Ryk, Tim & Merry enjoy the late afternoon sun and a job well done. Elizabeth had to leave before the photo, but was also a stalwart worker.
We also want to thank Ann Pearce & Carol Noyes for donating plants, and also Berlin neighbor Gale who brought over some daylilies, and offered good suggestions on the old entrance flower beds.
We’d like to recruit some more help to keep the flowers weeded and watered next year–we have an outside faucet now which will make the watering much easier!   And there is much more that could be done to improve the old flower beds by the original “dancers'” entrance, add plantings to other areas, etc. Please contact Merry Shernock (rentals@capitalcitygrange.org) or Tim Swartz (swartztim15@gmail.com) if you’re interested. You can do this on your own schedule, and help to improve our Grange Hall’s appearance!

Grange mission discussion, Rocky II and another community Hall

September 21, 2018 by Tova

Grange Notes for September 21, 2018 by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help)

Rocky II–corrected day = Sunday

In the last Grange Notes, I incorrectly said that the flower bed project would be on Saturday–please come on Sunday, Sept. 23rd from 1:00 to 5:00 to help us move rocks, shovel soil & plant perennials on the remaining sides of the entrance porch.
In the to picture below, see the first new planting bed, full of late-summer greenery & flowers. We could use some help weeding this bed as well!
Below that, see the other corner–doesn’t it look naked? A few more rocks and a little time will make it look good!

Dancing at the Grange Center Fall Festival–one more picture

Debby Ploof of the State Grange, who organized the Fall Festival sent me a better photo, showing the range of Grangers who enjoyed the dancing. I couldn’t resist!

Grange Meetings for the Fall began on Sept. 15th. “Mission” is on our minds.

We had a chance to do a “summer catch-up”, reviewing all the work that has been done on the plumbing, the septic tank pumping, and the driveway re-work.   We gave the expenditures a formal approval to supplement the email discussion. We also decided on a formal limit to the amount that can be spent between Grange meetings, with authorization from the President, the Vice President, or the Executive Committee: $250.
We also had a good discussion of ways to make our meetings more interesting–which quickly morphed into a discussion of how to attract more people to get involved in the Grange. This in turn moved us to begin a discussion of the mission of our Grange. Besides maintaining a community Hall, how can we broaden our community service? What sort of projects would the people already familiar with the Hall like to get involved in–and what other types of people could we seek to serve with new projects?
This is only the beginning of a longer discussion, I’m sure. We would welcome input from those who read these Grange notes–send an email to: swartztim15@gmail.com and we’ll add them to the list. Even better, please join us at our next meeting: Oct. 6th, at 4:30 PM.
Our October meeting will also include our every-two-years elections for Grange Officers–which brings up the point that a lot of us who are officers are, for some reason, getting older every year!   We’d love to have some new, energetic faces join us, as active members and as the officers who work to chart the course for our organization.   Much support is available–as long as we last, at least!
Also on the agenda:   discussion of the Resolutions to be voted on at the VT State Grange annual session, Oct. 19 & 20. These will cover all sorts of areas–agricultural, state government, environmental & Grange-related. I’ll send out PDF copies, or a link to them on the VT State Grange website as soon as I get them from the State.
And starting about 5:45, we’ll also have a chance to meet the local state rep candidates–see below:

Coming in October: Meet & greet VT State Rep candidates

Following our October 6th meeting, starting about 5:45, please join us to welcome many of the candidates for the Washington-1 district, which includes Berlin and Northfield. We have gotten confirmation from the following:

Gordon Bock–independent
Jeremy Hansen–Progressive/Democrat
Denise MacMartin–Democrat
Rebecca Trower–independent

Current incumbent Rep. Anne Donahue will be unable to attend–at a family reunion.
Kenneth Goslant has not yet replied–we’ll keep you posted!
For information on all candidates who will be on the ballot on Nov. 6th, including financial disclosure forms, check the Vermont Government website: https://www.sec.state.vt.us/elections/candidates.aspx
These candidates will join us for our Community Potluck, starting at 6:00, so you’ll have a chance to speak with them in a relaxed fashion–and see what they like to eat, also!

Our talented tenants!

The Barretones have been making beautiful barbershop music in Central VT since 1969. Beginning a few years ago, they have rented our Hall on Monday evenings for rehearsals. Check them out at their annual concert, this coming weekend.

Also nearby…Open House at the (now) Stickney Barn in East Granville–Sept. 30th

The picture below is one of many which will be on display at the “Dickerman Barn”, which used to be a hall with regular dances. The Stickney family, which now owns the property, is having an Open House, and will be showing their large trove of photos, diaries, letters and memorabilia from the decades when the Barn was a happening place. The Barn will be open from 3:00 to 7:00. Bring a potluck dish, and share with other Central VT folks. And there will be a community contra dance from 5-7:00! Check out the event on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/752503061760047/

Rocky II coming to the Grange Hall, Sept. 15th Grange meeting, and Dancing at the Grange Center

September 19, 2018 by Tova

Grange Notes for September 13, 2018 by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help)

Rocky II

Do you remember how the Main Entrance on the northeast corner of the Grange Hall looked, before the landscaping project? Take a look at Before and After photos below:

Now it’s time to complete the work, by making planting beds on the other side of the entrance stairs. We have the rocks, and the landscape fabric, and we’re getting some soil delivered, now all we need is you! On Saturday, Sept. 23rd, starting at 1:00 PM!
As they did last year, Gerold & Carol Noyes are helping out–Carol is doing planting design, donating and purchasing perennials, and Gerold will bring his Kubota tractor to move rocks. We need a couple of volunteers to help fine-tune the rocks, help with shoveling soil and (we hope) planting by the end of the afternoon! We also have a new exterior faucet to help us water plants more easily.
Please contact Merry: merrykaysings@gmail.com to volunteer. There’s weeding and other work that can be done in the flower beds around the Old Entrance as well, if we get a few extra volunteers, so don’t hold back! Now that it’s not so hot, it should be a fun afternoon.

Dancing at the Fall Festival

We had plenty of fun last year, bringing some community/contra/waltz dancing to the people who came to the VT State Grange’s annual Fall Festival. So we got invited back!
Dana Dwinell-Yardley, who has been calling around Vermont for family dances and dance series events, was happy to commit early on.
VT music legend Pete Sutherland introduced me to two young musicians who play in the Young Traditions VT touring group, with whom he works. Alexander Allison, fidder and Sebastiaan West, piano & keyboard player played, along with Robin Russell on the accordion, and Carl Ellis on harmonicas.
Grange members of all ages joined in the dancing, and had a great time. In the photo below, you can’t see the 7-year old who was among the enthusiasts, unfortunately!

**Grange Meetings start up this Saturday September 15th**

We begin our fall Grange meetings on this coming Saturday, at 4:30 PM. We’re meeting on the 3rd Saturday, since Labor Day weekend was so busy–including the Challenge Fundraiser dance that raised almost $4,000 for the Friends.
We’ll get chance to go over the work that was done on the Hall over the summer, the denial of the FCCGH grant application, and plans to do smaller scale projects instead to keep the momentum going. We’ll be talking about how and whether we can streamline the meetings to make them more productive and inviting, and ways to involve more of the Grange users in the Grange and the running of the Hall. With all of that, we won’t have a formal “program”, but we will end up with…

Grange Potluck–6:00 PM

We’ll be starting up our series of monthly potluck dinners following the Grange meeting on Sept. 15th. We know there is lots of garden produce out there, eager to come to the dinner and show off the gardening and cooking skills of the Grange community.

Woo-Hoo! Dancing, snacks, fundraising for the Hall–a successful evening for all

September 4, 2018 by Tova

Grange Notes for September 4, 2018 by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help)

This turned out to be a long set of Notes!

Besides all the good news in this one, don’t forget our September Grange meeting coming up on Sept. 15th! Enjoy the new tankless hot water heater being hooked up today, and the re-graded driveway, too!

Lots of organizations advertise “Fun-raisers”. We deliver.

Welcome to our festive Hall!

Upstairs, before the dance, caller Nils Fredland worked with a chorus from “Revels North”, the Hanover-based organization for which he is Artistic Director. We made the Hall more festive with strings of lights!

Downstairs, Rob Nichols’ lovely houseplants are laid out waiting for new homes. The “stitched” photo makes the table a bit “bent”, but the plants were the main event, and not many were left at the end of the evening. As usual, the plants-for-donations were a beautiful part of the fundraiser!

Dancing with the Strutters & Nils

(Left) The dance was preceded by a good crowd of newcomers getting an intro to contra-dancing from caller Nils Fredland. (Right) Then the Clayfoot Strutters started the dance off with their fusion contra music, and the Hall filled up quickly with happy dancers.
This edition of the Strutters featured fiddler, songwriter, and producer Pete Sutherland, Jeremiah McLane on accordion and keyboards, drummer and guitarist Lee Blackwell, bassist Harry Aceto, banjo and flute player Mark Roberts, plus sound-guy and fiddler Oliver Scanlon. I’m pretty sure that Oliver wasn’t even born when the Strutters started playing 29 years ago!

Delighted dancers decimate donated desserts

The “usual” break was tastily unusual, as generous supporters brought in a wide variety of treats–from chicken or turkey wraps to peach cake, to cookies, to popcorn, candies, Juliet tomatoes, apple slices, blueberry cake…and too many other dishes to remember and list. Ben & Jerry’s donated large boxes of Strawberry and Vanilla ice-cream, which is being enthusiastically dished out in the top photo.

More dancing to burn off the calories–and more donations took us over the top!

All through the dance, Nils and also Patty Giavara, Chair of the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall reminded everyone that this special dance evening was designed to raise money for the FCCGH to use to finance more much-needed improvements to the Hall. This summer, the Friends did not get the Arts Council grant award for which we applied, but we have many ideas about projects to keep the momentum going. Watch the Grange Notes for news on the next investments the Friends plan to make.

We started off with $1,500 pledged…and ended up with over $3,900!

The tote-board showed “only” $3,750 when the dance ended, but when Friends chair Patty Giavara counted up all the dessert donations and a couple more checks in the Donations can, it grew to even more!
The generosity of all of the donors is always touching, and makes us even more committed to the improvements we plan for the Grange Hall.

And you can still donateIf you couldn’t make it to the dance, your donation will be welcomed! Even when we get a grant such as the ones from the Arts Council and Recreation Grant program, we still need to match those amounts with other funds. Donate directly online to the Friends, on the Grange website: http://capitalcitygrange.org/donate/. The Friends will provide a receipt for your contribution, which can be tax-deductible, if your tax requirements allow it. All contributions go directly to the all-volunteer FCCGH, which uses them only for projects and operational costs.

Dance some more: Fall Festival next weekend at the Grange Center

Even though the upcoming week is supposed to be more like summer, we are getting closer to fall. One of the consistent signs of the changing season is the VT State Grange Fall Festival coming up, in Brookfield. Capital City Grange has been asked to provide a bit of contra-dancing as evening entertainment next Saturday evening
Dana Dwinell-Yardley has volunteered to call for this community dance; she has been calling for a variety of dances around Vermont, inlcuding the Queen City Contras in Burlington & Shelburne. With the help of Pete Sutherland, we will have a band including Young Tradition Vermont musicians Alexander Allison and Sebastian West playing fiddle and piano. We will also have Robin Russell joining the band. Robin has played accordion for this event before, as well as calling it a few years ago!
Dancing will start at 7:00 on Sept. 8th, and it would be great to have some other dancers join us. The Grange Center, at 308 West St., Brookfield 05060.
See the official poster below for information about the many other events for Friday and Saturday. All events are free, except the dinner on Saturday evening. Hope we’ll see you there! Call Tim Swartz for more info: 802-225-8921, or email: swartztim15@gmail.com