Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 27, 2021
December 4th meeting & program: Patty Manning on Native American solstice rituals. Note: new Zoom link for this hybrid meeting!
As we are heading toward the Winter Solstice on December 21, Grange Lecturer Carl Etnier, working with Merry Shernock, our Treasurer and Rental Agent, has arranged for Patty Manning, a trained cultural interpreter, to present a Grange Program to share Native traditions surrounding the solstice, from 5:00 to 6:00 PM. We welcome all vaccinated people to join us in the Hall, and everyone to join us via Zoom for this “hybrid” meeting. Check the bottom of this article for info about the Zoom link.
Patty Manning is Wampanoag. She says her teachings have been passed to her from Lakota tribal elders Grandfather Henry and Grandfather Dion, and also from Lakota tribal members Marian and Chubb Whitemouse. Patty has been employed by the State of VT as a cultural interpreter at the State Parks and at the State Historical Center. She has also made presentations at a number of schools and camps.
Patty also worked for six years at the Dawnland Center, a non-profit center for native people, where she conducted many ceremonies, as well as teaching with other staff, and helping to run three powwows a year. Patty and her family also sang with a drum group which performed at powwows; she also led a drumming workshop at the VT Folklife Center.
Carl will also be speaking with Patty on his show “Relocalizing Vermont” on WGDR, 91.1 FM, on Thursday, Dec. 2nd from 9:30 to 11:00 AM. You can also stream the station from: https://www.
Brief Grange meeting 4:30 to 5:00 PM
As usual before our Programs on the first Saturday of even-numbered months, we’ll have an informal discussion of how the Grange is doing, including a monthly financial statement, discussion of winter plans for snowplowing, heating–and our new “Room Air Filter Boxes”–see the article below for more info.
New Fiber internet connection
Consolidated Communications has connected optical fiber internet to our building, so we have fast Wi-Fi throughout the Hall, and extending outside! I measured Wi-Fi speed at about 90 Mbps in the Hall, a huge improvement. Hall users will need to use a password, with this new system–please log in to:
Network: Grange Wi-Fi Guest
Password: CapCity469
Signs are posted inside and outside the Hall with this information so that all can take advantage of this free, fast Wi-Fi!
We also have new, inexpensive VOIP phone service! We will have to replace the dial telephone in the upstairs old entrance foyer, I’m sorry to say…not compatible with 21st century VOIP.
Chocolate, Coffee and lots of other fair-trade food!
Submit your order to the Just Food Hub for pickup on Dec. 4th!
Help the Grange, and help yourself to tasty food that will benefit small farmers all over the globe. If you order through their special Grange link: https://capitalcitygrange.
It’s Potluck time again!
And we’re going to try holding a safe potluck dinner on Dec. 4th, for the first time in a while. We welcome all vaccinated people to join us, downstairs, with our RAFBs running (see the article below!), to share whatever tasty dishes show up. We welcome all types of food–vegetarian, meat, bread, cheese, desserts, salads, chips, salsa, beverages, whatever you feel like sharing! We’ll stay a bit spread out, following COVID safety guidelines for gatherings, but it will be a chance to see each other and socialize a bit.
******************************
Please join us on Saturday either in person, or via Zoom to hear more about all of these developments.
New Link: Since Grange Lecturer Carl Etnier has left Goddard College to pursue other opportunities, we’ll have a new Zoom link for our next “hybrid” Zoom and live meeting. If I get the link before sending out these Notes, I’ll post it below…if not, I’ll send a second Grange Notes out next week–as well as updating our Grange Calendar listing for the meeting and program.
Please follow this link to join us:
TBD
RAFBs….what are those funny boxes?
With all 4 of these RAFBs running on one floor, they can provide about the equivalent of 4 or 5 Air Changes per Hour (ACH)–without pulling in cold outside air. This is in the range which the CDC recommends for ventilation. The only drawback is the fan noise. This system is our trade-off for getting through the cold winter months, when it is not reasonable to open the windows and run the Fresh Air Ventilation system.
We ask all Hall users to turn on these RAFBs during events–especially if you are not sure if all participants are fully vaccinated. The left-hand photo shows the Fall VT Scholastic Chess tournament held in our Hall on Nov. 20, with one of the boxes hanging above–and also wearing masks, as we also require. More chess tournament photos at: http://vtchess.info/Results/
As a reminder of VT Dept. of Health recommendations in case of exposure to COVID, check out https://www.healthvermont.gov/
If you want to learn more about how well these boxes work, use your favorite search engine to look up: Corsi-Rosenthal boxes.
FCCGH end-of-year fundraiser begins!
The RAFBs described above were financed by the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall, Inc., the 501(c)(3) charitable corporation that helps the Grange to plan and run projects, raises funds for improvements, and applies for grants to help finance them. Every year, like many other charities, the FCCGH sends out a fund-raising letter to people who have donated before. This year’s campaign began with letters sent out last week–and a few checks have already come in! If you feel left out because you haven’t gotten one, don’t worry! You can donate anytime by using the PayPal link on the Grange website: http://capitalcitygrange.org/
Donated funds will be used to finance projects we do ourselves, and to match grant money for large projects–like the replacement of the Grange Hall dance floor in 2012, the new bathrooms in 2015, and the insulation and wall/ceiling floor surface upgrades completed in March, 2020! We hope you can help us get ready for our next big improvement–which we hope will be a professionally designed ventilation system to improve air quality throughout the Hall.
Speaking of improvements…
…alert readers may have noticed that the picture of the RAFB in the kitchen above looks a little different than their memories of the kitchen…there’s a reason for that! We had a great crew of volunteer painters from the Unitarian Church of Montpelier choir show up on Nov. 11th to repaint the kitchen walls! In return for being able to rehearse in our Hall while theirs was being renovated, Sue, Sarah, Anne and Nancy scraped, cleaned and painted the concrete and sheetrock wall surfaces. It makes a big difference in the look and feel of the kitchen!
Thanksgiving at the Grange!
We are pleased to be the home, for quite a few years, of the Thanksgiving celebration for an extended family from Berlin. They find our cafeteria provides the room they need to share a big meal and socialize. The kitchen provides room for meal prep and space to clean up.
Because this is a Berlin family, they qualify for the free rentals we offer to Berlin residents, but they always “pass the hat”, and have given us substantial donations after every use! We appreciate their generosity. We also appreciate the COVID protocols they have adopted this year, requiring vaccination or a negative test before the holiday meal for all attendees.
The last photo was taken during setup this Thanksgiving!