Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) July 29, 2024
Coming up on Saturday:
barbecue/potluck/picnic
Every year, we host an outdoor meal at the Grange, to enjoy our Grange Hall together and share some tasty summertime foods. So far, the weather has cooperated! This year, our social feasting is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 3rd., with dinner starting at 6:00 PM. And if the weather doesn’t cooperate, we’ll have move the feast indoors, so you can put it on your calendar in ink.
The Grange will supply barbecuing foods: burgers (beef and vegan) and hot dogs, plus buns and condiments–and also ice cream and cones! You’ll be glad to know that those will not be grilled… We’ll have a couple of grills and cooks, and a separate burner for the vegan burgers. We ask attendees to bring a side-dish to share–salads, veggies, chips ‘n’ dips, breads and cheeses, watermelon or whatever you want to share. The Montpelier Senior Jazz Ensemble will be playing jazz standards for your entertainment.
We’ll be doing setup of chairs, tables and the Grange’s vintage plates, forks, knives and spoons, starting by 5:00 pm, and we’d love to have some help! Please email swartztim15@gmail.com if you can pitch in. We’ll also need some cleanup & dishwashing help after the meal!
At this dinner, we’ll also be kicking off our Challenge Fundraiser, when–along with the Montpelier Contra Dance–we challenge the dance and Grange community to match pledges by some generous donors. The goal is to raise money for major projects to improve our beloved Grange Hall, working with the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall. This year, we plan to work on getting some fresh-air ventilation for the Hall, to improve air quality and reduce CO2 levels all year ’round. We hope you will donate to this fundraiser, which will run through August, and culminate at the Aug. 31st Montpelier Contra Dance as we try to match $2,000 already pledged by “challengers” who want to help the Grange Hall get even better.
You can get a jump-start on the fund-raiser, by clicking on the Donate button at the bottom of the Donate page on the Grange website! Below see happy picnickers at the 2023 barbecue! Let’s hope for equally good weather!
Sweating together, we filled in the holes
In the most recent Grange Notes, I reported on the erosion of the top of the driveway from the July 10 rainstorms (see the top picture below). Today, I want to celebrate how much difference just a couple of volunteers can make. Soon after I appealed for help repairing the top of the driveway on July 12, I got offers of help from Joe Blakely and Carl Etnier, and their help made all the difference–it was a lot more work than I wanted to take on. We also got a remarkably fast gravel delivery–more on that below.
The pictures below will tell a lot of the story. We started on Sunday afternoon about 1:30–not ideal as far as avoiding the hot, muggy weather! But Joe, Carl and I kept drinking lots of water, and taking breaks as needed; we rebuilt a couple of waterbars on the driveway on the Rt. 12 side, dug out the silt trap for the culvert, and filled the big eroded hole.
At the end of a couple of hours on Sunday, we realized we really needed some more gravel, to make it possible to flatten out the sideways slope of the top of the driveway. I got in touch with Matt Dwire, who has been keeping our parking lot and driveway in good shape for quite a few years–and was surprised when he was able to deliver a couple of cubic yards of gravel on Sunday evening! I’m sure he’s busy with the aftermath of the July 10 downpours.
On Monday morning, Joe Blakely was able to come over again, joining me at short notice, and between us we spread the new gravel out, reducing the steepness to reduce further erosion. It’s impressive what a couple of volunteers can do to make a difference. Joe has since done a bunch of pruning on the driveway. If you want to be on a list to help out with jobs like these, please let me know!
Dancing at the Vermont Grange Center
I’m pleased to report that fun was had on
July 18, when our Grange sponsored a dance event for the campers and staff at the Junior Grange camp, held
at the State Grange Center in Brookfield. Below, you can see the range of ages–from 6 upward. We really appreciate caller Erin Smith, and the North Branch Trio (in the bottom photo), consisting of Grant Ornstein, Susan Reid and Kenric Kite, who provided the music.
Would you like to put your mouth
where our money is?
This cover story from the Vermont Community Loan Fund Summer Newsletter makes our mouths water–and even more so because we’re supporters! The Capital City Grange, like all responsible organizations, maintains a “rainy day fund”. While we hope the need never arises, it’s prudent to have some money we can call on if, for example, a windstorm blows off part of the roof, or some other sudden need pops up. Some of our funds are in a CD, and part of our rainy day fund is invested in the Vermont Community Loan Fund, which lends to non-profits, small businesses (including pizza bakers), child care facilities, affordable housing, food co-ops and many more organizations. We earn an interest payment, and we would be able to withdraw the investment if we needed the money. We believe this investment matches the Grange’s values as a supporter of local economies and institutions. If you want to learn more about the VCLF, you can check out the whole newsletter at this link, or their website: investinvermont.org.
