Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 10, 2023

It’s time for our double-event weekend for kids and their families!

We expect to have a lot of “family fun” this weekend.  We have been having Kids Trade & Play on Second Saturdays every month, and this Sunday marks the beginning of the Winter Season for Dance, Sing & Jump Around, on every Second Sunday through April.
1.  KT&P has been drawing a lot of “customers” already.   In October, we had the biggest attendance ever–134 adults, plus about 85 kids.  Organizer Erin Barry expects more of these sorts of numbers at upcoming events, now that the word is very clearly spreading about the great choices that are available, in clean, gently used, unstained and unripped clothing for kids.  During each event, from 9:30 to 11:30 AM on Saturdays, there is a constant stream of parents, grandparents and other caretakers with and without their kids showing up to check out what’s available, and most of them leave with good-sized bags of clothes.
Many of the folks who come bring bags and boxes of clothes that kids have outgrown, which they’re happy to pass on to new people.   All of these clothes have to be sorted and inspected by volunteers–and we can always use more help!  It’s an enjoyable, social event for everyone involved.  Erin says the event works best with 7-9 volunteers “on duty” during the event to help “shoppers” and sort clothes, and at the end to put away all the bins of clothes.  If you’d like to be part of this group, please contact Erin at:  birthsinnerlight@yahoo.com.
We currently ask for a $3 donation per family, but no one is ever turned away.  We appreciate folks who give a little extra to make this easy to do.   These small donations keep the wheels turning–this is a very non-profit event!

2.   As mentioned above, Dance, Sing and Jump Around runs during the colder months of the year, with this Sunday kicking off this season.   As usual, dances, play-party games and songs will be led and called by DS&JA founder Liz Benjamin with help from Stan Carlson.   There will be live music–this time by VT Fiddle Orchestra members.  And some relatively healthy snacks, too!  We’ll have paper and color crayons and pens for kids who want to sit out a dance.  The important thing is for everyone to have a good time!  We were getting around 50 people for these events in last winter’s season of DS&JA, and look forward to similar fun starting this Sunday at 3:00!
We let kids in for FREE, and ask for a donation of $5 per adult–and we expect you to join in the fun on the dance floor with your kids!   As with KT&P, we never turn away anyone who doesn’t have the money that day–we’re happy to have everyone take part.   For more information, check out the DS&JA website!

3.  Alert readers will also note the lawn sign in the ground to the right of our Grange sign.   I picked this up at the VT State Grange Annual Session at the end of October.  The National Grange has been supporting expansion of broadband service to under-served areas–which certainly include rural areas like Vermont.   They have partnered with the federal effort called the Affordable Connectivity Program, which can provide subsidies for internet access to low-income households, as well as free or discounted devices to connect to the internet, plus digital literacy training.   Local Granges like ours are being recruited to take part in this effort–and I think it would be great for someone besides me to take this on!   There’s much more to learn at:  https://www.acprc.org/.

Dance, Sing & Jump Around in action!

This is what it looked like last January, with a band of teenage musicians, and Liz Benjamin getting ready to call a new dance.  We had about 50 people of all ages that day!  Please join us on Sunday, Nov. 12 to see how much fun you can have!

Rental policy subcommittee

At our November 5 meeting, we did agree to set up a Rental Committee, including–so far–Merry Shernock (our Rental Agent), Patty Giavara and Erin Barry.  We would still be happy to have another person from the Grange community who may have facilities management or rental experience.   Below is the “Help Wanted” ad I put in the previous Grange Notes–please get in touch if you are interested!

Needed: New Grange rentals committee member(s). Our tenants – both our regular weekly/monthly renters, plus many one-time or short term users –  help us to pay Hall expenses and maintain and grow our vibrant Grange Hall community.  Rental of the Hall for cultural arts programming, community meetings and events, plus family gatherings is core to our Grange’s community service mission.  The rentals committee develops and recommends rental policies, and provides support and guidance to the Rental Agent when requested.  Experience with venue management or rentals would be helpful but not required. Open to members and non-members!  Please contact Tim or Merry to learn more.

Planning for State Session 2024

Also at our November 5 meeting, we started discussing what we will need to do to get ready for Capital City Grange to host the 2024 VT State Grange Annual Session at our Hall, on Oct. 25 & 26, 2024.
Among the possible ways we can facilitate this is by providing lunches and at least one dinner for the Grange delegates from around the state.   At our meeting, Richard DeCosta, Charles Mayhood and Alison Forrest volunteered to start discussing if we can do this, at a similar “price point” as the meals at the most recent State Session–$12 for lunches, $20 for dinner.   Stay tuned for more developments.
One thing for sure–we will need help from other Grange community members to do Hall set-up and clean-up, plus help with kitchen prep-work and clean-up, plus dishwashing after meals.   Please put Oct. 25 & 26, 2024 on your Calendars, and let me know what you’d like to do!   Ask any questions, of course!

FCCGH Fall Appeal is underway

At our Nov. 4 meeting, Patty Giavara, the Chair of the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall gave us a report on the activities of the FCCGH. Right now, the end-of-year fundraising appeal has just been sent out.   This is one of two fundraising campaigns that are regular ways for members of the Grange community to support the mission of the Friends.  As the name implies, the mission is to “ensure the long-term stability of the Hall” and to “support the maintenance improvement and public promotion of the Hall”.
To that end, this (501)(c)(3) non-profit, charitable corporation raises money from the community of Grange members and Hall users.   In most cases, these funds are used as “matching funds”, which are required to receive 50% grant funding for the major projects the FCCGH takes on.   Since the beginning of 2022, the Friends and the Grange have invested a total of $103,900 in 3 major Hall improvements:   a wood-pellet furnace, the lift for wheelchair and other users, and a complete scraping and painting of the Hall exterior!   More details about the many projects the FCCGH has carried out are available on the Donate page of the Grange website.
Conveniently located at the bottom of that page is “Donate” button, which you can use to contribute to the Friends.   If you’ve given before, and we have your address, you may already have received a printed version of this Fall Appeal in the mail, or via email.   We’ve already started receiving contributions–and we’d love to have you join the list of contributors!  Questions?  Send an email to me, Tim:  swartztim15@gmail.com, and I’ll do my best to answer them–and to put you on the list to get the appeal letter if you want!

Heating cost report

Also at our Nov. 4 meeting, I had the pleasure to report on our heating costs, for the first heating season using the pellet furnace that was installed in the spring of 2022.   I was able to report on the cost and amount of pellets we used during the winter of 22-23, compared to the cost of the fuel oil we would have used with the old oil furnace we used to have.  The bottom line is that we saved about $1,500 with the pellet furnace–based on the actual cost of pellets, and the average cost of fuel oil during that heating season.   We saved about 37% of what we would have spent on oil!   This is a significant improvement, and helps us to continue paying off the loan we got from the VT State Grange that helped us purchase the pellet furnace.  And we can enjoy the reduction in our “carbon footprint” we gain by no longer using fossil fuel for heating.

January 6, 2024:  a “real” Grange meeting

If you’re interested in the Grange (and you’re reading these notes, so we think you are interested), you should consider joining us for the first meeting of 2024.   We’ve decided to bring out the sashes for officers, along with the “stations” where they sit, and the “staves” that designate certain officers, and have a meeting that follows the standard Grange protocol for meetings of “Community Granges” like ours.
What does that mean?  The meeting will incorporate some of the 19th century language used by all Grange ritual, will include a few songs with accompaniment by our Grange Musician (yes, he’s an officer and wears a sash too!), and will follow a designated agenda to make sure that we get reports from all the “Departments”–Legislative, Agriculture, Community Service, etc.–and consider “new business” as well as items left over from the previous meeting–“old business”.  Taking part in this process will also connect us to the roots of the Grange, and the generations of Grange members and officers who have taken part in the same process to keep the organization running for all of these years.
Why haven’t we been doing this all along?  Since the advent of COVID, we have been having our meetings remotely, or at least “hybrid”–a combination of in-person and Zoom attendance.  We haven’t had a fully in-person meeting–and because of that, we have not been using our version of the Grange meeting program.  We have not found a way to set up the Grange, or to conduct our meeting so that it can be audible to both those present in person and those listening and viewing the meeting from their homes.  Now, we think it’s time to dust off the sashes and the meeting ritual, and connect with the Grange roots that led to our Grange surviving since being chartered in 1914!   Please plan to join us on Jan. 6–anyone can attend!  It will also be a good time to pay dues for Grange membership for 2024, if you are already a member, or if you want to join.   Questions?  Send an email to me:  swartztim15@gmail.com.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) November 2, 2023

Coming up on Saturday:  November meeting

As I’m writing this, watching the frost melt outside my window, it’s easy to believe that we are in November!   October’s warmth was remarkable, but it won’t surprise any of us that it is getting colder as the days shorten.
Looking ahead to winter is one of the subjects of our Grange meeting, this Saturday from 4:30 to 6:00 PM.   I’ve done some analysis of our heating bills for the 2022-23 heating season, which I’ll discuss.  It’s our first using our pellet furnace, installed in April 2022!  Sneak preview–it’s saving us money, as well as greatly reducing our carbon footprint.
We’ll also start taking a look at our rental policies:  we have been seeing our Calendar of events on the website fill up, which is helping our cash-flow quite a bit.  Some of the increase has been because Montpelier event venues got flooded, and have still not re-opened.   Groups that have used those in the past are finding our beautiful Hall a good alternative.  We are not celebrating the reason for these new rentals–but the impact is noticeable.   The availability of our lift for people who can’t use the stairs has also helped us attract some new groups.  Having lots of rentals has also made us look at some of our rental policies, especially around the free use of the Hall we’ve been providing to Berlin individuals and families and Berlin non-profit organizations, and use of the Hall by Grange members.  We’ll start some discussion, and also want to designate a subcommittee to write up some more formal guidelines–see the “help wanted” ad below this meeting preview!
We’ll also be talking about the Vermont State Grange “annual session” which was just held–in Middlebury–on Oct. 27 & 28.   Tim, Liz Benjamin and Carl Etnier attended, and will report on the discussions of Resolutions and other actions.
We’ll also start talking about next year’s VSG annual session, because it will be happening at our Hall, on Oct. 25 & 26, 2024!   Merry has already reserved these dates on the Calendar, but we will have to do more planning:  how to handle meals for delegates?  How to make sure that we use our great assortment of plates, dishes, glasses and silverware instead of disposables?  Recruiting some dishwashing help will likely be needed!   Please join us to discuss all of these issues, and help us anticipate others.  Attendance is likely to be around 80-100 people, so a good-sized crowd for 2 days.
Those with good memories may recall that a stripped-down, speedy annual session was held at our Hall in October 2020–with no reports of Covid following–as we fitted it in before the “Delta Surge” later that fall.   This will be a much bigger deal!
Of course, our meeting will be followed by a Community Potluck Dinner, see below!

Help wanted:
Rental policy subcommittee

Needed: New Grange rentals committee member(s). Our renters – both regular weekly/monthly, plus many one-time or short term users –  help us to pay Hall expenses and maintain and grow our vibrant Grange Hall community.  Rental of the Hall for cultural arts programming, community meetings and events, plus family gatherings is core to our Grange’s community service mission.  The rentals committee develops and recommends rental policies, and provides support and guidance to the Rental Agent when requested.  Experience with venue management or rentals would be helpful but not required. Open to members and non-members!  Please contact Tim or Merry to learn more.

After the meeting, it’s potluck time!

We’ll move out of the upstairs Hall at 6:00, to make room for setup for the  contra dance.   We’ll move downstairs, and enjoy our monthly Community Potluck dinner!   We hope you (and many others) will join us in sharing tasty main dishes, sides, salads, soups, desserts and more!   We know you’re going to eat dinner, so why not join our sociable group?   Bring whatever you want–and if you don’t have time to cook, contribute chips and salsa, or a loaf of bread and some cheese, or a jug of cider.

October program report:  Downstreet Housing

• Shared Equity Downpayment Assistance:  This program can provide help getting a sufficient downpayment together.   In return for this, the program requires that when you sell your dwelling unit later on, some of any increase in value will be returned to Downstreet, enabling them to continue to expanding the Shared Equity program to others in the future.  You would still get some of the increased value, just not all of it.
• Budget counseling and homebuyer education:  Downstreet will help you improve your credit, create household budgets to improve savings rates, and also teach you the steps involved in buying a house.   They know that it is a confusing process, especially for first-time homebuyers, and they are there to help you.
• Grants for homebuyers:  They know about many existing grants for would-be homebuyers that can help overcome the financial hurdles.   These include programs from the USDA, VT Housing Finance Agency, Veteran’s Department, and others.

New in the kitchen!

We’re pleased to let you know that we have replaced one of the gas ranges in our kitchen with a new electric range!  We have had intermittent, but ongoing problems with the oven in the old stove taking a looooooooooooong time to start heating up, and we decided to bite the bullet and start over.  This decision was made much easier by an anonymous donor who contributed $600, covering 3/4 of the cost!
The new stove is plugged into a 220V stove outlet, which we had installed when the kitchen wiring was updated in 2008.  At that time, we foresaw that it might be a good idea to provide choices for cooking.  Since then, we’ve also become more sensitive about the need to eliminate the use of fossil fuels, so switching to an electric range is a good choice on that front as well.
As you can see, the new range is a “smooth-top”, which will be much easier to keep clean.   Of course, no abrasive cleaners should be used!

In the attic…

We currently have this storage cabinet, a “Shaw-Walker” metal shelf unit, with a tambour door that rolls up from the bottom!  As someone who spent his working life in the furniture-making world, this is a unique design, in my experience.  I have made roll-down and horizontal tambour doors, but never this design.
This cabinet used to hold a huge mess of Grange paperwork, 90% of which were old bank statements, receipts for membership dues, etc.   Valiant Grange member Patty Giavara took on investigating the contents earlier this year.  The information she found included meeting records about the construction of the building, which helped the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall (of which Patty is the Chair) to prove that we are an “historic” Grange Hall, one that is still active for its original purpose.   This information enabled us to get a grant from the VT Preservation Trust that paid 50% of the cost of the scraping and re-painting of the Hall in May of this year!
We have sorted all of the documents and other items which had lived undisturbed in this cabinet for decades, saving ones which may be of interest to local historical societies, documents that are of interest to the VT State Grange (I took these to the VSG Annual Session last weekend), and documents that are of interest about our Grange’s history.  Others have been recycled.
So why am I telling you this?  This cabinet is now available, if you would like a unique cabinet to store your documents, or perhaps your collectibles?   We’d be happy to get a donation, but mostly we are eager to get some space cleared out in the attic storage area.   Please contact me (Tim) at:  swartztim15@gmail.com.  We’re offering this first to Grange members and friends, before putting it on other “free items” websites.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) October 3, 2023

This Saturday:  October meeting

I’m sure we will fill up the brief time we’ll have–as we need to pivot to the “Community Program”–see the article below:

What’s the state of housing in Central VT?
And what can be done to improve your access to home ownership here?

Kicking off our fall season of Grange Programs, we’re pleased to present a program featuring DownStreet Housing and Community Development.   This local, private non-profit’s website states their mission as:  ” Downstreet strengthens the communities of Central Vermont by creating permanently affordable homes, promoting equity and inclusion, and connecting people to the resources and services they need to thrive.”
Our program will focus especially on their “Homeownership Center”, which provides a range of services to help people before, during and after the home-buying process.  This includes down-payment options, help with financing repairs, home-buyer education and much more.   Our program presenters will be the Director of HomeOwnership, Cheryl Moyer, and HomeOwnership Specialist Bill Meckel, who is now a Grange member!
I expect that the current state of housing in Central VT will be a topic of discussion as well.  The impacts of the July and August flood events have reduced and/or damaged some of the housing stock, including properties owned by DownStreet.   We’ll have discussion and question time available to focus on the concerns of our audience.   We really hope you can join us to learn more about this very relevant topic!
We also encourage you to stay for….

After the program, time for a potluck dinner!

We’ll move out of the upstairs Hall at 6:00, to make room for setup for the special waltz session from 7 to 7:45, before the contra dance. We’ll move downstairs, and enjoy our monthly Community Potluck dinner! We hope you (and many others) will join us in sharing tasty main dishes, sides, salads, soups, desserts and more! We know you’re going to eat dinner, so why not join us? Bring whatever you want–and if you don’t have time to cook, contribute chips and salsa, or a loaf of bread and some cheese, or a jug of cider.

Who are these friendly people?

These are part of the technical assistance team for “COMSA“, which stands for “Cafe Organico Marcala S.A.”, a cooperative coffee processor in Marcala, Honduras.   This organization now has 1,573 coffee producers (25% women), each with less than 9 acres of land.    This represents quite a bit of growth since starting in 2001 with the equivalent of $300, and 60 producers!
So why are we telling you about this cooperative?   Because they are one of the coffee producers who supply Just Food Hub, the non-profit local organization which sells Equal Exchange food products in Central Vermont.   JFH donates its profits to local community organizations–including Capital City Grange!   The products they sell are all produced by small farmers and cooperative groups like this one, from around the globe.  All sustainably or organically grown, Just Food Hub’s products are available through the JFH website, and free delivery is available to a list of central VT towns (or they can be shipped to other locations).   Please choose “Capital City Grange” as the fundraiser beneficiary on the Checkout page, and we receive 25% of the sales price, to help us fund improvements!
For more info on COMSA, check out the info on the Equal Exchange website.  You can learn more about the “5 Ms” of soil health that are the basis of the organic approach they take at the cooperatives experimental farm, “La Fortaleza”.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) September 22, 2023

Lullabies on Friday, and a Dance Showcase on Saturday to benefit flood victims!

We’re happy to have our Hall be used for a couple of special arts events, both also designed to bring communities together.
Friday evening: Healing Together, a combination of community art project and a concert of new lullabies created for this event.   This event is free and open to all.  Musicians featured include Mary Bonhag, Evan Premo, Colin McCaffrey, Marianne Donahue Perchlik, David Ruffin and Andric Severance.
Schedule:  the Community Art Project will be worked on from 5:30 to 6:30 PM, and the concert will start at 6:30, with more art work after the concert.
For more info, and to RSVP (which will be appreciated), click here.

Saturday evening:  I Love What You’re Doing, a Dance Showcase will present a medley of works in contemporary Swing, Samba, Theater, Tango and Belly Dance by over 15 brilliant Central Vermont Artists.   Admission is by donation, accepted to benefit the Montpelier Strong Recovery Fund!  This event is sponsored by the Vermont Dance Alliance; there’s more info available here.

But wait, there’s more!

Also happening at our Grange Hall, for the rest of September and parts of October, there are rehearsals for the “Thriller Flash Mob”, a group that has performed on Halloween in Montpelier for several years.   If you want to join, check out the Calendar listing, and email the organizer for the “mob”, Emma Manion to find out how to join in.

I’m happy to publicize all of these events as a great illustration of how important our Hall is to local arts & culture organizations–but you’ll see lots more on our website calendar, of course.

September Grange meeting:  lots to talk about!

1. VT State Grange Annual Session will be held in Middlebury, on Oct. 27 and 28.   Our Grange will send Tim Swartz and Liz Benjamin to this year’s gathering.   One of our prime tasks will be to discuss and improve a dozen proposed resolutions submitted by a variety of Granges from around Vermont.   You can check out the resolutions and send us your input on what’s good or not-so-good about them, to advise us.   A download link for a PDF of them is available on our website, here.
2. We are planning ahead: we’d like to revive the Grange Cooking Contest for the May 2024 meeting.   In the past, we’ve recruited local “Celebrity Judges” to help us evaluate entries.   What we really need is someone to help us publicize this event–which is open to both Grange members and non-members, recruit some judges, and come up with 3 prizes.   I have just checked the State Program Book, and I see that the planned cooking contest is…a dish including 1-2 cups of Cabot Cheese.   For our contest, we will accept other types of cheese, so we can include cooks who can’t eat cow’s milk cheeses.  So consider sheep’s milk, goat’s milk, or plant-based cheeses too!   Start your experiments now…and let us know who will step forward to organize this fun contest.
3. Treasurer’s report:  because we are quite busy with rentals, our bank accounts are–for us–relatively healthy.   We went over the loans we are paying to the State Grange (much appreciated!), and feel pretty confident going into the winter.
4. Hall report:  We have had a first coat of paint on our Original Entrance foyer and stairway by a volunteer–another coat is needed.  There are several other small projects which can be handled by “handy” volunteers–please contact me!   We also discussed our readiness for  heating season (our chimney has been re-pointed, the furnace cleaned and the pellet bin was recently filled).
5. Rental report:  as noted, we are quite busy.   Some of this is meetings and rehearsals that have been displaced from former venues in Montpelier, which is an unfortunate way to gain business.   Merry has worked with various organizations to arrange–in some cases–barter arrangements to help non-profit organizations.   An example is the newly painted bathroom on the main floor, which looks great!
6. Website report:  as described in the previous Grange Notes, the website has experienced several lingering problems which seem to be related to updates to various parts of our website–especially the Calendar.   I have really been struggling to figure out what is going on.  Since I have zero training in website management, this has been very stressful for yours truly.   In August, we were advised by a web-savvy contact to sign up for website hosting and management by WPEngine.com, and decided to do so.   They will take care of routine monitoring and maintenance, including installation of all updates, as well as offering very good Support services.   While it will cost us a few hundred dollars more per year, this should improve the performance of the website, and reduce stress on me considerably.   The Grange meeting approved this decision retroactively, I’m happy to say!  We would still like to find someone who can help manage the content on our website, which has not been renovated since we set it up in 2014.
7. Programs:   we had a good discussion about themes for the bi-monthly public programs we offer on even-numbered months from October to June.   Our lively conversation focused on ways to draw on all of the talented groups that use our Hall, and local non-profits that focus on things like ways to mitigate the flooding that has dominated our summer, and resources for housing issues–which of course have been exacerbated by the flooding and its displacement of renters and homeowners.  I’ll be sending out an announcement about the program for the Oct. 7th Grange meeting soon–stay tuned!
8. Community Service:  see below for our current major project–and see above for examples of how our Hall is a multi-faceted community service project all year ’round.

Handing out gift cards from our Challenge Fundraiser

All of our donors to the Challenge Fundraiser jointly run by the Montpelier Contra Dance and the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall made it possible for the Grange to hand out  gift cards, last Monday evening, to well over half of the 41 families who were flooded out of two mobile home parks in Berlin on July 10th.   Both were located on the banks of the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River.  The homes there have all been condemned, so these folks have suffered really major financial losses–and all of the social losses and disruption that come with the loss of their homes as well.
Our contributions to the families are not large–the $2700 raised for them amounted to a $65 gift card for each family when spread over 41 households–but was very much appreciated.  I gave them out at a meeting organized by the Governor’s office for these residents–and a number of them told me this was actually the first real monetary aid they have gotten.   The meeting was called to discuss the best steps to get State and FEMA aid to these families.  It has evidently already been a slow and painful process for families that have had to take refuge with friends, family members and wherever they can land, spread throughout Central Vermont and beyond.
For a more complete report on the State of Vermont’s efforts to speed up aid–and the limits on that aid–please click on this VT Public report on the meeting.
The remaining families will be able to pick up their gift cards from Corinne Cooper, who was among those flooded out of the Berlin Mobile Home Park, at  her office at the UVM Extension Service at 327 US Rt. 302 (Barre-Montpelier Rd).  Corinne, as I’ve said before, has been a huge help to us by coming up with the list of all the families, and has been working to connect the residents with all sources of aid since the flooding.
The picture shows a home from River Run Manor mobile home park, as of Sept. 19.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) September 12, 2023

We had fun going over the top!

I hope that many of the recipients of these Grange Notes were able to join us at the “Montpelier Contra Dance” Challenge Fundraiser Finale event on Saturday, Sept. 2.    There were around 156 people at the dance, and we got generous contributions from a lot of you to get us past our goal of raising $2500 to match $2500 already pledged by “Challengers”.
Besides the excitement of collecting donations, we also decorated the Hall with many strings of holiday lights (see the photo below), and (at the break in the dance) provided ice cream and fruit popsicles, plus home-made treats from cheddar cheese to gingerbread, to gluten-free brownies for everyone–all of them popular!   Donation buckets by the snacks got filled, and people also bought quite a few of the beautiful houseplants which were grown by Rob Nichols–his last year of taking on the large task of propagating, potting, re-potting, delivering and selling them.   He’s donated all the “profits” from the plants to the fundraiser for years!  And many people stopped by the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall table on the porch, to donate the change from their admission, or drop off a check or send money via Venmo or Paypal in support of the fundraiser.    It all added up!   By the end of the break we had gone over our target, ending up with about $5,300 in total!

Genticorum plays for a crowd of happy dancers

Caller Will Mentor took this picture from behind the band during the dance on Sept. 2.   Band members Yann Falquet, Pascal Gemme and Nicholas Williams (L to R) kept the dancers’ feet moving all evening.  It was fun to decorate the Hall for this special event, too!

Helping our town’s residents after the flood

This year, we decided that only 50% of the money raised will go into the bank account for the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall Inc., our planning and fundraising partner organization.   Your generous contributions will help us to finance future improvements.
But this year, we also really wanted to help people who lived in mobile home parks in the Town of Berlin, where the Hall is located.   The Berlin Mobile Home Park and the River Run Manor Park were both located right next to the Stevens Branch of the Winooski River, and both were hard hit by the July flooding.
We consulted with residents of these parks, especially with the help of Corinne Cooper, one of the people whose home was destroyed in the Berlin Mobile Home Park.  Corinne works for UVM Extension’s Berlin office, and is also quite familiar with the Grange, a connection that made it easy to work with her.  She’s been a regular at our Community Potluck dinners in the past.   She has been helping other families with the recovery process after the floods, since she has knowledge and contacts with VT agencies, legislators, etc. She’s also a former Assistant Town Clerk for Berlin.
Corinne has given us a list of 41 families who owned or rented space in those two mobile home parks. We have ordered 41 Visa Gift Cards to give to these families–it’s not nearly enough to help them recover completely from this major disaster, but we hope it will help them to afford some things to make their lives better.  We believe that they can best decide what they need, and the gift cards give them access to the wide range of things they might need, from groceries to gas to winter boots and school supplies for kids.  We’re pleased we can help, even in small ways.

Grange meetings:  starting up again on Saturday 

• Financial report:   our Grange Calendar has been looking quite full–check it out!  We think that this has been helping our bank balances as we head toward the winter months.  Treasurer Merry Shernock will give us the figures.
• Hall report:  we still have a few loose ends to finish up from our big project–and the new paint and trim show us where we need to take care of some old paint that doesn’t look as good.
• Rental report:  Merry is also our Rental Agent for the Hall.  She’s done a lot of work with families and organizations to help them find the best ways to use our Hall–and she’s encouraged them to get involved as members to help us keep it in good shape, too!  She’ll report on the response.
• State Grange annual session:  every year, Grange members from around the state convene.  This year, for the first time, it will be in Middlebury.   We’ll talk about resolutions that our delegates (who wants to join me for this convention?) will have to vote on.  And we’ll be discussing the possible hosting of the 2024 Annual Session at our own Grange Hall!
• Website management changes:  since all of you reading this have been paying equally close attention to previous editions, you’ll remember that I have reported on several “rough spots” installing updates to our website recently.   I’ve been frantically trying to learn the very basics of being a “webmaster”, in the absence of any volunteers who are able and willing to monitor our site.   Recently, I’ve chosen hire a website maintenance company–come to the meeting to learn more.   I still need some help, brothers and sisters!
• Planning for the Fall programs:  Grange Lecturer Carl Etnier will discuss what his plans are for public programs for the October and December meetings.   And we’ll discuss how to get more people to come.
• Bring your own ideas about how to improve our Grange and our Community Service mission!  We are always open to suggestions, especially from people who want to put in some time and energy to make them happen.   That’s how we’ve taken on sponsoring Kids Trade & Play and Dance, Sing and Jump Around, now well-established at our Hall.   What else can happen at our Hall and in our community that the Grange can help with?

It’s Community Potluck time!

Yes, we’ll be back to monthly potluck dinners following Grange meetings (in odd-numbered months like this one) and the Grange Community Program (in even-numbered months).    Start thinking about what delectable dish you want to bring, to provide extra excitement for the potluck–or what brand of chips’n’salsa you want to grab from the store on your way over.
We’ll be holding our potlucks in the Lower Level, now accessible for ALL thanks to the wheelchair/platform lift!   We have all the dishes we’ll need in our cabinets, plus we have lots of serving utensils, so just bring your food to share, and your appetite, and join us for a tasty and social meal!

Thanks for the help at the State Grange Center

We provided an enjoyable introduction to social dancing for the VT State Grange members who stayed for the evening meal and entertainment after the VSG’s “Fall Festival” on Saturday, Sept. 9.   Our Grange is known for having a lot of fun dancing happening, so were asked to provide the entertainment, for the first time since before the pandemic.
Calling for the dance was provided by Liz Benjamin, who is also the caller for the kids & family dance series sponsored by and held at our Grange in the winter months:  Dance, Sing and Jump Around.   She called simple dances, suited to the inexperienced folks who were there.   Music was provided by fiddler Susan Reid, a fixture in the Montpelier music scene who also grew up in Randolph and Brookfield, where the State Grange center is located.  She invited Doug Lapoint (fiddle and mandolin) and Mike Fiorillo (guitar), and they played great dance music for several round and line dances, plus a waltz.   Merry Shernock and I were there to provide more experienced partners, along with Doug & Mike’s spouses.   It was a small dance, but enjoyable!
Thanks so much to the people who helped make this happen–it means a lot to the State Grange, which has been a major supporter for our Grange over the years.
P.S.:  I set up our Champlain Valley Fair display with other Granges’ exhibits for the Fall Festival, and we earned a First place blue ribbon this time–a step up from the Second place red ribbon we got at the fair.    I’ll be bringing the Grange Hall model made by Alison Forrest to our Hall, for all to see.