Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), August 7, 2019

Good news about our grant!  VT Arts Council says YES!

A couple of us had a hard time keeping quiet at the Grange cook-out/picnic on Saturday, as we had just gotten the news.   But the Arts Council asked us to keep it private until the public announcement on Tuesday.
The grant proposal we submitted at the end of April has been approved!  Our project to improve the basement level of our Grange Hall, which we called the “Second Stage” project in the grant application, will be a major upgrade for an under-utilized part of our Grange Hall.  A major component is the improvements to indoor air quality, eliminating the moisture and mildew we now have.
The Second Stage project was designed and by the “Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall”, or FCCGH.   As many of you know, the FCCGH, which is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, was organized in 2011, as a way for the people who love the Grange Hall to help improve the physical plant, by helping with improvements, applying for grants, and allowing contributors the opportunity to get tax deductions.  The Friends work closely with the Grange and those who use it to make strategic improvements which will enhance the functioning of the Hall, and make it even more usable as a community resource.
In this case, we saw a “missing link” in our building–except for the bathrooms, rebuilt in 2015 through another FCCGH project–the basement level has remained largely as it did when it was built in 1953.  Poured concrete walls, uninsulated, let out the heat in the winter, and remain chilly in the summer.   Largely unventilated, the cold basement walls create condensation in the summer months, leading to a musty smell and mildew on the walls.   Occasional leakage through the foundation puts liquid water on the floor when large rainstorms happen–in both winter and summer.  This leads to paint failure on the floor, as well as even more humidity.  All in all, it’s been hard to get excited about holding events downstairs.  
So, we came up with plans, starting a couple of years ago.   We applied for a grant for a similar project in 2018, but were not funded–but the Arts Council told us they liked the project, but did not have the budget that year–they encouraged us to apply again.   So we did!  We emphasized the potential for arts uses in the renovated lower level, and did a better job presenting the benefits to the whole Hall–and it paid off! 
Here’s a link to the Arts Council press release announcing the grants.  We very much appreciate their support in helping us improve our air quality and the habitability of the lower level!

So what is the project? 

In a nutshell, we will insulate and upgrade the whole downstairs, ending up with a warmer, more cleanable and flexible space that will be welcoming and comfortable for a wide range of events.  Here are the specifics: 

1. Insulation of the rim joists above the dropped ceiling with foam will seal air leaks as well as providing about R13 insulation, around the whole basement.
2. Insulation of the poured concrete walls with foam panels, with framing for finish panels to attach.  The only wall area we won’t insulate now is in the kitchen, which will be a future project.  About R13 insulation value, this will isolate the concrete walls so they don’t suck heat from the interior space, and cause condensation and mildew.
3. Wall panels will cover the foam panels–“Fiberglass Reinforced Panels” or FRPs on top of 5/8″ fire-code sheetrock.   Light colored, cleanable, durable surfaces will make the whole downstairs welcoming and attractive. 
4. Interior drainage will direct any leaks through the walls into an interior sump with automatic sump pump which will pump any water to an exterior drain.
5. Commercial dehumidifier will keep the air in the whole basement dry, draining to the same sump and drain.
6. New electric receptacles on the exterior walls will allow people to charge devices and plug in equipment like projectors for training sessions.
7. New carpet tiles on the entire floor, except the kitchen and bathrooms, will make for a warmer and more attractive floor.  Tiles allow selective replacement in high-traffic areas.
8. New ceiling tiles in the dropped ceiling will replace the dingy, damaged panels we now have.
9. Stairwell improvements will include insulated walls and new panels, plus new, commercial carpet runners and landing, helping to remove outdoor dirt and rain water before it gets tracked into the rest of the Hall.
10. Small events space will be available in the “alcove” between the kitchen and the rear fire exit stairway.  We plan to provide performance and meeting space for groups who don’t want to use the large upstairs Hall.    This will provide the “Second Stage” of the grant title.

The whole project will cost about $54,000; the grant will cover half of the cost.  The Friends have raised over $22,000, and the Capital City Grange has pledged $5,000 for this project.   The Friends annual “Challenge Match Fun-raiser” will take place in September, culminating in a celebratory dance on October 5th.   In past years, this has raised $3-4,000, as Grange community members put in their “buckage” to match a “Challenge” amount raised from especially generous individuals who pledge $100 or more each.  The Friends can’t do this great work without the contributions from many people!

The whole project will cost about $54,000; the grant will cover half of the cost.  The Friends have raised over $22,000, and the Capital City Grange has pledged $5,000 for this project.   The Friends annual “Challenge Match Fun-raiser” will take place in September, culminating in a celebratory dance on October 5th.   In past years, this has raised $3-4,000, as Grange community members put in their “buckage” to match a “Challenge” amount raised from especially generous individuals who pledge $100 or more each.  The Friends can’t do this great work without the contributions from many people!

What happens next?

The Friends will be meeting to plan an exact timetable.   In general, we hope to get the interior drain and stairwell insulation done before the end of the year, with the remainder of the work done in early 2020.
Since the grant money will not be given to us until after the successful completion of the project, we will be asking the VT State Grange for a “construction bridge loan” so we can pay our contractors and suppliers in a timely manner.  The VSG has been very generous in helping us with past projects in this way.  We have paid them back on schedule, so we are very hopeful they will help us out again.
We will be asking for volunteer help for parts of the project, part of the “in-kind” matching of the grant funds.   Things like removal of the dropped ceiling around the edges, replacing ceiling tiles, painting, and other tasks can be done by people who want to be part of the improvement projects.  We’ll spread the word when we firm up the plans.   One of our goals is to disrupt the scheduled uses of the Grange Hall as little as possible.
In the end, we expect to have a comfortable, good-looking and easy to maintain space downstairs, to go along with our beautiful upstairs Hall.  Once again, we thank everyone who has contributed time to all the projects to maintain and improve our Grange Hall, as well as those who have contributed financially.

Picnic time at the Grange

Summertime cookout at the Grange fills up a crowd

We had a great turnout–somewhere around 40 people–and a great variety of summertime food at our August 3rd Grange picnic.  Lead organizer and head chef Alison Forrest, who doubles as Grange Chaplain, put together donations and food she purchased to make a great basic menu, and then the rest of the attendees filled up a couple more tables of side dishes.  The photos above only show a few of the facets of the prep-work, main dishes and potluck donations which made our tables groan under the strain.
And the photos don’t show the many conversations which took place across the tables as people shared food, summer stories and Grange connections.  People didn’t just eat and run, they lingered to talk together–which was one of the goals of this event!   Granges are all about making connections among community members, and strengthening the bonds.   What’s better than building those bonds over fresh and tasty food?

Regular Grange meetings will start up again in September, on the third Saturday, Sept. 21st.  I’m shifting the meeting from the first Saturday because the VT State Grange is having its Fall Festival on Sept. 7th–and will be holding their own contra dance that evening, at the Grange Center in Brookfield!  I’m hoping some Capital City Grange dancers will join me to dance with the State Grange members, at the VT State Grange summer camp, in Brookfield on Sept. 7th.  Get in touch with me if you can join us.
But let’s not think about the end of summer just yet–join us to celebrate the warm weather while it lasts. 

Many thanks to our donors!

We couldn’t have put on this great spread without generous donations.   Great appreciation (in the form of great consumption) was expressed for:

We couldn’t have put on this great spread without generous donations.   Great appreciation (in the form of great consumption) was expressed for:

• Lewis Creek Farm/Hank Bissell for potatoes, beans and cucumbers
• Burnt Rock Farms for tomatoes.
• O Bread Bakery, who made special burger buns from brioche dough, and dinner rolls from baguette dough.
• An anonymous Grange member who donated money for ice cream, because how could it be a summer picnic without ice cream?
• Alison Forrest, who solicited the vegetables, made potato salad, cucumber salad, bean salad–and sliced tomatoes for burgers and general consumption, plus bringing ice cream cones and many other supplies!  She also cooked burgers & dogs on the charcoal grill, supervised helpers and bought the burgers, dogs and other vegetables and ingredients.
• Grange member Charles Mayhood, who helped cut up a lot of the vegetables, during prep & setup time, plus helping to set up tables and chairs.
• Stan Carlson, who showed up early to help with set-up, and then stayed to help with clean-up, along with Ann Pearce.
• Patty Giavara, Grange member and FCCGH chair, who brought a gas grill and flipped veggie-burgers as well as everything else.
• And the many guests who helped with cleanup, as well as bringing more tasty dishes, from deviled eggs to coconut brownies–we had so much good food!

Kids Trade and Play:  This Saturday!

After taking a month off in July, CCG’s monthly clothing and gear exchange for kids–not to mention social exchange for parents–picks back up this Saturday, August 10th, from 9:30 to 11:30 AM.  Before the opening, lead organizer Erin Barry and her volunteer crew will have sorted the large amount of clean, ready-to-wear clothing for kids, infant to Junior size, plus shoes, into bins covering all the cafeteria tables, and will have literally hundreds of toys set out.   Families can take anything they want!   Snacks, coffee and information about local support services for families are also provided.
Erin charges $3.00 per family to cover overhead costs, but no one is turned away.   This is also the only time when donations are welcomed–there will be volunteers to sort and store them.  Please don’t leave donations at the Grange otherwise!   If you have questions about donating or anything else, contact Erin at birthsinnerlight@yahoo.com.

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), July 31, 2019

Join us for a tasty summer dinner on Saturday

It’s time for some mid-summer socializing…and eating!   Granges have been noted for enjoying food together for as long as they have been around…and we are pleased to be part of that tradition!   Our Midsummer Cookout Potluck Dinner will start at 5:30 PM, Saturday August 3rd.
We’re taking our usual Community Potluck to the next level this month–we’re providing the main course and dessert!  We’ve gotten some generous donations already, and we’ll happily accept some more, but come and join us in any case! 
The Grange will buy some burgers–meat and veggie-burgers and some kind of dogs.  O Bread bakery is making us hamburger buns on Friday.  We’ve gotten a generous donation from a Grange member who wants to remain anonymous, so we can get some good ice cream!  A farmer friend of Alison Forrest, our head cook, is donating some tomatoes and cucumbers.   Alison is planning to make a big potato salad and a big tomato salad!   We ask everyone to bring some side-dishes:  more salads, chips, dips, vegetables, popsicles, non-dairy frozen treats?   Bring your favorites to share!  We have freezer space to keep things cold until it’s time to consume them.
We’ll have a couple of grills, and we’ll supply as usual we can supply all the dishes, silverware, serving spoons, etc.   We  hope you will join us for a sociable evening. 
While Grange food expert Alison Forrest is our overall grill-meister, she also  needs a few volunteers to prep food and to help flip the burgers, grill veggies, etc. , starting around 4:00 on Saturday.  Please contact her via email, or reply to me (Tim), or call me:   802-225-8921, to sign up.  There’s a picture of her in action at a previous cookout, below.

Regular Grange meetings will start up again in September, on the third Saturday, Sept. 21st.  I’m shifting the meeting from the first Saturday because the VT State Grange is having its Fall Festival on Sept. 7th–and will be holding their own contra dance that evening!  I’m hoping some Capital City Grange dancers will join me to dance with the State Grange members, at the VT State Grange summer camp, in Brookfield on Sept. 7th.  Get in touch with me if you can join us.
But let’s not think about the end of summer just yet–join us to celebrate the warm weather while it lasts.  If we get an update on our grant proposal, we’ll certainly want to celebrate that as well on August 3rd!

Reprinted:  June 10th:  community service by U-32 helps our sign keep its footing

When I sent out this article in the last Grange Notes, I had misplaced my list of the U-32 volunteers, so I’m adding them in this version.  My apologies for the delayed attribution!
We were lucky to have volunteers from the U-32 High School “Senior Community Service” day come to our Grange Hall to help us with a project.   As you can see in the photos above, 3 seniors (Addie Hannah, Katerina Wood & Jess Colnes) plus a driver/leader (Kit Walker) pitched in on a project that needed to be done:  the footing of the Grange sign closer to Rt. 12 has been getting exposed by erosion–runoff from the driveway, plus from the roadway has been exposing more and more of it.   It’s important to keep the footing buried to reduce the chance of frost heaving.
So I asked for help to move some large rocks, left over from the flower-bed project by the “new” Main Entrance.   The students and I lifted them into the back of my tiny Yaris “truck” and ferried them down to the sign.  We piled them around the footing, to resist the erosion by rushing water, reinforcing them with other stones and covering it over with dirt, to divert the water around the footing.   This was purely “seat of the pants” engineering, so I’ve  been keeping an eye on it as the summer rains continue–thus far it is holding up well.
After that, they helped with one more chore, cleaning out the dirt from the silt-trap set up by Grange super-volunteer Lewis Neill, when he single-handedly replaced the culvert under the top of the driveway.   The trap keeps dirt from washing in and blocking up the culvert, so it’s important to keep cleaning out the accumulated silt.
Many thanks to the volunteers, and we hope this experience encourages them to find enjoyment in service work throughout their lives!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), July 15, 2019

Grange cook-out coming in August!

The Grange won’t hold a “regular” meeting in August–but we’ll get together for an outdoor barbecue and potluck/cookout dinner on the first Saturday. August 3rd.
The Grange will buy some burgers–meat and veggie-burgers, some kind of dogs, plus buns, and we’ll be happy get donations to help offset the cost. We ask everyone to bring some side-dishes: salads, chips, dips, ice cream, popsicles, non-dairy frozen treats? Bring your favorites to share! We have freezer space to keep things cold until it’s time to consume them.
We’ll have a couple of grills, and we’ll supply as usual we can supply all the dishes, silverware, serving spoons, etc. We hope you will join us for a sociable evening.
Grange food expert Alison Forrest is our overall grill-meister–but she needs a few volunteers to prep food and to help flip the burgers, grill veggies, etc. Please contact her via email, or reply to me (Tim), or call me: 802-225-8921, to sign up. There’s a picture of her in action at a previous cookout, below.
Regular Grange meetings will start up again in September, on the first Saturday, Sept. 7th. This will be the weekend after Labor Day weekend, due to this year’s vagaries of the calendar.
But let’s not think about the end of summer just yet–join us to celebrate the warm weather while it lasts. If we are lucky, we’ll have some good news to celebrate too–see below!

Why we’re eager for August…besides the cookout

The attentive reader of the Grange Notes–I know you are out there!–will remember that this spring, the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall, aka the FCCGH, applied for another grant from the VT Arts Council.  We expect to hear from the Arts Council in early August, about whether we will get a grant in this year’s cycle.
This grant proposal is for a set of major improvements to the lower level of the Grange Hall–we have been calling it “Taking it to the Next Level”.   The picture below shows one of our motivations:  a recent example of one of the leaks in the foundation wall, on June 7th of this year.   In addition to liquid water on the floor, which has sometimes covered 1/3 to 1/2 of the floor, the basement is cold and damp–besides being uncomfortably hard to heat in the winter, it’s been prone to mildew.  The concrete walls and floors, and the tired, old ceiling tiles are less-than-attractive.  
So–our remodeling proposal includes:

• Interior drain on the east, long wall, draining to a sump with automatic drain pump.
• Insulation on the inside of the walls, on the east, north and west walls (except the kitchen), in the furnace room, and in the stairwells.
• Foam insulation where the joists sit on top of the concrete walls.
• New wall surfaces on the inside of all the newly insulated walls, with 5/8″ firecode sheetrock and light-colored, durable and easily cleaned fiberglass-reinforced-panels.
• New carpet tiles on the floor, which will give a little insulation over the concrete, as well as looking a lot better than the peeling paint.
• New ceiling tiles everywhere except the bathrooms, which already have them.
• Commercial grade dehumidifier which will keep the air much drier, to eliminate mildew.

These changes will greatly increase the attractiveness of the lower level, as well as providing significant savings in heating costs.   Having the concrete walls outside the insulation will mean that the lower level can be heated to comfortable levels much faster in the winter.  Cleanable, attractive surfaces will be easier to maintain.  Drier air will get rid of the smell of mildew.

So–keep your fingers crossed!   We expect to hear from the Arts Council, which administers the Facilities Improvement grants, by early August–maybe before the cookout on August 3rd!  

These changes will greatly increase the attractiveness of the lower level, as well as providing significant savings in heating costs.   Having the concrete walls outside the insulation will mean that the lower level can be heated to comfortable levels much faster in the winter.  Cleanable, attractive surfaces will be easier to maintain.  Drier air will get rid of the smell of mildew.

So–keep your fingers crossed!   We expect to hear from the Arts Council, which administers the Facilities Improvement grants, by early August–maybe before the cookout on August 3rd!  

Grants & the Grange

As with our previous major renovation projects, grants have been a major help for the Grange, covering 50% of the cost of these improvements:
2008:  building a new, accessible main entrance, including a ramp for people needing it, on the Northeast corner of the building, as well as installing an ADA-compatible bathroom on the main floor, and a modern upgrade of the electrical service entrance.  (Arts Council grant)
2010:  replacing all the fluorescent fixtures in the basement with modern, energy efficiency ones.  (Efficiency VT rebate program”)
2012:  replacing our dance floor, which had been worn through by dancing and other uses, plus replacing all the remaining old single-pane windows upstairs and downstairs with double-pane insulated windows.  (Recreational Facilities Grant)
2014/15:  Rebuilding our basement emergency exit & stairs to meet the Fire Code, and replacing our decrepit downstairs bathrooms and their drain plumbing with 4 new gender-free stalls and shared sinks, plus another ADA bathroom.  We also installed water fountains & a bottle filler outside the Main Hall.  (Arts Council grant)
Through these 4 projects, we have invested over $121,000 in the Grange Hall, with about 1/2 of that amount provided by grants and rebates.
Most of the remainder of the costs has been donated by generous members of the Grange Community.  
NOTE:  I’ve been asked when this year’s fundraiser for the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall will happen.   The Contra Dance Umbrella sponsors this every year–and this year the culmination will be at the dance on October 5th!  The festive dance will feature a potluck dessert, plus a tote-board to display the progress to meeting the goal.   Stay tuned for more details!
Stay tuned for the decision by the Arts Council!

June 10th:  community service by U-32 helps our sign keep its footing

We were lucky to have volunteers from the U-32 High School “Senior Community Service” day come to our Grange Hall to help us with a project.   As you can see in the photos above, 3 seniors plus a driver/leader pitched in on a project that needed to be done:  the footing of the Grange sign closer to Rt. 12 has been getting exposed by erosion–runoff from the driveway, plus from the roadway has been exposing more and more of it.   It’s important to keep the footing buried to reduce the chance of frost heaving.
So I asked for help to move some large rocks, left over from the flower-bed project by the “new” Main Entrance.   The students and I lifted them into the back of my tiny Yaris “truck” and ferried them down to the sign.  We piled them around the footing, to resist the erosion by rushing water, reinforcing them with other stones and covering it over with dirt.   This is purely “seat of the pants” engineering, so we’ll be keeping an eye on it as the summer rains continue–thus far it is holding up well.
After that, they helped with one more chore, cleaning out the dirt from the silt-trap set up by Grange super-volunteer Lewis Neill, when he single-handedly replaced the culvert under the top of the driveway.   The trap keeps dirt from washing in and blocking up the culvert, so it’s important to keep cleaning out the accumulated silt.
Many thanks to the volunteers, and we hope this experience encourages them to find enjoyment in service work throughout their lives!

We Love a parade…

Especially one that features one of the largest groups that call the Grange Hall “home”!
Congratulations to the Contra Dance Umbrella, which put together a great display of street-contra-dancing, with extremely “live” music from Pete’s Posse.   The musicians:  Oliver Scanlon, Pete Sutherland and Tristan Henderson, and dance-caller Dana Dwinell-Yardley used wireless microphones, which allowed the musicians and caller to perform while walking.   The 30 or so dancers, garnered from the ranks of the CDU plus a few “dance-ons” from the crowd along the way did a lot of “promenade forward” to keep up with the truck, driven by the CDU’s Thomas Weiss. 
The dancers were dancing all the way, about 3/4 of a mile, and smiled the whole way.
We learned later that the CDU’s parade entry came in 5th in the voting!  Thanks to all the contra-dance and Grange supporters who voted in the on-line tally.
Thanks also to the Parade Committee members and the volunteers who helped decorate the truck.   Jody Pettersen, Thomas Weiss and Merry Shernock recruited, organized and made the banners, Thomas and I decorated the truck, which was loaned by Duncan Robb, and Ceile Kronick controlled the sound!

Congratulations to another Grange-based organization, the BarreTones acapella Women’s Chorus & Quartets, which also marched in the parade.   This year is their 50th anniversary!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), June 9, 2019

Updating our walls with panels ‘n’ art

We had a somewhat sparsely attended, but very productive work party on Sunday, June 2nd.   With just 5 of us, we assembled and hung 20 panels!   It was an efficient crew.  A few photos above show the crew in action:  Patty Giavara, Kurt Giavara, Stan Carlson, Merry Shernock & Tim Swartz.  The photos above show some views of the assembly process, from putting in the batts, to cutting fabric, to wrapping it around the panels.   Then there are a couple showing how we hung the panels on the wall with “french cleats”, and Kurt on the “Little Giant” ladder while Stan & I help out.
The “stitched” panorama photo below makes it look as if the wall opposite the stage is curved…but it’s the best I could do to show how we have more than doubled the square feet of acoustically absorbent surface on the walls.  We put together:  14 panels 2′ x 4′, plus 4 panels 17-1/2″ x 41″ (these fit above the windows).  We hung all of these, plus a couple more 2′ x 4′ left over from our previous assembly party.  We’re eager to hear from Hall users if they can hear a difference in the level of reverberation which has been a problem in the past.
Adding these panels also made necessary some re-arrangement of the great variety of art which we have been exhibiting on the walls of the Hall.   Attentive readers will remember that we are showing off the art collected by Berlin Elementary Art Teacher Lynn Spencer from her classes’ work over many years.  Merry and I re-hung all of the art around the new panels–gives us all a new perspective!
We have 10 more panel frames to fill with acoustic-absorbing rock-wool, wrap with fabric and hang–watch for a quick work-day coming soon, date TBD.   Are you sorry you missed the event on June 2?   Let me know when you can come to the next one, and we’ll work out the best time for the most people.  

June 10th:  rocking the Hall clean-up, with earth-moving too.

We will be getting the benefit of a “Senior Community Service Day” on Monday, June 10th.  This is an annual event run by students from the U-32 high school, which includes students from Berlin, our home town.  We are now confirmed to have 3 students help us from 10:00 AM to Noon.
The project I’d like them to help with is some re-grading and reinforcement of the area around the footings of the Grange sign, which have been eroding from driveway and road run-off.    We have a nice pile of rocks left over from our flower-bed construction last year.   I plan to have the students help me move the rocks (with my Toyota Yaris “truck” and my wheelbarrow) to form the foundation of some water diversion around the footing.   We also are ready to have some weed-whacking done around the Hall–Merry and I can loan our electric weed-wacker.  And there is more winter clean-up work available outside, as well as windows to clean and screens to vacuum inside.  No shortage of projects, in other words!
Would you like to join us?  As a mostly-retired person, I will have time to be the overall supervisor…but I’d love to have some other Grange friends join me!  It’s an opportunity to leverage some extra help to make our Hall better looking and cleaner.   Please contact me, Tim Swartz via email or phone:  802-225-8921 if you can help us out!

Summer time is finally here…and we’ll have a cook-out to celebrate, on Aug. 3rd.

We held our final meeting of the spring season on Saturday, June 1st, and had just enough people to make a quorum at first–the weather is finally getting good!   We had a vigorous sing-along after the meeting, with songs ranging from “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” to “It’s a Small World”.   We followed that with another tasty potluck dinner.  
In the week since, we’ve dipped back into cool & cloudy–and emerged into hot & sunny for several days in a row!  We all hope that this means really sunny & warm weather is here to (mostly) stay for a while.
But as we all know, Vermont summers are short.  So we are planning ahead.  We won’t hold a “regular” meeting in July or August–but we’ll get together for an outdoor barbecue and potluck/cookout dinner on the first Saturday of August.   We’ll have a couple of grills, and as usual we can supply all the dishes, silverware, serving spoons, etc.   We  hope you will join us for a sociable evening.  Want to bring some ice cream, popsicles, non-dairy frozen treats?  We have freezer space!
Regular meetings will start up again in September, on the 3rd Saturday, Sept. 15th.  The first Saturday is Labor Day Weekend, so we know people will be busy with other activities.
But let’s not think about the end of summer just yet–enjoy the nice weather while it is here!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), May 30, 2019

Sing…sing a song…

Many of us enjoy singing, and lots of us (like me) are best heard as part of a crowd.   We will follow our monthly Grange business meeting with a sing-a-long, with the aid of our Grange Musician, Mat Nunnelly, on the piano, and the enthusiastic singers of the Grange.   Every meeting includes at least and Opening and Closing song, and we’re going to add to that with a more wide-ranging opportunity to exercise our vocal chords.   The two songsters in the photo above are taking full advantage of their natural gifts, and we hope you will too!   Our meeting runs from 4:15 to about 5:30, and will be followed by a solid half-hour of singing, and then by our…
Community Potluck, at 6:00 PM.   The potluck dinner is, like the meeting and the sing-a-long, open to everyone, as the name suggests!   We share the variety of foods that show up–everything from breads to soups to salads to meats, to vegetarian dishes, to drinks, to brownies or cupcakes or…whatever you bring!   You need to eat something for dinner, why not make it a social occasion?  

Help us put more acoustic panels together–Sunday June 2nd, 2:00 to 5:00

On our last work-party day in February, a great crew of volunteers helped us stuff acoustic batts into pre-built frames, wrap and staple acoustic fabric around the frames, attach hanging strips, and mount them on the end-wall of the Main Hall.
We’re ready to take the next steps–we will have 28 more panels ready to complete and hang by this weekend, so we’re asking for some more help. 
We’ll provide some staplers, fabric scissors and rolling knives, drills, gloves, etc.   
Panels will be mounted above the windows, and between some of them to see how much improvement we can make, without creating a “dead” sound.  The first 18 panels made a noticeable, but insufficient difference–we were encouraged to keep expanding the area.  This batch will more than double the acoustically absorbent panel area. 
We’re looking for people to bring their interest in improving our Hall, and their willingness to pitch in.  Please contact Tim to let us know you are coming, so we can plan for the number of volunteers.  Let us know if there is something in particular you want to help with–we’ll figure out how to allocate the volunteers to get the jobs done.

Panel materials are ready to go!

Yesterday, May 29th, the acoustic batts (Roxul AFB in the picture) were finally delivered, Kurt and I completed making the panel frames and delivered them, and I brought the acoustic fabric (the wrapped roll in the center) to the Hall as well.   So we’re ready for the work-party!  Hope we’ll see you there!

Lost and Found–now found in a new location

Due to the success of the “Kids Trade & Play” clothing exchange, the original location of the Lost & Found shelf has been severely squeezed.  CDU member Thomas Weiss, who has maintained the L&F system for the Grange and the dance community for years has been working with Grange Rental Agent Merry Shernock to pick a new spot; now the shelf has been re-established in a new place in the kitchen.   If you leave something behind, please check there! Also: seeking a painter to improve the aesthetics! The Grange would like to paint the wooden shelf and the surrounding walls to make this alcove stand out.   It’s a great opportunity to support the dance and the Grange Hall–please contact Merry:  rentals@capitalcitygrange.org if you can help out with a couple of hours.  We’ll provide the paint & brushes & cleaning supplies!

June 10th:  Getting some “Community Service” clean-up help–from U-32 students

A few weeks ago, Front Porch Forum brought a notice that seniors from the U-32 High School–the union district that includes Berlin and other towns around Montpelier–would be offering community service work to local people and non-profit organizations, on Monday, June 10th.  Prompted by Merry, I asked if the Grange could benefit, and then met with 2 student organizers.  Our plans include outdoor clean-up–flower-beds, raking, perhaps improving the water drainage around the sign footings–possibly painting the new Lost & Found area (see above).  Indoor work could include window and screen cleaning. Schedule (to be confirmed) is probably about 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM.
Would you like to join us?  As a mostly-retired person, I will have time to be the overall supervisor…but I’d love to have some other Grange friends join me!  It’s an opportunity to leverage some extra help to make our Hall better looking and cleaner.   Please contact me, Tim Swartz via email or phone:  802-225-8921 if you can help us out!

And don’t forget Kids Trade & Play!  
Coming up again on June 8th!

The popular monthly clothing & toy exchange for kids and families happens on the 2nd Saturday of every month, all year ’round.   Organizer Erin Barry & her crew of volunteers do a great job putting out the tubs of kids’ clothes, shoes, etc. on the cafeteria tables downstairs, and putting it all away afterwards.  Erin usually bakes scones, and Merry makes coffee & tea for everyone.   Merry also makes available information about resources for families, and gives away gun-locks for free.   This month, I’ll be substituting for her, as she will be staffing a Wear Orange table at the Montpelier Farmers’ Market.