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!
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.
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 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.