Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help) June 8, 2023
Starting off with a head-start–and a clear view!
When the volunteer crew arrived on Saturday, they found two tasks already completed: clean windows and a clean refrigerator!
Patty Covey, a member of the Montpelier Church of Christ has worked on the window-cleaning (including screens!) over the last couple of weeks, so there was lots of light coming in, the sills were all vacuumed, and one of the big jobs all done! Many thanks!
And Erin Barry had cleaned out the refrigerator in the kitchen beforehand also, since she had a scheduling conflict with the day we chose. She’ll be back at the Hall to set up and run the Kids Trade & Play event in a few days–see below!
Many thanks to our large crew of volunteer cleaners!
This is also a good place to acknowledge the gift of 4 small lilac “trees”, which were donated by Lewis and Maudean Neill. They’re planted in the far eastern corner of the parking lot, where they’ll get plenty of light. And they’ll need watering too!
The Fan Club
Next, some pictures of how the window fans were taken from very dusty to clean. These get used to blow air into the Hall during contra dances and other events. As you’ll see, they get pretty dirty! In the pictures, you can see Patty Giavara, Carl Etnier and Matt Nunnelly taking them apart, cleaning them and putting them back together. The people photos are bracketed by before (yuk) and after (nice & clean) pictures.
Bathroom and kitchen cleaning!
Various people pitched in to get the bathrooms clean–even behind the toilets–plus the mirrors, the sinks, kitchen stoves, etc. You can see Merry Shernock attacking dirt behind a toilet, Alison Forrest with vlosartiC, and Carl Etnier, Stan Carlson and Bill Meckel taking on the kitchen. Bill also cleaned both ovens!
Bill and Stan also cleaned the ceiling fans, and all the light globes upstairs!
More work in the Hall–catching up with the dust
After the globes and fan were cleaned, Jody Pettersen vacuumed up the dust from the mats, and then tackled the chair carts and the mat cart! I’m pretty sure no one has done that since the carts were built in 2008 and 2014 respectively. She also vacuumed the stage floor and the floor under the stage, and vacuumed the Dance Closet too!
Not shown are Dan Jones and Alison cleaning the insides of the Lower Level windows, Alison cleaning the trim and walls in the Original Entrance foyer. Merry took the curtains from the Main Hall windows home to wash, too!
More outdoor work!
Stan Carlson cut down a dead ash tree by the driveway, Kurt Giavara re-attached some sills on basement windows–and Patty Giavara removed the ugly splatter left by a snowplow on our beautiful Grange sign!
The good news: a good turn-out of experienced volunteers
The not-so-good news: only a couple of new faces
We really appreciate the hard-working people who show up regularly at our “project days”–and their combined experience helps the work go really smoothly! We were glad to get a couple of new folks joining the crew; by all reports they were fun to work with and really pitched in–shout out to Bill and Dan. And as usual, almost all the cleanup-day work crew came from the contra dance community–a really supportive part of the Grange “family”, as well as being our single largest group of Hall users. Kudos to them!
We do really wish we could see a few more people from the other groups who regularly rent the Grange Hall. All of the many hours of volunteer work that keep this place running make it possible for our rental rates to be low, compared other venues. And projects like this clean-up make it more pleasant and attractive for everyone who uses the Hall. Those of us who put in a lot of time do it because we think the Hall is a valuable resource. We’re all happy to see it busy–but it won’t keep going forever unless new people step up to take part in work days like this. We also need more folks to help with regular maintenance tasks, the website, and many other parts of our operation. None of us long-time volunteers are getting any younger, either!
I will continue to publicize volunteer opportunities, and hope to meet some new, eager people who want to pitch in. It’s a lot of fun to be part of the “backstage crew”–when we have enough help. You can always reach me to find out more about the work that needs doing, at: swartztim15@gmail.com.
After the clean-up: singing and eating!
Grange members and our Grange Hall friends always like both of these activities. There was room for more folks at both the Sing-Along (led from the piano by Grange Musician Matt Nunnelly) and the Community Potluck that followed. I’m sorry I wasn’t able to be part of these activities–there was clearly lots of food at the potluck! The photos below show the leftovers, some of which were packaged up by Alison Forrest. I heard that the Rhubarb Crumble made by Grange Secretary Charles Mayhood was especially wonderful!
Our next potluck: August 5th
Mark your calendars
We won’t have a regular meeting or potluck on the next “First Saturday”, since it will be July 1st, part of the holiday weekend. So we’re planning an outdoor Barbecue/Potluck for the beginning of August. We’ll have a gas grill and a charcoal grill, and hope we’ll see you there with something tasty to cook there, or already made. More details to come!
Coming back this Saturday, June 10!
After skipping the 2nd Saturday in May to allow the volunteers a little break, our Grange’s monthly kids clothing exchange is back at its usual time this Saturday. Organizer Erin Barry and her hard-working crew will set up the 50 or 60 bins of sorted, clean, un-ripped and un-stained clothing for kids from newborn to Junior 12 size. as well as women’s clothes! We’ll be accepting donations of equally nice clothing, which your kids have outgrown and are ready to pass on. Erin’s especially looking for summer clothes this time, for obvious reasons. We usually get around 100 adults and kids in the 2-hour-long event and we hope you’ll come and take advantage. We ask for a $3 donation per family–but no one is ever turned away. Take as much as you can use! Keep up with all the news from Erin and her crew on their Facebook Page.
Finishing touches: new concrete!
We’re pleased to be getting to the last bits of the wheelchair lift and foyer project, with the replacement of the concrete slab at the bottom of the entrance ramp. The original slab had dropped a few inches at the back edge, where it joined the building’s foundation, and no longer met ADA guidelines for an accessible entrance, so replacing it was included in the scope of work for our project.
Within the next week, we expect to get the Fire Marshal (who also checks compliance with ADA requirements) to inspect and certify that we’ve followed the plans and codes in our project.
Just Food Hub: your chance to get delicious products from the Congo Coffee Project
It’s been a while since I highlighted Just Food Hub, the very local anti-profit organization that sells fair-trade food items, and donates to local community service groups–including the Grange! Order from them using this special link to their website, and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to us! You can also find much more information about them.
Also, for every bag of Organic Congo Coffee purchased, Equal Exchange donates $1 to the Panzi Foundation to support survivors of sexual violence in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo–raising over $100,000 so far! Donations fund infrastructure development at the Panzi Bulenga Clinic in South Kivu, and also vocational training where women learn skills that help foster financial independence and stability. Congolese farmer cooperatives grow these beans in eastern Congo, where the combination of rich volcanic soil and high altitudes allow the coffee cherries to mature slowly, leading to incredible sweetness.
The Grange is honored to be the beneficiary of donations from Just Food Hub, which distributes fairly-traded Equal Exchange products from small farmers like these.