Challenge by the FCCGH: coming to an end on Saturday!
and there will be dessert!
and there will be dessert!
Please join the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall for the culmination of this year’s “challenge fundraiser” on Saturday, Sept. 3rd. Once again this year, generous supporters have pledged $1,500 in donations, and have challenged the rest of the dance and Grange community to match that amount. The CDU dance, featuring Nils Fredland and Nova will celebrate the end of the challenge–no extra admission cost, just an appeal for support for the Grange Hall. Bring some extra bills–or donate anytime via Paypal at the Grange website: https://www.capitalcitygrange.
Another special attraction at the dance on Saturday: Dana Dwinell-Yardley is organizing a “dessert potluck”–bring your favorite goodies (sweet like cookies? savory like roasted nuts? filling like cake? whatever you specially like will be appreciated!) and share them at the break in the dance.
Reliable supporter Rob Nichols has grown another attractive selection of potted plants, which he is supplying for donations–his plants are healthy and ready to grow in your house! See them at the dance!
Where will your money go? The mission of the Friends is to support the maintenance and improvement of the Grange Hall, working with the Grange itself. The FCCGH will be meeting in September to prioritize projects: more painting (see below), better security (we had a break-in this summer, and have ideas about programmable locks), replacement of the old entrance doors, insulating the foundation, doing maintenance on the driveway (see below for pictures of what this summer’s rain has done). There is no shortage of projects!
Another special attraction at the dance on Saturday: Dana Dwinell-Yardley is organizing a “dessert potluck”–bring your favorite goodies (sweet like cookies? savory like roasted nuts? filling like cake? whatever you specially like will be appreciated!) and share them at the break in the dance.
Reliable supporter Rob Nichols has grown another attractive selection of potted plants, which he is supplying for donations–his plants are healthy and ready to grow in your house! See them at the dance!
Where will your money go? The mission of the Friends is to support the maintenance and improvement of the Grange Hall, working with the Grange itself. The FCCGH will be meeting in September to prioritize projects: more painting (see below), better security (we had a break-in this summer, and have ideas about programmable locks), replacement of the old entrance doors, insulating the foundation, doing maintenance on the driveway (see below for pictures of what this summer’s rain has done). There is no shortage of projects!
New paint, after many years, graces the Hall
Bright new colors are showing up on the walls of our Hall, thanks to volunteers organized by Alison Forrest. We think the original color, put on when the Hall was built in 1953, has never been re-painted! Lots of steps–clearing the walls, washing them, taping off the trim around the windows and doors–has already been done. The new paint already covers both ends–see above for the new, cheery yellow color on the south end–and starting up the side walls.
Want to help with inside painting? contact Alison to find out when the next painting day is scheduled: https://feedkidswell@hotmail.
Want to help with outside painting, organized by Joe Blakely? Contact Joe at: https://joeblakely640@gmail.com
The FCCGH is supporting both of these projects by purchasing the paint and supplies for all the painting–part of the proceeds from last year’s Challenge Fundraiser!
The FCCGH is supporting both of these projects by purchasing the paint and supplies for all the painting–part of the proceeds from last year’s Challenge Fundraiser!
Join us on Sept. 17th to open our Fall season of Grange meetings
Since the first Saturday falls on Labor Day weekend, we usually postpone our September meeting to the 3rd Saturday. This year, we have our usual good list of things to discuss–we’d like the input of people who care about the Grange and the Hall, so please join us!
- Review of the summer–a break-in, painting projects and more renters!
- Security changes? what should we do to make our building a bit more secure.
- Community focus–how can we continue to strengthen our ties to our local community–both the Town of Berlin and the central VT area which surrounds us? We have been opening up and reaching out over the past few years, and it has let us make more connections, let us do more community service, and brought more people to our Hall.
- Berlin connections: we’ve been asked to help with maintaining Berlin’s newest park, at the corner of Rt.12 and Muzzy Rd, a few miles south of the Grange–weeding, taking care of sandboxes and play equipment–we’ll get more details.
- Onion River Exchange–Merry will present a proposal for joining this community “Time Bank”. The basic outline is that we could earn hours by doing volunteer community service, giving us the ability to access professional services from others involved in the O.R.E.
- Sock donations-we are still collecting (new) pairs of socks for the National Grange, which will distribute them to needy families at their National meeting in DC, in November. Keep bringing them in!
- New links with 4H, which wants to use our Hall for their “Achievements Awards”, as well as for other meetings.
- Quilting for the Grange–can we join with our renters, perhaps, to enter a new State Grange contest for making a queen-size quilt?
- And we’ll be congratulating Marj Power–who has won another couple of ribbons from the VT State Grange for her knitting!
- Our driveway is showing the effects of some of the downpours we have had–should we get it re-graded?
- And this is the year for Grange elections–some of us have filled the chairs for quite a while. We have room for people to become part of the “officer corps”, talk to me or any of the other Grange members to learn more.
The rain at the Grange floods downward as it drains
We had our driveway re-graded a couple of years ago, and it has held up pretty well until the heavy rains of the last few weeks. Now some small gullies have started to form. As mentioned above, one of our topics at our September meeting will be how to cope with this inevitable degradation. Try to control the runoff with water-bars? Pay for grading? Marshal a work-day with lots of shovels and wheelbarrows?
