Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, January 2, 2017
New Year’s Eve celebrated with a community dance event, featuring merriment, tasty treats and…dancing.
Many thanks to the CDU for putting on a great community event, on New Year’s Eve! A special dance event which ran ’til midnightbrought out a variety of dancers, including brand-new folks, regulars and many who haven’t been here for a while. Clearly, many of you heeded our suggestions to “bring a friend!”
Nils Fredland provided skilled prompting, including teaching a well attended newcomers’ session before the dancing started at 8:00, as well as leading the countdown to midnight, and a celebratory circle dance that…turned into a snake! Frost and Fire, always favorites, provided great music with piano, violins, whistles, flutes, bagpipes, guitar and hand drums. Many contributors brought treats to adessert potluck, which featured everything from pumpkin muffins to popcorn to sugar mice to pickled crabapples to brownies and cookies. No one went away hungry, and it seemed to provide energy to keep everyone going for the second half of the dancing!
Thanks also to everyone who made newcomers welcome, and made sure that everyone had fun on the dance floor. One of the key features of the Grange contra-dance community is how we do our best to involve new folks. I saw lots of “regulars” dancing with the new folks, and saw how many newcomers stayed and danced–the best indication that fun was being had! Kudos to everyone!
Nils Fredland provided skilled prompting, including teaching a well attended newcomers’ session before the dancing started at 8:00, as well as leading the countdown to midnight, and a celebratory circle dance that…turned into a snake! Frost and Fire, always favorites, provided great music with piano, violins, whistles, flutes, bagpipes, guitar and hand drums. Many contributors brought treats to adessert potluck, which featured everything from pumpkin muffins to popcorn to sugar mice to pickled crabapples to brownies and cookies. No one went away hungry, and it seemed to provide energy to keep everyone going for the second half of the dancing!
Thanks also to everyone who made newcomers welcome, and made sure that everyone had fun on the dance floor. One of the key features of the Grange contra-dance community is how we do our best to involve new folks. I saw lots of “regulars” dancing with the new folks, and saw how many newcomers stayed and danced–the best indication that fun was being had! Kudos to everyone!
The New Year brings a January Grange meeting on Saturday the 7th: a chance to learn and a chance to eat!
We hope that many of you reading these Notes will join us next Saturday, as we start off 2017 with the next meeting of our Grange. Besides doing the necessary internal business of the Grange–looking at our finances, the state of our community service mission, and the health of our members, we try to bring some new information to our members. At every meeting, this includes the Health Concerns updates brought to us by RN Phyllis Skinner. The Grange meeting, starting at 4:30 PM, will also feature the piano-playing and song-leading of Matt Nunnelly, who brings us a “standard” Grange song and a “new” song to add to the Grange songbook at every meeting. This meeting, we will also be talking about changing “job definitions” for the Grange officers, as we continue to figure out how to be a Community Grange in the 21st century–help us with that as well as singing along!
This time, the informational, and interactive “program” which starts at5:30 will feature local resident (Northfield Falls) Emily Holub, who works for the VT Dept. of Health, telling us about “How to maintain healthy indoor air quality in winter”.
As the graphic below suggests, the indoor air we breathe can be full of a wide variety of unattractive things! Luckily, there are things we can do. Join us to learn from Emily Holub about how to safeguard our health and our homes, even when our windows and doors are tightly closed. We’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss choices. Hope to see you there, as well as at the potluck dinner (see below)!
This time, the informational, and interactive “program” which starts at5:30 will feature local resident (Northfield Falls) Emily Holub, who works for the VT Dept. of Health, telling us about “How to maintain healthy indoor air quality in winter”.
As the graphic below suggests, the indoor air we breathe can be full of a wide variety of unattractive things! Luckily, there are things we can do. Join us to learn from Emily Holub about how to safeguard our health and our homes, even when our windows and doors are tightly closed. We’ll have the opportunity to ask questions and discuss choices. Hope to see you there, as well as at the potluck dinner (see below)!
And join us for a warm potluck dinner at 6:00!
Every Grange meeting ends with a social dinner–as we digest what we have learned, along with enjoying what our friends and neighbors have brought to share. We host our dinner in the main Hall, on the floor-protecting mats which keep our dance floor safe. Bring the favorite dish you want to show off, and see how others are using the remaining bounty from the harvest season. Everything from soups to nuts, including salads, casseroles, roasts, sauces, vegetables, breads, cakes, pies, cookies and more is welcome. Somehow, we always end up with a great variety of dishes, that disappear into the Grange members’ and community members’ innards. We welcome everyone, of course, whether you are a Grange member or not, and all ages too! It’s a great chance to chat with people you might only know on the dance floor, or at other community events.
Every Grange meeting ends with a social dinner–as we digest what we have learned, along with enjoying what our friends and neighbors have brought to share. We host our dinner in the main Hall, on the floor-protecting mats which keep our dance floor safe. Bring the favorite dish you want to show off, and see how others are using the remaining bounty from the harvest season. Everything from soups to nuts, including salads, casseroles, roasts, sauces, vegetables, breads, cakes, pies, cookies and more is welcome. Somehow, we always end up with a great variety of dishes, that disappear into the Grange members’ and community members’ innards. We welcome everyone, of course, whether you are a Grange member or not, and all ages too! It’s a great chance to chat with people you might only know on the dance floor, or at other community events.
Coming soon! Our 2ndAnnual Family Fun Day!
Sponsored once again by the “Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall” (FCCGH)
Lots of fun for kids and families, repeating the fun time we had last year! That event was much enjoyed by the 100+ people of all ages who joined us in January 2016; we want to spread the word and spread the fun!
To deal with the crowds we hope to attract, the FCCGH is looking for more volunteer help:
Kitchen prep: working with chief cook Alison Forrest, to prepare the home-made macaroni and cheese (featuring cheddar donated by Cabot) and root vegetable bake (featuring carrots donated by Dog River Farm, just down Rt. 12). We’re looking for a few people to help with food prep before the meal, from 3:00 to 5:00, and a few to help with serving and clean-up, from about 5:00 to 7:00. Contact me (Tim) or Alison at: https://feedkidswell@hotmail.
General Hall clean-up and set-up: similar times, we’d love to have some volunteers upstairs to share the load and enjoy the day. And we’re happy to have experienced dancers to mix in with the new people (including kids!) who will come for this event.
Many thanks to Dave Kaynor and the VFO for offering to provide dance calling and music again this year!
Sponsored once again by the “Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall” (FCCGH)
Lots of fun for kids and families, repeating the fun time we had last year! That event was much enjoyed by the 100+ people of all ages who joined us in January 2016; we want to spread the word and spread the fun!
To deal with the crowds we hope to attract, the FCCGH is looking for more volunteer help:
Kitchen prep: working with chief cook Alison Forrest, to prepare the home-made macaroni and cheese (featuring cheddar donated by Cabot) and root vegetable bake (featuring carrots donated by Dog River Farm, just down Rt. 12). We’re looking for a few people to help with food prep before the meal, from 3:00 to 5:00, and a few to help with serving and clean-up, from about 5:00 to 7:00. Contact me (Tim) or Alison at: https://feedkidswell@hotmail.
General Hall clean-up and set-up: similar times, we’d love to have some volunteers upstairs to share the load and enjoy the day. And we’re happy to have experienced dancers to mix in with the new people (including kids!) who will come for this event.
Many thanks to Dave Kaynor and the VFO for offering to provide dance calling and music again this year!