We are holding our second “Grange Open House” to welcome people from the communities that surround and use the Grange Hall.    We have demonstrations and information tables planned, featuring the teachers, students, dancers, singers, community service groups and more that base their activities at the Hall.
From 4:00 to 6:00 PM, we’ll have a lineup of demonstrations by:
The Barretones–the award-winning women’s barbershop chorus group, which rehearses on Monday evenings
Washington County 4H–will put on a fashion show, featuring clothes sewed and modeled by boys and girls in 4H!
Community singing–one our favorite activities at Grange meetings, but time to sing more songs!   We welcome everyone to bring songs to share.   We have a list of songs that we have added to the Grange repertoire:  Lift Every Voice and Sing, This Land is Your Land, Take me out to the Ballgame, Yellow Submarine, I’ll Fly Away, Lean On Me, plus some rounds.   What else do you want to sing?  We’re expecting a bunch of enthusiastic singers, so come along and join in.
And we’ll have info tables from many more:
Capital City Grange #469–I’ll be happy to tell more about the Grange–it’s history, our accomplishments, and how you can get involved.  I’m putting together some info and pictures to tell the story.   I’ll have info also about theFriends of the CCG Hall!
Green Mountain Transit Agency will have a table–we have hosted their buses when flooding has been a danger for their garage, just down the road.
Weston Mobile Home Co-op will share info. This group of residents of the park down the road has been holding meetings in our Hall on Sunday afternoons.   They are working with the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity to form a cooperative group to buy the mobile home park.
Berlin Elementary School Art will be displayed on the walls of the Grange Hall, part of our partnership with the Town of Berlin.

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If there is a community or Grange group that we have somehow missed, we’ll make room if you get in touch soon!  Contact Merry (see above) or Tim Swartz,  https://grangenotes@capitalcitygrange.org or 802-225-8921 for more info.

We invited Noah Tautfest, owner of Bicycle Express in Northfield, to give us some basic tips about getting our bikes ready for riding in spring–but we found that he spent part of the day riding  in the snow at Burke Mountain!   So the bike he brought to demonstrate the basics was this “fat bike”, with 4″ tires–but the basics still apply.
Noah showed us the important maintenance steps he does himself–and recommends for all bikers:

Besides the pre-ride and post-ride check advice, Noah answered lots of questions from the many people who joined us for this program.  They ranged from discussion of the many different types of bikes that people ride–off-road mountain and fat bikes, with and without shock-absorbing suspensions, bikes with single front chainwheels and those with front derailleurs and rear ones, road bikes, hybrid bikes and more.
Interest was also expressed in having Noah come back later in the year, perhaps allowing people to bring their bikes to be checked–are you interested?   Let us know!   We could do it when the weather is warmer, so we can have room outside and don’t have to worry about the floor.

At the Grange meeting, we got a report from Erin Barry on the ongoing success of KT&P, the popular family clothing & toy swap, plus community gathering of families which she hosts.   Since starting this series in March of 2016, it has kept growing.   Erin and a small cadre of volunteers sort the piles of donations, and on the second Saturday of each month, lay them out in size and age categories on the cafeteria tables downstairs at the Grange Hall.   Dozens of families come to drop off even more out-grown (but clean and in good repair) children’s clothes, and to find lightly-used replacements to fit their growing brood.  Kids play with toys downstairs, or run around in the open Hall upstairs.   And there is often a jam session of old-timey music upstairs as well.   Merry provides information about community resources for parents and kids, too.   But the main benefit may be the opportunities for making friends and social contacts among families with kids–finding others with the same age kids, developmental challenges, struggles and joys.   Erin charges $3.00 per family to meet costs, a pretty good deal!  Tell your friends, neighbors and co-workers about this!
The Grange is supporting this community service by donating the space, and now by purchasing the “new” used shelves in the photo above, for storage of KT&P’s many plastic bins of clothes.   Merry also found a painter through the Grange’s membership in Onion River Exchange, and used O.R.E. Hours donated by Liz Benjamin to get the walls in their storage corner painted.  Erin’s husband Sean and I picked up the shelves and delivered them to the Hall, and I put them together.  Erin is already thinking she could use more!  As usual, it’s a group effort with a community payoff.