Re-Opening the Grange celebration: Next Saturday!

Grange Notes by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help), July 31, 2021

Are you ready to help us Re-Open the Grange?

We are excited to have more groups using the Grange, after the long hiatus, and we think it’s time to celebrate our re-opening!
As you’ll guess from the picture above, we’re renting a “Tropical Bounce-House” for kids to jump in! We hope you can join us
We’ll be holding most of these events outdoors–please light a candle to the deity or non-deity of your choice for weather like today’s sunny, dry day to repeat on Saturday the 7th! You are also welcome to check out the recent improvements to the Grange Hall: new doors on the Old Entrance, a new exhaust fan, and the complete remodeling of the lower level completed in February 2020, which hasn’t gotten much use!

July 17th potluck brings nice people together

Our Community Potluck drew people from far and near to share food and a continuous buzz of friendly conversation in our “newly” remodeled lower level. We had a total of about 35 people, some of whom are lining up in the panorama above. Potluckers who came ranged from single digits to mid-80s in terms of age, and geographically from Berlin natives, to our local and non-local Grange members and to contra-dancers from Burlington. Everyone was pleased to see the many people they hadn’t seen since before the pandemic shut things down. Food was there in abundance! See pictures below for some idea–it was great to be a pie aficionado.
And Save the Date! for our next potluck, on August 21st at 6:00 PM!

Save this date too: Saturday, Sept. 4th for a “hybrid” benefit concert

With our new fan for better ventilation (see below) and open windows, we are planning a live and live-streamed concert at the Grange Hall!   This is the replacement for the “Challenge Fundraisers” which the CDU and the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall have been putting on for years. Generous friends of the Grange and the Hall who can afford some larger donations are putting up $2,000, and challenging the rest of the Capital City Grange community to match that.   This year, the donations will be split between the CDU (which has been paying partial rent throughout the pandemic to support the Grange) and the Friends, who have also been supporting the Grange during this time of extremely low revenue. The CDU is working on booking a Vermont dance band for this event!
I’ll send out news about this concert as soon as we have the details worked out!   We continue to watch the public health statistics closely, of course, and will take all needed measures recommended when Labor Day weekend rolls around.
If you are ready to chip in to help right now, of course, we can accommodate that:   just click on capitalcitygrange.org/donate to send in your contribution via Paypal or credit card!   All donations will be through the FCCGH, and since it is a 501(c)(3) charitable non-profit, will be tax-deductible to the full extent possible.

We know we have Grange fans.…and this one is a real blow-hard.

Earlier this week, the project was installation of a new, more powerful, yet more quiet and efficient exhaust fan in the attic of the Hall.   With Bill Hulstrunk and Kurt Giavara and me, we had an excellent crew.   The new fan pulls air from the ceiling in front of the stage, which should reduce the direct draft which some musicians noticed from the old fans mounted above the stage.   We were impressed with the well-designed fan, mounting and duct package and the clear installation instructions, it was relatively easy to put in with confidence.
Among other improvements, the insulating “doors” which are just above the ceiling grille open and close automatically, eliminating the manual opening and closing of ceiling hatches we used to have to do.   The fan runs extremely quietly at the lowest of the 3 speeds, but still is rated for 2,361 cubic feet per minute (CFM). The high speed is rated at 4,280 CFM–and is still far from noisy!   The controls allow setting for time periods of one to 8 hours.
Before winter, we’ll be installing a duct to direct the air outside, to avoid condensation.
I’m putting a few more installation photos below; thanks to Patty Giavara for getting some good photos–and to the anonymous donor whose door donation had enough left over to cover half the cost of the fan!   The Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall is paying the rest of the cost. We expect to improve ventilation of the main Hall, and save money on electricity as well with this fan.   There is still work to do to get ventilation downstairs, and to facilitate winter air exchange upstairs, when we don’t have a hundred or more dancers to heat up the air there. Still looking for a good HVAC contractor to help us–recommendations welcomed!

Finishing out July, bringing back the ghosts of letters past

Hot off the presses…here’s the scene this morning (7/31), with volunteer Ellen Holmes-Henry getting ready for the next ladder placement to re-paint the much-faded label over the old entrance. After giving all the letters enough coats to make them look good again, Ellen moved on to painting the new doors–check them out when you come for our Re-Opening celebration next Saturday!