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You are here: Home / Grange Notes / Woo-Hoo! Dancing, snacks, fundraising for the Hall–a successful evening for all

Woo-Hoo! Dancing, snacks, fundraising for the Hall–a successful evening for all

September 4, 2018 by Tova

Grange Notes for September 4, 2018 by Tim Swartz, Grange President (with everyone’s help)

This turned out to be a long set of Notes! 
Besides all the good news in this one, don’t forget our September Grange meeting coming up on Sept. 15th!   Enjoy the new tankless hot water heater being hooked up today, and the re-graded driveway, too!

Lots of organizations advertise “Fun-raisers”.  We deliver.

Welcome to our festive Hall!

Upstairs, before the dance, caller Nils Fredland worked with a chorus from “Revels North”, the Hanover-based organization for which he is Artistic Director.  We made the Hall more festive with strings of lights!

Downstairs, Rob Nichols’ lovely houseplants are laid out waiting for new homes.  The “stitched” photo makes the table a bit “bent”, but the plants were the main event, and not many were left at the end of the evening.  As usual, the plants-for-donations were a beautiful part of the fundraiser!

Dancing with the Strutters & Nils
(Left) The dance was preceded by a good crowd of newcomers getting an intro to contra-dancing from caller Nils Fredland.   (Right) Then the Clayfoot Strutters started the dance off with their fusion contra music, and the Hall filled up quickly with happy dancers.
This edition of the Strutters featured fiddler, songwriter, and producer Pete Sutherland, Jeremiah McLane on accordion and keyboards, drummer and guitarist Lee Blackwell, bassist Harry Aceto, banjo and flute player Mark Roberts, plus sound-guy and fiddler Oliver Scanlon.   I’m pretty sure that Oliver wasn’t even born when the Strutters started playing 29 years ago!

Delighted dancers decimate donated desserts

The “usual” break was tastily unusual, as generous supporters brought in a wide variety of treats–from chicken or turkey wraps to peach cake, to cookies, to popcorn, candies, Juliet tomatoes, apple slices, blueberry cake…and too many other dishes to remember and list.  Ben & Jerry’s donated large boxes of Strawberry and Vanilla ice-cream, which is being enthusiastically dished out in the top photo.

More dancing to burn off the calories–and more donations took us over the top!

All through the dance, Nils and also Patty Giavara, Chair of the Friends of the Capital City Grange Hall reminded everyone that this special dance evening was designed to raise money for the FCCGH to use to finance more much-needed improvements to the Hall.  This summer, the Friends did not get the Arts Council grant award for which we applied, but we have many ideas about projects to keep the momentum going.   Watch the Grange Notes for news on the next investments the Friends plan to make.

We started off with $1,500 pledged…and ended up with over $3,900!

The tote-board showed “only” $3,750 when the dance ended, but when Friends chair Patty Giavara counted up all the dessert donations and a couple more checks in the Donations can, it grew to even more!
The generosity of all of the donors is always touching, and makes us even more committed to the improvements we plan for the Grange Hall.

And you can still donateIf you couldn’t make it to the dance, your donation will be welcomed!   Even when we get a grant such as the ones from the Arts Council and Recreation Grant program, we still need to match those amounts with other funds.  Donate directly online to the Friends, on the Grange website:  https://capitalcitygrange.org/donate/.   The Friends will provide a receipt for your contribution, which can be tax-deductible, if your tax requirements allow it.  All contributions go directly to the all-volunteer FCCGH, which uses them only for projects and operational costs.

Dance some more:  Fall Festival next weekend at the Grange Center

Even though the upcoming week is supposed to be more like summer, we are getting closer to fall.   One of the consistent signs of the changing season is the VT State Grange Fall Festival coming up, in Brookfield.   Capital City Grange has been asked to provide a bit of contra-dancing as evening entertainment next Saturday evening
Dana Dwinell-Yardley has volunteered to call for this community dance; she has been calling for a variety of dances around Vermont, inlcuding the Queen City Contras in Burlington & Shelburne.  With the help of Pete Sutherland, we will have a band including Young Tradition Vermont musicians Alexander Allison and Sebastian West playing fiddle and piano.  We will also have Robin Russell joining the band.  Robin has played accordion for this event before, as well as calling it a few years ago!
Dancing will start at 7:00 on Sept. 8th, and it would be great to have some other dancers join us.  The Grange Center, at 308 West St., Brookfield 05060.
See the official poster below for information about the many other events for Friday and Saturday.  All events are free, except the dinner on Saturday evening.  Hope we’ll see you there!  Call Tim Swartz for more info:  802-225-8921, or email:  swartztim15@gmail.com

Filed Under: Grange Notes, Hall Projects

Contact Us

Tim Swartz, President, CCG#469
802-225-8921 (cell)
grangepresident@capitalcitygrange.org

 

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