| February 8, 2020 -- Feb. 11: Be My Valentine, Potluck at 6:00 P.M.
Feb. 25: CWA, Ref. Craig Leifert
Mar. 10: St. Pat’s Day, Ref. Sandy Phillips
Mar. 24: Hobby Night, Ref. Angela Cain, Patrick O’Brien
First, Winchester Grange thanks our Brothers and Sisters at Riverton Grange for hosting Mountain Laurel Pomona while our boiler was being repaired. As of this writing, the part arrived, was installed and the heating system has been running perfectly since.
At our first meeting in January, we were pleased to welcome two new members who received the Obligation Ceremony. Another two new members should be joining us at one of our upcoming meetings. This is a total of six new members since fall and it’s a direct result of being open and welcoming to questions about the Grange and encouragement to join. They will join if they get the impression we WANT them to join!
The older metal folding chairs in our hall have been in continuous use since 1952 (when the new hall was dedicated) and they are now showing their age as the welds on some of them are letting go. One of our newer members, Patrick O’Brien, investigated various options for replacing them and we
have settled on a tan colored metal chair that has a wider seat than our current chairs. An anonymous donation of $1,000 was given to the Grange with the stipulation that it be used to purchase new chairs. This generous gift will give our program off to a great start enabling the purchase of 50 or so chairs. We will continue to replace the chairs as funds become available from fundraisers and donations. There are a number of chairs that are not nearly as old so we don’t have to replace all of the chairs in the hall ... just roughly 150 or so!!!
Winchester Grange also received two other anonymous donations of $1,000 each that were made through the Connecticut State Grange Foundation. To follow the requirements of the Foundation, Winchester Grange established a new “Building Maintenance Fund” for the purpose of receiving the donations from the Foundation. We can’t thank the three anonymous donors enough for their thoughtfulness and generosity. Their funds will absolutely be put to good use at Winchester Grange.
Please look over our list of upcoming meetings and plan to visit. Our meetings start at 7:00 P.M. (with the exceptions of potlucks, which begin at 6:00 P.M.)
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