| February 6, 2021 -- Feb. 9: Valentine’s Celebration
Mar. 9: St. Patrick’s Celebration
Apr. 13: Grange Month & Celebrate Spring
Our beloved correspondent, Cubby Hickcox passed away in August and no one could hold a torch to her writing skills... she stopped writing our submissions a few years ago due to Alzheimer... and a few members stepped into her shoes but no one did this job consistently due to work scheduling conflicts- so I as the Secretary am willing to try. During the pandemic we have been very creative with our meetings and events strictly adhering to the State and following the local guidelines. We became weary of Zoom meetings so by summer we started meeting outdoors in-person to plan our annual Fair. On Sunday, Sept. 22 we held our fair with contests, food provided by Tony Pizza Napolitano Truck, vendors who sold handmade/homemade items, a raffle with many themed items/baskets and added a “Mystery Raffle” to the mix with three “wrapped” to conceal the contained gifts aimed at kids, teens/families and adults. It was a great community event.
Our fall meetings continued to be held outside and we were seated safely surrounding our fire-ring for warmth. In November, we held a Black Friday Trunk Sale on a gloriously warm day after Thanksgiving and had 15 vendors who set up and sold items in our parking lot and the food again was provided by Tony’s Pizza Truck.
In December we held our first meeting indoors seated in pods 12 feet apart and celebrated the holidays with a chili supper, holiday gift exchange, food pantry collection, gingerbread raffle and program: “Hemp, not your father’s rope!” - a local school teacher shared his journey from the classroom to successful hemp farmer. In late December we received a gift/grant of $1,000 from the Conn. State Grange Foundation which we immediately ap- plied to the ongoing payments to defray the cost of $4,750 for anew furnace that was installed Jan. 11, 2020. Our old furnace (50+ years old) stopped running in early January 2020. Due to the COVID pandemic, we were unable to host events and fundraisers so the State Grange Foundation stepped in to help us out! Thank you.
At our January meeting we shared a “comfort food feast” of stuffed Hubbard squash (compliments of Gazy Brothers Farm, Oxford who hosts a CSA farm share pick up from our Grange’s porch from May-November) and side dishes to compliment the meal.
We “welcomed” four new members to Norfield Grange. We dis- cussed our 2021 calendar and ideas for how to continue to safely host events during a Pandemic. We meet on the second Tuesday of the month at 7:30 P.M. All are welcome. |
