Hello from Greenfield once again! Many thanks to everyone who has contacted me with ideas for this column. I have a long list of interesting Greenfielders I’d like to interview, so please stay tuned.
This week, I have one sad piece of news to report. The Gagnon family has announced they will be closing Local’s Cafe due to steep increases in costs. Greenfield really stepped up to support Local’s Cafe in the past year, and the Gagnon family worked very hard to keep the restaurant going. Live music and taco nights in particular were great successes, and the restaurant will be dearly missed.
I have a September event to mention – the sixth annual Greenfield Fire Department Road Race is Saturday, Sept. 17, at 9 a.m. at Oak Park. The race happens during the first day of the Greenfield Harness and Drawbar Club tractor show. If you’re not racing, come see the runners off and check out the tractor show. Race participants can run a 5K, 10K, or half-marathon, and there is also a Kids’ Stampede. Fees and registration information are available at active.com/greenfield-nh/running/distance-running-races/6th-annual-greenfield-fire-department-road-race-2022. For more information, please email gfdroadrace@aol.com.
One exciting development in town over the past year has been the re-emergence of the town’s Oak Park Committee (OPC). In the 1980s and 1990s, Oak Park regularly hosted huge regional events such as the Blues-B-Q, the Blueberry Jamboree and the Southern New Hampshire Highland Games. Town volunteers, including longtime OPC chair John Hopkins, designed and built the commercial kitchen at the park and raised significant funds for the town to maintain the facilities.
In recent years, the Oak Park Committee had become dormant, but in summer 2021, a group of town residents, led by Dave Thimmel, revived it. I asked Dave how this came to be.
“I was thinking about doing something with Oak Park even before COVID,” Dave notes. “At that time, there were not a lot of events happening in town, and the facility was degrading. It was a little neglected. But we knew it had huge possibilities.”
Dave relaunched the OPC in late summer 2021, immediately organizing a fall cleanup with a free barbecue for volunteers; another cleanup and barbecue took place in spring. These events had a significant impact and started to get people excited about Oak Park again.
“My vision was to bring people back together, especially after the isolation of the pandemic,” Dave says. “I wanted Oak Park to be a community catalyst. The farmers market is a way to create a local supply chain, to let everyone know what their neighbors create and to have neighbors meet one another. The park has always been a place where people gather as a community.”
Dave noted that the Oak Park playground was vital during COVID, when children were only able to gather outside. OPC’s plans include upgrading and replacing playground equipment.
“Outside play for kids is crucial, and the playground brings people together. We can’t let kids just grow up virtual,” Dave says.
When they organized the 2021 Oak Park Pumpkin Festival, Dave and his team were hoping 50 to 75 people would attend. To their amazement, over 300 people showed up, making the event a smash hit. The OPC is looking for more volunteers to help run in this year’s events: the Oak Park cleanup and free volunteer barbecue on Saturday, Oct. 1, the 2022 Pumpkin Festival on Oct. (rain date Oct. 29) and the Fire and Ice parade organized by the Greenfield Fire Department on Dec. 3. The farmers and crafters market will run on Sundays until Sept. 25.
To volunteer with Oak Park Committee, contact Dave on the Greenfield’s Oak Park and Community Happenings Facebook page, or email Dave at woodshopronin@gmail.com.
Stay tuned for the next edition of The Greenfield Beat. To contact me with Greenfield news or events, please send email to jesstimm17@gmail.com.