Last year, with the Meetinghouse scheduled to start construction, the Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse moved Oktoberfest to Oak Park. Consensus after the event was that everyone loved the new location. Our cooks, Warren Aldrich, Tyler “Keg” Baldwin and Sharon Andrews, were particularly happy with Oak Park’s commercial kitchen, even though we had some issues with the stove at the last minute!
Our Oktoberfest Committee is working on how we can improve this year’s event and solve of the issues we had last year, although it went pretty smoothly considering it was the first time having the event in a new location.
The FGCM recently had board elections. We are grateful to Kenny Finn for his service to the board last year and all his help, especially at Oktoberfest, and we are sorry to lose Ken on the board. Many thanks to Tim Schloemer for stepping in as vice chair to take Kenny’s place, and to Victoria Yerkes, who has volunteered to help with fundraising and social media. We are also grateful to Warren Aldrich for stepping up as Oktoberfest Committee Chair as we start planning this year’s event.
As town residents may be aware, the FGCM has been paying some large bills for the town as the construction projects gets underway. We recently paid an invoice of nearly $90,000 for the completed engineering and architecture plans, without which there can be no new Meetinghouse.
Paying this bill greatly depleted the FGCM’s building fund, so we are ramping up our fundraising once again. While the town did receive a $1 million CDFA Community Center Program Grant, as our chair, architect Sheldon Pennoyer, said recently, “It is kind of scary how little you get for $1 million.”
The CDFA funds will pay for a complete renovation of the basement community center, including a reconfigured floor plan which will enable separate access to the restrooms. Previously, the only way to access the restrooms was to walk through the community room. Restroom capacities will doubled, and they will be accessible.
The grant funds also cover a complete renovation of the community kitchen, which was damaged by water in recent years. The most-exciting change funded by the grant may be addition of an elevator, which will enable access to three levels of the Meetinghouse: the lower level community center, the meeting room level and the historic sanctuary on the second floor.
The Meetinghouse has a partial third-floor level, which includes the old choir loft, a storage room/office and access to the attic, belfry and clock tower, but the budget did not permit an elevator that would reach the third floor.
The list of things not covered by the CDFA grant is extensive. While we are accomplishing the critical goal of getting our community room and kitchen up and running again, vastly improving the facilities and enabling a much more flexible use of the space, the first and second floors still need essential upgrades to meet code and have better energy efficiency.
Basically, we are about halfway there!
We are excited to be partnering with Stephenson Library on the second Greenfield Spelling Bee on May 3 at Greenfield Elementary School. Youth and adult spellers can register at the library, and we are very excited that there is an adult division this year. This event is a fundraiser for the Meetinghouse building fund. The Friends of the Library and the FGCM will be presenting another fabulous all-homemade bake sale at the event.
For information, send email to greenfieldnhspellingbee@gmail.com. To sponsor the spelling bee, please mail a check to the FGCM, 7 Sawmill Road, Box 256, Greenfield, NH 03047 or donate online at greenfieldmeetinghouse.org.
The FGCM will be taking part in NH Gives again this year after taking a hiatus in 2024. NH Gives, an initiative of the NH Center for Nonprofits, is the biggest day of giving in for New Hampshire nonprofits. Keep an eye out for the FGCM giving page, which will go live June 11 and 12.
We have also just been approved to once again partner with NH Charitable Gaming in their “Rebels With a Cause” program. As always, we are grateful to state Sen. Denice Ricciardi for her help. Last time, we partnered with the Lebanon Poker Room and Casino, and we received about $15,000 in funds for the Meetinghouse. We are on the waiting list for our next event, and fingers crossed we are able to partner while the Meetinghouse is under construction.
The FGCM is always looking for more volunteers, especially anyone with a background in development, fundraising and grant-writing. Please send email to greenfieldmeetinghouse@gmail.com if you would like to know more.
Jesseca Timmons lives in Greenfield and is secretary of the FGCM.