The Tuckerman Brewery and the Blue Grit Blues Band invited us to hold a fundraiser on Sunday, June 9th. The staff was friendly and helpful, and the band sounded great. Tuckerman’s donated $1.00 per pint sold throughout the day and provided us a place to set up a display and hold a Pick-a-Prize raffle with about eight raffle prizes. We raised a total of $1,676 between Tuckerman’s donations from pints sold, the pick-a-prize raffle and the donation jar. It was a very positive day, not only for the funds raised, but also for the visibility in the community. Many people upon reviewing the informational display board asked a lot of questions about the flooding damage. They were interested in what is next, where we are on the road to recovery, when we think we will be able to reopen our church and our missions, and what we can do to prevent this from happening again. One other benefit this event provided was an opportunity to socialize with about twenty members of our congregation. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the success of this event.

Our next fundraiser is the Yard Sale, Bake Sale, Craft Sale on Saturday, July 13th. If you have items for the yard sale the drop off times are 10 AM to Noon on June 22nd, June 29th, and July 6th. Please refer to the list of types of items that we are looking for and items that we cannot accept. For this event, we also need folks to bake goods for the bake sale. Please contact Paul & Sylvia Weld regarding the bake sale. We will need volunteers! Many folks will be needed in the morning from about 7:30 to 8:30 AM to help haul all the donated yard sale goods from the classroom to the side lawn and organize them on tables. We will also need volunteers through- out the day to help with various aspects of the event. Sign-up sheets are available at the Majestic on Sunday mornings. If you are not able to attend services and would like to volunteer, please call, or email the church. Please also pass the word to your friends and share the event on social media.

Although it is only the end of June, the trustees are already working on the Fryeburg Fair plans. We are prayerfully hoping to be back in the church with a fully operational kitchen and enough refrigeration space to bake our apple crisp this year.  The Fryeburg Fair is by far our biggest fundraiser and is absolutely necessary for us to cover our operating expenses. We have a tentative plan this year to begin the peeling and baking process earlier than usual, so that the prep work and baking is complete prior to the fair opening. This will hopefully alleviate the need for the double shifts that folks have been working in recent years— working mornings at the church and afternoons and evenings at the fair booth or vice versa. The current plan, which of course is subject to change, is to begin the apple prep and baking the week of September 15th concluding September 27th. We operate two shifts each day at the church for prepping apples—a morning shift, and an evening shift. The Fryeburg Fair dates are September 29th to October 6th. We also need to cover two shifts per day for the fair booth, with three, preferably four, people per shift in the booth.

On behalf of the board of trustees and our congregation I would like to express our gratitude to Anne Getchell and Nancy Divine for the workload the two of them have been carrying since December 19th. They have spent hour upon hour, day after day, week after week working on lists, quotes, reports, government forms,  grant applications and meetings with various agencies, officials, tradesmen, and engineers. If not for the selfless, tireless effort of these two, we would likely still be trying to determine how and if we can reopen the church, instead of “when we will reopen”. Thank you, Anne and Nancy, for all that you do!

Nancy Irving, Trustee