At our April meeting, Grangers and friends gathered to enjoy the Laguna sunset view and tailgate drinks. We came inside to enjoy Minestrone Soup and garlic bread and good company! We sang out “the love between our brothers and our sisters, a-a-a-all over this land”, led by Paul Schwebel and Lawrence Jaffe! Granger Elin Lennox shared a presentation on the unsustainable nature of our shrimp consumption. Everyone is welcome to join us for our General Meetings, held on the last Tuesday of every month!
The exchange is a great place to build community, share starts, produce, recipes, food recovery information and tips on local plant adaptations.
What: It is time for our yearly local project to redistribute homegrown produce and eliminate food waste. This is an opportunity to trade surplus items from your garden for something you don’t have. You may also bring produce that you have gleaned (with permission of course) from a neighbor’s yard. Check in for dates when we will be joined by the Master Food Preservers who have a wealth of information to pass on. Plant starts will also be shared and traded.
Bounty for the County We encourage all to grow extra to donate to our community members in need of healthy produce. At the end of the exchange period, all left over produce will be donated to a food recovery partner.
Where: The Sebastopol Grange 6000 Sebastopol Rd/Hwy 12
When: 5:00 – 5:45 pm on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays, May 10 – Oct 25, 2022
Dates: May 10 & 24, June 14 & 28, July 12 & 26, Aug 9 & 23, Sept 13 & 27, Oct 11 & 25
Please follow covid-safety protocol; clean hands before & after exchange, follow current mask mandates and respect each other’s needs and personal space.
We are looking for friends and neighbors of all ages to help us build a community that fosters: sharing, mending, learning, self-reliance, friendships, zero waste, re-use, and repair.
MEND & BEFRIEND will be a recurring event that evolves over time based on our needs and talents.
When: Friday May 20, 2022, from 4:30-6:30 pm. Where: the Sebastopol Grange – 6000 Sebastopol Ave, Hwy 12, Sebastopol. Who: open to Grange members and others of all ages.
We ask that participants bring clothes or fabric items that need repair and also sewing supplies, if you have any. We can help each other learn mending techniques both basic and decorative like embroidery and Sashiko: The Japanese Art of Mending Fabric with Beautiful Stitches. In addition please bring any yard tools that you would like to mend.
In addition, please bring any clean clothing items or fabric that you would like to put out for our clothes/fabric swap. If the item has a special story behind it, you can opt to write a small note about it and pin to your offering.
Also consider bringing any small tools that you know how to fix or that you need to fix so that we can start thinking about expanding our mending.
We will supply the following: extra sewing supplies, material scraps, project ideas.
We ask that you bring the following: a mask for when in close proximity to others while inside, your own plate, cup and silverware & a snack if desired, plus a basket or bag for taking home your projects and any clothes you pick from the swap.
A donation jar will be circulated so that we can continue to support the maintenance of our Grange Hall.
Wanted – community members with tool repair and small electronic repair skills and sewing skills
Seemed like old times at the February Grange meeting! Carol and Dena prepared a delicious soup dinner for us, Barton offered the blessing, Paul led a sing-along, and we all enjoyed visiting among good company! Join us next month! General meeting is the last Tuesday of every month. Everyone is invited!
December 26, 2021 December 26, 2021 / By Deborah Wiig
Our December meeting was a combined business meeting and general meeting. We enjoyed a boxed brunch of salmon toasts, quich, salad, and more, prepared by Dena with help from Carol and Dorothy Morgan.
President Laura reported on her conversations with Sean McNeil at the City of Santa Rosa about the tilling being done on the adjacent Kelly Farm by the current farmer, whose lease will be ending soon. McNeil said he is open to our Grange’s suggestion that the property be leased to a farmer who will use more biodynamic, no-till farming methods. They discussed the posibility of grants in partnership with the The Natural Resources Defense Council, the City of Santa Rosa, and the Grange. “We have planted the seeds to make changes in local agriculture,” said Laura.
Ten-year-old Lucas Kessler, who received a scholarship from the Grange to attend Camp Winnarainbow last summer, told us aout the classes in break dancing, clown skills, Diablo and unicycle he enjoyed. He demonstrated his unicycle skills for us all.
President Laura swore in new members Lisa and Steve Pierce, Lucas Kessler and his mother, and Jeri Tavis.
We had a great time at our monthly General Meeting on July 27th! We welcomed five new members (four of whom are shown here with Grange Musician Peter Schurch and President Laura Shafer. ) We enjoyed a picnic outside with pizza provided by the Grange and were entertained by Peter and his musician friends! We caught up with old friends and made some new ones!
This historic building is in danger. Please help save the Morgan Hill Grange. Because of COVID, it is in financial trouble due to the inability to rent out the venue. The Grange has been very friendly to the bluegrass community and could really use help. Click to learn more and contribute to their Go Fund Me account.
Lost In the Middle movie at the Grange Backyard! May 15, 8pm
A group of friends in their 40s come together the year after helping a friend die with dignity. They didn’t do a great job at it, sure, but they did their best, each of them getting through the pain in the ways they always have: sex, drugs and social justice organizing. Now, as they convene in the small town they grew up in to scatter the ashes and say one final good-bye, they discover grief about the past and fear about the future have changed them.
Think The Breakfast Club thirty years later meets The Big Chill, only more queer and diverse and funny.
Shot in Sonoma County, where writer/ director Angie Powers grew up (her childhood home is a major location), Lost in the Middle celebrates the hidden diversity of small-town life and the longevity of the friendships she nurtured here.
Tickets: $10 ($11.49 w/service fee), proceeds shared with the Grange. Max. 50 attendees. Bring your own chairs and blankets. Parking will start at 7pm; music by Paul Schwebel will precede the film, which starts at 8pm.
SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice), Bay Area chapter
The recent murders in Atlanta and attacks in Oakland and San Francisco have brought to national attention to what, unfortunately, is not news to many: bigotry, misogyny, and racialized violence in our country is thriving and Asian and Pacific Islander Americans are frequently the targets of hate crimes and acts of terror. White supremacy lies at the heart of these attacks; the Atlanta attack painfully highlights the intertwining of racism, misogyny, and racist fetishization directed towards those perceived to be sex workers.
As a group organizing white people against white supremacy, we particularly decry any attempt to downplay or distract from the racial animus of the Atlanta murders. Justifying heinous acts of violence by highlighting the mental health issues of the murderer is a luxury afforded almost exclusively to white murderers and further perpetuates a culture that consistently fails to hold the perpetrators of systemic violence accountable. We will not allow these claims or any victim-shaming to distract us from the larger issue of white supremacist violence that is alive and well in our country right now.
We will continue to take action to address the growth of white nationalism and terror. We wish to extend a message of support and solidarity to all in our communities who are of Asian & Pacific Islander descent: We see you, we value you, and we stand with you.
Allies, please find some resources and actions you can take below:
