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Box 212 Monroe, CT 06468
We had a very successful Christmas and Holiday Fair this year despite the very wintry weather! The Saturday after Thanksgiving, planned as an opportunity to open the Schoolhouse to out-of-town visitors and to give a preview of our Christmas Fair was well-attended. As a plus, sales were also brisk on this day. The traditional opening day, Friday, December 5, was also well-attended until the snow just got too heavy. We closed at 5:30 on Friday and Saturday had to be cancelled. We were back in business on Saturday, December 13 and had a constant stream of visitors and buyers all day. We had already planned on additional sale days this year which helped make up for the snowstorm the first weekend in December. These extra days were so successful that we plan on continuing this schedule for next years fair. Total sales for the three weekends totaled over $2800.00. Thank you to everyone who donated items and to everyone who came to shop. We had two raffles winners; Margaret Zelisko of Easton won the Christmas quilt and Lori Candela of Monroe won the Christmas tree from Jones Tree farm. Michael Nigro was high bidder in the silent auction for a signed copy of A Glimpse of Old Monroe by Edward N. Coffey. A very special thank you to Society member Elma Jean Wiacek for her donation of a large collection of vintage ornaments. Thank you to everyone who helped with set up and who worked on the days of the sale. We had some additional help this year from several students at St. Josephs High School in Trumbull who were earning credit for their volunteer requirements. This annual event, our longest running annual fundraiser, is truly a team effort and is an event that is looked forward to by many residents as the place to do their Christmas shopping. We have several fund raisers planned for 2004. The first of these is our second annual textile sale. New, vintage and antique textiles, notions, clothes, household linens, patterns, craft books and magazines, and many other treasures will be on sale in the barn. At the same time, there will be special exhibits on display in the Beardsley house. Some of our recent acquisitions will be shown to the public for the first time. Dates and times are: Please call Judy at 268-5511 or Nancy at 261-8554 if you have any items to donate. Any textile, craft, or kitchen and household items will be appreciated. Some of the most sought after items in the sale last year were handcraft magazines and scraps of fabric. Those bags and boxes of fabric scraps, ends of skeins of yarn, unfinished needlework projects, patterns you no longer need and just about anything else that you know you will never finish are just what someone else is looking for. We will arrange for pick up of any items. Our annual tag sale will be held at the Old Schoolhouse on Wheeler Road on Saturday, June 19 from 9:00 a.m.2:00 p.m. and on Saturday, June 26 from 9:00 a.m.1:00 p.m. This will be held rain or shine and gives you another opportunity to clean out your basement, attic or any other corner of your house that is just too cluttered and donate items for this sale. Thank you to everyone who helps make this annual workshop for children a success. Dates for 2004 will be announced in the spring, but you can reserve a place for your child now by calling 268-5511. 
This event was co-sponsored by Save Our Stepney (SOS) Task Force and the Town of Monroe. The Stepney Volunteer Fire Company trimmed the tree on the green in advance of the planned December 5th lighting. Unfortunately, the evenings festivities were cancelled because of the blizzard, but Lee Hossler took this beautiful picture of the tree with Stepney Baptist Church in the backgroundThere will be a Civil War talk on Sunday, March 28th at 2 p.m. at the East Village Meetinghouse. The Meetinghouse is located at the intersection of Barn Hill and East Village Roads. Dale Call of Monroe enjoys researching and talking about the Civil War. He will present his research done on the Danbury company of the 17th Connecticut as well as Monroe's Private Ira Penfield who fought at the Battle of Chancellorsville. Dale owns several letters that Private Penfield wrote home to his wife, especially right before and after the battle. Dale will also bring several artifacts and photographs from the Civil War. Refreshments will be served. The program is free and open to the public. We recently sent out membership renewal letters. Renewing your membership is just one way you can help to support the maintenance of our buildings and the continuation of our programs. If there is a red star by the name on your newsletter, we have not received your renewal. Please help us in the preservation of Monroes history and renew today. Mail your check to: Monroe Historical Society, P. O. Box 212, Monroe, CT 06468. We have wonderful new seat cushions at the Meetinghouse thanks to St. Peters Episcopal Church. They donated their old seat cushions to us when theirs were replaced last year. On February 12 Nancy Zorena, Chris Ehlers, Brenda Schultz and Judy Standerford spent the morning making alterations so that the cushions would fit the pews. The new look brightens the entire room and will make for much more comfortable seating for Meetinghouse events. We have many fundraising events coming up this year and to prepare for them we need to do some major cleaning and reorganizing at the Barn. Please come and lend a hand on any of the following dates from 9 a.m.12:00 or so. We will also be working more days in the week preceding the Textile Show (April 1216). The Barn is not heated so if it is very snowy or very cold (below 35) we may cancel the day. Call Judy (268-5511) or Nancy (261-8554) to check on the schedule. Some of the tasks we have are sorting and pricing goods for the textile sale and the tag sale, organizing our supplies and inventories, and general house-cleaning to prepare for the Textile show, Hands-on-History, and the fall fundraiser we are planning in conjunction with the Library Building Fund Committee (Friends of the Library). Dale Call, our Civil War speaker, is also the webmaster of the award-winning 17th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry website, http://home.att.net/~DogSgt/Seventeenth.html. We are planning a new section to our web page, MonroeAntiques.org. Many of the items donated for our Textile and Tag sales are just too good to put into a one or two day sale. We are going to begin offering these items on the web soon. Please call 268-5511 if you have any collectibles or antiques that you would like to donate for this project. We will also have other Monroe Historical collectibles and books for sale on the site. A group of board members recently met with Bruce Tuthill of Tuthill and Wells Architects to discuss specifics of the local history room that will be included in the new Edith Wheeler Memorial Library. We will be able to use this room to properly store and display many of our collections. Many historical items that we now have, especially our diaries, letters and photographs, will be much more accessible for research by members of the public. We are currently working with members of the Library Building Fund Committee (Friends of the Library) to plan an Antiques Appraisal and Auction/event in the fall. A definite date has not been set but we are tentatively planning for mid-September or early October. If you are interested in helping with this event, please call Judy, 268-5511 or Nancy, 261-8554. If you have any items to donate for the auction please call and we will arrange for pickup. Our book of photographs, Images of America, Monroe, Connecticut, has recently been reprinted and is available at the Town Clerks office, at Country Hearts on Route 25, or by calling 268-5511. The book was originally printed for Monroes 175th Anniversary in 1998. Our coverlet, featuring scenes of Monroe, is now available in Cranberry Red or in Navy Blue. It is also available from the Town Clerk, at Country Hearts or by calling 268-5511. The price is $40.00 for one or $75.00 for two. |
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