Friends of Mascoma is gearing up for our Annual Winter Clothing and Coat Giveaway.
Do you have warm winter items to share? The need is always highest for infant through elementary school sizes. Please be sure donated items are in very good or like new condition.
Contact Beth Felix with any questions or to donate.
Bryce Porter of Enfield is a member of the soccer team sponsored in our name this year.
Friends of Mascoma is fortunate to have a donor sponsor one Mascoma Youth Sports League team each season on our behalf. We enjoy seeing the students grow and learn valuable lessons. Don't those T-shirts look great too?!
Kids can get a taste of local fruits and vegetables this month—plus their very own money to spend on fresh, local produce—with our new Power of Produce (POP) Club, happening the first three Sundays of September (the 3rd, 10th, and 17th) at the Canaan Farmers and Artisans' Market on the Town Green!
Power of Produce Clubs are simple, fun, and free. Children sign up at the POP table and start the day’s activity—a farmers' market scavenger hunt, a vegetable quiz, an art project, or a taste testing. Once they complete the activity, they return to the POP table to receive their POP Bucks: $3 tokens just for kids to spend on local fruits and vegetables here at the market. Kids ages 5-12 can participate once or every week.
So bring the kids and get a taste for POP! They just might start shopping for their own vegetables. The first three Sundays of September: September 3, 10, and 17, from 10 am-1 pm. Learn more here: vitalcommunities.org/pop.
Vital Communities is supporting our POP Club this summer with funding from the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food, and the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Friends of Mascoma was selected by the Co-op Food Stores as a community partner in their Pennies for Change program in the month of July. Thank you to the generosity of shoppers and the Co-op we received over $5,900. That is a lot of pennies and we are grateful to everyone who rounded up in July!
We entered a lunch basket made by Kaylee Felix, a 7th Grade MVRSD student. She even used lettuce grown and picked at our Sponsored Summer Garden Science Program. Lindsay Smith of Enfield had the winning bid. Thanks to EOHD for allowing non-profits to enter and fundraise--and to Enfield Community Lutheran Church for organizing. Community linking together to help each other! Pictured above is our board member, Andrew Cushing.
FOM had board members, volunteers, kids and lots of treats to pass out to spectators!
We love to enter and support community events. Next up is Canaan Old Home Days, August 5.
Join in the fun and help us pass out treats. Be at Williams Field in Canaan by 9:30.
Wear your FOM t-shirts, we will have some in the Foodie van, and the parade theme is Holidays, so to have some fun , wear something for any holiday!
Representing us today in the Grafton Parade was Cheryl Tourville with Timmy and Matthew, Jill Feen, Colleen McCleary (our Garden Science Instructor ) and Board members, Andrew Cushing and Carolyn Cusick. We passed out yummy fruity snacks to spectators! Colleen hula hooped the whole way! We love to show support for our communities.
We had auction items at our 2016 Royal Renovation Celebration that were "Sponsor High School Students of the Month" with a special lunch and VIP parking. Here are the spring student recipients and the auction items were sponsored by Carol Smith of Enfield and Ellen Hackeman of Enfield Center. Good job, students! Thank you generous donors!
Shown are Jorden Wyman, Morely Connor, Gaige Streeter and Maia Zawilinski.
CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE MORE!
Friends of Mascoma is participating in the Grafton, Enfield, and Canaan Old Home Days parades this summer. Grab your Friends of Mascoma shirt and join in the fun! The parade dates are as follows:
We have not heard about Old Home Days celebrations in Dorchester and Orange yet, if you have information for these towns and/or you wish to join us in any of the parades please email info@friendsofmascoma.org for more information.
The Co-op Food Stores have a powerful program called Pennies for Change that benefits many local organizations. This program is a charitable giving program that provides a way for customers to donate their change to our community partners by rounding up their order to the next full dollar amount.
Friends of Mascoma is excited to announce that we will be one of the recipients of Pennies for Change during the month of July. If you shop at the Co-op Food Stores please consider donating your change to help community organizations like us!
Together we did it! During the official NH Gives 24-hour period of giving (6 pm on 6/6 until 6 pm on 6/7) 115 donors gave Friends of Mascoma a total of $12,620. An additional 11 donors helped bring our overall total to $16,435!
We thank you for your outpouring of support! Your donations to our scholarship fund and words of encouragement were truly amazing.
Guess what else? In addition to the generous donations, we won several prizes:
NH Gives was not only a success for us, it was a success for nonprofits throughout New Hampshire. During NH Gives 2017 there were 292 nonprofits that benefited from 3,163 donors who gave $310,171.39. What a day!
Thank you again for your tremendous support!
Holly, Kate, Carol, Liz, Matt, Beth, Andrew, Katie, and Theresa
The Friends of Mascoma Board of Directors
May was a busy month for Friends of Mascoma and we are behind in sharing some exciting news. Holly West was honored by Vital Communities as a Hero and Leader in the Upper Valley. Holly spends a lot of her time volunteering with Friends of Mascoma, Mascoma Cooperative Preschool, and several committees for the Town of Enfield. Please join us in congratulating Holly on this honor!
Friends of Mascoma is sponsoring a summer garden program again this year! Our first session was June 28th and students filled the raised beds, planted seedlings, and watered the newly planted garden beds. Students had a great time and learned a lot during the first session. Please join us for future sessions!
We attended senior awards night at Mascoma Valley Regional High School on June 4th and there are some incredible students in the Class of 2017! We are pleased to announce we awarded 13 scholarships totaling $14,500. The scholarships and recipients are:
- Roberta Hines and Jerry Liebrand Healthcare Scholarship in Memory of Sadie Seamans awarded to Kaitlyn Seamans
- Roberta Hines and Jerry Liebrand Healthcare Scholarship in Memory of Velma Hines awarded to Emily Tevere
- Roberta Hines and Jerry Liebrand Science Scholarship in Memory of Verne Hines awarded to Courtney Grover
- GitHub Women in STEM Scholarship awarded to Emma Grodan
- GitHub Women in STEM Scholarship awarded to Haley Bissonnette
- Malformity Labs Women in STEM Scholarship awarded to Kylie Sumner
- Malformity Labs STEM Scholarship awarded to Garrett Williams
- Carolyn A. Cusick Trust Teaching Scholarship awarded to Justine Martin
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Political Science Scholarship awarded to Layla Meyveagaci
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Alicia Gonzalez
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Maia Zawilinski
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Evan Peck
- Friends of Mascoma Foundation Scholarship awarded to Amy Labrecque
These scholarships were made possible by our generous donors and supporters. Thank you for your support!
We are pleased to announce that our Friends Feeding Friends Food Initiative moved into a much bigger space in the MTD Property Building in Canaan thanks to the generosity of Matt and Rebecca Dow. This space allows us to house a bigger Canaan Pantry space, distribution space for backup food, a prep area for fresh foods and eventually will be the FOM headquarters. We couldn't have done this without the support of our communities' volunteers, who moved food and assembled new racks, tables, etc. The Enfield Fire Department moved our refrigeration on a stormy night! Our donors helped us raise money to cover the costs of the new pantry items we needed. Thank you for all caring about sharing food with your neighbors. Pictured above is one of our wonderful donor partners, Willing Hands and we also partner with the NH Food Bank, Price Chopper Supermarkets Fresh Rescue, and Shaws Supermarket Fresh Rescue. Want to help? We can always use new volunteers! Send an email to food@friendsofmascoma.org.
Chef Brent Battis of B&W Catering Company (Mascoma Class of 1998) was the featured chef at the Friends Feeding Friends Pop-Up Dinner at 56 Main Street Bar & Grill on May 1st. The reception and dinner featured local foods and libations including cider from Farnum Hill Cider and Eden Ice Cider with pairing talks from Steve Wood, pork from The Stewart Farm, Sunset Rock Farm cheese, Brabant Farms micro-basil, and much more. Special thanks to Dick Dumez and Kim Quirk, the Energy Emporium, Gen Y Creative, Blood's Catering & Party Rentals, Mascoma High School Radio - MIX 96.6, Captured Moments Photography by Bridget, Safflowers, all volunteers, donors and attendees.
During NH Gives this year we are raising money for our scholarship program. The Class of 2018 will be the third class to receive scholarships from FOM and this day of giving will help insure we can meet our minimum goal of distributing $7,500 in scholarships next year.
Fun fact: over half of our donations have come from outside our district! The image below shows states in green, these states are where donations have come from. We have even received a donation from outside the country!
Please share the word about NH Gives (especially if you have family and friends living in states where we have not received donations from, we would love to fill in this map)!
Holly Howes, IRS media specialist and the Grade Five teachers of Indian River School received a mini-grant from Friends of Mascoma that enabled every student and teacher to receive a hardback copy of "The Prizewinners of Piedmont Place", Bill Doyle's entertaining book about a fifth grader's family quest to win a contest. The IRS Library Book Sales fundraising helped also. All the students knew they were going to meet the author via Skype, so they all kept questions to ask, as they were reading. And.... they came prepared. Bill told them all about being a writer and some tips, also, to help them write. The students were insightful and Bill was inspirational. Thank you donors for making very special projects like this happen.
To read more about Bill Doyle go to www.billdoyle.net .
Bill Doyle's newest book and sequel to the book the students just read. FOM donated these five books to the library and we are pretty sure they are already checked out!
Last year was an exciting and productive year for Friends of Mascoma Foundation. We are excited to share our 2016 newsletter with you, please click the image above to see our full newsletter.
Friends of Mascoma Foundation celebrated our art initiative "Art All Around" and our volunteers at a well attended reception. This is a great example of how community artists and volunteers support our school district and link together to offer more opportunities and resources.
Michael Kraatz of Canaan in front of "Diverse Unity", a multi-media mural he designed and created in collaboration with his wife, Susan Russell. Thanks to the support from the Brundage Foundation, the Mascoma Bank Foundation, Friends of Mascoma Foundation donors and volunteers, Chris Morse with Experiencing the Arts and Mascoma students in Dave Shinnlinger's wood shop classes. There are pieces of wood in the mural from the old gymnasium, bleachers and library shelves, along with pieces students created. Please go view this in the entrance hall to the media center.
Rebecca Powell, an Enfield tapestry weaver, has collaborated with Experiencing the Arts in Art Design class to create from the students' nature themed designs a beautiful-to-be 4x6 foot tapestry to hang in the new media center. Woodshop students built the loom for her and Friends of Mascoma Foundation is happy to fund all the materials for all of our artists through our above mentioned sources. Becky can be found most weeks in the front entrance halls of the MVRHS and welcomes a visit from you. Margaret LeVesque a volunteer from Enfield is also pictured.
Gary Wood, a Canaan master wood craftsman, collaborated with Dave Shinnlinger's wood shop students to build this beautiful cherrywood bench that graces the front lobby. This project was supported by Friends of Mascoma Foundation and the Guild of NH Woodworkers.
Friends of Mascoma Foundation is proud to have saved and restored the Generations Mural that had to be removed in pieces from the old existing wall , stored and rehung in a new spot. We thank Matt Dow, our board member, and MTD Property for donating their time and expertise to rehang the mural. Gary Hamel of Orange, pictured above in the hat and beard, was the original artist in residence. We would love to see this mural continue.
As you can see this was a festive night celebrating our wonderful community Artists and Volunteers. If you would like to be a volunteer, please email us at info@friendsofmascoma.org.
Sign up for our mailing list to get updates about Friends of Mascoma program, campaigns, and opportunities to get involved!
