North Attleborough Historical Society

November 2005

Apr 13, 2006

NOVEMBER MEETING
On Monday, November 21st at 7:30 PM at the Little Red Schoolhouse, Dr. David Fleishman, M.D. presents "The Developmental History of Spectacles"; a look at the history of eyewear from their beginnings in 13th Century Italy to modern times through slides and exhibits from his own personal and the society's collections. Attendees are encouraged to bring examples of their own.


HOLIDAY FAIR AND OPEN HOUSE
The holiday fair and open house will be held on Sunday, Nov. 20th. Doors open at 10 AM. Inside the schoolhouse you will find an array of new and estate jewelry, new and used books, a "grandma's attic" section and other special gifts that you would find no where else. Our excellent cooks will tempt you into taking home baked pies and pastries. There will also be a number of nice items raffled off.
In the Woodcock Garrison House, the smell of a turkey slowly roasting in the fireplace greets you at the door and the traditional harvest tree, trimmings and decorations provided by the Angle Tree Garden Club will delight the eye.
Heather DeMelia chairs the Holiday Fair this year. Please help make this a successful event by responding favorably when one of her volunteers calls on you for baked goods. If you are not a baker, a monetary donation will help us advertise the fair. If you have an item or gift certificate that you would like to donate to the raffle table or handmade items, jewelry, books or other items that you would like to donate, please call Heather at 508-643-2674.


YARD CLEANUP
It's time to prepare our property for the guests arriving for our open house and fair. The Ten Mile River and the little stream at the rear of our parking lot overflowed their banks in the recent flooding and climbed more than a foot up the foundation of the schoolhouse. It overwhelmed our sump pump and left us with almost a foot of water in the basement. Some yard sale items were destroyed. But no other real damage was done. The streams left sticks and debris behind in our rear grass areas. The tree leaves, drained of their green, orange and red hues have turned brown, fallen and lay waiting for us to take them away. Please stop by any time after 9 AM on the 12th and help us make quick work of cleaning up. If it should rain (or even snow) on the 12th, we will try again on the 19th. Or if you find an hour or two of free time during the week, stop by and clean up what you can.


YARD SALE
Despite being postponed one week due to the flooding and the on and off rain during the day that we did hold the yard sale, the society raised almost $600 at our yard sale. Thank you to all that participated.


HAPPENINGS AT AREA SOCIETIES
Nov. 15 at 7:30 PM "Making Cooking Easy with Glenwood Stoves" at the Norton Historical Society
Nov. 17 at 7 PM Slide tour of Taunton at First Parrish Church for the Old Colony Historical Society


PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE


Dear Friends,


As the year is quickly coming to an end and we do not have a meeting in December I want to take this oportunity to ask you to consider making a monetary donation to the North Attleborough Historical Society before the end of the year. It will soon be tax time and all donations to the society, a 501(c)3 non-profit, are fully tax deductible.


Since we do not have a treasurer's report at our regular meetings, except for the annual meeting, most of our members likely do no know that the society does NOT have an endowment and relies upon the fundraisers that we run during the year, additional fund raising activities such as the wine tasting and auction fundraiser and the Jolly Cholly booklet sales, and individual donations to pay our heat, electricity and other normal bills as well as maintainenance of our buildings.


This year we used a large chunk of our available funds. While much of the money had been raised specifically for building maintenance, we also used much of our reserve funds. Fortunately we have already paid for our oil for the season and our insurance is paid and our available funds and money expected from the holiday fair should cover our normal bills. Interest from invested funds plus money that we receive annually from the Fisher Fund cover the amount that we pay our co-curators for their services.


Since we do not have an endowment the society is forced to rely heavily on volunteer labor and numerous fundraising activities during the year. It would be very nice if we could raise additional money to create an endowment whose income we could use to cover additional expenses.


The "Guardian" program began about 10 years ago. Each year about a dozen people, both members and non-members of the society, donate $50 toward the upkeep of the Garrison House. While the $500+ donated each year could cover the normal things that come up during the course of a year, it is not enough to tackle some of the larger maintenance items. We could use more Guardians.


Please consider sending a donation to the North Attleborough Historical Society, P. O. Box 1102, North Attleboro, Ma. 02761-1102.


Sincerely,
Bob Lanpher