CHS Briefs May, 2018

Please also check the Cavendish VT Facebook page for photo albums of various CHS activities.

HAPPY MAY DAY! Celebrated as a traditional springtime festival or as an international day honoring workers, Cavendish’s Duttonsville School use to make May Day Baskets, distributing them to various people in town. The Cavendish Historical Society (CHS) is bringing back this tradition by making May Day Baskets with Cavendish home schoolers and the 5^th graders at Cavendish Town Elementary School (CTES).

WHAT WE’VE BEEN DOING

Carmine Guica Young Historians: The end of the school is a very busy time. There are two days of May Day activities, including our 5^th graders planting herbs (sweet basil, oregano, thyme, parsley, English lavender, cilantro, sage, and rosemary) for the CHS Annual Plant Sale (June 30).

The 6^th graders will be making poppies for the town’s annual Memorial Day activities (May 30), and on May 16^th will be cleaning in the Cavendish cemeteries and placing flags on veterans’ graves.

On June 13^th the 3^rd grade will be spending the day at Canterbury Shaker Village in New Hampshire.

 

Solzhenitsyn: The Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center has recently launched an English website, which also includes a Facebook page and blog.

Mary McCallum of Proctorsville, and a commentator for Vermont Public Radio (VPR), recently spoke about Solzhenitsyn’s need for privacy and how that might have changed if he were still alive. Listen at the VPR website.  

CHS has recently received a bronze sculpture, a gouache painting and a sketch of Solzhenitsyn by the artist Drago Cherina from Margo and Ian Baldwin. These artworks will be on display at the Museum this summer.

  
 100th Birthday Year Activities

• May 14 (Monday): Margo Caulfield of CHS will be interviewed on Vermont Edition, VPR, along with University of Vermont Russian Professor Kevin McKenna. The program airs 12-1 and again at 7 PM. A podcast will be available at the VPR website.

• May 17 (Thursday):  Noon. UVM professor Kevin McKenna will talk about the influential Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and his time living and writing in Vermont at the Third Thursday Talk at the Vermont Historical Society in Montpelier. Third Thursday talks are free & open to everyone. Bring your lunch, coffee & tea provided

• May19 (Saturday): 1 pm Exhibit Opening: Solzhenitsyn in Vermont at the Vermont Historical Society Museum in Montpelier. Produced in partnership with the Cavendish Historical Society and the University of Vermont, the  exhibit celebrates the life and work of Russian novelist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on what would be the 100th anniversary of his birth through photographs, quotes, and family memories. It is open through October 2018 in the Jackie Calder Gallery at the Museum.

Museum & Stone Church: With any luck the new doors to the Museum will be installed by Memorial Day weekend when the Museum opens, thanks to Dave Stern and Bob Naess. Due to a windstorm in April, our remaining sign on the Museum was blown down. In the fall, the sign with hours open was destroyed when a driver backed into it. Carl Leiner has signs ready to go, and we hope both signs will be up in the next few weeks.

Becky Plunkard is working on door arrangements for both the Stone Church and the Museum, while Svetlana and Kem Phillips will once again be working their magic with the planter on the side of the Museum.

WHAT’S COMING UP

Museum Opens: The Museum’s summer season begins on May 27 and will be open every Sunday from 2-4 pm. You can arrange to visit at another time by e-mailing margocaulfield@icloud.com or calling 802-226-7807

Annual Plant Sale: CHS’s annual plant sale takes place on Saturday June 30. Transplanting starts in mid May.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

If you can help with any of the following, please contact CHS margocaulfield@icloud.com; 802-226-7807 or PO Box 472, Cavendish, VT 05142

• Do you have plants you would like to donate to the annual plant sale? Do you need help digging them up? We can provide pots, soil and even some manpower. We begin transplanting after May 13.

• Painters, scrappers and repairers: We need volunteers willing to do some basic carpentry to repair the banisters of the Museum. We will also need painters for the steps and banister.

• CHS is looking for new board members as well as volunteers who can help with various activities.