The Friends of the Greenfield Meetinghouse would like to thank everyone who supported us during NH Gives this year! Extra special thanks to Greenfield’s own GWY Company for a very generous donation of $5,000 to the Meetinghouse building fund. In total, we raised about $10,000 in 24 hours.

We are also very grateful to our new volunteer Victoria Yerkes, who took care of social media, email and mailings for this critical fundraiser. We are thrilled to have Victoria onboard with the FGCM.

We can’t say enough wonderful things about NH Gives. The New Hampshire Center for Nonprofits does an amazing job getting the word out about this fundraiser. Everyone knows about NH Gives, and that is more than half the battle.

We are proud that there is a close Greenfield connection with NH Gives. The CEO of the NH Center for Nonprofits, Kathleen Reardon, is a member of the Delay family, who were founded and ran Delay’s (now Harvester) market for generations and were much loved in town.

What’s next for the Meetinghouse

Every penny we raise is essential to the Meetinghouse repair and renovation project. The FGCM has worked closely with the Town of Greenfield since 2019 to fund the renovations without increasing the tax burden on our town.

In 2024, the town, with help from the FGCM and the entire Greenfield community, received a $1 million CDFA Community Center Program Grant. The CDFA grant is funding the highest priorities of the renovation project, including installing an elevator, building accessible restrooms, renovating the community room and kitchen, repairing and waterproofing of the foundation, connecting the building to town sewer, upgrading the electrical system and replacing outdated heating ducts with mini splits in the basement.

However, there is still a very long list of repairs that need to be completed on our four-level Meetinghouse. It needs repairs from the weather vane all the way down to the first floor. We can now say the basement is repaired!

The FGCM is working with the town to create a list of “needs” that the public can sponsor or donate to in the coming years, including appliances, fixtures, sections of the building, furniture, light fixtures and items such as sound systems, screens and AV equipment.

One exciting addition to the kitchen will be a commercial dishwasher. Washing any quantity of dishes in the Meetinghouse has been very difficult in recent years due to the water damage in the basement kitchen, the weak water pressure and periodic lack of hot water in the upstairs kitchenette.

Washing large pots or bowls was almost impossible. One year, after Oktoberfest, I actually brought home an industrial-size pot that Warren Aldrich had used to make his incredible macaroni and cheese and hosed it out on my front lawn – much to the delight of the coyotes .who feasted on dregs of macaroni and cheese overnight.

People interested in discussing naming rights for parts of the Meetinghouse, or for sponsoring any item such as a dishwasher, please contact the FGCM or the Select Board.

Another thing our Meetinghouse needs urgently is an exterior paint job. From the road, the building appears to in decent shape. But anyone who has ever looked closely at the Meetinghouse is aware that the exterior is a disaster. If anyone owns a painting company and would like to help or would like to help sponsor a wall, please let us know – although the color is not up for debate, as the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Once Phase 1 of the Meetinghouse construction is complete, the FGCM will once again be looking for events to sponsor and partner with at our beautiful Meetinghouse. We’ve already had a request from a volunteer with the Silentwoods Collective about whether we could host a Silentwoods holiday season concert, and we very much hope this works out.

If you missed the Silentwoods Collective’s inaugural concerts in New Hampshire over Memorial Day weekend – I wrote about them as an arts feature in May – keep an eye for more concerts with this incredible group of young musicians in the future.

The Friends of the Greenfield Community Meetinghouse needs you. Everyone in Greenfield is considered to be a member of the Friends. You can find us at greenfieldmeetinghouse@gmail.com, on Facebook and on Instagram at @greenfieldmeetinghouse1795.

Reporter Jesseca Timmons lives in Greenfield and is secretary of the FGCM.