Once
again our Old Fashioned 4th of July Celebration was a tremendous success! The Band – Proud
Country – did a great job and I heard a number of people commenting on how
good they were. We really enjoyed the
mix of music they presented for us. And
the Sojourners always make this patriotic event special by their presence.
It was great to see so many of the Society members
and a number of people new to this Independence Day celebration with us in
Heritage Park this year. There was so
much more to see and do. This did not
happen on its own, special thanks again goes to our hard-working Executive
Committee. Without them, we would not
have had all the exhibitors we did, all the silent auction items, the fabulous
cars and trucks, the flyers for advertising, or the patriotic programs handed
out at the Celebration. And, we
certainly don’t want to forget the time and effort spent on cooking, preparing,
and selling the hot dogs and popcorn, as well as slicing all those watermelons
for our enjoyment, and dispensing cold water and lemonade.
Many thanks also to all the Committee members
and volunteers who helped with our booths and lead the Children’s Parade. Way to go guys!
There
are several exciting things I want to report in this message:
- We plan
to hold the unveiling and presentation of the Society’s Community Historic
Boonville Jail Marker very soon.
- Cross your
fingers, we submitted our grant proposal to the Astin Foundation for funds to
help get the rest of the Vintage Astin Clothes restored for display. We should hear about this in early October.
- The
Society now has a Facebook page; if you are a Facebook user, please search of
“Brazos Heritage Society,” go to the Society’s page, and click “Like.”
- The
plans for our Harvest Tea are coming together. I will talk more about this later in the
newsletter.
- We are
working on plans for a full membership meeting to be held sometime in
September. More information about this
event will be forthcoming.
- I would
like to see the Heritage Society sponsor a float in Bryan’s Christmas Parade;
we will definitely need volunteers to help with this.
- Last,
but by no means least, we will be working on plans for a Christmas Stroll in
Heritage Park and the East Side Historic District for December 15, 2012.
Let’s
talk a little bit about our Harvest Tea. We are so pleased to announce that this event
will be held in College Station’s Historic District this year, in the Abbott-Blakely-Chavis Home.
The Harvest Tea will be held on October
27, 2012, only, with two seatings, one at 1:00 p.m. and the other at 4:00 p.m. Each seating will accommodate 48 people, so
get your orders in early for tickets! The
owner of the home has graciously volunteered to arrange a tour of this historic
home after each seating. This tour will
be included in the price of the Tea Tickets, which will be $40.00 this year.
We made
our first appearance at the Historic Downtown Bryan First Friday event on
August 3rd. We handed out over 50 of the
Guide to Historic Brazos County
booklets, along with a short description of the Brazos Heritage Society and its
activities, and Brazos Heritage Society membership forms. We also got the chance to talk with some nice
folks who were strolling by. We would
like to continue to have a presence at the First Fridays, but we will need
volunteers to help us man the table for a couple hours each month.
We will
also have a booth at the Boonville Days Living History Fair at the Brazos
Valley Museum of Natural History on Saturday, October 6th. Our Treasurer, Beverly Myers, will be
demonstrating her quilt piecing skills and I will be demonstrating how butter
was made in old fashioned churns. We
also plan to sell some of our Boonville books.
If anyone is interested in helping with this booth please email me at nathilliard@verizon.net or
call me at 979-229-2468.
Nat Hilliard, President
