Connecting wth the Community and Exciting Things on the Horizon

Wow! My head is spinning. I to tell you about an amazing chain of events that took place over the last 6 months. Many of them took place in the past few weeks and will continue into 2015 and beyond.  Most took place outside Sherwood Glen, but will work to bring us and the community at large, closer together.   Here's the Reader's Digest version of what transpired.

Some of you may know that while researching the history of our conservation land, I had the help of folks from the Raymond Historical Society.  They needed a lot of help with their website, and in July I rebuilt the Raymond Historical Society website, and became the webmaster.

In August, I connected with Dave Hoelzel, another community volunteer.  He was managing the very active Raymond 250th Facebook page, which had over 1800 followers.  We agreed that once the 250th celebration was over, it would be a shame to see the activity end, so Dave worked with Facebook and arranged to turn it into the Raymond Historical Society Facebook page, which we both now manage.

In December, Dave was named Raymond's Volunteer of the Year   by This Week in Raymond.com. The historical society asked me if I would speak on their behalf, which I did. At the ceremony, I met quite a few people around town, including Kevin Wood, who runs Raymond Community Television.

You already know, I make YouTube and Animoto videos with my cell phone and little Flip Mino camera.  Dave asked if I would be interested in volunteering with the TV station, and I jumped at the chance to get my hands on professional equipment.

Less than two weeks ago, he gave me a tour of the studio housed in the high school. I was blown away by the facilities.  Though they do a tremendous amount of work taping and airing government meetings, church events, and town celebrations, but creative programming was in short supply.

Incidentally, they will be having open house on January 24th and 25th, from 11AM to 5 PM. Please come over to the high school and check it out.  You'll be impressed!

I agreed to edit about 5 hours of video shot by three volunteers during the First Annual Ring it in Raymond, our town's version of First Night.  I made three videos from the footage.  Two were of performers at the Congregational Church and the Ray-Fre Senior Center, and the third, which you can see here, was footage from other venues around town.

Kevin liked the job I did and is encouraging me gave me to produce any kind of creative programming I like.  You know me.  It doesn't take much encouragement to play with digital toys.  Hell, you  have to hold me back!

We were discussing making a documentary about beavers, which led me to watch this week's Raymond Conservation Committee meeting where by coincidence, beaver deceivers were discussed. While there where were varying opinions of how to deal with them, I was pleased to see there was no contentiousness.

The committee was unaware we were already co-existing with beavers, have done the research, and walked the walk.  I contacted the vice-chair person Lorraine O'Connor asked for the opportunity to  present to the committee and let them know about the beavers of Sherwood, how they have helped our wildlife flourish, their positive impact on the environment and the cost effectiveness of co-existing.  We both feel the committee will be open to the opportunity.

If I present to the committee, I will invite them to watch the installation of a pond leveling device that will take place here as Sherwood this spring.  That installation will become part of the Sherwood Beaver documentary. Mike Callahan, the beaver expert who will be installing the device, is helping me with information he presents at national conferences.

I've also offered to take a look at an area near the fire house that has been a problem in the past.  I know that Mike will provide advice and with our experience here at Sherwood with the culvert cage we installed and the pond leveler that will be installed, we can build the necessary solution at a small fraction of the cost of bringing someone in to do the job.  It would be a great community project and be a win-win situation for the community, not to mention the beavers.

The snowball effect kept on building and in March I will  be working with Dave, the Historical Society, and the Library to help plan document scanning to turn their print archives into searchable digital format.

Kevin as also suggested contacting some of the more senior residents of Raymond to get some of their stories of  Raymond video while we still can, and editing them down the line. I guess that's a project for my free time.

Putting a professional camera in my hand and turning me loose could result in some serious insanity and I'm looking for others to join me in my trek. As I alluded to in today's email and the survey, I think the residents of Sherwood Glen can contribute a great deal.  We have a lot of creative, enthusiastic people here in Sherwood. I think we can have LOT of fun while connecting with the rest of the community and making a positive impact.

... and that's the Reader's Digest version.   Stay tuned for more!

More World Records for the Hubbards!

Sherwood Glen residents, Peter and Nona Hubbard competed in Vermont this past weekend and Team Hubbard set more world records. 

Nona set three RPS World Records for the squat (250 lbs.),   bench press (155 lbs.), and total of 715 lbs. for three lifts.

In addition she was awarded the Sportsmanship Trophy.  This is given to the lifter that not only has great skills and power, but is a role model for the sport and inspires others with their attitude and work ethic. 
This award is not given at every meet and is considered a great honor.  Nona said it meant more to her than the records!

Peter also set a world record but as he said, "The day was Nona's"

Here Nona doing the 250 lb. squat. 

Congratulations Peter and Nona!
 

Sherwood Samaritans Spring into Action

The Sherwood Samaritans got their first call today, only a few days after the group formed. For those of you reading this who are not part of our condo association, the Sherwood Samaritans is a neighbor helping neighbor organization that offers assistance such as transportation to a doctor's office or other similar appointment, light shopping or house cleaning for someone recuperating, meals for a shut in and even odd jobs and mule work to help the less able.

Today's call was short and simple, but it underscores the need and reason for the organization. Before I tell you about the call, I'll give you the background, which it actually more significant than the call itself.

The day after the meeting, I received an email from Deb, one of our residents. In the beginning of the message, she apologized for missing the meeting, because she did want to participate. She went on to explain that she has just undergone knee surgery, was having difficulty getting around, and couldn’t drive.

She went on to say that she just realized the irony of the situation. She wanted to attend the meeting and needed help, but never thought about asking for a ride until writing the message.

I think that like Deb, many of us are more than willing to give a hand when we see someone who needs help, but are often hesitant or remiss when it comes to asking for it. Having an organization such as the Samaritans visible and available, can help alleviate that problem.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch… I started out by saying this was about our first call for help and seemingly wandered off into Deb’s story, but things do come full circle. It was Deb who made the first call.

Deb was having a birthday party for a family member. She and her granddaughter were setting things up and neither one could get the valve open on the helium canister they rented to blow up balloons. It was a simple thing to do. I opened the valve and helped hang a banner. It only took a moment, but it helped a neighbor and made a difference.

She gave me a call, probably not just because of the Sherwood Samaritans, but she was now aware of the organization, because was a neighbor, and she didn’t feel uncomfortable in asking for help. It’s important that Deb and the rest of the residents understand that every member of the Sherwood Samaritans would be just as happy to have come to the rescue. We have contact people on every block and no one should be uncomfortable contacting one of them for help.

For those of you who are members of the condo association and aren’t familiar with the Sherwood Samaritans and how we function, make sure you login to the Members section of MySherwoodGlen.com for more information and a list of neighborhood contacts.

We all need help at some time or another and the Sherwood Samaritans are there for you. No questions asked!

The Sherwood Glen Beavers

This is what the tree looked like two weeks ago. Since then, it has yielded to the gnawing of our giant Sherwood rodents, who have since moved on to another tree. You can visit a slide show of their work over time that is being updated every few days at MySherwoodglen.com.


If you want to find out more about the lives of beavers as they prepare for winter, you can check out the David Attenborough video below.