Sharon Aleckson
The HPCC Board of Directors would like to thank Tamera Woodruff and Josh Harrison for planning and organizing the 2021 Christmas Bazaar. (See Josh’s article in this newsletter.) This very successful event took a lot of personal time and energy. Tamera and Josh both did an amazing job! The Board would also like to thank Chris and Susan Sattem and their team of helpers for providing food, beverages, and pastries for many to enjoy.
In case you’re curious, money collected for vendor space rental and table rental was donated to HPCC. Money collected from the sale of food paid for the purchase of the food served.
We’re looking forward to a 2022 Christmas Bazaar. It’s on the HPCC 2022 Calendar of Events, and Josh and Tamera have already volunteered to organize it. There is currently a list of vendors who want to come to the 2022 bazaar. High Prairie crafters are already discussing and planning the projects they would like to complete for the bazaar. All that will be needed are people to help get it going next Fall.
2022 Events and Activities
At the end of August of 2021, the HPCC Board of Directors asked members of the High Prairie Community to complete an interest survey. The results indicated which fundraisers, community benefit projects, and activities people would be interested in supporting and participating in. A drawing for a gift card was offered as an incentive for completing the survey, and there was a great response. The results were reported in the Fall 2021 issue of the High Prairian. Now, based on feedback from the 2021 survey, the Board is in the process of planning which events and activities will be on the HPCC calendar for 2022.
Correction: Due to the Editor’s no-longer-great hearing over the phone, the gift card winner’s name was printed wrong in our last issue. It should have read, “Tess Wallace.”
Fundraisers – A major fundraiser is needed to fund the operations of the HPCC and help support the HP Fire District. There are two options for a Fundraiser: Old Fire Hall Rummage Sale (a simplified version of HP Firehouse Sale) and Oktoberfest (a modified version of the 2019 HP Oktoberfest). More complete descriptions and the opportunity to vote for one or the other will be coming out soon.
Community Benefit Projects – Survey respondents gave most support to three projects. These are a High Prairie clean-up/dumpster day; High Prairie community yard sales; and updating the High Prairie phone directory. All three will be put on the calendar, but with the caveat that each needs a person (or persons) to take charge and organize the event.
Activities – Because the HPCC Board has applied for a Capital Budget Grant from the State to upgrade the community center (see Henry Gebhard’s article in this newsletter), decisions about activities that use the community center will have to wait until it’s clear whether the grant is coming through. If it does, there will be limited availability until renovations are completed; so right now the Board is focusing on events and activities that don’t use the community center. When the center becomes available, the 2021 survey will once again be used to plan events and activities in the community center. The annual Firefighter Appreciation event will be added to that list.
The HPCC Board of Directors willingly puts in a lot of work for the High Prairie community, but they will completely burn out if they keep being in charge of event after event. What’s needed now is for other people to take charge of making events and activities happen and take the burden off the Board members. The Board can provide money to cover event/activity costs, as well as background info on what’s been done previously; but they need an organizer to coordinate with. If you’re interested in a particular event or activity, please step up and help make it happen. Talk to any Board member or call Sharon at 509-365-4429.