Connie Maynard, left, presents Amy and Brice Colhoun of Harwood with a check for $5,000 as the winners of this year’s Shady Side Rural Heritage Society’s annual raffle. The presentation took place last week at the Capt. Salem Avery House Museum during the October Heritage Day event.
Despite the cold and soggy conditions, the West River Heritage Day Oyster Festival in Shady Side brought in a crowd on Sunday at the Capt. Salem Avery House Museum. Hundreds turned out for good food, music and a celebration of community.
The event marked the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Shady Side Rural Heritage Society. The society oversees the museum and provides service to the community by organizing guest speakers, promoting an awareness of history, culture, and fundraising.
The society was founded on June 25, 1984, when a group gathered to celebrate the history described in the book, "The Spirit of Shady Side," written by Virginia White Fitz. At that first meeting, Virginia was elected president, and over the course of the next five years, they worked to raise money and eventually purchase the Capt. Salem Avery property to use as a museum for the artifacts and history they were collecting and preserving.
In 1988, they began to hold a raffle as a fundraiser, for which the prize was a truck. When trucks got too expensive to buy, they began to raffle off half of the collected funds. They would sell 2,000, $10 tickets, and then give away $10,000.
Although they have long since paid off the mortgage, they are still working on building restoration and ongoing maintenance, so they continue the raffle tradition each year. The winner is still selected at the October Heritage Day event.
This year, they reduced the ticket price to $5 each, but still sold 2,000 tickets. This made the payout of the raffle $5,000.
Amy and Brice Colhoun of Harwood were the lucky winners this year. Amy is the manager of the West/ Rhode Riverkeeper program, and Brice is a builder and furniture maker. Amy bought her ticket at the festival.
The museum is open to the public on Sundays, from 1 to 4 p.m. at 141 E.W. Shady Side Road. Online information is available at www.ShadySideMuseum.org.
In Galesville, the West River Improvement Association recently won an $800 grant from the Maryland State Arts Council to host a series of six traditional, participatory dances at Galesville Memorial Hall at 952 Main St.
The first square dance is slated for Saturday. The doors will open at 5:30 p.m., followed by a potluck dinner at 6 p.m., then the live music and dancing at 7 p.m. The cost for entry is $10 for adults; $5 for children ages 5 to 17; and admission is free for children under 5.
The theme for the first dance is Halloween, but the organizing principals of the dance are to revive a folk art form, namely called dances and live folk music performance.
Instruction in dance styles will be provided, including traditional American folk dancing, square and circle dances, longways sets, and waltzes. Professional musicians who play in the traditional Appalachian style will perform, but sit-in musicians are invited to join on fiddle, guitar and banjo.
This Saturday's dance will feature Leah Weiss on fiddle, Gary Wright on bass and special guests David and Mary Winston playing banjo and guitar.
At 8:30 p.m., more challenging dances will be called.
There is no need for a partner, experience or lessons.
The hall is handicapped-accessible, and the events are purposefully planned to be multi-generational, family-friendly events.
Children learning traditional dance styles like clogging or Irish step, will be afforded an opportunity - and encouraged - to perform with live musical accompaniment during the breaks.
Dates for the future dances are: Dec. 5, Feb. 13, March 27 and May 1. Each of these events begins with the potluck dinner followed by the dance. All dances will be held at Galesville Memorial Hall in Galesville.
For more information, visit www.galesville.info.
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