By Barbara Wooten
Saturday, July 22, 2023, was a picture-perfect day with lower humidity, a blue sky and great air quality. Wilton’s annual street fair closed Center Street and part of Old Ridgefield Road to all car traffic from the Village Market to Godfrey. The street was lined with tents and tables of community organizations, service providers, food trucks, and children’s activities.
Our Grange welcome table and tent were a magnet for families. With a perfect location by the American Legion across from a balloon maker and next to a breakfast food truck, our exhibit was a splendid and colorful array. Our table was decorated with a summer bouquet of sunflowers and hydrangeas, a bead making art station with pipe cleaners to string jewelry, and a planting station for children. The clever theme of beans was everywhere. We had beans to plant, beans to count for grown-ups and beans to count for the little ones. There were two basket prizes for the successful bean counters.
Our creative team outdid itself. Our media maven took a video for Instagram. We had a sequence of amazing, friendly volunteers who engaged visitors of all ages. We had Fair books to distribute and a one-page hand out for further information. We had towels for sale with the image of Grange Hall. There were interesting things to view and take. Children were thrilled with their little bean plants to take home.
Some visitors were reassured to hear that we had not closed nor sold Grange Hall. Instead, our message is that we are back better than ever. Today was full of smiles, community spirit, and future potential.
The remarkable number of seventy-five visitors took guesses on the number of beans and gave us their names and addresses. Our message to all was that the Cannon Grange is full of vibrant friendly members. We invited all to visit the Grange Fair. Someone described it as the best little fair in Connecticut.
