The Fiddler Newsletter

A publication of the Fiddletown Community Center and the
Fiddletown Preservation Society. Delivered FREE to our Neighbors
For more information, contact Dan at 209-296-0918 or by email.

Presidents' Letters for 2011

Fiddletown Community
Center

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

We are into a new year and FCC will be headed by new leadership. I have been pleased to have been an officer in the organization for these past several years. The experience has been educational, interesting and a great deal of fun. Working with many of you has been a true pleasure. Your support of me is something I will always be grateful for.

I am not on the board this year, but I will be active and supportive of the new board. I am looking forward to the new energy and ideas that Brian, Paula, Amy, Florence, Jade, Bill and Joann will bring to the FCC and our community.

Thank you, again, for all of your support and encouragement.

Dan Slater, President 2010

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

2011 brings a lot of changes to the
Fiddletown Community Center, starting with a new set of officers.

On November 10, 2010 we lost Pat McAlpin. Pat was a very strong advocate for Fiddletown, and especially for the Fiddletown Community Center. During Pat's time with the FCC she was an active member of the board, serving as secretary, vice president and later president. Pat was involved in all aspects of the operation and activities of the center. She founded the library in 2007 and in 2009 the library was dedicated as the "Pat McAlpin Lending Library." Her passing has left a large void.

The community has Dan Slater to thank for several years of tireless service. Dan is stepping down from his seat as president, but will continue to support the new officers with his invaluable advice and experience.

Dan's wife Florence Chilton is staying on as Treasurer to ensure a smooth transition. Florence has been, and will continue to be, a major force at the FCC.

Now let me introduce myself. I'm Brian Miller and have been a Fiddletown resident for 10 years, having re-located from the suburbs of the Bay Area. I love it here and will never go back. I am honored, and glad to be chosen as the new president, but with some trepidation. Dan Slater's shoes are impossible to fill and I can't possibly devote as much time as he has. But I will do my best to continue meeting the goals laid out in the past, and strive for new ones in the future. Luckily, the people of Fiddletown are generous with their time and effort and I know I can count on them for support.

This year, the new board is focusing on raising money for the Fiddletown Community Center, new projects at the community hall and, of course, the Fiddler's Jam. Many people have offered to help in many ways, and we'll be calling on them. Some to work on those needed projects at the hall, others with our fundraising efforts, and all of us for the big event of the year, the Jam in September.

Our new vice president is Paula Campbell Alderfer. A long-time Fiddletown resident, over the past several years Paula has helped the FCC and other local organizations. Paula's enthusiasm and experience will be very useful as we go forward.

Our new secretary is Amy Buck. Amy bought her property in Fiddletown in 2008, and last year moved up here from the Bay Area. Amy wants to serve her new community and her experience in business will make her a diligent secretary.

I want to let all the residents of Fiddletown know that I'm available if you have any suggestions or concerns. And please let me know if you are available to volunteer for any of the projects or events.

Thank you and see you around!

Brian Miller, President 2011
president@fiddletownca.org
209-296-0918

Fiddletown Preservation
Society

Letter from Fiddletown Preservation Society president:

The big news recently has been that the FPS was the recipient of the 2010 Governor's Historic Preservation Award for the restoration of the two brick Chinese buildings across the street from the Chew Kee Store. One was originally a store, and the other was a gambling hall, central to the Chinese section of Fiddletown in the late nineteenth century. FPS received a grant from the state and was able to raise the matching funds to support the project, which involved rebuilding the old structures brick by brick. Roger Nunn, who had been president of FPS during the project; Jack Feichner, an active Board member; and Carl McDanel, who headed the project, attended the reception at the Capitol in Sacramento in December.

Funds for the project were raised in part from many people who made a donation for a dedicatory brick, to be displayed on a wall. The bricks have been made, and what remains is to design and install a small park next to the buildings, where people can view the wall of dedications. The work on the park will be proceeding this spring.

The sesquicentennial anniversary of the establishment of the Oleta School, our own one room schoolhouse, is 2012. In honor of the anniversary, and to restore that building to soundness so that it can be once again a center for culture and education, FPS launched a new Schoolhouse Project with the annual Schoolhouse breakfast in November. Several alumnae of the school, which closed in 1955, were welcomed at a reunion table at the breakfast. We are seeking out people who attended the school, with hopes that we can get reminiscences from them of what it was like to go to school there, and any items such as textbooks, workbooks, photographs etc. that we can display in the schoolhouse. If you went to the Oleta school, please contact me or Mary Kwoka.

The Schoolhouse Breakfast was also a successful fundraiser for the new project, and we will have a series of dinners and other fundraisers this spring and summer as well. We invite people to donate to the "Wall of Stars" to be displayed in the schoolhouse: a gold star for those who are very, very good, a silver star for those who have been quite good, and a bronze star for those who have been good!


 

Alice Kaiser, President
www.fiddletown.info