C E L E B R A T I N G 3 0 Y E A R S! The Village Crier Volume Issue JULY 2014 Executive Board Meeting-first Tuesday of the month. HOA meetings-third Tuesday of July, October, January and April. Clubhouse Telephone-788-9496. Geri M. Chiulli, Editor 12 Cranberry Run 782-6466-geri.chiulli@cox.net Message from Lisa and Anita Fireworks, red, white, and blue, flags, garden tours, sun, sand and walks on the beach! July is here and so is summer, time to follow through on your to-do list: Theatre By The Sea, Georges, Aunt Carrie s, Matunuck Oyster Bar, Jim s Dock, Coast Guard House, Marina Park and the Village Green Concerts, URI Concerts, Courthouse Center for The Arts, etc. they all help us celebrate summer and count our blessings for living in this beautiful coastal community of South Kingstown. The landscaping of your homes is just beautiful and gives everyone great pleasure as they pass by and enjoy your unique styles and designs. Housekeeping: Trash Tooters are to be used for all your curbside waste, no other barrels can be added. They can be placed at the curb the night before which in most instances will be Tuesday evening. Any resident in need of help with the tooters, please call the office and we can take care of this for you. Recycling remains the same every other Wednesday please note that not everything is recyclable even if we think it should be. Please do not place the following items in your recycling: garden hoses, hangers, Styrofoam of any kind, window glass, mirrors or any broken glass of any kind, ceremic pots, broken or whole. Misdirected Mail is to be returned to the Big Blue Box, or delivered to your neighbor if you are so inclined. All your mail should be taken to your house, not left at the mail area and please recycle unwanted advertising mail. Power washing continues with Dwight Kenyon, please call the office to be added to his schedule 792.7107. Treeworks will be returning soon please call Lisa to be on their list. Continued on following page. The Village Crier Page 1
Message from Lisa and Anita Continued We want to thank all the neighbors who look out for those in need of a little help, perhaps as simple as taking out your neighbors curbside and returning the recycling bin picking up their mail when they are ill a friendly visit a ride to the doctors common courtesy, just being a good neighbor it gives us all that wonderful sense of our community. We hear from many residents that once the drive of the first 1,000 feet unto Leisure Drive into The Village, they feel they have arrived home, they become more relaxed and at ease and enjoy the friendly Village waves as they pass by their neighbors. We are all in The Village to enjoy this relaxed, peaceful, friendly and safe lifestyle. Please remember that you should not feed wildlife in the Village except, of course, our beautiful birds. CELEBRATE AND ENJOY SUMMER. THANK YOU TO OUR WONDERFUL EDITOR, GERI CHIULLI! Peace Lisa and Anita The Village Crier Page 2
Message from Victoria Clare, President of Village Homeowners Association News The Village Crier Page 3
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Sunshine Club Sandra Edwards 783-8749 and Joan Matteson 783-2931 Please call the above Villagers if you know that a neighbor is sick, hospitalized or experiences a death in his or her family. Sympathy Card to the family of Mary Swanson and a $25.00 donation in her name to South County Hospital. Sympathy Card to the family of Terry McCormick and a $25.00 donation in her name to Mentoring Partnership Scholarship Fund. BEAN BAG TOSS Come join your neighbors and have some fun at the Clubhouse! EVERYONE is invited to join in on this fun and competitive event! Sign-up sheets at mailboxes. CARD NIGHT Mark your calendar Second Saturday of each month at 7:00 pm at the Clubhouse. Bring your own drinks and also a snack for all to share. This is such a fun event!. The Village Crier Page 5
The Women s Club Patricia Brow reporting. The Ladies Club of the Village started off our new year, with two great events: On June 7th, the Truckload Sale was brought to us by Ray Smith of Bea Smith of Westerly. Many neighbors, friends and members, enjoyed the wonderful selection of clothing and accessories that were offered. Thanks so very much to Carol Dawley and Joyce Noonan, for be the co-hostesses for the event. Door prizes won, were: Black handbag--gloria McElroy, Wallet--Wendy Asting Studio sac bag-gail Gruber, Scarf--Joan Matteson. We look forward to next year s Truckload Sale. On July 21st, we sponsored a Spaghetti Supper, with Lois Keenan, our President leading the way. All, as well as those who won a raffle goody, which included plants or a picture by a former member and neighbor, Marion Blake, enjoyed the supper. Many thanks to all the members who pitched in and helped put this event together (many hands make short work). Also, thanks to all Villagers who came to the supper, and shared a fun evening, and enjoyed a great meal. Tentative plans are in the works for the possibility of attending a show at the Newport Playhouse. Last year s event was such fun and enjoyed by all... ALL Villagers will be welcomed. When definite dates and plans are made-watch for further details. Welcome to our new slate officers for the upcoming year: President, Lois Keenan Vice-President-Pauline Ratty Secretary-Pat Brow Treasurer-Linda Arnold Our next meeting will be held on July 10th, 7 pm, at the Clubhouse. All ladies of the Village are invited to join us. Welcome Committee: Irene Bruyere and Sandra Edwards The Village Crier Page 6
Save the Date See Our Jack! The Village Crier Page 7
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Declaration of Independence We celebrate American Independence Day on the Fourth of July every year. We think of July 4, 1776, as a day that represents the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation. But July 4, 1776 wasn't the day that the Continental Congress decided to declare independence (they did that on July 2, 1776). It wasn t the day we started the American Revolution either (that had happened back in April 1775). And it wasn't the day Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence (that was in June 1776). Or the date on which the Declaration was delivered to Great Britain (that didn't happen until November 1776). Or the date it was signed (that was August 2, 1776). So what did happen on July 4, 1776? The Continental Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. They'd been working on it for a couple of days after the draft was submitted on July 2nd and finally agreed on all of the edits and changes. July 4, 1776, became the date that was included on the Declaration of Independence, and the fancy handwritten copy that was signed in August (the copy now displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.) It s also the date that was printed on the Dunlap Broadsides, the original printed copies of the Declaration that were circulated throughout the new nation. So when people thought of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776 was the date they remembered. In contrast, we celebrate Constitution Day on September 17th of each year, the anniversary of the date the Constitution was signed, not the anniversary of the date it was approved. If we d followed this same approach for the Declaration of Independence we d being celebrating Independence Day on August 2nd of each year, the day the Declaration of Independence was signed! Continued on next page. The Village Crier Page 10
Declaration of Independence cont. How did the Fourth of July become a national holiday? For the first 15 or 20 years after the Declaration was written, people didn t celebrate it much on any date. It was too new and too much else was happening in the young nation. By the 1790s, a time of bitter partisan conflicts, the Declaration had become controversial. One party, the Democratic-Republicans, admired Jefferson and the Declaration. But the other party, the Federalists, thought the Declaration was too French and too anti-british, which went against their current policies. By 1817, John Adams complained in a letter that America seemed uninterested in its past. But that would soon change. After the War of 1812, the Federalist party began to come apart and the new parties of the 1820s and 1830s all considered themselves inheritors of Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans. Printed copies of the Declaration began to circulate again, all with the date July 4, 1776, listed at the top. The deaths of Thomas Jefferson and John Adams on July 4, 1826, may even have helped to promote the idea of July 4 as an important date to be celebrated. Celebrations of the Fourth of July became more common as the years went on and in 1870, almost a hundred years after the Declaration was written, Congress first declared July 4 to be a national holiday as part of a bill to officially recognize several holidays, including Christmas. Further legislation about national holidays, including July 4, was passed in 1939 and 1941. The Village Crier Page 11
JULY 2014 CRIER CROSSWORD PUZZLE JUNE CRIER CROSSWORD The Village Crier Page 12