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Box 212 Monroe, CT 06468
Save Our Stepney to Host Stepney Harvest Day-- Food for Thought, Sunday, October 20th, on Stepney Green Have you ever wondered how Stepney got its name? Or how the town of Monroe came to be? Did you know Monroe's Stepney village is the only Stepney this side of the Atlantic? Have you seen the new Stepney flag? Come and celebrate our history and the harvest. The Save Our Stepney (SOS) Task Force will host its second annual fall festival on Sunday, October 20th, from 1-4:30 p.m. Stepney Harvest Day -- Food for Thought will be free of charge and open to all ages. Donations of canned food and personal care items will be collected on the Stepney Green and delivered to Monroe Food Pantry. Bring the kids. Children can guess the weight of a giant pumpkin, face painting will be available, a children's maze will be erected in honor of the day, and Susan Bannay will provide music in full Highland dress. Door prizes include a multitude of gifts and gift certificates. This year neighborhood restaurants are bringing a "Taste of Stepney" to the Green. Come and feast on some of the town's finest foods. Among the restaurants you'll find represented are Cake Creations, Duke's Smokehouse, India Raj Restaurant, Village Bakery, and many more. There will be a Stepney Green Historical Time Line presentation, the Monroe Historical Society will sell historical memorabilia and Images of America: Monroe, and the League of Women Voters will share their knowledge and register new voters. The new Stepney flag, made possible through a grant from Regional Youth and Adult Substance Abuse Program (RYASAP), will be unfurled. The SOS Flags Over Stepney program also seeks sponsors for the upcoming year. Thirteen flags are hoisted on the Stepney Green for each of the six national holidays. Placards identify sponsors of each event. Interested parties can sign up at Harvest Day. SOS continues its efforts to improve and preserve the character of our community. The next meeting of SOS is Tuesday, November 19th, 7:30 p.m. at Roberto's Restaurant, 505 Main Street. Residents and business owners of Monroe, Easton, Newtown and Trumbull are invited to attend. Meetings are held the third Tuesday of every month. For information about SOS, call Joel Leneker at 375-0830. Email judy@geometricdesigns.com to be on our crafts and events email list. You will be notified by email of all upcoming workshops and events and you will be invited to come and help. The Monroe Elementary and Stepney Elementary School third grade classes visit for a day to get a chance to try their hands at using slates and chalk instead of pencil and paper, using an abacus instead of a calculator, reading from McGuffy's readers, living without indoor plumbing (the school has a functioning outhouse), and trying on the "dunce hat". Recess includes playing colonial games such as rolling hoops and running three-legged races. This schoolhouse was built in 1790 and originally stood at the intersection of Barn Hill and East Village Roads. It served that community as schoolhouse and social center until the late 1960's. It was then moved to its present location and restored by the Monroe Historical Society to its 1790 appearance. It is available for visits by school classes, Scout troops, and other organizations interested in experiencing history. For more information or to schedule a visit call 261-8554 or 268-5511. The Meetinghouse is located at the intersection of Barn Hill and East Village Roads. Join us there for an enjoyable afternoon. We will notify you of the activities being planned so that you can match your interests or skills to our needs. Just reply to the email or show up at the time and place mentioned and we will be happy to have your help. There will be a contact number in the email if you would like more information about the work being done. At this time of year we have several work sessions to prepare for the Christmas Fair and to clean up leaves, etc. on the grounds of our buildings. House Tour Saturday, December 14, 2002 1pm to 9pm Sponsored by The Monroe Newcomers & Neighbors Club Fleet Bank, Route 111 Angels & Company, Route 25 Hair Attraction, Route 25 Town Hall, Fan Hill East Village Meeting House (Dec. 14th only) Fri., November 1st - Fri., December 6th $20.00 Sat., December 7th - Sat., December 14th $25.00 11. Cold and windy - In the afternoon we all went to Newtown's first grange fair. By fair judges, it was pronounced excellent - better than Union fair in everything but quantity, equal to Danbury. We especially admired a pair of blooded black colts of Julius Beard's. Art department fearful. 12. I worked on sketch back of Dwight's, A.M. - P.M. I fixed sleeves to my best winter dress and took a little nap. Studied S.S. lesson in evening. Beautiful day. 13. We made quince sauce etc.etc. all the A.M. Mamma brought the plants in the house and arranged them for winter. . .Rainy. 14. Sunday - We all went to church (in the new wagon). Mr. Lutz preached an excellent sermon straight at me as he does so often - text "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled" - an excellent state to be in, the greater the hunger for those things the more love, justice, purity, etc, we can receive - Spiritual hunger can only be satisfied by God - must rely on Him alone -No building up without hunger. He is sure God has a plan for every life - pray to him to know what it is. I taught my class as usual - 5 of them today - said to be the "worst class in S.S.". Tired. 15. Cold and blustering but bright. I made Mamma a box for hankies - Just some chainstitching in yellow silk on her wrapper, studied S.S. lesson etc, J.(Jennie) spent the P. M. with Mary - - Lew B. says his girl likes her S. S. teacher - that's me. Encouraging. 16. I went sketching back of Dwight's in the forenoon, I worked on it in the studio in the afternoon. - think I'll call it finished now, as the leaves are getting off the trees I'm painting and it all looks different. Save Our Stepney (SOS) Task Force has a new Stepney flag which will be available for purchase at the Stepney Harvest Day on October 20. Now Stepney, USA, will join its sister city in England in having a crest to show for itself. The Stepney village of Monroe is the only Stepney this side of the Atlantic. Save Our Stepney began designing its flag design last year. In August 2001, SOS accepted a grant from the Regional Youth/Adult Substance Abuse Project (RYASAP) to produce a prototype Stepney flag within a year's time. The award was given to SOS under the RYASAP Neighborhood Pride grants category. Early research showed the crest of Stepney, England, located south of London, to have a tower and nautical motif against a medieval design. SOS enlisted its members and the children of Stepney Elementary for their ideas about a crest that exemplified the community of Stepney. SOS took its lead from the Stepney, England crest which is divided into four quadrants. The group decided the images for the crest would symbolize Stepneys past, present, and future. Under the leadership of Doree Voychick, Art Instructor at Stepney Elementary, Stepney's schoolchildren had the opportunity to submit drawings that showed what they saw for the future of the community. Three students drew a pastoral setting with a path and a sun. SOS chose to include the three ideas as one, composite design. The winning designs were drawn by fourth-graders Sarah Lewis, Caitlin Lombardi, and Chelsea Price. A locomotive represents Stepney's past. The Housatonic Railroad first arrived in Stepney in 1840 to usher in industry and a new era. In 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War, P.T. Barnum and Elias Howe traveled by train with a group of hired ruffians to break up the peace rally held at the Stepney Green. The part of the crest that speaks to Stepney's present is symbolized by maple leaves, distinctly beautiful every fall. Both a red leaf and a green leaf appear to tie in with Stepney's past and future in a celebration of the present. The new Stepney crest appears on a white background. Its colors of red, golden yellow, green, and indigo reflect aspects of Stepney's history, as well as its present and future. Red symbolizes the blood that was shed in the New England colonies during the American Revolution, and it is the color of the heart. Yellow represents the grain harvests of Stepney's past, green speaks to the lush Stepney countryside, and indigo is the color of the waters of the Pootatuck River. The strong diagonals of the new Stepney crest are intended to support the concept of Stepney as a crossroads for the area's commerce and culture since the community's settlement by second and third generation English colonists in 1720. At that time, the Stepney area belonged to Stratford. The name Stepney first appeared in the Stratford land records of 1735. For this reason, the year 1735 is shown at the bottom of the crest. It appears below the motto "From Great Things to Greater," which is an English translation of the Latin motto on the Stepney, England crest. |
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