From the Beacon–
Lanesville History Week begins with a celebration of the founding of the Lanesville Community Center on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 4 p.m. with writer Barbara Erkkila. There will be coffee and nisu, traditional Finnish bread, while she talks with Lee Steele and other founding members and neighbors about the first days of the Lanesville Community Center.
A potluck supper follows at 6 p.m. There will be music by Sylvester Ahola and old photos of the early days.
More than 50 years ago, a group of neighbors contributed money, skills and labor to establish a meeting place for families in the village of Lanesville. A group of about 20 families purchased an abandoned dairy barn from the Ahola family. The first event was an old fashioned clambake with lobsters, clams and corn raked out of the seaweed from hot stones in a pit the men had dug in the yard. The women contributed pies, coffee and nisu. Enough cash was raised to buy lumber and concrete so the work could begin to rehab the building. With entirely volunteer labor, cowstalls were ripped out, a floor was laid, and the sagging structure was shored up. More improvements have followed over the years.
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Good Morning Gloucester 