COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER Sponsored by the Bovina UP Church. A letter from the pastor. Residents and Friends of Bovina,

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1 BOVINA NEWSLETTER COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER Sponsored by the Bovina UP Church A letter from the pastor Volume 6, Issue 4 December 2013 December 8 Santa Claus visits the Fire Hall 1-3 PM. December 15 Fellowship Hour after Church, hosted by the Youth Group. December 15 Rehearsal for the Christmas 3 PM. December 21 Reception for Steve Burnett Watercolors at Fisk Antiques in Delhi 5:30-7 PM. December 24 Christmas Eve Service and Pageant at the Bovina UP 7 PM. Residents and Friends of Bovina, May I wish each of you a wonderful Holiday Season. May you enjoy and be enriched by the company you keep. May you cherish the moments you have with your loved ones. May you know you are loved and cared for by the One that created you. God Bless, Pastor Garrett Schindler was one of our Bovina Fashion Show models. Thanks for your generous participation, Pastor Garrett! Bovina UP Church News The Bovina UP Church welcomes you to worship with us Sunday mornings at 10 AM. If you are interested in joining the church, please contact a member of the Church Session. Session members are Amy Burns, Jack Burns, Norma Gabriel, Mark Schneider, Janet Stewart, and Mike Worden. Sunday 10 AM. Please come join us! Sunday School for Children preschool through 6th grade during worship (during the school year). Communion served on the 1st Sunday of every month. Session 7PM on the 2nd Tuesday of every other month. Joys and Concerns Our thoughts are with Marge Burgin, Agnes Burns, Hugh and Pat Lee, and Millie Reinertsen. Bovina Seniors Please join us for lunch at the Church! On the 2nd Tuesday of Every Noon Contact Janet Stewart with questions ( )

2 Page 2 Bovina newsletter After-School Program Our free After-School Program meets on Wednesdays at the church. In September and October, we visited with some of our neighbors to observe how they use God s gifts in the community Many thanks to Marie and Steve Tucker, Steve Burnett, Stephanie Theado, LaFever Excavating, Donna and Ed Weber, and Joe Dibble for sharing their talents with us! We will meet the three Wednesdays in December before Christmas. We will then take a Winter Hiatus until February 19. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Pastor Garrett Schindler ( ).

3 Page 3 Bovina newsletter Our Thanksgiving Pie Fundraiser was another success, thanks to the tireless and creative Amy Burns. Many hands made light work on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, with over 70 pies made! Jack, Jason, and Alex Stanton (above, left) and Hans Hilson-Schneider (above, right) were part of the apple-peeling team, while Mary Hetterich, Sylvia Liddle, and Jodi Bray (right) and Gretel Hilson-Schneider (left) played integral roles in the doughmaking process. Thanks to all of the many volunteers who donated their time for this event. Upcoming Youth Group Events: 12/8 Youth Group - 5:00-6:30 pm 12/15 Coffee Hour Hosted by Youth Group after Worship and Christmas Eve Service Rehearsal & Christmas Party $5 gifts - 3:00 pm 1/5 Youth Group - 5:00-6:30 pm January Youth Lock-In TBD 2/2 Youth Group - 5:00-6:30 pm 2/16 Bowling/Roller-Skating/Movie

4 Page 4 Volume 6, Issue 4 HISTORICAL SOCIETY FASHION SHOW Thanks to the Bovina Historical Society and Stewart s Department Store for partnering in this unique event, and to all of the models (not all are pictured here, our apologies) for good-naturedly participating in this entertaining fundraiser for the Historical Society.

5 Volume 6, Issue 4 Page 5 Bovina Historical Society News, by Jan Bray We re had two very successful fundraising events this fall. Thanks to all who helped these happen, and to our donors, build our maintenance fund for our three buildings: Russell s Store, Bovina Museum and the Old Fire Hall. We are in process of prioritizing maintenance tasks for our buildings. And, Russell s store continues as our little Bovina gem, a place to meet, greet, eat and pick up items for our recipes-in-progress, warm accessories, gifts, and of course, the Bovina Historical Society 2014 Calendar, BOV stickers and postcards. Bovina is fortunate to have the store. Your support continues to make its existence as a community hub possible. Hugh Lee graciously shared much of his artistic history via many of his beautiful paintings, many with the pen and ink sketches as part of his preparation. An afternoon showing was highly attended and enjoyed by all. In October we featured Stewart s Department Store fashions as we documented Bovina 2013 for future generations. Bovina residents, (adults and children from age two!) paraded in style. It was a celebrating event! John Tucker, president of Norfleet Publishing, has donated his most recent book, A Simpler Way of Life; Old Farmhouses of New York and New England, proceeds to be donated for restoration and maintenance of Russell s Store. This is a very generous deed, and we truly thank John and Carmen. Bovina Library News, from Marjorie Miller Scenes from the 3RD ANNUAL FARM FEAST The After-School Church Program participants put their sculpting talents to work and crafted beautiful centerpieces out of pumpkins. We had a wonderful turnout at this November affair and a scrumptious time was had by all!

6 Page 6 Bovina newsletter COMMUNITY NEWS Bovina People, A Profile of Some New and Not-So-New Faces: Kim and Briana Riera Bovina has a long history of sisters-inlaw taking the reins in leading our community (Lillian and Barb Hilson and the ladies of the Reinertsen-Burns/Gabriel clan come to mind). Every community has them (or wishes they did): women who work tirelessly and efficiently to promote a solid and vibrant community spirit. We have had the privilege of calling these types of women neighbors since the establishment of Bovina and they have been critical to the survival of the town and it s social harmony ever since. Bovina s current answer to event planning might be found in Kim and Briana Riera. Though only one of them is a Bovina native, both have stepped into important roles as some of Bovina s hardest-working social promotors. Kim McIntosh Riera grew up in Bovina, but moved away, as many do, in her late-teen years. After marrying Marcelo Riera in Florida and settling into her own adulthood, she recognized a desire to embrace a life in a small community, live in an old house with it s own history, and make strong social ties. Kim didn t just have her sights set on any old locale, she knew she wanted to move back to her hometown of Bovina, where she could raise her children in a safe, small town, where she and Marcelo could find economic stability, and Marcelo could enjoy a sportsman s paradise with ample hunting and fishing opportunities. The Rieras visited upstate NY during all four seasons to truly understand what they were bargaining for, and they soon found a perfect place, formerly the Ide home, to settle in Bovina and raise their three boys. What came as a perk for Kim was the entertainment potential of Bovina. In such a small, somewhat isolated community, it takes some imagination and effort to provide outlets for social engagement. Kim s natural sense of organization and industriousness has allowed her to take on the role of social coordinator of some of Bovina s important events. She has been integral in organizing the Community Halloween Party, and has taken a leadership role in organizing a Halloween Party for grownups, where Bovina adults can join the costumed fun in the days following the children s event. A born hostess (as likely to be seen in a vintage cocktail dress as in Muck boots), Kim is always thinking about other opportunities to bring Bovinians together, and we may see a resuscitation of the old roller skating parties this year. Keep your ears open for details in the coming months! Another perk of Kim s return to town was the addition of her sister-in-law, Briana Riera, four years later. Briana s husband, Dario, is the brother of Marcelo, and the two men are beyond best friends, as Briana describes them. When Marcelo and Kim left Florida to move north to NY, the two families missed each-other (continued on p. 7)...

7 Volume 6, Issue 4 Page 7 a great deal. Briana and Dario were also feeling an urge to relocate out of the south, and, after visiting Bovina over the years, realized it s charms and potential for them. The smalltown life, a safe playground, and the promise of down-to-earth, real friends were enticing, and the opportunity to purchase the Ryder home serendipitously presented itself one day. Briana also has enjoyed the history and intimacy of Bovina. Soon after arriving, she led herself on the home tour of Bovina Center s homes, marveling in the rich history of the homes and their inhabitants. She also vividly remembers being overwhelmed by the arrival of a Sunshine Basket for her daughter during an illness shortly after moving to town, astounded that near-strangers would reach out to her and her family with such kindness and concern. Briana and Kim have been such fantastic additions to the roster of Bovina s women. It seems it is Bovina s legacy to always have ladies such as these to bring us together and entertain us during those long, dark winter months. We are ever grateful for them and their social forebearers and we re eagerly anticipating the next event! Christmas at the Creamery Thanks to the folks from Maple Shade Farm and the McIntosh clan for hosting this lovely Black Friday alternative!

8 Page 8 Bovina newsletter A Bovina Artist A Correction and a Mea Culpa by Ray LaFever, Town Historian In the July 2013 issue of this newsletter, I reported on two paintings of Bovina, both done in The paintings are now in the Bovina Museum. In that article, I reported that the artist appears to be an 18 year old named James Thomson. A suspicion that I have had for some time that I had attributed the wrong artist was confirmed this August. As I showed the painting on days the museum was open and talked about Thomson, I noted the incredibly high quality of the works. A couple of artists noted that the painter of these works was no amateur. Given that Thomson was 18 when these paintings were done pointed to someone with almost a genius for painting or that just maybe I had the wrong name. My suspicions were further fueled by the signature on the paintings - it was the initials JE. I wondered if maybe they represented a first and middle name, but something just didn t seem right. A third nagging factor was that no mention of Thomson being an artist appeared in his obituary. So I decided I needed to revisit the painting and in particular see if there was any information on the back. As I lifted the painting from the wall, a small label hidden on top of the ornate frame fluttered to the floor. It said Jack Elliott. Then it all flooded back to me, given that I m the one that created that label (in 1978). Mea culpa. The Thomson connection comes from the fact that the painting of Johnson's Mill was done for James' parents, Andrew and Anna Thomson. He inherited the painting and passed it on down to (continued) his daughter, Ina, who bequeathed it to the Bovina Historical Society. So who was Jack Elliott? Unfortunately, the information on him is rather sparse. He was born in May 1850 and came to the United States from Scotland in the 1880s. It does not appear that he is related to the Elliotts who settled in this area earlier in the century. Jack settled in Bloomville and it was there that he died in September The Andes Recorder reported his death in a brief notice: "Jack Elliott, a painter, died at Bloomville, September 6, from heart failure. He was a native of Scotland; a man of middle age. On coming to this country he spent some time in Bovina and painted numerous landscape pictures and portraits, and was a good artist." We have identified two other paintings of his, one now owned by Pat Miele, the other held by the Delaware County Historical Association. Pat s painting shows the Andrew McFarland farm, now owned by the Schumann family. This one is a bit unusual in that it is oil on slate. Painted in 1895, it is about 12 inches wide. Since Jack Elliott painted 'numerous landscape pictures and portraits, I would love to find more of these. If anyone knows of any, please let me know. The two paintings in the Bovina Museum both have the initials JE intertwined with the year of the painting.

9 Volume 6, Issue 4 Bovina Fire and EMS, by Roberta Burgin Page 9 Another year is almost over and the Bovina Fire and EMS would like to pass on a Very Big Thank You to everyone who has supported our events through out the year, as a big part of the Bovina Community we are very appreciative of our community members who help to make our fund raising activities a great success. Our latest fund raiser of the year was the Chili Supper and with out question it was our most successful ever, to all our volunteers who showed up to help including a Fraternity from the Electrical Program at SUNY Delhi and all who donated baked goods for our event it was very much appreciated. A special thank you to Jack and June Burns who for several years now have been donating their beef to be used in our chili, there is nothing like locally home grown which helps to make our event so successful. Of course a special thanks goes out to everyone who came out to support us by enjoying our various chilis, salad bar, and fantastic desserts. Without all of you we wouldn't be able to call our efforts such a great success. The next community event we will be sponsoring is Santa at the Fire Hall to be held on Sunday December 8th from 1-3. Come enjoy a visit with Santa and also enjoy cookies, cocoa and juice. Be sure to come out and cheer us on at the Annual O'Connor Hospital Holiday Parade in Delhi on Saturday, December 7th to help kick off the Christmas season! With the winter and holiday season upon us we would also like to ask our community to take Special Efforts to keep you and your families Safe from harms way, please take special efforts to keep your chimneys clean and make sure your fire alarms have new fresh batteries. We also ask that you help to make sure our elder community members are safe and warm this winter, if you have a neighbor that may need to be checked on please do so, not only is it important to make sure they are safe but it does the heart good to know there is someone around that cares. Everyone from Bovina Fire And EMS would like to wish all of you a very Happy and Healthy Holiday Season and ask you to all stay safe in the New Year and we look forward to serving you all in the Bovina Community!!

10 NONPROFIT ORGANIZATION U.S. POSTAGE PAID COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER SPONSORED BY DELHI, NY PERMIT NO. 2 Photos and images in this issue were generously contributed by Julie Hilson, Ray LaFever, Kim McIntosh Riera, Briana Riera, Garrett Schindler, Sherri Telian, and Mike Worden. Pastor, Rev. Garrett Schindler garrettschindler@gmail.com PO Box 26 Bovina Center, NY We are now green! If you would like to receive our e-newsletter, please send a message to bovinanewsletter@hotmail.com Or view it on our website: If you have any news to contribute for future issues, please let Julie know (bovinanewsletter@hotmail.com or )!