Smothered beef dinner at Grange

RUMFORD — Rumford Grange 115 will hold a smothered beef dinner from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 23, at the grange, Route 2. Menu includes beef, potatoes, veggies, pies and choice of drinks. Adults $8, children under 12 $4.

Topic: home, land history

BETHEL — A series titled “My House/My Land: What Is Its History” will be offered jointly by the Bethel Historical Society and the Mahoosuc Land Trust starting on Tuesday evening, Sept. 25, at 7:30. The three-part program will take place at the Dr. Moses Mason House, 14 Broad St., and examine home and land ownership in a historical context, going back from the present to pre-settlement times.

The first talk will be given by Richard Hale, associate professor emeritus in wood technology at the University of Maine School of Forest Resources. A member of the Historical Society’s board of trustees, Hale will focus on Maine land-use history in the Bethel area.

The second lecture and discussion, scheduled for 7:30 on Oct. 9, will be led by Kirk G. Siegel, Esq., of Hanley & Associates, P.A. and Oxford Title. In a program titled “What Land Records Should I Have?” Siegel will discuss two related aspects: essential land data for real property owners, and exploring land records for historical and general research. He will also touch upon the subject of conservation options for landowners.

The third and final session in the series, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 23, will cover the importance of having a property legally defined on the ground by surveys, how surveys are properly carried out and what problems surveyors often encounter in their research. For more information about this series, contact the Bethel Historical Society at 824-2908 or [email protected].

Community Networking Meeting

RUMFORD — The next Community Networking Meeting sponsored by the River Valley Healthy Communities Coalition is scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 27, at noon. The meeting will be held at the Rumford Public Library. Bring your own lunch.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Safe Voices and the Oxford County Domestic Violence Task Force have planned several awareness activities including the third Paint the County Purple Campaign and second Paint the County Purple Contest. Diane Gallagher will be sharing information about the October events, talk about the OCDVTF and review Safe Voices services.

Other agenda items include community updates from the Healthy Communities as well as from other River Valley organizations.

For more information, contact Patty Duguay at 364-7408.

CROP Walk addresses poverty

BETHEL — The West Parish Congregational Church, UCC, will sponsor its seventh annual Bethel Area CROP Walk (Churches Respond to Overcome Poverty) at 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 30, around Bethel Village.

The walk is about three miles long.

Seventy-five percent of the funds raised support the efforts of Church World Service. Twenty-five percent will benefit the Bethel Food Pantry.

For more information, call Jane Chandler at 357-3524.