After a very worrisome couple of months, the Parson Community Hall Society has garnered enough support from the community to keep the hall open.
“We were worried for a while that we were going to have to shut it down. In fact we had really come to that conclusion as a board that that’s what was going to have to happen,” said Colleen Palumbo, secretary treasurer for the Parson Community Hall Society.
Several community members stepped up when they heard the hall was in danger of closing, and now Palumbo says she is seeing renewed energy in the society.
“People coming forward who haven’t been burned out already, and I think that’s really exciting for the community out there,” she said. At their meeting they were discussing how to build a sign when they have no money.
“So one guy said ‘well I’ll work on it,’ and pretty soon there were five guys that were making arrangements to get together and build a sign. So it was really good to see people thinking, ‘well we’ve talked a lot, now it’s time to put some of it to action.'”
The society held its Annual General Meeting on March 26, and elected a new board. There were 21 members and one guest present to see the election of a new president, Trina Wolfenden, and a new vice president, Gail Brownlee.
There are already a few events planned for the near future at the hall, including a pot luck on April 21 at 6 p.m.
“We want people to know that the hall is available for rent, and it doesn’t have to be just people from Parson who take advantage of it, anybody can rent it. And it can be used for lots of different things, not just funerals and weddings,” said Palumbo.
“Parson has been a great old community, and lots of Golden people have some tie to Parson at one point or another… My mom lived in Parson and went to high school there. I don’t want to see the hall sold off, and that piece of history taken away from the community.”
