Events

GELIA ANNUAL MEETING
Saturday, July 7, 2007- 9 AM

You are invited to join your lake neighbors for the Great East Lake Improvement Association's Annual Meeting at Weeks Park, featuring: Invited Speakers, Raffle, Book and Clothing Sales, Information Booths, Flares and Stickers, and a Free Lunch.

Booths and Raffle open - 9:00 Business meeting - 10:00. Lunch - Noon

NEW this year: Booths will close for the business meeting and reopen after the meeting, so come early or stay after, if you want to visit the booths.

Directions: Weeks park is located on the north shore of Great East Lake (see map). Take Acton Ridge Road, turn onto Dearborn Road, drive to the end of Dearborn and turn right onto North Shore Drive. Weeks Park is a short distance down on the right. Please bring your own chairs.

Our sincere thanks to the local businesses that continue to support our programs by contributing goods or services to our 2007 annual raffle.

        Acton Trading Post                           Apple Core Shop
        Assets Realty                                     Cabin Life Magazine
        C&G Pizza                                         Cindy's Place
        Country Side Corner                        E.T.Hines Mercantile
        Great East Docks                        Interior Plus
        Longmeadow Hardware           Lovell Lake Food Store
        Miller Chevrolet                            Miss Wakefield Diner
        Moulton Lumber                        Napa
        Pine River Steakhouse            Poor Peoples Pub
        Potting Shed                                Quinn's Bait Shop
        Raise-A-Dock                                Roadside Farmer
        Seven Lakes Provisions            Seven Lakes Realty
        Teds Fried Clams                             Tumbledown Farms

2007 GELIA Annual Meeting

The July 7th, 2007 Annual Meeting of the Great Lake East Improvement Association was held on another beautiful Saturday morning at Weeks Park. The large number of attendees came early to visit the booths, which included Welcome, Raffle Tickets, Loons, Acton Wakefield Watersheds Alliance (AWWA), Membership, Flares and Stickers, GELIA Logo Clothing, Safety and Environment, Lake Hosts, Weedwatchers, Maps and Charts, Newichawannock Reflections, Moose Mountain Regional Greenways (MMRG), and Three Rivers Land Trust.

The business meeting started at 10am and proceeded with the minutes and treasurer's report. The many active committees of GELIA gave reports about their work throughout the year. The new Activities Committee reported on the plans for a Family Lake Festival and a photo contest. The Membership committee reported that our membership is at 364 and growing. We continue to get good water quality measurements as reported by the Water Quality committee. The Weedwatcher committee reports that Great East now has 60 weed watcher volunteers, and 1 invasive was pulled from the lake last year. The Lake hosts program is going strong with 1 invasive save last year and 1 this year. The Loon committee reported that the loons are having a hard time this year with the fluctuating water levels. AWWA reported on their work on the lakes and streams in the area.

Invited Speakers included Joyce El Kouarti, who spoke about the activities of Moose Mountain Regional Greenways and Don Miller of NH Fish and Game who talked about the many fish species in the lake and the stocking of Great East Lake. Announcements were made of upcoming events: The Family Lake Festival on Aug. 18th, The Kid's Environmental Activity on July 14th, The Lovell Lake/Great East Lake Golf Tournament on Sept. 15th, The Art in the Barn Party on July 28th, and the AWWA Gathering and Boat Tours on Aug. 17th. The traditional boat concert in the middle of the lake was announced to be at 7:30 and flare-up at 9:30.

Jon Rouillard presented outgoing President, Linda Schier with a citation from Governor Lynch, praising her for her many volunteer hours spent promoting, and protecting Great East and other area lakes.

A new slate of Officers and Board of Directors was nominated and accepted. The incoming president, Steve Dagley, presented Linda Schier with a beautiful, hand-carved "LAKE NEWICHAWANNOCK " sign for her cottage.

The morning concluded with a huge raffle of donated item from area businesses and a hot dog lunch, including the option of tofu dogs this year.

GELIA Family Lake Festival 2007

On a beautiful Saturday, August 18th, 2007, there was a great turnout for the Family Lake festival held at Weeks Park in Wakefield from 10am to 4pm. About 40 children and 40-50 adults were in attendance.

The festival kicked off at 10am with 10 paddlers braving the wind and cool weather to complete a one and a half mile course while retrieving golf balls in the water, flags from the shore, oranges floating in the lake and catching a ball thrown from a passing boat. The overall winner was Beth Hall, the junior winner was Kelsey Hall, the senior winner was Bruce Conant and J.P. Rouillard was the youth winner.

With music playing in the background, families enjoyed a picnic lunch. In the afternoon a carnival like atmosphere featured free pop corn, snow cones, cotton candy and cold drinks. Games enjoyed by "children of all ages" included fishing in the pond, a boat pond, basketball throw, horseshoes, face painting, frisbee toss, hocky puck skee-ball, and bean bag toss. The hit of the day was the obstacle course. Many children also enjoyed the face painting. There was a fish I.D. contest and a Great East Lake trivia contest devised and run by Pat Thiesen. All the games were free and participants received tickets based on the number of points scored. The tickets could then be redeemed for prizes.

Anyone who was at the event would agree that the highlight of the day was "Tricky Dick" the magician who amazed and confounded the crowd, especially the children who assisted him in the magic show.

Several Yard Sale tables were available and GELIA Logo clothing and Newichawannock Reflections were on sale.

The event was planned and organized by the GELIA Activities Committee: Chuck and Marcia Hodsdon, Gary and Mary Field, Steve and Pam Dagley, Doug and Bess Smith, Jon Rouillard and Mary Kraft. Linda Schier, John Hodsdon, Carol and Dave Lafond, Carol Mairs, Pat Theisen, Barbara Wadleigh and Barbara Cawlina helped run the event. Many thanks to all of the organizers and volunteers.