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Contra Dancing for……..the Brain? Come find out this Saturday, February 25th!

By on February 21, 2012

The monthly 4th Saturday Contra Dances hosted by G.A.L.A. may provide you more than just exercise, great music and a social night out. It now appears that dancing is one of the more impressive ways to increase our brain’s cognitive reserve, something good for the brain at every age, but a particularly valuable protective force for maintaining cognition into old age.

In a New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) study, dancing was found to reduce risk of dementia more than any other physical or mental activity studied. Bicycling and swimming, for instance, while excellent for the cardiovascular system, reduced the risk of dementia by 0%, as did playing golf. Reading reduced the risk by 35% and puzzling out crosswords at least 4 days a week, 47%. Frequent dancing, however, reduced the risk of dementia by 76%.

There are three more chances to improve your brain in the Winter Contra Dance Series sponsored by Global Awareness Local Action (GALA); the 4th Saturdays of February, March and April. The February dance features renowned local caller Eric Rollnick, (percussionist and founder of the steel drum band Mango Groove) with music by Puckerbrush. Playing Celtic and traditional tunes for the dancers, the band members are Candace Maher, Gale Johnsen and Peter Kimball. Instruments will litter the floor around the musicians, as among them they play fiddle, flute, whistle, guitar, accordion, the bodhran (a Celtic drum) and cello.

Easy for all ages, as each dance is both simple and taught, G.A.L.A. has designed these dances to be particularly beginner friendly. Anyone wishing an extra bit of gentle introduction can come half an hour early for the beginner’s workshop, but most children and adults find it no problem to jump right in.

The February 25th dance is at the Ossipee Town Hall, 55 Main St Center Ossipee, from 7:30-10:00. The beginner’s workshop for those who drop in a little early starts at 7:00. Suggested donations are at the door, $7-Adult, $5-Student and Seniors (65 yrs and over) , $3-Youth (14yrs and under), with refreshments and snacks to purchase.  As the G.A.L.A. Community likes to suggest, contra dancing is by far the “most sustainable way to stay warm on a cold winter night!”

G.A.L.A. can be reached for further information by emailing contact@galacommunity.org, or calling 603-539-6460. Stay updated online visiting www.galacommuniuty.org or like us on Facebook.

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Wolfeboro Composts!

By on February 8, 2012

G.A.L.A. is please to share the news that the Wolfeboro Solid Waste facility now composts!!  This is a great addition to our local services considering that an average of 1/3 of household “trash” is actually compostable!  Thanks to the leadership from our pro-recycling advocate Adam Tasker, who has been recognized by the Northeast Resource Recovery Association (NRRA) on numerous occasions for his exemplary recycling achievements, Wolfeboro is now positioned to reduce its disposable waste stream even further through this composting effort, but only with your participation!  If that wasn’t convincing enough, this should help – the finished compost product (after aging and mixing with managed yard clippings ) is planned to be used by the Wolfeboro Food Pantry Garden, properly completing the cycle.

The “pilot program”, as it is being called, will accept all vegetable and fruit scraps including salad greens, veggie & fruit peelings, coffee grounds & filters, egg shells, bread, and other baked goods.  It will NOT accept meats, dairy, animal fats, or oils.

Many of you already compost in your own backyards, and if so you shouldn’t stop!  For others, however, various factors either prohibit or make backyard composting unfavorable, in which case this new program is the perfect solution!  Come March, G.A.L.A. will be selling kitchen pails to keep by your sink for your very own composting convenience.  Once the pail fills any five gallon bucket will suffice to store your compost outside or in a garage until it’s time to go to the dump.  One tip we have found helpful is to keep a pile of shredded newspaper, shredded leaves, or wood chips nearby your compost bucket and add a little each time you add your food scraps.  This will help soften any smells that may occur.

So that’s it! Be sure that your next visit to the Wolfeboro Solid Waste facility includes compost!  And if you see Adam and is crew be sure to thank them for taking this important step to help reduce waste and restore our environment.

*Fun Fact: Did you know that our first four presidents of the United States – George Washington,  John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison – were all utterly obsessed with manure and recipes for compost?  Adams even jumped into a stinking pile when he was America’s first “minister plenipotentiary” to Britain in London in 1786.  Teasing apart the straw from the dung (clearly not minding the muck on his hands), he declared with glee that it was “not equal to mine.”

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