From John Elberfeld: JElberfeld@aol.com,

Dear Hilltown Neighbors and Friends:

We’d like to share some exciting news with you and ask for your help. We’re under contract with Arcadia Publishing to write a new pictorial history book, Helderberg Hilltowns, and we’re looking for vintage photographs to include in it. The book will be part of Arcadia’s “Images of America” series—possibly you’ve seen some of their books with sepia-tone photographs on the cover.

We’re excited to be writing a book that will encompass all the Hilltowns, but we need your support. Do you have any vintage photos that tell about life in the Hilltowns—Berne, Knox, Rensselaerville, and Westerlo—from approximately 1880 to 1960? We’d love to include SCANS of your photos of people doing everyday things, like feeding the chickens, riding a new bike, showing off ribbons won at the fair, standing beside a huge snowbank, or working at a quarry.

If you have any good-quality vintage photos, please contact us, and we’ll take a look. If we use your photo in our book, you’ll receive credit in the Acknowledgements section. The publisher asks us not to use photos of old photos, newspaper clippings, or Xerox copies. They want new scans of original photographs.

On November 8, we’ll be scanning photos at the election night supper at Knox Reformed Church from 4:30 to 7:00. We can scan while you eat, and you can take your photos home with you. We can also bring the scanner to your house almost any day or evening and scan them right there.

In Memoriam to Gordon Wright, Webmaster of the Berne Historical Project at Bernehistory.org

	Gordon Wright
	Gordon Wright, age 58, of Lone Rock, died on Friday October 21, 2011 at the Kossuth Regional Health Center in Algona.  Funeral services will be 10:30 AM Tuesday at the Lone Rock Presbyterian Church, with Rev. Glenn Wilson officiating.  Burial will be in Fenton Township Cemetery of rural Lone Rock, with Military Rites conducted by the Kerr-Hamerstrom American Legion Post #557 of Lone Rock. Visitation will be 5 - 7 pm Monday at the Lone Rock Presbyterian Church.      Gordon John Wright was born on April 26, 1953 in Troy, NY, the son of Harvey and Shirley (Graham) Wright.  When he was eight, his parents moved to the southern California area, settling in Garden Grove.  He joined the Navy at 17 and spent his 20 year career on the East coast, mostly in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Virginia.  He was a missile technician on nuclear submarines and spent nearly 4 years underwater, 72 days at a time.  While in the navy, he married Corrine Mandojana, and made a family with her son Danial and their two children, Rachel and Jeremy.  After retiring from the navy, a string of jobs landed him in Colorado where he was a partner in a computer software company.  There he met Joan Leaneagh in January of 2000 and they were married in Las Vegas, NV on June 9, 2001. After the sale of his business, Gordon wanted to pursue a lifelong dream to live in an RV and travel fulltime, a dream he shared with his father.  Starting in 2004, Gordon and Joan did just that for 7 years, dropping in a couple times a year to see Joan's mother in Lone Rock.  In 2008, they purchased a project house in Lone Rock and he has been working on restoring it.  Gordon loved traveling, his children and grandchildren, the family cats and was known as a computer whiz.      He is survived by his wife Joan, of Lone Rock; his step-son Danial (Wendy) Mandojana from Rhode Island, daughter Rachel (Kevin) Ruddock of Rhode Island and son Jeremy (Jennifer) of Virginia; six grandchildren: Cassie, Kyle, Brandon, Dylan, Zachary and Madison; two sisters, Dee Dee (Fred) Speicher and Debbie (Charlie) Heintz, both of California; one adopted brother, Mike and two adopted sisters, Denita and Yuridia, his Aunt Gladys of NY and three cousins: Billy, Nancy, and Susan.  He was preceded in death by his parents and a sister, Darcy.

Partnership Grants allow agricultural service providers to explore topics in sustainable production and marketing in cooperation with client farmers. The goal is to build knowledge farmers can use, encourage the understanding and widespread use of sustainable techniques, and strengthen working partnerships between farmers and farm service providers. Projects must take place on farms or directly involve farm businesses. Reviewers look for well-designed inquiries into how agriculture can enhance the environment, improve the quality of life, or be made more profitable through good stewardship.

You must be engaged in agricultural research or outreach in an organization like Cooperative                          Extension, NRCS, a state department of agriculture, a college or university, an agricultural nonprofit, or a commercial agricultural consulting business.

Funds can be used to pay for your time and time that your partnering farmers spend on the project, materials specific to the project, projectrelated services like soil testing and lab fees, project-related travel, outreach expenses, equipment rental, and other direct costs.

The deadline to apply is November 1st. For more information, visit http://nesare.org/get/partnership/