Valentine Gala Fundraiser for the Stone Church Cultural Center

Join the community of Friends of the Stone Church (FOSC) in Gilbertville, MA for a Valentine-themed dinner, music and a silent auction featuring gift cards and products to raise money in support of The Stone Church Cultural Center, Gilbertville's inspiring performance and gathering space!

The owner of the Hardwick Crossing Country Club, a new venue at 266 Lower Road (Rt 32) in Gilbertville, has generously made his restaurant and beautiful new private dining room available to us for this event. The menu will include steak tips, haddock, vegetables, dessert and cookies. There will be appetizers and a cash bar. All are welcome!

Tickets $65/person. $38 of each ticket purchased is tax deductible as allowed by law. 

If you are purchasing tickets and have dietary restrictions or wish to order a vegetarian meal, please contact the host by email to Events@FriendsoftheStoneChurch.org.  Your message will be acknowledged if presented prior by January 26, the deadline to order tickets.

Silent and Live Auction items are coming in every day. Highlights include delightful experiences from small to great, resort stays, restaurants, sports tickets, and things people need, such as heating oil and car inspections. Come prepared to bid and take home wonderful prizes! Here are some highlights:

Vacation Getaways

Up to 7-nights at Villa Camilla, Turks & Caicos Islands, May 1 - October 31, 2024, Upper Guest House, subject to availability

Two-night, weekend stay for two couples at the Sugar Maple Trailside Inn,  a top-rated B&B, along the Mass Central Rail Trail in Florence, near historic Northampton, MA. Package includes expanded continental breakfast on both mornings, a 23-mile guided biking tour of the trail network, and lunch at a nice restaurant in Northampton. Value $1300

Two-night, weekend stay for two couples at the Sugar Maple Trailside Inn, a top-rated B&B, along the Mass Central Rail Trail in Florence, near historic Northampton, MA. Package includes expanded continental breakfast on both mornings, and a 2-mile guided walking tour of the historic Mass Rail Trail. Value $750

$300 gift card for Cape Arundel Inn, Kennebunkport, ME

Overnight stay and 4 water park (day) passes to the New England Great Wolf Lodge indoor water park and resort

Experiences

2 tickets to the Boston Symphony at Symphony, Boston Pops concert, or Tanglewood

4 Tickets to  Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance 25th Anniversary at the Hanover Theater in Worcester on March 13, 2024

4 tickets to WooSox Baseball, 4 tickets to a Worcester Railers Hockey game with a free souvenir hat and hockey puck

Enhanced Private Tour for 5, Harvard Alpaca Ranch, Harvard, MA

Hands-on pottery or bread-making lesson from Lisa J. Cohen, potter and baker

Family passes (2 adults, 2 children) passes to Old Sturbridge Village

Wine Tasting at the Hardwick Winery for up to 10

$100 gift card for a class at Workshop 13

2 tickets to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, currently showing The Art of the Caribbean Diaspora

Athol Cinema movie tickets (2)

Passes to the Ecotarium, in Worcester

Health and Lifestyle

One-year Community Membership at the Baglio Center Athletic Facility at Eagle Hill School. A limited number of community memberships are available and there is currently a waiting list. This certificate is good for a membership starting immediately until 12/31/2024.

One hour of therapeutic massage from Wendy Bolognesi, Licensed Shiatsu Massage Therapist

$65 gift card for Capelli Avanti Salon, Worcester

Yoga class at The Centered Place, Warren

Two certificates for Sauna visits at Hometown Tan, Barre

Necessities

Seventy-five Gallons of Heating Oil from R.J. McDonald, Inc. Barre, MA

Two $35 coupons for Massachusetts Car Inspections from White Valley Motors Barre MA

Supermarket gift cards for Big Y Supermarkets, Hannaford Supermarkets,  Wholesome Farmers Market

Higgins Energy, $40 certificate

Salvadore Family of Dealerships, two buckets of car care products plus two coupons for a conventional oil change

Restaurants

Volturno,  the art of Pizza, Worcester; Ladd's, a New England dining tradition, Rutland; Nancy Chang, healthy Asian cuisine;

110 Grill; Asia Gourmet; Bellies Barnyard; Black & White; Mexicali, Quabbin Woods, the Whistlestop

Retail

CC Lowell Framing and art supplies; Country Gourmet; Dioguardi Jewelers; Down Range Sports; Hardwick Farmers' Coop;
Pet Supplies Plus; Rose32 Bread and Café; Tidepool Book Shop; Wine O'Clock

Gift baskets and Gifts

Arbonne; Autumn Morning Farm / Aunt Crissy's Honey Basket;  Original Art cards by Mathilde Duffy; Silhouettes Salon Gift Basket; California Wine Country Connoisseur Snack Basket with two bottles of red wine

To view these and many other beautiful items (selected works of art, clothing, household items) offered for sale at the auction, you'll have to come in person!

Proceeds will benefit FOSC, a non-profit charitable corporation. We create community through fine live music concerts and webcasts, live accompanied silent films, free community programs for kids and families, as we work to protect and preserve the 1874 Stone Church Cultural Center. We value history, community and the arts!

Our building is listed in the National Register District of Gilbertville, MA, an architecturally intact 19th century mill village in rural Massachusetts. Formerly the Gilbertville Trinitarian Congregational Church, the Cultural Center is located at 283 Main Street in Gilbertville (Route 32), MA 01031. To navigate to our site, select the Town of Hardwick Municipal Building on Main Street in Gilbertville. We share a driveway, and parking for our events on weekends is in the municipal /town parking lot.

Our plans for future programs and preservation project work on the building are ambitious. We have lined up a fabulous concert season for spring of 2024 and are planning more great performances for our 2024-25 season. On the building preservation project, we foresee, as funds allow in future years, installing an internal accessible restroom, repairing interior plaster, improving exterior lighting, drainage and paving, and eventually, fully restoring our historic cultural venue. While construction is done by experienced and certified preservation contractors, all of FOSC's organizational work is done by volunteers. More than 80% of donations go directly to operating and preserving our treasured historic building as a community resource.

In 2023, with grants and donations received, FOSC has:

presented a season of live performances by fine classical music artists, including improvised accompaniment to the silent film Hunchback of Notre Dame with support from the Mass Cultural Council and Local Cultural Councils of Hardwick-New Braintree, North Brookfield, Oakham, and Petersham;

offered free Fun Days and a Teddy Bear picnic for children, and brought the community together for a rollicking musical "Irish Dinner" at the Cultural Center;

hosted Weir River Jazz and the Weir River Concert Band, community music groups conducted by music educator and decorated US Air Force veteran John P. Sacco, by providing ongoing rehearsal space and a venue for their free concerts;

launched a digital platform to allow organizational development with secured, shared communications, supported by the Greater Worcester Community Foundation;

contracted with Skyline Engineering of Ashburnham, MA. who repaired our landmark building's slate roof, with our donors contributing matching a $10,000 grant from Preservation Massachusetts, funded by the 1772 Foundation with $12,000 of donor funds;

contracted with Joseph Gnazzo Company of Union, CT to reinforce the stone tower masonry with steel, grout and mortar as Phase 4 of our Steeple Stabilization project, and completed installation of our South Entrance Access Ramp with our donors matching a $78,000 grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund, a program of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, administered through a collaborative arrangement between MassDevelopment and the Mass Cultural Council; and

installed a new, larger dehumidifier as part of ongoing efforts to reduce moisture.

We are proud of these accomplishments, all of which relied on the expertise of volunteers and the support of donors like you and the organizations represented below, all of them Angels!! Won't you join us and give generously to support our work?  Thank you, with our best wishes,

Board of Directors, Friends of the Stone Church, Inc (FOSC), PO Box 347, Gilbertville, MA 01031