Something for everyone

Alger Matters will host its annual barn dance on Sunday, Sept. 20, at the MSU Extension North Farm in Chatham.

It’s an event that continues even though it has moved from nonprofit Alger County Community that Cares, or AC3, and is now under the Alger Matters group.

“It’s a fun event,” said Elise Bunce, one of the founders of Alger Matters. “There’s a little something for everyone.”

A kids tent will be set up as well as woodfired pizzas from the Cooking Carberrys, hayrides through the MSU Extension and a pie and cake auction.

The main event will be the barn dance itself.

Granny Fox and the Farmhands band will be providing the music, and they will bring a caller along. There is no experience needed, only a willingness to have a good time.

“Show up at 3 p.m., listen to the music and dance,” Bunce said. “It’s basically just a fun time for the community.”

Alger Matters was formed in order to better support the Alger County community. It is focused on community building through volunteerism and donations. In addition to the barn dance, the group also organizes Farms for Folks, a program through which people in the community get fresh local produce.

The first barn dance happened just prior to the pandemic, and at that time it was a dance and a farm-to-table meal. Then COVID shut the whole works down.

Mary Joan O’Halloran-Torango was involved at the time and said that after everything opened up again it seemed like a good time to restart the dance. 

“Everyone was just so siloed up, and people didn’t have a chance to connect,” O’Halloran-Torango said. “We thought this would be a great idea to just get people together. We dropped the meal and art auction and just stuck with the band and the dancing.”

That was around the time that Alger Matters split from the AC3.

“It just became clear that in order to do freely what we wanted to do with the money we got that we were going to have to become our own entity,” O’Halloran-Torango said. “We always wanted to keep our eye on what was needed in Alger County, from Grand Marais to Kiva.”

The large area means a lot of decisions needed to be made.

“We’re just in the end stages of finding out what we’re really focusing on,” Bunce said. “We moved from just focusing on the youth of the county to everyone. We just want to help the people of Alger County.”

Last year saw the addition of the TLC farm and garden walk, which Bunce said was highly successful. She said it will most likely become an annual event. 

The North Farm barn in Chatham is more than 100 years old and is the perfect place for the event.

“A lot of those old barns aren’t around anymore,” Bunce said. “They’re very expensive to maintain. It’s a great old wooden barn. MSU has been incredibly generous with their time and help.”

All cakes and pies for the auction are donated as well, and there is still time to enter.

Any funds or donations go back into the community.

“We don’t want to be the wheel,” Bunce said. “We want to be a spoke in the wheel that helps other agencies get done what the community needs to get done.”

The barn dance happens rain or shine and is free to attend. O’Halloran-Torango loves seeing the generations of Alger County residents that come out for a good time. 

“It’s 90-year-olds to infants,” O’Halloran-Torango said. “The people who come are so varied. Some might be dressed in cowboy boots and jeans and others are coming in hippie clothes. It’s for everybody, no matter how Pollyanna that sounds. Who doesn’t enjoy a barn dance?”

For more information about the free barn dance or any of the other events put on by Alger Matters, visit algermatters.org.