I hope you had a wonderful warm Thanksgiving with family and friends. This is the time of year when families gather, share stories and create new memories. I hope you have been able to gather in person after these last two challenging years! It has been a busy time since I introduced myself in the late summer newsletter. First, welcome to and we hope you enjoy this new quarterly newsletter. Our newly formed Communications Committee has worked hard to develop it. I thank all the members who responded to their recent survey. We hope to bring all kinds of Wing news in future issues. Let’s be clear though, this newsletter DOES NOT replace The Owl. We will always continue to produce The Owl, our treasured publication that has made flight to Wing mailboxes for over 100 years! In fact, this year’s issue of The Owl will hopefully be in your hands by the end of December.
Now, for some updates since the last newsletter:
· Painting the Fort House (and other changes inside): Yes it’s red! Painting the outside of the Fort House is complete and historically accurate to the 1700s. Many changes have taken place inside also thanks to our very busy bee Curator, Christina Shipps, with the support and guidance of the Museum and Property Committees. We are so grateful for Christina’s creative ideas and dedicated hard work. Words would fall very short of trying to summarize it in this newsletter. Because (many) pictures are worth 1,000+ words, plans are underway to have Zoom meetings with a virtual “tour” of the Fort House.
· The Wing Memorial History Center has a new assistant curator, Kelsey Cronin. We’ll introduce her more in a future newsletter. She will be at the History Center 1-2 days a week cataloging family treasures, handling gift shop sales, creating displays and helping work on the MAP modules.
· Our 2023 WFA reunion has been confirmed to be held June 22-25 in Merced, CA!
Save the date. Details are in the newsletter.
· A District 11 representative is needed (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona). For more information or to volunteer (it’s not hard, really!) contact Ginger Schmidt (WesternDistrictCoordinator@Wingfamily.org).
· Our WFA Master Ancestry Tree can be accessed, for free, by members, even if you don’t have a paid Ancestry subscription. You just need a user name.
Contact Genealogist, Robert Wollan Genealogist@Wingfamily.orgto get started.
I wish all of you a blessed, very merry Christmas and the happiest New Year! I hope we see each other in Merced in June. Contact me any time you have questions, want to chat or tell me a story.
With gratitude,
Beth Fisher, “Cousin Prez”