Apr 7, 2016 By Teghan Simonton copy Chief 3 min read

Saturday, April 2, marked an important date for the Greene County Historical Society, according to Alexandra Johnson, administrative assistant and co-chair of the society’s dinner-dance committee.

The 6th Annual Dinner-Dance was held Saturday at the National Guard Readiness Center. The armory was decorated with tree branches strung with twinkling lights, centerpieces and festive balloons. Johnson said that the dinner-dance is unique because of its atmosphere. 

“The purpose of the dinner-dance is to act as a fundraiser and get as many people as possible together,” said Johnson. “It’s very much unlike a lot of our other events. And it’s usually our second-biggest fundraiser.”

Johnson said that while the planning for this event was very extensive, the event itself was not as stressful. 

As a result, and with the help of student volunteers, society members were able to talk to attendees and better promote the organization throughout the evening. 

In keeping with this, both the organization’s administrator and museum curator prepared short pieces.

“Both in our programs and in the speech, they talked about our upcoming events for the museum and thanked all of the people who have shown us support,” said Johnson.

Johnson also specified that the society’s Crouse Schoolhouse initiative was promoted extensively at the event.

“It’s an old schoolhouse [in Rogersville] that badly needed repairs,” said Johnson. “And so far we’ve gotten the entire exterior done.”

Johnson said that the schoolhouse is intended to be the society’s “West Greene County satellite,” and will soon hold displays of its own, as well as be open for use of groups and organizations for meetings. 

According to Johnson, the dinner-dance was very successful overall, despite attendance being lower than usual. 

“The event is usually anywhere between 150 people and 200,” she said. “This year we saw attendance go down a bit-closer to 130.”

Johnson equated this to scheduling conflicts with the armory that caused the society to change the originally advertised date of the evening. She also said that as the event has become routine, the society should renew its features.

“I think we’ve had this event for 6 years in a row now, and I think we need to sort of change it up a little,” she said.

Still, Johnson was confident that the event flourished given the factors that were not in the society’s favor.She also affirmed that the event was productive in promoting Greene County Historical Society and its upcoming events. 

For example, displays will be reopening April 23 with a pancake breakfast. 

The society will also be partnering with the Kelley Miller Circus in May and hosting a new event, a garden party, in mid-June.