Arriving early or staying late?

Food

Graymoor will provide meals which meet the needs of the majority of participants. A vegan option will be available at each meal, which should meet the needs of most vegetarian and dairy-free attenders. We expect to have menus available on Feb. 1 so that you can discern whether the available options from Graymoor will meet your needs. Due to Graymoor's inability to provide options beyond this, we are making alternative accommodations for Friends whose needs cannot be met by Graymoor.

We are organizing alternate meals for gluten- and wheat-free attenders that will be prepared with attention to concerns of cross-contamination and the concurrent food needs of some gluten- and wheat-free folks. This alternate meal preparation includes purchasing ingredients ahead of time, for which we have a small budget per gluten- and wheat-free attender; if you prefer to bring your own food please let us know ASAP. The gluten- and wheat-free meal coordinator (and shopper) is Alan Robinson, whose contact info is asrobinson@aol.com .

For those other Friends who are unlikely to be able to eat the food prepared by Graymoor, we will have refrigerator space and basic cooking implements available and can offer a rebate of $20 or your food costs, up to a limit of $50—if you believe you will need these resources please let us know ASAP so we can plan accordingly. We are also able at this time to offer to purchase a limited number of commonly available grocery items for Midwinter attenders with serious food concerns who will be arriving by plane or otherwise would find it difficult to shop on the way to Midwinter. Please try to keep your requests under the rebate amount. Note that grocery stores near Graymoor are likely to have a much wider selection of foods and much higher prices than, a typical suburban or exurban grocery store in other parts of the country.

While we will have some volunteers who will be helping with gluten-free and other food prep/cleanup, please plan to participate in preparing and cleaning up from your own supplemental food. Please try to plan easy-to-prepare food that doesn't require too much in the way of kitchen resources.

We understand that this is a difficult and unfair situation to those Friends with serious food concerns, but do not believe at this time we can get the Graymoor kitchen to go any further to support our food needs.

If you have any questions or concerns about food, please contact us at nymidwinter@gmail.com .

Healing Center

We hope to provide a Mid-winter Gathering Healing Center for Spirit-led Friends to give and receive healing (energy and body work modalities and laying on of hands) in a worship environment. Those who have registed for Gathering who practice healing gifts and arts and who are willing to share during Gathering are invited to contact Stephen McDonnell stephenmcdonnell@verizon.net

Bring Your Items for the Silent Auction!

(from Liz Keeney, silent auction co-organizer)

I have in my possession two large backs of the leftovers from Summer Gathering's auction which I plan on bringing with me assuming the weather does not have other ideas that weekend. I have also been setting aside some treasures as I weed through my possessions in a general clean up. Today's find, which someone will find irresistible, is a full length (on a person who if she stretches is 5' 2 ¾") nightshirt in a soft, green and white cotton stripe purchased from a tailor in Luxor, Egypt. When I saw it I remembered being warm in January the year I bought it. It was a nice feeling. One of you can have not only the nice night shirt but the image of being warm.

What are you bringing?

Supplies

In order to cut down on costs, we're hoping Midwinter attenders can bring some of the “consumer durables” that we need to help create an accessible and terrific Midwinter. Specifically, if you can bring an electric hot plate, baking pans that would fit inside a toaster oven, and/or a snow sled please let us know at nymidwinter@gmail.com ! Also, we're looking for some folks to bring decorative banners, such as one with the name of your Meeting, to enliven and warm our main meeting space. A complete list of needed supplies is available here.

Transportation

If you are requesting transportation from Peekskill to Graymoor, please let us know as soon as possible your Peekskill arrival and departure information. This information can be emailed to us at nymidwinter@gmail.com . Check out the transportation section of this website after Feb 1 for more details on getting to Graymoor via public transit or car.

Program

Updated information about our Midwinter program is available at http://sites.google.com/site/midwinter2010/program/schedule .