The Maberly Quarterly And The Guatemala Stove Project

Jeff Green | Feb 26, 2025

The last time the Maberly Quarterly Square and Contra Dance was scheduled to take place was almost five years ago, on March 14th, 2020. Right until the last minute, organisers were planning to go ahead with that dance. Then, on the Friday the 13th, the day be fore the dance, the announcement came on the Maberly Quarterly Facebook Page from organiser Maike Polano: Greetings Dancers … with heavy hearts we have decided to cancel tomorrow’s Maberly Quarterly”

The post went on to say “The situation in Ontario has been changing very rapidly and we’ve been trying to keep up with the government and public health regulations”.

A state of emergency was declared in Ontario on March 17th, and we all know what the following couple of years were like. With COVID restrictions now a distant, almost quaint memory, in the face of our current global reality, it is high time for the return of the Maberly Quarterly.

The Guatemala Stove Project, a charitable organisation that was founded in nearby Brooke Valley, helped organise this first Quarterly, since the pandemic, and the dance was a fundraiser for the project. (see below) 100 tickets were available for the Quarterly, which featured caller Emily Addison, and Buckdancer’s Choice, an old-time music supergroup featuring Teilhard Frost and Aidan Saunders on fiddle, Jason Mercer on banjo, and from over the border in Quebec, Tina Terrien on bass and Denis Drouin on guitar.

The all-ages crowd, a mix of skilled and neophyte dancers, enjoyed the music, enjoyed dancing, and enjoyed being in the company of friends and neighbours, on a February Night.

There is no downside to the Maberly Quarterly. Plans are afoot for the next dance, rumoured to be in May, and tickets will go fast to that one as well, so look to the Maberly Quarterly Facebook Page for details.

The Guatemala Stove Project is a 25 year-old project that started small, when Brooke Valley’s Tom Clarke worked with mason Don Juan Puac to build six masonry cook stoves in Mayan family homes in the Western highlands of Guatemala, greatly improving the ventilation and air quality in those homes. Since then, the project has funded the construction of 8170 stoves and counting. The vast majority of the stoves have been built by Guatemalan Masons, funded through local fundraising efforts in the greater Perth area. Most years, a group of Guatemala Stove Project volunteers travel to Guatemala to build some stoves and learn about the lifestyle and culture of their Guatemalan hosts. The Project also supports medical initiatives in the communities it serves, invests in education, provides emergency assistance following natural disasters and provides micro-loans for Mayan farmers. For further information, go to guatemalastoveproject.org