Successful
Actions of Burns - MI
Written by Sally Crosiar
“Burns Grange is located in a rural area on the banks of the Shiawassee River between the village of Byron, population 600 and the village of Bancroft also population 600,” says Chris Johnston, Master of Burns Grange. “We’re seven miles from the city of Durand which has a population of about 50,000.”
“We’re a Grange that prides itself on doing ritual. We’ve had a few meetings when we did not open and close in form, and we just didn’t feel like it was very organized or that we got very much done,” says Chris.
“Our hall is a two-story building that was built in the 1950’s. We have just finished adding a handicapped entrance.”
“We have a membership of 46 and we are always looking for new members,” says Chris. “We have members who just turned 14 and we have members who are over 100 years old. We have several members who are in their late 80’s or 90’s who were once the true mainstays of our Grange and are still very much a part of our group. Our membership is within one or two members of five years ago.”
“Back when our hall was built in the 1950’s, the Grange had chicken dinners for fundraisers,” says Sharon Popler, newly elected Lecturer of Burns Grange. “And we keep doing chicken dinners still today. We have six dinners every year, three in the spring and three in the fall. We have a mailing list of about 100 people who get a post card reminder when a dinner is coming up. The money we raise with our dinners goes toward upkeep of our hall, insurance, heat, that kind of thing.”
“We bake 220 pounds of chicken and 10 pounds of giblets,” says Chris, who acts as chef during the dinners. “Sometimes the lady that makes the gravy complains that I don’t put enough water on the giblets, but it usually works out.”
“Chris starts out at 5 in the morning,” says Peggy Johnston, his mother and Secretary of Burns Grange. “By the time we’re done, he’s not much interested in eating any chicken!” she laughs. “I’m usually serving it up, and I’m not too interested in eating any either!”
How many people attend Burns Grange Chicken Dinners depends on the weather and how many people may have gone south for the winter. “We usually serve 200 dinners plus take-outs,” says Chris. “It probably averages 160-225 or so.”
“I’ve known some years when we served 300,” says Peggy, “but with the economy the way it is right now, it’s different. We charge $7 for adults and $3 for children who are 12 and under. We’ve discussed raising the price, but we watched the papers and saw that $7 is about the range for these kinds of meals. Michigan does have a pretty bad economy right now, so my feeling is that if we’re still making money on our dinners, we should keep the price where it’s at.”
“We hold a Meet the Candidate Night every other year,” says Sharon, “and we have for over 40 years. It’s looked on as the best Meet the Candidate event in the county, and people running for office often ask us when it will be scheduled because they definitely want to be there.”
“We host a Jamboree on the third Friday of every month where we host about 50-75 guests. The money we raise with the Jamborees goes to sponsor or Words for Thirds project. We are very proud to have donated 4000 dictionaries in our county alone,” says Sharon. “We are so proud and glad to be part of this wonderful project. We’ve given dictionaries to about 15 different schools. We contact the schools early in the school year to find out how many children they have in third grade, and then we’re usually set up to deliver them in the month of October. This year we started delivering on a Tuesday and then by the following Tuesday, we had given them all out.”
“When we go into a school, it’s not at all unusual for a child to come up to us and ask, ‘Aren’t you the dictionary lady from last year?’ I just love the looks on the children’s faces. They are so excited to be opening up their own books. And their gratitude is really great – especially when you get notes from the kids. It’s so cute. These little ones are trying so hard – and it is a dictionary project – but there are so many misspelled words. It’s just cute. We’ll get a great big envelope full in the mail. It’s a wonderful project!”
“We have a group of retired railroaders in our area that grew so big that they needed to find a new place to meet – on request of one of their wives. So now they meet at our Grange Hall. They come every other month and we serve them a lunch. They have a mailing list of 140 names, and they really enjoy getting together. Quite a few of them go south for the winter now, so we have lunches for them from May through September,” says Sharon.
“Four years ago, we tried out something new with a craft bazaar and bake sale. We had a big success and so we’ve kept on doing it! We have a bake sale and a raffle, and all that goes into our building fund. It really helps with projects around the hall. We also hold a bake sale in conjunction with our chicken dinners,” says Sharon.
“We have our own Grange table at the Bazaar, and then we rent spaces out to other people. So far we’ve only used the upper hall,” says Sharon, “but we open up the basement too, and we hope to build on the Bazaar until the whole building is filled. It’s grown a little bit each year. One vendor comes in with stained glass, there’s a lady with soy candles that she makes, and some bring in a variety of items. We serve lunch in the basement. And then anything we don’t sell from our table, we leave up until the Jamboree the following week and for our December Chicken Dinner. So it all goes on for a few weeks.”
“One of the activities we do every year is the Byron Fun Day in the Park,” says Peggy Johnston, Secretary of Burns Grange. “Byron is five or six miles from the Grange Hall. It’s a small community that does big events! They have a 4 th of July parade and fireworks that is held on either the Saturday before or after the 4 th. They have games and crafts for kids – all free of charge – with hot dogs, pop, and refreshments. Burns Grange ran the concession stand during the fireworks and everyone had so much fun doing this project that we decided to do it again next year.”
“Grange purchases flags for local cemeteries to put on Veterans’ graves,” says Peggy. “Several members of our Grange are also on the board of one cemetery. The VFW used to give flags to the cemetery every year, and when they quit giving them, we were approached to do it. We usually purchase 50 flags at a time. Sometimes the flags are left out each year, and that means they need to be replaced more often. Sometimes, they bring them in, and they can be used the following year. Whenever they need flags, they just let us know and we supply them. It’s just a way of keeping in contact with the people in our community.”
“We send many cards – get well, condolence, thinking of you – to members and non-members. We support the members of Respite of Shiawassee County. We contribute to the Loaves and Fishes Food Bank. We help with postage to send packages to our service men and women,” says Peggy.
“Just recently, we gave money to a local child care center so they could divide the play yard to separate older and younger children. We adopt a child at the Michigan State School for the Deaf,” says Peggy.
“We help Michigan State Grange a lot with their fundraising projects. We sell raffle tickets for a John Deere Gator that’s awarded at the Michigan State Grange Session, we held a penny drive, and we’re selling cookbooks for when the 2009 National Grange Convention will be held in Michigan,” says Peggy.
“We get good coverage in our local newspapers. We have an article in after every meeting, and before special projects to promote them, and we send out newsletters and postcard reminders. We have a rack in our hall with brochures and we put Grange brochures on the tables at our dinners,” says Peggy.
“We have a lot of fun doing our projects,” says Peggy. “Sometimes it seems like a few people do most of the work, but everybody pitches in one way or another. It takes just about our whole membership to carry off one of our chicken dinners.”
“Grange is a super organization,” Peggy adds. “I’m proud to have been a member for 40 years. Every community is different so what Granges do in their community is different. But one thing we’ve seen that does work just about everywhere is the Dictionary Project.” |
