“Our Grange is very active in the community,” says Scott Dickson, Master of
Clarkes Grange in Oregon, about 25 miles southeast of Portland in an area
known as the Christmas Tree Capital of Oregon.
“The primary way we make a living for ourselves is by offering a service of
event planning for weddings, receptions, anniversaries, and those kinds of
events. We help people find a place to hold it and prepare the food. We’ve
become quite well-known for providing this service in our community,” says
Scott.
Bev Bush is Clarkes Grange’s Event Coordinator. “Close to fifteen years ago
now, I started thinking that even though holding bazaars can be a great way
of meeting people, they have some drawbacks. First you have to get people
to make things to sell – and then you have to find people to buy them. So I
started thinking about other ways we might be able to do fundraising. I
thought, we’re Grangers and we’re good cooks. What if we took that skill
and made it work for us?”
“Well that question started us out in a whole enterprise that makes us good
money and does provide a service to the community too. We started out
catering a meal, charging for the groceries plus $1 per person. Now we’re
up to charging for groceries plus $5 per person – and we’re still the best
deal in town,” says Bev.
“We hold some functions at our Grange Hall, but we’ll serve a meal other
places too. We have a neighborhood pond where many functions are held. We
catered a company picnic there this summer that was quite successful.”
“Usually I meet with whoever is in charge of the event,” says Bev, “and we
put together a menu. We’ve never yet told anybody that we couldn’t make the
food they wanted. Two or three of our Grangers do the shopping and then we
have a group of 20 or so of our members who can be counted on to do the
cooking and serving.”
“We made ourselves Grange aprons to wear when we serve so we can look sharp.
And we’ve created quite a name for ourselves. We charge way less than
anyone else has been charging – and of course it’s great food.”
Jim Dumolt, Treasurer of Clarkes Grange, says, “For a typical wedding or
picnic, we take in between $1000-1500, and then once we subtract our
expenses, we usually net between $800 and $900.”
“And that’s all in one day,” says Bev. “That’s one of the great things
about it. And we have a lot of fun doing it! We’ve gotten so everyone who
does it regularly knows their jobs. And we have a B team who don’t work with
us as often. We sometimes need to give them a little extra training, but
everyone works together so well. It’s fun!”
“We’ve done barbeques for up to 300 or 400 people. We’ve done school
dinners. We can do a buffet – which is how we started out. Our members
were older then. But now we can also do a sit-down dinner for somewhere
between 285-325 people. Our Grange Youth help serve, and we can serve 300
people in 25-30 minutes.”
“When we started catering, the average age of our volunteers was probably
around 65. We had some in their 70’s and 80’s and some who were younger.
Now the average age in our Grange is probably closer to 50,” says Bev. “I’m
training someone to take over for me and she’s 36. We get our youth
involved too. Some of our kids started helping when they were 6 or 7. They
can shuck corn or rinse grapes – which are jobs that somebody has to do.”
“Working together like we do – and having fun doing it – has helped make us
a really close-knit Grange. When people compliment us on the food, they’ll
sometimes say that they didn’t know Grange was still around. We remind them
that we’re very much around! When I tell them that all the people serving
them are volunteers and nobody gets paid, their jaws drop! They can’t
believe that all these people do this for nothing. They ask where our money
goes if it’s not to pay the help, and we tell them all the charities that we
give to. The money goes to our Grange and our Grange donates that money
back into the community.”
“That’s the thing I want people to understand,” says Bev. “Grange gives to
the community. And that’s what brings people in as members. My son-in-law,
for instance, joined Grange specifically because we support the Ronald
McDonald House. He’s had occasion to use the Ronald McDonald House, and it’s important to him. So because Grange supports what he cares about, he
joined. And of course, I roped him into helping cater too.”
“We have 97 members. About 30 are really active. Some of our members are
older and don’t participate actively in the catering any more. At meetings,
we usually get out between 16-20 – enough to fill all the offices,” says Ann
Dickson, Secretary.
“Dues are $28 per person or $50 per family. $25 of that goes to State and
National Grange,” says Jim.
“Our meetings are fun too,” says Bev. “Scottie, our Master, keeps things
light. We have a potluck before every meeting, so there’s good food.”
“And we have great lecturer programs,” adds Sue Dumolt. “We always have a
good time together.”
Sue is Clarkes Grange’s Abilities Chair. “We decided that one way we could
serve the community was by having home health care equipment for people to
borrow. We have a whole room in our Grange Hall where we keep all kinds of
equipment that people might need. People who maybe have had a hip or knee
replaced might need a wheelchair, a walker, or crutches. We’ve got that.
Or maybe elders come visit their kids and they need a commode or even a
hospital bed. Any of our equipment is available for anyone in the
community. We advertise in a community newsletter. I got a call from a
woman who knows nothing at all about Grange, but who needed a wheelchair.
And now she knows that we help people in the community. So she – and
actually a lot of people – know that we’re there to help. It makes us feel
pretty special too.”
“We’re very rural. There’s not really a town of any kind. We have a store
and that puts out a little newsletter. We use that to spread the word about
the home health care equipment, and anything else we’ve got going on,” says
Sue.
“In fact, the catering that we did this summer raised money to buy more
wheelchairs. And that company picnic we catered, when they found out what
we were going to do with the money we earned, they added a $500 tip! The
catering really gets us out in the community so people know more about us
and what we do. It’s helped bring in members and we’ve gotten a lot of
support from it too!”
“You know, I think about the catering itself as a community service,” says
Bev. “There are a lot of people who want a nice function – and deserve to
have a nice function. But catering can be expensive. A lot of people might
not have the money to have what they want if we didn’t make it so
affordable.”
“The catering jobs we get are entirely word-of-mouth. We don’t advertise.
We start with some events in early spring and then we go all through the
summer and even into October. How often we cater varies from year to year.
We might do two or three weekends in a row and then not have another event
for a month or more.”
“We got started when some of our own members wanted some event catered. I
do custom baking and whenever someone asks, I’m able to suggest that we
could do the job for them. But we don’t advertise. We really don’t have
to. In fact, there is a danger in doing things well. When you get known
for what you can do, they’ll just keep calling and calling you.”
“It’s amazing how many times that someone who is attending an event that we’re catering will say to us that their grandma used to belong to Grange.
Seems like everybody’s grandma used to belong to Grange. But we’ve brought
in new members through catering too. When they realize what we do and see
how much fun we have, some people can see themselves as part of us.”
“We participate in the Adopt-a-Highway program which helps get our name out
in the community too, right on the highway signs,” says Jim Dumolt. “We’ve
taken on two sections of highway, each two miles long. We’re out there
twice a year cleaning up – and one of our Grange members does it all year
round.”
“During the fall to winter months,” says Sue, “we hold bingo parties on the
first Friday of every month. The kids especially love it! People bring
their own snacks and we set it all out buffet style. The bingo parties are
another way that Grange gets out there. Non-Grangers who come say, ‘What do
you mean, it doesn’t cost anything?’ It’s just an inexpensive way for
people to get together for fellowship and camaraderie.”
“At one of the bingo parties recently, the kids did an old-fashioned taffy
pull,” Bev adds. “There was a lot of taffy and a lot of sticky hands, but
they had such a good time.”
“It’s a great way for us all to clean out our closets. We bring in all kinds
of white elephants for prizes,” says Sue. “We play till all the prizes are
gone and we make sure that everyone wins something. In fact the group sort
of self-polices itself. If someone has won too much, they manage to stop
winning and always make sure that the kids go home with a prize. I think
families are really drawn to bingo nights.”
“Our Lecturer is very good at getting good prizes from the surplus kinds of
stores. So we might give away a bag of macaroni or boxes of Cracker Jack.
There are always a lot of stuffed animals. Tools, Hot Wheels, a mug – the
prizes could be just about anything. We put them into categories: Women’s,
Youth, Children Boy, Children Girl, Men’s. We always have fun.”
“Oh yes, that’s a recurring theme for us,” says Sue. “We always have fun.
And we think that’s contagious!”
To find out more about Clarkes Grange, call 503-632-4512.
