Successful
Actions of Grantham Grange - NC
Grantham Grange is located near Goldsboro, North Carolina, about an hour southeast of Raleigh. “The population is hard to count as we’re not an incorporated town. We have a school and three stores,” says Bobby Crawford, President of Grantham Grange. “At one time I was on the Board of Elections and then we had about 3600 people who lived in Grantham Township.”
“Grantham Grange was established in 1937 by our grandparents and parents to establish support for the agricultural profession at the national, state, and local levels,” says Bobby. “My grandfather, mother, and uncles were charter members. Today, we’re primarily a community service organization. We sincerely enjoy doing good things for people in our community who need help.”
“Our Grange went through a period that was not productive. Our membership was getting older and we weren’t bringing in or training new members on a regular basis. There were maybe fifteen or twenty members on the books and only five or six people were coming to meetings on any regular basis. That meant they weren’t able to do much.”
“About four years ago, I was asked to attend a Grange meeting, and then after I’d attended a couple more meetings, they asked me to serve as President. We had another meeting to elect other officers, and then we faced the fact that we could not continue with the status quo. So the new officers met and developed a plan that we believed would serve our Grange.”
“After a lot of discussion this is the plan we came up with. 1. Have a meeting on the 4 th Monday of each month and make it a dinner meeting. 2. Have a meaningful program at each meeting. 3. Focus on community service projects to help make our community a better place to live. 4. Focus on a fund-raising project to support our activities that require funds.”
“Our plan has worked well. It became contagious. Members shared the plan with neighbors and friends, and it became a kind of domino effect. We now have sixty-eight members, and an average of forty to fifty people attend most meetings.”
“We meet each month at our Volunteer Rescue Squad Building. We’ve tried several different ways to have a meal – one member prepared the meal, we got a local restaurant to cater a meal for us, and we had covered-dish meals. Everyone seems to like the covered-dish meals most, so that’s what we do now,” says Bobby. “It’s like a family reunion every month with delicious food and outstanding fellowship.”
“Each month our Program Director plans a program or speaker for the meeting. Everyone has an opportunity to list a subject they would like to hear for a program, and then Dr. John Tart, our Program Director makes the arrangements and schedules the programs each month.”
“After the program, we have a business meeting where we plan all our community support events, fund-raising activities, and all other activities that our Grange participates in. The members vote on every activity and expenditure that is made by the Grantham Grange.”
“I’ve gone to a lot of State and National Grange Conventions,” says Dr. John Tart who serves as Program Director for Grantham Grange. “Five or six years ago, I interviewed a lot of people from all across the country about what made their Granges successful. Of course, lots of people didn’t have really successful Granges. But the ones that did, basically had three things in common. What they said was ‘we always have an interesting program, we do a lot of community service, and we always eat!’ So that’s what we’ve tried to do at Grantham Grange.”
“I made out a list of thirty or forty – maybe even fifty – possible topics for programs, and then we still keep adding to that list. So we came up with a long list of topics, duplicated it, and made it available to all our Grange members. We had them check off the topics they were most interested in. We selected twelve topics for one year and then another twelve for the following year.”
John talks about some of the programs held in the last year. “In September, 2006, we had Mr. Dean Sauls who works with the Wayne County Public School System speak to us. He talked about the Wayne County Leadership Team who selected a project to recognize Governor Curtis Hooks Brogden who was Governor between 1874-1877. The Leadership Class put up a granite marker at his birthplace and did extensive work at his gravesite in Willow Dale Cemetary. Brogden School students now maintain his gravesite,” says John.
“In October, David Meredith shared information about his agricultural tour with a team of fourteen people to Copenhagen, England, and Ireland. The team was interested in finding new opportunities to market North Carolina products.”
“In November, Bordon Parker, our county attorney spoke to us about the importance of making out our wills. In December, seven of our members spoke – one about each of the seven days of the National Grange Convention. In January, an investment specialist presented a program on securities and investments. In February, Dr. Barry Croon spoke about education and high school graduates. He opened our eyes to drop-out rates among students and tracked what the 214 high school graduates did following graduation.”
“In March, Lt. Col. James Jinnette with the 335 Fighter Squadron of the 4 th Fighter Wing at Seymour Johnson was our speaker. He explained the two main functions at Seymour Johnson Air Base – to train new air crews and to deploy a squadron. We know that Seymour Johnson is an important part of our national security and an important part of the economy in our county.”
“In April Grantham Grange hosted our Pastors Appreciation Dinner. We invite all the ministers from our area along with his or her family, have a dinner, and then have a musical program. This April, a retired chaplain told the story of the Four Chaplains who gave their lives at sea to save another.”
“In May, David Meredith spoke about how laws are passed. We were going to be going to our State Grange Legislative Day, and it was helpful to refresh what we know about getting a law passed in North Carolina.”
“In June, twenty-eight Grantham Grange members traveled to Westbrook Grange to share and see the North Carolina Youth Grange Caravan’s program. Jenny Gentry and all the youth presented a very interesting program,” says John. “In July, Nicky Sanderson who is Miss Goldsboro provided a program on Melanoma Cancer prevention. Her father is a melanoma survivor, and she spoke about ways to prevent it like staying out of the midday sun and using sunscreen.”
“We have lots of other programs planned for the future – acupuncture which most of us know little about, FFA Parliamentary Procedure, humorous programs, and ideas.”
“Dr. Tart is President of our Pomona Grange and does a wonderful job there too,” says Shirley Carter, Secretary of Grantham Grange.
“We all feel like community service is the heart of our organization and what we’re really about,” says Shirley. “Whenever there’s a need in our community, we try to be there. We have good representation from all our area churches, and we always find out if someone is sick or needs help.”
“We try to have a community service project every month,” says Shirley. “In October, we planned the Sandra Tart Heart Transplant Benefit with area churches. We donated $125 and all the take out bags, some Grange members baked cakes, others helped put the turkeys on to cook, worked in the take-out line, serving inside, or picking up plates for delivery. All told, this event provided $23,000 to help pay medical bills.”
“In October, we contributed – and bought – silent auction items at the State Grange Convention,” says Shirley. “For the first time, we donated $300 to the Alzheimer’s Awareness program and walk in Goldsboro. Nine Grange members participated in the walk on warm fall morning.”
“In November we decided to purchase and donate Christmas wrapping paper to the Masonic Children’s Home in Oxford, North Carolina. We delivered 34 rolls of wrapping paper to the orphanage on December 1.”
“In December, Grantham Grange donated $300 to the school’s Christmas Shoe Project for the fourth year. Sixty-eight children were very excited to be taken shopping for new shoes,” says Shirley.
“We also did our Shoe Boxes for Military Troops project in December. Each Grange family purchased and donated items for our overseas troops. We packed and sent twenty-three shoe boxes to troops in Iraq.”
“In January our community – area churches and the Grange - planned and held another benefit for a person in need. This time it was a burn victim who had suffered third degree burns over most of his body while at work. Grange members worked on Thursday and Friday evenings on preparations, and then worked all day on Saturday. We’re proud to say that we had twenty-six members who worked chopping barbeque, in the drive-through line, preparing plates for take-out. Many stayed for the auction and we had all our men washing dishes. This one event provided this family with $42,000 for medical bills. ‘What a great place to live!’ is what we heard somebody say at the end of that day,” says Shirley. “Our Grange members provided pictures for the family’s memory book too.”
“In February, we helped the Grantham School with their fund-raiser. They asked us to send teams to attend school on three days so we could collect and count money in each classroom for the teachers. Grantham Grange was recognized as a corporate sponsor for Relay for Life. It was an honor for us. In March we sponsored two baseball teams, giving each $250. We got a lot of publicity for that $500 because Grantham Grange was printed on the teams’ shirt sleeves and our Grange name is also on their marquee. We served them refreshments at a couple of their games and the boys were really excited!”
“In April we had a Grange Month kick-off dinner and open house. Each Grange family was to do a community service project on their own and write up a report of their accomplishments. We included fourteen family reports in our Grange of the Month Report. Families did all kinds of projects – the kinds that Grange members do every month not just once a year. We had people cooking and delivering meals to the sick and shut-ins, visiting nursing homes, calling senior citizens just to see how they were doing, sitting with families who had someone having surgery, baking goods for the correction center’s Gospel ministry, cleaning yards, repairing a lawn mower for a cancer patient and putting up his marten gourds,” says Shirley with considerable pride in her voice.
“In May we donated $300 to Relay for Life for cancer awareness and research. Joyce Hood in our Grange sold $460 worth of luminaries and purple ribbons for this project and we all supported her efforts. Six Grange ladies baked goods for the Grantham School’s bake sale for Relay for Life, and then we had nineteen Grange members who walked in the rain. It was a rainy night if you can believe it. A lot of folks sought shelter under our Grange tent!” says Shirley.
“In June, Grantham Grange members put on a Teacher Appreciation Breakfast. We cooked ham and sausage biscuits and made fruit and donut trays for the teachers. President Bobby Crawford thanked all the teachers for what they contribute to our community. Ten of our Grangers participated in this event.”
“In July Grange members took magazines and other items over to the patients in the Veterans Hospital in Fayetteville. They were so grateful there and we saw that there is such a great need for people we so often tend to forget. We hope to do this project more than once a year in the future,” says Shirley.
“In July we also donated $50 to the Hudson Kelly Farm,” she adds. “We really do enjoy doing community service, and I ask you to please, please remember our veterans. Of course we couldn’t contribute if we didn’t have money to fund what we do.”
“Our Grantham Grange does have a large fund-raising effort to support our community service each year,” says Linda Crawford, Treasurer.
“In our county we have a really large Agricultural Fair that is held for ten days each fall. The Grange owns a building on the fair grounds. We use this asset to operate a food booth at the fair – which we’ve been doing for over 50 years. We sell hamburgers, hot dogs, sandwiches, French fries, and drinks during this ten day event,” says Linda. “We’ve been told we have the best hot dogs at the fair. I think it’s the chili that people really like.”
“Well this all takes a lot of hard work and preparation. Our President, Bobby, asks for Grange members to serve as day captains each day of the fair – and it’s a long day from 8AM till 11PM! And we’ll serve to the very last hour so it makes for quite a long day. The day captains recruit volunteers to work in the booth - Grange members and their families and the volunteer firemen from our local volunteer fire department help us too. We have sold raffle tickets for a barbeque grill give-away on the last day of the fair. Half the proceeds are donated to the fire department for their help during the fair. And the rest is used to support our community service throughout the year just like Shirley described,” says Linda.
“Since our fair is such a well-known event and well attended by everyone in the area, it’s the best way for our Grange to raise money quickly. We have an asset here, and the crowd comes to us. It gives us the money we so badly need to do our community service projects – and more time through the rest of the year to focus on our meetings and community service. Even though it’s a lot of work, it’s been very profitable for us. We enjoy it and look forward to the fun and fellowship we have during this work time at the Fair,” says Linda.
“Overall, we make about 5000 hamburgers,” says Bobby who acts as the manager of the food booth. “We net about $22,000. After we pay about half of that in food costs, we share about $10,000-$12,000 with the fire department.”
“Our Grange participates in the Labels For Education program. North Carolina State Grange has partnered with Gateway Education Center for more than twenty years. This center serves students stricken with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, autism, and other children who are physically impaired or severely or profoundly handicapped from birth to age 21. We collect labels from Campbell Soup products and Campbell’s ‘cousin’ brands, and we also collect Box Tops 4 Education symbols. These labels and box tops are used to purchase needed equipment for the school such as DVD players, videos, music, crayons, and so forth,” says Joyce Hood, Legislative Chair for Grantham Grange.
“We collected box tops and labels at every meeting between September and July,” adds Shirley Carter.
“We also participate in the Friends of the Kelly Farm. The Oliver Hudson Kelly Farm in Elk River, Minnesota, is the home of the founder of the Grange. The National Grange purchased the farm in 1935 and donated it to the Minnesota Historical Society in 1961. The far is opened to the public and educational and group tours are available. We make donations to help feed the many animals on the farm,” says Joyce.
“Twenty of our members attended the North Carolina State Grange Convention last October. We entered in fifteen different contests and programs. We won six First Places, and one Second Place. We also had a youth Granger who won First Place in a craft division and our contestants won Second Place in the talent competition,” says Joyce. “State Grange Convention is a great time to come together with Grangers across the state for food, fellowship, and fun – and the committee meetings where resolutions are approved to refer to our state legislature.”
“In November of 2006, we had twenty members attend the National Grange Convention in Springfield, Illinois. There were 75 who attended from North Carolina – we traveled in two buses. We made a trip of it with a stop in Nashville, Tennessee on the way and Springfield, Missouri and Louisville, Kentucky on the way back. And while we were in Illinois, we saw the John Deere Headquarters in Moline, the Lincoln Home, Museum, and Oak Ridge Cemetery. While at the Convention, we attended business sessions, conferences, workshops, degree work, memorial service, and a Celebration Banquet. Seventeen of our Grantham Grangers received the Sixth Degree Conferral and sixteen received the Seventh Degree. We were tired when we got back home after an enjoyable and rewarding trip.”
“In June, 2007, eleven Grantham Grangers attended the Grange Legislative Day in Raleigh. We rented a van so we could all go together and had a lot of good fellowship on the way there and back. We had speakers who spoke on issues that were being discussed in the Legislature,” says Joyce.
Jessie Smith is a relatively new member of Grantham Grange and has a lot to say about what Grange has meant to her and her family. “Besides the fun, fellowship, and friends that other Grantham Grangers have already mentioned, we’re just thankful for what our son has learned in Grange,” says Jessie.
“Because of Grange, he’s had the chance to learn family values and community traditions passed down from generation to generation. He’s had the chance to learn responsibility, leadership skills, and the importance of leadership and teamwork,” says Jessie.
“There aren’t that many traditional farmers in our area anymore, but our son has leaned about the importance of agribusiness and understands and appreciates agriculture more. He’s learned that helping the community is hard work – making hot dogs at the Wayne County Fair Booth, serving at the Grantham School teacher’s breakfast, and helping with refreshments at the Babe Ruth baseball games – and he’s learned that helping out feels good!”
“He’s really enjoyed the North Carolina State Grange youth conferences and camp. He’s learned teambuilding skills, about Grange – degrees and opening and closing ceremonies – physical challenges such as ropes courses, canoeing, and swimming, arts and crafts, and those kinds of things. Most importantly, he’s learned to have fun and meet new friends with good character from all over the state – and these will be friendships that will last a lifetime. They work on community service at camp doing soup labels, making up boxes for soldiers, putting together plants for nursing home residents. The Grantham Grange Youth have learned that sometimes their hard work pays off. When they help out, we as a Grange support them to attend camp.”
“At the Winter Youth Conference, they elected officers and he was elected to be the North Carolina State Grange Youth Vice-President. They did competitions like Sing-A-Song, public speaking, and community service projects.
At the North Carolina State Grange Conference, the youth worked at the Food Bank in Durham sorting sweet potatoes to be delivered to needy families. Opportunities just abound for young people to learn leadership development in Grange. Our son was selected by the North Carolina State Grange to be the male representative to attend the Cooperative Council of North Carolina Youth Leadership Conference. Last year at the FFA Camp in White Lake, North Carolina, he won one of five leadership awards and got a free trip to the National Institute of Cooperative Education in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania,” says Jessie. “He won a scholarship from North Carolina State Grange to go to NC State. All these opportunities for our son – the experiences and all the friendships – would not have been possible without his participation in the Grange.”
“At Grantham Grange, we have four F’s – fun, friends, fellowship, and food!” says Jessie. “Where else can you bring a teenager for a night of bingo with your neighbors and friends, keep up with what’s going on in the community, and appreciate each others’ humor? There’s a real feeling of closeness. Grantham Grange has helped my family develop a real sense of community, fellowship, and responsibility for helping others,” says Jessie.
“Probably in your area,” says Bobby Crawford, “there are Granges that have become inactive. There are in ours. Our Grange has begun sponsoring other Granges to help them get activated. It’s a responsibility we all have as Grange members – to get Granges who aren’t active, rejuvenated and thriving. This can be done all across this country of ours. It takes somebody who wants it to happen and a group of people to act as a skeleton who can encourage others to make it happen.”
“Some of us visit Granges that aren’t doing so well. We make it known that we’re coming, and send out invitations to come and hear what we’ve got to say. Then we try and influence them to get a plan, work the plan, and make that place a better place to live. Of course we provide a meal for that too, because if you feed them, they will come!” |
