Successful
Actions of Home Grange - MI
Home Grange is located in the rural township of Newton south of Battle Creek, Michigan.
“We consider ourselves to be a progressive organization open to new ideas, but we are also a traditional Grange in terms of ritual and officer names,” says Roland Winter, Master of Home Grange.
“We are always looking for ways to serve our community and to maintain our image as a giving group. There are three organizations in our township – The Newton United Methodist Church, the Newton Township Fire Department – which was organized by Home Grange some 51 years ago – and our Grange. We cooperate with each other so that our schedules don’t compete.”
“We have 97 members,” says Roland. “We meet on the second and fourth Saturday of every month. We have a monthly newsletter that goes to all our members, and we have our own brochure that explains the purpose of Grange, lists our activities, and includes a membership application.”
“Our two youngest members are 14, and then the highest percentage of our members are older than that. We have four people in their 90’s, and one lady that passed away last year at the age of 105. Usually we have between 12 and 20 people who attend meetings, and those folks are probably between 60-90 years old. Our younger members have a hard time getting to meetings sometimes, but they really get to work when we have projects or activities going on. We’ll take them whenever they want to give their time!”
“Our membership numbers are pretty stable,” says Roland. “We built a new Hall about 30 years ago, and our membership has stayed right around 100 since that time. In the last six months, six of our members passed away, and we gained four new members. We keep new people coming in.”
“Our two biggest events of the year are the 4 th of July Parade and Family Fun Day and Pancake Tent at the County Fair. We’ve been doing the parade for over 25 years and we just added the Family Fun Day three years ago. Each year the parade gets bigger and better! The parade takes place down a mile of country road, and people line the road and fill the yards of the twelve houses along the route and at our Grange where the parade ends up. We give away hot dogs in our Grange Hall at the end of the parade and people sit and visit, neighbor meeting neighbor. People tell us regularly that the parade is the best thing that happens in Newton Township all year. We get between 400-500 people who come out for the parade every year.”
“In the last three years, we’ve added a Family Fun Day to the 4 th of July festivities. One of our Grange families brought pet rabbits and crafts for children to make and take. Another friend of Grange brought ponies and offered free rides for kids. One of our Grange members provides live music under a tent and provides commentary on the parade as it goes by. Someone else brought old gasoline engines. We have a membership booth and sell State Grange raffle tickets. This year, we actually did get two new members from Family Fun Day.”
“Our major fundraiser is a food booth at the County Fair. We’ve been serving food at the fair since the 1960’s, updating our set-up each year as health requirements have increased. It’s a major undertaking because we have to move three large grills, four refrigerators, a freezer, sinks, hot water heater, kitchen floor, three kitchen tables, six dinning room tables, fifty chairs, and lots more into a 20 by 40 foot tent. The fair runs for nine days and we serve every day beginning at 7AM. Breakfast is our specialty, but we also serve lunch and dinner, so takes a lot of volunteers to run the County Fair Food Booth,” says Roland.
“We hold an old-fashioned Christmas Program that is open to the community. We have singing, readings, Bible stories, and at the end of the evening Santa makes an appearance. Parents bring gifts for their own children, and adults can bring a gift to exchange. The adult gifts get a number and are designated for a man or a woman, and then numbers are passed out to all the people participating in the exchange.”
“We hold a public card party on the first Saturday of each month. People pay $1 to play and they play for two hours. Then there are cash prizes. Mostly, it’s our older citizens who come to the card parties. They enjoy getting out to socialize with other people their age,” says Roland.
“An important community service that we offer is that we do funeral dinners for families of people who pass away. We have a couple menus that families can choose. We do accept donations, and ask that the family pay for the food that we have to buy. Some of the food is purchased, some made from home, and some made in the Grange Hall kitchen. Usually donations cover more than what we pay out for food. It’s a good way to get people into our Grange Hall, and it provides an important service that people need.”
“Each Grange family is allowed one free rental of our Hall each year. We have three 4-H Clubs that meet at the Hall at no cost. A lot of birthdays, anniversaries, graduation parties, and those kinds of family events are celebrated at our Grange Hall.”
“We can seat 128 people in our dining room and we do have a licensed kitchen. For fundraising, we do two chicken barbeques each year. One is on the first Friday in May, and the other is on the 1 st Friday in June. We put 400 chicken halves on the grill each time. The barbeques have become quite popular,” says Roland.
“We do a Memorial Program every year – that we’ve been doing for over 100 years,” says Martha Laupp. “We hold the program at a local church. We used to have it out on the lawn, but then weather was always an issue, and holding it inside means that we don’t have to move all the tables and chairs outside and then back in again. We honor and remember Grangers, Township people, and service men and women who have passed away in the last year. There’s a flag ceremony done by the Fort Custer Honor Guard. The Pastor does the invocation and benediction, and there are special readings and music. And then we read the names of the deceased, and as each name is read, the families put a flower on the altar. Our Chaplain organizes the program and then sends thank you cards out to everyone who participated – which goes a long way toward good will with people. We usually have about 100 people who attend every year,” says Martha.
“We also do a Card Ministry that has been a great outreach project for us. We send out cards to anyone who is ill. We get the cards together prior to a meeting, and then at the meeting all the Grange members sign their names. In a year, we usually send out about 200 cards, and people really appreciate getting them. It’s been a simple and very effective outreach and community service program. We pay for the cards with a Silver March at the end of each Grange meeting.”
“During the first week of December, we hold a Swiss Steak Supper and Bazaar,” says Martha. “We advertise it as the biggest bazaar in our area, and we usually bring in between $1500-$2000 dollars at each bazaar.”
“My favorite project is flag repair for the Fort Custer National Cemetery in Battle Creek,” says Martha. “In 1991, the people at the National Cemetery asked us if we’d mend ten flags for them. Flags can be trimmed and re-hemmed, but never patched. As you drive into the Cemetery entrance, you go up a curving road, and there are 150 flags that fly from that site. Well you can just imagine how beautiful that is. Since the first request, our Grange purchased a heavy-duty sewing machine for the job. We have quite a system. One person cuts, another pins the hem, one person sews the hem, another person folds and stacks the flags. Since we mended those first ten flags, we have delivered 4101 mended flags back to Fort Custer. Believe me, sitting in the middle of a pile of red, white, and blue is a great feeling – and Grange get lots of credit for the project too!”
“We do a garage sale in March every year. Only Grange members get to set up a booth, and they get to keep whatever proceeds they make. We advertise it as the first Garage Sale of the season, and we offer rolls, coffee, and desserts that we charge just a little for. There are 18 banquet-sized tables in our hall just loaded with all kinds of goodies. We open at 9AM and for an hour before, people are lined up to get in. That first wave usually includes antique dealers who really know what they’re looking for. We advertise in our local papers, and charge our members just $2.50 a table – just enough to cover the advertising costs. We see the Garage Sale as a service to our members – and the public loves it!”
“Another fund-raiser that also serves as a community service is that we sell reflective house number signs to people in our township. The local fire department asked us to provide these signs some years ago, so they could know where they were going and respond to a call quickly and then they used the proceeds to purchase needed equipment. Over the years, they’ve been able to buy a lot of equipment. Now they’ve agreed to let Grange keep the proceeds. When you drive around at night, you can see these house numbers on most of the houses in the township – and you know that Grange has had a lot to do with keeping folks safe,” says Martha.
“We hold work days twice a month on the 2 nd and 4 th Tuesday from 1-6PM. We finish off with a potluck dinner. Mostly on work days, we focus on making quilts. We have an 89 year-old member who makes most of the quilt tops – and on a treadle sewing machine! The rest of the ladies tie off the quilts. We take twenty quilts at a time over to a hospital near us. Lap quilts are given to older residents. We give away well over 150 quilts each year. Some quilts are also sold at our Bazaar.”
“When we’re not making quilts at our work days, we make stuffed toys, clean the Grange Hall, mend flags, and set up for coming activities. Many members and other township ladies also knit and crochet baby sets to give away or sell at our bazaar. We have one lady in her 90’s who is not a Grange member, but who has given us at least 60 baby sets to give away or sell. And we also put together Christmas socks for a local homeless shelter,” says Martha.
“At Home Grange, we really take pride in all our community service projects,” says Charlene Hoffman, Community Service Chair.
“We give dictionaries to five local schools, and we’ve given posters of sign language for all the classrooms in all our schools. In the last three years, we’ve given out 1400 dictionaries. When we deliver the dictionaries, we talk about Grange a bit. We always ask if they’ve ever attended one of our events, and that gives us a chance to talk about what we do,” says Charlene.
“One of my favorite things that we do,” says Charlene, “is that we take snacks out to veterans in the Fort Custer VA Hospital. Fort Custer became obsolete sometime after World War II, but they maintain a national cemetery, an Honor Guard, and a VA Hospital there. Many of the veterans at the VA Hospital are indigent, so they really appreciate the treats we bring them. We go out there about five times a year. We take 75 cans of pop, 75 bags of potato chips, 50 candy bars, 15 bananas, 20 packages of cheese crackers and 20 packages of cookies. We serve 75-100 people. Whenever we come, some of the guys and women show up with plastic bags so they can stock up until the next time we visit,” says Charlene.
During Grange week in April we hold our membership awards day for years of service to the Grange. “We have one 55-year member, two 65-year members, and even one 75 year member. We have a 40 year member, and a 10 year member. We have cake, coffee and punch This year we had a Guitarist and vocalist to entertain.
“We give a Community Service Award every year. This year, we’re awarding Elaine Huntsinger who is the head of our homeless shelter. We’re getting more and more homeless people all the time. Elaine is also a 4-H Leader who lives just down the road from our Grange.”
“We hold sing-along nights where a gentleman will come and play the guitar. We sing mostly hymns and country music, and people just enjoy the chance to sing together.”
“We make 130 Christmas stockings out of fabric and fill them with candy, toys, toiletries, and socks. We make the stockings big enough so other organizations can add gifts, and then the stockings are given to the homeless shelter.”
“We contribute to our local food bank with cereal from our local factory, canned goods, money. We even gave 90 pounds of meat, sausage, and chicken, to help provide families with needed food.”
“Our Grange adopts a student from the School for the Blind in Flint, Michigan. We had one boy for several years, and we provided shoes, a varsity jacket, jeans, and a suit when he was ready to graduate. Now we have a younger boy that we provide things for, and we send out food for their Christmas party,” says Charlene.
“We provide for two animal shelters. We have a ‘no-kill’ shelter, and we provide money for the spay and neuter program and pet food for the animals.”
“We don’t have a Junior Grange,” says Roland. “We have in the past, but finding leadership is difficult. I really think most any Grange could have a Junior Grange if they could find the leaders.”
“We support 4-H kids though,” adds Charlene. “We just finished doing a joint 4-H and Home Grange Dinner. We supplied the kitchen and the 4-H girls and boys took over the cooking and serving, and we split the profits. We want to support them, and it also helps get them involved with Grange.”
“We really have a great feeling in our hearts from all the charitable projects that we do,” says Charlene. “And we enjoy working together. It’s fun!” |
