Successful
Actions of Left Hand Grange - CO
“Left Hand Grange is located in Niwot, about 35 miles north of Denver and between Boulder and Longmont, Colorado,” says Dorinda Dembroski, Secretary of Left Hand Grange. “When I first moved here, you could see beef cattle roaming across the road from the Grange. Now we’re surrounded by million dollar houses. The only open space left now is either owned by Boulder County, or is under easement to the county.”
“One of our members raises chickens,” says Dorinda. “And the rest are no longer involved in farming. All the other farmers or ranchers in our area have moved either to Wyoming or eastern Colorado where they can get more land with less hassle.”
“Left Hand Grange held its first meeting in January, 1874 – two years before Colorado became a state. We meet every month, but we alternate our regular meeting times. One month we meet on the second Wednesday and just have a business meeting. The next month we’ll meet on Saturday for a business meeting and program.”
“Our mission is to create a sense of community. Our Grange Hall was built in 1907 and has become an historical site. We have several non-profit groups who meet there free of charge. A Boy Scout troop meets there Monday nights during the school year. Three Girl Scout troops meet in the Hall. And we have started sponsoring a Cub Scout Group because their former sponsor, Kiwanis, folded and left them without a sponsor.”
“Our Grange is small in membership,” says Dorinda. “But we’re active. We sponsor a safe-driving class and sponsor Ag in the Classroom for $65 a year. The classroom gets a monthly brochure for students that teaches about the value and importance of agriculture. Then the teacher integrates the information into science, social studies, and math.”
“We participate in the Dictionary Project. Last year we gave 950 English and 335 Spanish/English dictionaries to the neediest schools in our area.”
“We provide storage for loaner equipment like wheel chairs, walkers, crutches, and that sort of thing.”
“We partner with other organizations to sponsor special events. We hold an ice cream social and put in a float for Niwot Nostalgia Days. We do a quilt show that has become a really big deal. We do a float for the Christmas Parade and use the Hall for Santa to meet with the children.”
“Last year a local martial arts academy came to us and wanted to sponsor a haunted house at our Hall. Over 250 people attended. The admission was $1 or a can of food. Over $300 was donated to Hurricane Katrina relief.”
“We have over 1000 area children involved in sports programs and they need a place to store their sports equipment. So we donate 350 square feet for that purpose.”
“All this and we only have 40 members on our rolls. Most of those members are over 70 years old. We typically get maybe 10-12 people at meetings. Most of the time we meet around a table. Our main meeting hall is upstairs, and some of our members can’t easily climb the stairs.”
“We partner with the historical society to emphasize the history of the area. They had an historic fire house and they needed a place to put it. We had space, so they put it on Grange property.”
“We have a farmer’s market that opens in late spring. We take Grange brochures and pass them out there.”
“We have had some very interesting Lecturer’s programs. We make those open to the public and promote them with posters around town and in our newspaper’s ‘What to Do Today’ column. One program was about a church that sent members to Bolivia to work on a hospital. We hold a Christmas party. Another program was about a medical mission that went to India to work with Tsunami victims. Recently we had a program about Search and Rescue Dogs. We had 35 people attending – kids and parents. About 15 of those folks were Grangers, another ten were people on the Dog Team, and the rest were members of the community.”
“Generally we meet at 5:15 for a quick business meeting, hold a potluck supper at 6, and start a Lecturer’s program at 7. We don’t do secret work. Rather we say, come on in and find out what we do.”
“A really successful fundraiser that we do is a Used Book Sale. We started this because I remembered vividly getting a dinner all prepared back in the Grange in New York State where I used to live – and then it snowed! We had already invested so much in food and couldn’t recoup our losses. So I was looking for a fundraiser that didn’t have that kind of up-front investment. The book sale really works for us!”
“We collect books from our public library and individuals and sell hard cover books for $1 and paperbacks for $.50. In 2004, we raised $5000 and in 2005, we raised $3800 from book sales.”
“We put ads in two newspapers which costs about $50. We do have a mailing list and send out post cards about 10 days before the sale. We spend about $75 in expenses. All the rest is profit. We run the sale the first weekend in June - all day Friday and Saturday till 4PM. We used to do it all weekend, but found that most of our sales came on Friday and Saturday so we cut it back.”
“Our customers include the 1000 families in the hamlet of Niwot and people in Longmont which has a population of about 75,000 and is 8 miles away. And people come in from Boulder too, also about 8 miles away. We find a lot of used book dealers come to the sale, and a lot of them will bring books back to donate for the next year’s sale. I think one of the reasons people come back year after year, though, is because they know we’ll have something new every year because at the end of the sale, we pack up anything we have left and donate them to another none profit organization.”
Sharon Arnold, Colorado State Grange Information Director says, “Dorinda is a very active State Grange member and attends National Grange Conventions. Left Hand Grange won third place in our Colorado State Grange Community Service Contest last year. They also were awarded a PICK (People Improving Communities and Kids) foundation award to refinish the floor in the Grange Hall.”
“We’ve done a lot to make the hall a better place to meet,” says Dorinda. “We moved the furnace, put in new duct work, installed air conditioning downstairs, bought new stoves for the kitchen, and put stone down in the driveway. We paid for most of it through book sales proceeds and rentals of the hall. Two bridge groups meet there, we have several arts and crafts shows who use the hall, and a fine arts show that draws a lot of people.”
“Our biggest challenge now is that our community isn’t much of a community anymore. People commute into Denver or Boulder and don’t have time to give to the community. I never see most of them! So at the same time our mission of creating a sense of community is probably the most important, it’s also our biggest challenge.” |
