Successful
Actions of Mica Flats Grange - ID
“If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to raise a Grange,” says Dianne Devereaux, Mica Flats Grange Lecturer. “No one person or officer can do it alone.” Master Vera Weniger agrees. “We have a lot going on, and no one person could manage it all. All our committees really work to share the load.”
Mica Flats Grange, located eight miles south of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, really does have a lot going on. They shared what’s happening on the Successful Actions Teleconference on June 15, 2005.
“We like our rural life-style,” says Vera. “And our Grange has been very involved in trying to keep our community rural.” Coeur d’Alene, a city of about 35,000 people, has grown to the east, north, and west. But Mica Flats Grange is hoping they can keep overdevelopment in their area at bay. “We don’t want to see quick-stops and malls where there should be open space. We were able to block a mini-storage unit that they wanted to build in a wetlands area and would have hurt the wildlife there. And now our Grange is consulting an attorney to form a homeowners’ association so that we can have an even greater say in what happens here.”
Already Mica Flats Grange has been invited to review the county’s comprehensive plan, and they have exerted influence on where new schools would be built. “The school board had an option to buy land very near our Grange Hall,” says Vera. “But we found out that schools are not supposed to be built that close to a highway, and when we met with the school board and told them our concerns, they withdrew their option on that land. Now, some of our members are continuing to attend school board meetings so we’ll know what they’re planning.”
At one time, nearly everyone in the Mica Flats area farmed. “And everybody belonged to Grange,” says Jess Weniger. “Our Grange was chartered in 1946, so we’re a fairly young Grange. And in those days, everybody belonged.”
Now that few people make their living from the land, Mica Flats Grange still boasts a strong membership. “We have about 130 members,” says Vera. “And we have all ages. We have quite a few teenagers, and people in their 20’s, 30’s, and on up.” Jess adds, “A lot of our current members are descendents of the charter members.”
Family togetherness is clearly part of the fiber of Mica Flats Grange. “We advertise free babysitting for all our Grange meetings and for card parties,” says Vera. “It’s free for families, but we pay the babysitter. We pay $10 or $15 if there are more than have a dozen kids. Usually we have anywhere from three to nine children at our meetings. They stay in our dining hall with the babysitter – who is one of our teens. And we’ve got games, books, even a VCR for them to keep themselves occupied.”
“We try to have something going on for every age bracket,” says Vera. “We highly support our 4-H club, and we combine our Harvest Dinner with the 4-H Achievement Night. We added a recipe contest that’s been a lot of fun. Any kid from age 3 on up can bring a food dish and win a prize. We have a different theme every year. A couple of years ago, the theme was chocolate, and 95 people turned out for that. The chocolate piano that took first prize was really something to see!”
Teens are active and full members of the Mica Flats Grange – members who also hold office. “We’ve had teens in the assistant stewards and gatekeeper offices. And they’re involved in the Youth Committee,” says Vera.
A full schedule of activities helps Mica Flats Grangers and other community members connect and come together. “Our teens put on our Christmas Party for the younger children. Of course Santa makes an appearance, and we usually get 65-100 people there depending on the weather,” Vera says. “And we’ve had chili cook-offs with live music, a political night, game nights, kite building, and all kinds of other great programs.”
One very popular activity that builds a sense of community is called “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Dianne explains. “We call it a hosted dinner for Grange members with surprise guests. The way it works is that Grange provides the meat, and then different Grange members act as hostesses for each table. Then the people who are assigned to that table bring other dishes to round out the meal. We mix it up so that people sit with people they don’t normally see. It’s very popular. We usually get 115 people who attend.”
Dances are also a popular feature. “Our younger adults are in charge of the dances,” says Oscar Mooney. “That way one person doesn’t have to be responsible for everything. We do square dance lessons for the first half hour of each dance, and then we do a whole variety – waltzes, schottisches, all kinds of dances.” Vera adds, “About 90% of the people attending dances are youth. We have families who attend, there are a couple of church groups from Coeur d’Alene who come, and then lots of other teens attend on their own.” Oscar puts in, “The teens are to be chaperoned – either by themselves or by an adult. We don’t do that, and everyone knows how we expect them to behave.”
“Our Social Nights are really important to build relationships with one another,” says Dianne. “Our regular Grange business meeting is the first Friday night, and the third Friday, we hold a Social Night where there’s always a program. I try to focus on ‘happy topics.’ They’re usually a ‘how-to’ subject, “everything you need to know” about anything under the sun.”
Jess jokes, “We have our local politicians come out once a year so they can lie to us.” Dianne counters, “It’s ‘Meet Your Elected Officials’ night. And you know what they tell me? No other group invites them to come and just have an informal opportunity to answer questions and tell folks what’s going on. It’s really a good thing to have them come.”
Other programs have included Russian embroidery, creek improvement, nutrition, everything you wanted to know about teenagers, quilting, Pacific Northwest slide show, proper folding of the flag, community service awards, meet the candidates, and annual events such as a Family Bar B Que, Game Night, and a community Thank You dinner for those who help at the Fair Food Booth.
“Most of our budget comes from running our food booth at the county fair. A few years back the fair board built a food court with a central dining area and eight kitchens around the edges. We serve Tuesday through Sunday, and it takes 184 people to fill all the time slots in four hour shifts. Everybody in the community turns out to help – whether they’re Grangers or not. And then two weeks later, we hold a thank you dinner for all the helpers. Seventy thousand people come through those fair gates. They see our display in the Ag Booth where they can get information on what we’re doing. It’s a good way to get our message out to the public. And then a lot of those people eat at our food booth.”
Getting the word out is something that Mica Flats Grange has worked hard at doing. They publish a quarterly newsletter called Smoke Signals that goes to every Granger – and beyond. “Every year we purchase a bulk permit from the Post Office which lets us send out the Smoke Signals to every Rural Route boxholder. And we have a list of about seventy ‘off-route’ people who also receive the newsletter. The bulk permit costs us $110 every year. Printing costs $150 per quarter, and we think it’s a good investment to let everyone in the area know what’s going on. We have a reader-board sign outside the Hall, too, and that helps people know what we’re doing.” Jess adds, “We’re a voting location for our precinct, and that brings people into the Hall too.”
It takes a budget of approximately $5000 to run Mica Flats Grange for a year. Each committee gets a budget to operate so they don’t have to come back to the voting body for approval unless they expect to exceed the budget. Big maintenance projects, like refinishing the floor and putting on a new roof get budgeted in with money they earn over time.
“We try to be quite generous to the community,” Dianne says. Oscar agrees. “We give to almost all the small organizations, to the 4-H trophy fund.” Vera adds, “We buy the pancake flour when the 4-H club holds a pancake breakfast. We give two scholarships every year. One is an academic scholarship, and the other is for music. Since music is so important for our Grange, we figure we need to support a young person to pursue that line of study, and hopefully that will mean we’ll have musicians to play at our functions long into the future. A big garage sale helps pay for scholarships.”
Mica Flats doesn’t have a Junior Grange, but in their support of 4-H, they feel like they’re definitely involved with kids. “Almost every 4-H Leader is a member of our Grange. And a lot of the 4-H’ers join our Grange when they get to be 14.”
The Grange Hall serves as a community resource in many ways. “We’ve held several Memorial Dinners, serving a meal for the family when they lose someone. That alone has helped the community know that we’re available to them. There’s a Happy Family Women’s Club that uses our hall, and at a Memorial Dinner, they’re right there to help us.” Vera says. “And it’s led to another big project that we need to tackle. Our kitchen is woefully inadequate to serve large numbers, so we need to renovate it. When one lady – not a Granger – heard that, she gave us a check for $20,000! She said that she met her husband at a dance that was held at the Hall and two of her sisters had taught in the schoolhouse before it was a Grange Hall. Contributions from the Happy Family Club and other non-Grangers show just how important Grange is here.”
“The Grange Hall was once a one-room schoolhouse,” says Jess. “Then when the Grange was chartered, we built on an addition. We call the addition the large hall which is where we hold our meetings and dances. And the schoolhouse is the small hall, our dining room. The large hall was built all by volunteers – farmers in the area. It’s out of rough lumber – some 2x4, some 2x6. It’s not all one thing. Then when the Kootenai County Fair moved, they demolished some of the buildings. And we got the hardwood for the floor from there. Some people say that we got it for our labor taking it out. Others say we bought it from the Fair. Either way, we’ve got this beautiful 5/4 inch hardwood floor in both halls.”
“One program I think was really important in the last few years was on building relationships with other community organizations” says Dianne. “It was a hands-on session where we were learning and practicing relationship building skills to use with each other. And then we can take those skills to work with other organizations. I think one of the big reasons our Grange is strong is that we work so hard at our relationships – and that we put people in offices where they can use their best skills. We’re very different people but we work hard at keeping our relationships strong. In the end that’s what matters most. We really – and intentionally – enjoy each others’ company.”
Vera adds, “And we remember that we aren’t professionals. We’re just volunteers doing our best. We really support each other, and that’s how we’re able to do so much – together.” |
