Successful
Actions of Mt. Pleasant Grange - WA
Mt. Pleasant Grange is located near the city of Port Angeles, Washington. “We’re 70 miles northwest of Seattle,” says Terry Roth, President. “We have a total of about 68,000 residents in our county and roughly 650 people who live in our area. Mt. Pleasant is actually more of an area than it is a community.”
“The Pomona was recruited to help Mt. Pleasant Grange stay alive. Bob Clark came out to meet with folks in the area and said, ‘If you don’t do something, you’re going to lose this facility.’ At the time, although there were 30 members on the books, there were really only three active members left – and they were all in their 80’s,” says Terry.
“We don’t own the Grange Hall. The Grange signed a 99-year lease in 1936, but most of the Grange members had passed on. There is really no significant agriculture in our area. At best we have a few hobby farms – not a lot that is traditionally associated with Grange,” says Terry.
“Tom Gwynn from Washington State Grange and representatives from the seven Granges in the Clallam County Pomona really helped us get back on our feet. They came out for an informational meeting. And then we held a follow-up meeting where 13 new members joined because we didn’t want to lose the Grange building and all that it had meant to the community. Three years later, we have 76 members in Mt. Pleasant Grange,” says Terry.
“People who come to our area have had no experience with Grange. They don’t tend to be joiners and they are not particularly active in the community. At our first meetings, it became clear that the traditional Grange titles and ritual were not working. It was like a foreign language to our people.”
“So,” says Terry, “We became a more modern organization. Over time, the Grange Hall had become practically invisible. The windows had been covered up with plywood in an effort to keep the heat in. Brush had grown up all around the building. All you could see really was a tunnel that went back into the brush. We’ve trimmed back all the brush and installed a night light so now when you go by, you can see that there actually is a building there.”
“We’ve kept the deck a different color from the building so it stands out. We put a notice board up in front of the building with a sign that says ‘Hall for Rent.’ Now it looks like there is something going on there,” says Terry. “We still need to paint and put up gutters. It’s going to take $15-20,000 to get the building into top-notch shape. It still has ceramic wiring, it’s that old.”
“Ours is an interesting area. We have folks who have retired from the aerospace industry, people who have retired from New Orleans, a few world class photographers, and at least one Hollywood type who is hiding from the world and has just built a two million dollar home. I’d love to be able to draw on interests that other Granges draw on. The only agricultural product we have is some pretty poor quality hay. Any farming there is – well it’s pretty hard-scrabble. Our growing season is poor. It’s a great area to live in, but not if you have to survive off the land.”
“There’s a lot of talent out there, but the folks who live here just aren’t going to be traditional Grange members. Last week at Pomona, I was elected Overseer, and I heard someone say ‘Fresh Meat!’ as my name was presented. It think it’s been a while since someone different had been approached.”
“After our initial meeting a few people stuck around, and then came back after the first potluck dinner. We asked what was of interest to those folks. The issue that got the most votes was first on the list. That’s widening the road to Mt. Pleasant. When we started taking on that issue, that allowed us to let people know that we were alive and well. We looked to what was going on in the community.”
“Wild land fire was the second issue. Our county has big wild land fire issues – it’s the fifth highest problem area for wild land fires in all of the western states. We had the county fire chief come up and give a program on how to fight fire – like not planting right up against your house. We had three different presentations on fire because of how important it is in our community. We had one fire chief tell us that if he can’t get his fire trucks down a driveway, he’s not coming in. He said, ‘I’m not going to have my men get burned up in a dead end drive.’ That’s the kind of thing that makes you think about what you need to do to your own property.”
“We don’t have any water storage or fire hydrants in our area. The fire companies aren’t really able to serve us because of the geography and the number of people. So we’re looking into putting in a large fire tank. One of our Grange members is willing to donate the land, and others will donate time and equipment to clear it. Then the utility company and the county will each put in a third of the cost, and Grange will do a fundraiser to raise the other third.”
“We have a strong potential for earthquakes so that’s the next thing we’re going to address. We’re going to run First Aid classes in the spring. But we’re not going to focus on just First response. We’re going to help people get prepared to offer longer term assistance in case our hospitals become overrun. When you think about it, you can’t stop an earthquake, and you can’t see it coming. So we need to know what to plan for. We have to consider the worst case scenario. It may be a while before we could get to professional help, so we need to be ready to offer secondary care.”
“We had a major power outage from a wind storm, so we had the utility company come out to explain why some people were without power for a day and some for a week.”
“The school board came to us asking for money, so we asked them to come and explain just why they need more money. The school district lost 140 children this year, so that’s an indication of what’s going on in the area.”
“There’s an old school in the area. It was first used in 1921 and then closed in 1952, and there is interest in restoring it. It’s been used for light storage, but the blackboards are still there and it will be pretty interesting to see it as it once was.”
“Grange has taken on the job of cleaning up a Pioneer Cemetery. We want to make it presentable. There are at least two Civil War soldiers buried there, men who had served and then came out west. We’re trying to dig out the records because there is no master list of the graves.”
“We held a St. Patrick’s Day corned beef dinner where we served 200 sit-down dinners. We had major support from the other Granges in the area. They helped us serve and sell tickets, and it was great to be able to tell people that they’d better get their tickets early or they wouldn’t get to sit down!”
“We do rent the hall out. People have held weddings there and we have a private school that has rented the hall for an activity they wanted to hold. We didn’t have wheel chair access to the upper hall, and we had a group of handicapped school bus drivers and all 25 of them had to come in the back way. But you know, not one of them complained.”
“One thing that is very encouraging is that we now have some political clout. When we go to the courthouse, they know we’re coming from an organized community. They hear our voice. They come to our meetings – and they’re pleased to do it. We give them a platform to speak with people. And you know, none of the politicians have lied to us yet. They’ve done what they said they’d do.”
“People come and people go in any organization. Recruiting new members is going to be an ongoing issue to make our Grange work. We’ve come a long way in three years, and we’ve got a long way to go.”
“One thing – it doesn’t do any of us any good to keep Grange a secret. As the community grew, the Grange building became just kind of a part of the landscape. As soon as we can, we’re going to put up a nice lighted flagpole. We want to keep reminding people that we’re here!”
|
