Successful
Actions of Riverside Grange #455 - VT
Riverside Grange is located in Central Eastern Vermont.
“We’re actually approaching New Hampshire,” says Margaret Richardson, Riverside Grange Master.
“There are 1100 people in our whole town,” says Margaret. “We’re very rural with a little agriculture and some logging. Most of our residents have to go out of town to shop and for other activities.”
“We consider ourselves an area Grange instead of a town Grange because we have members who come from the whole area. Our Grange Hall is a former one-room schoolhouse. In fact, it still has blackboards on the wall. And we have a Little League baseball field that we keep up for the kids in the area to use.”
“We have 84 members, and while I wouldn’t want to offend anyone, I’d guess that our average age is 53 or 54 or in that vicinity. We are fortunate that we do have so many young people. They can’t always get to the meetings, but they are certainly there when we have an event. Over the last five years, we’ve had a net gain of 18 members. We’ve lost a few to death, and gained more. We think it’s because of what we do in the community that brings members to us.”
“Some of our members have mini-farms, some are lawyers, insurance people, and some are retired and all together we have many varied occupations. We have ten Golden Sheaf members,” says Margaret.
“We have one business meeting a month. We set up in the traditional way and go through the meeting with full ritual. And our second meeting of the month is a potluck supper and a program that is open to the public.”
“We’ve had very good programs. Representatives from our legislature have come. Servicemen who have been in Iraq have spoken to us. We’ve had programs on drug and alcohol abuse, gardening, and the maple sugar industry. We had programs about Stonehenge and about various health issues.”
“We give a Citizen Award every year where we recognize firefighters Fast Squad and other individuals who have contributed to their town.”
“We do not rent our hall,” says Margaret. “Our town has made Riverside Grange tax exempt. We do not pay taxes, and so we allow other organizations to use our hall free of charge – unless they would like to make a donation.”
“Recently the Topsham Historical Society put on an outstanding display of military history in our Hall. The display was of service men and women of Topsham. They had uniforms and artifacts from as far back as the War of 1812 and up to the present. Our Hall was just full of all kinds of historical things for the five days of the exhibition. It was very impressive, and it got mentioned in newspapers as far away as Hartford, Connecticut!”
“One project we do every year is our Community Calendar,” says Susan Fortunati, Overseer of Riverside Grange. “It started when a 70 year-old veteran Granger moved to our area from northern Vermont and brought the idea to us.”
“This year marks our 31 st year of doing the calendar, and it has been very successful for us,” says Susan. “This last year we sold 356 calendars which also includes 33 ads that surround the calendar. It’s one of our bigger fundraisers which will net us about $1700 this year.”
“What makes the calendar unique is that people in the community list their birthdays, anniversaries, memories, and recognitions of other people – perhaps people who have passed on or people who might be serving in the military. We have a little over a thousand different listings.”
“The calendar itself is eight and a half by eleven in size, stapled onto a backing sheet that is eleven by seventeen inches. It has name of Riverside Grange, the issue number, a picture of our Grange Hall, and then commercial ads that surround the rest of the border. We change the color of the pages and the headings every year just to make it a little bit different from year to year.”
“We charge $2.50 for the calendar and fifty cents for each listing. Our price depends on how many orders we get. This year our cost was 1.69. We sell the ads for $45 each and our cost to have those printed is $6.25.”
“It’s a July to June calendar,” says Susan. “And what has been particularly great about it is that it gives Grange member a wonderful chance to meet people in the community and tell them what we do.”
“This last year eight Grange families went around to different sections of the community and sold the calendars door-to-door. They go to our neighbors, tell them what we’re doing, and ask if they’d like to include their birthdays, anniversaries, or special commemorations on the calendar. And we get great success! Anniversaries are marked with a little bell. If someone has passed away, there’s a little cross marker.”
“People really look forward to the calendar. When I look at the month of July, for example, there’s only one date that does not have any listing on it. Most of the days in July have three or four listings. My husband has noted that May is the best month for birthdays in our area.”
“It is a pretty big project. I get a packet from our printer in February and get the ordering information out to our Grangers late that month. They work on selling in March and then I get it back in April. All the information has to be entered into the computer software program that the printer provides, and I have to get it to the printer by May 1st in order to get it back in mid-June. And then our Grangers come out, bag them up, and go out and deliver the calendar.”
“We usually order a few extras,” says Susan. “This year we sold 356, but we ordered 375. We’ll probably sell most of them. And then we need to keep one to use for setting up next year’s calendar.”
“A couple of years ago, we started putting a thank you note into each calendar. This year, we made a brochure about our Grange. We have a picture of our Hall, our mission statement and goals which “are to strengthen our rural values through education, fellowship, and community service. We list Grange projects, give a brief history of the Grange, and an application to join.”
“Besides being an important fund-raiser which pays most of our bills, the calendar project is something that seems to draw our community together,” says Susan. “People like being able to recognize each others’ birthdays and special occasions. We think it just makes people feel more connected to one another.”
“We also do Words for Thirds, participate in the 4 th of July celebration in East Corinth and support the Neighborhood Food Shelf. Our kitchen has been given over to them for storing food to give to people who are needy.”
“Just this week our Grangers helped unload 6500 pounds of food for the Neighborhood Food Shelf,” says Margaret. “All they pay is for shipping. All the rest is donated. Our Grange gave $250 for the shipment that arrived in April and they’ll be expecting another shipment in August.”
“We do a Coffee Break on the Interstate Highway on certain weekends and we get some donations for that,” says Susan. “We helped the Valley Health Center in a neighboring town.”
“Every second Saturday in June for the last seven years, we hold a Let’s Go Fishing Project for kids in conjunction with the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Service. They help train our instructors. It’s for kids from ages 3-12. We have classes in knot-tying, pollution education, identifying fish, and a casting contest,” says Norman Gadwah. “We have a lot of Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts that participate, and all kinds of other kids too. This year we had 80 plus kids and they caught 85 fish. We give prizes for the biggest fish, the smallest fish, and casting in different age groups.”
“The Fishing Day has been a super, super success!” says Susan.
Margaret concurs. “This year the youngest participant was 2 years old! And he won a prize! We just think the children in our area need this kind of activity – especially at that time of the year when there isn’t that much going on for them. They just love the Let’s Go Fishing Day.”
“Norman also organized our Cribbage Club this last winter,” says Susan. “And that was a great success too.”
“It was something fun to do on cold winter Monday nights,” says Norman. “People come in and they get a sticker that tells them which table to sit at. The tables are all numbered. You don’t know who your partner is going to be from one Monday night to the next.”
“Norman is being modest,” says Susan. “What he hasn’t said is that when he brought the idea to Grange and we voted to go ahead with it, we had a need for card tables. So Norman went ahead and made all the tables. And they came out fantastic! We really have a lot of talent in our Grange!”
Margaret jokes gently. “I believe Norman priced tables and didn’t want to pay that much. So he made them instead! If every Grange had a member as enthusiastic as Norman, they’d be a lot better off! He’s really been the spark plug for the Fishing Day and for the Cribbage Club!”
“The Cribbage Club just grew and grew,” says Susan. “We gave prizes for the highest and lowest winners, and had a potluck supper for the players.”
“Riverside Grange has really accomplished many worthwhile projects and involved people from all walks of life,” says Gloria Miller, Community Service Chair.
“We have one of the oldest and longest running ski tows in the country. They are going to upgrade to a T-bar, and we have been raising money to help with that cost. It’s being worked on right now. We had a supper and raised $600. We called in other organizations and had lots of fun doing it. Many of the helpers were non-Grangers,” says Gloria.
“Every year we add 3 books to our library which usually amounts to $100. We started with the Dictionary Project in three schools, and it is one of the highlights of our year to watch those children get their very own dictionary,” says Gloria.
“We do cosmetology and grooming classes with school children. And candymaking. That’s very popular. The children take home plates of candy that they have made themselves.”
“We started a Neighborhood Watch program which has been a very effective and good program. We have always just tried to offer a helping hand wherever it’s needed in the community. And we all work together to make this happen,” says Gloria.
“Another fundraiser we do is selling candles. Yankee Candle started a program that helps State and local Granges earn money. We made $335 just for selling candles,” says Margaret.
“We do have one or two goals for the future,” says Margaret. “We talking about putting on an addition for our kitchen, doing more community service projects, and training and involving our members in leadership.”
“We do think that we have an excellent Grange. It’s a lot of people working together. We keep Grange the way it was, but we still do new things,” says Margaret.
When asked if she and Kermit miss their leadership role with National Grange, Margaret replies, “We loved it while we were there. And it’s nice to be home. We sure met an awful lot of nice people. And that’s what Grange is all about.” |
