Successful
Actions of Silverton Grange - WV
“Silverton Grange is 64 years old. We are one of eleven Granges in the state of West Virginia. We are located 40 miles north of Charleston, the capital of West Virginia. The nearest town is Ravenswood, on the Ohio River and is five minutes away. We have only one member that lives in this town, all others live in the outer areas,” says William “JR” Abels.
“We’re a small, quaint Grange that’s very active,” says JR.
“With the help of our members, a knitting group called the Silverton Stitchers, and the Ravenswood Senior Quilters, we have donated over 1200 designer baby items to Women's and Children’s Hospital in Charleston and at-risk newborns in our community. Each of the items carries a SG&F label, which stands for Silverton Grange & Friends Designs.”
“One of our members sews while others help stuff toys for the Church In The Wind, a motorcycle group that delivers these toys to children in hospitals. This group received over 70 toys from Silverton Grange,” says JR.
“With sewing days at the Grange Hall and members sewing at home we produce a large collection of pillows, lap robes, bibs, gowns, chair and bed pads, ditty bags, toys, and comforters. Most of these items are donated to Lakin State Hospital and for those in need in our community. The ditty bags go to a cancer camp for kids.”
“Relay for Life is an on-going project for our Grange. We have raised over $4,000.00 by selling peanut butter Easter Eggs, serving lunch at the State Quarterly Meeting, and through donations. Silverton has won the Spirit Award from Relay for Life for three years in a row.”
“We give Words For Thirds dictionaries to students in three schools. One of our youth members takes time out of his busy college schedule to be our spokesperson. His motto is ‘Use a dictionary everyday.’ He plays dictionary games with the students and the schools look forward to his visit every year.”
“We are fortunate to have three FFA members as youth grange members,” says JR.. “We have been on the FFA Awards and Banquet program for the past several years. Last year we presented 40 certificates and pins from Silverton Grange to the Career Development Teams that placed on the State Level in their annual competition. It's time to do it again!”
“Grange Youth member Kelby Abels was President of the Ravenswood High School FFA Chapter. His parents were chosen as honorary members. We also help with the FFA annual equipment auction, gun shoot, and attend booster meetings.”
“We support our local Junior Fair by placing an ad in their brochure. Two of our youth show and sell their animals at the fair and have won many ribbons. One of the youth shows his animals at the State Fair. He has won many honors such as Master's Division in sheep at the West Virginia State Fair. Our ladies display their projects, quilting, knitting, crocheting, hand work, and hooking (rugs that is) in the Home Arts Department. They have received lots of ribbons including Best of Show.”
“Another project that we are so proud of is the Silverton Grange Youth Scholarship Award,” says JR. “This award is presented at the formal awards ceremony at Ravenswood High School for a graduating Grange member. Last year Kelby Abels received this $500.00 scholarship after meeting all the requirements. We raised the money to support this scholarship by having yard sales.”
“In February the Grange makes and signs over 11,000 valentines that we send to two
veterans hospitals, a veterans home and then deliver to veterans in our community.”
“All work and no play makes a dull Grange,” says Junior. “And we’re not a dull Grange! One of our fun nights is going to a Donkey Basketball game to support our local FFA. If you haven't seen this, it's one of the funniest sights in the world! Watching our youth, Kelby, riding a donkey made it pretty interesting for us. By the way our
team won the game! We also had a Halloween Party that was a huge success with members and non-members. We had plenty of food and played games. The big hit was bobbing for apples. In October at state session our Youth Members help open the Grange on Saturday morning.”
“November starts off our holiday season. We recognize members and non-members for their work at our annual Thanksgiving Dinner. In addition to the awards, we all have fun, fellowship, and lots of food. Last year, we served over 75 members and guests.”
“December is a busy time for us. We decorate the Grange Hall inside and out, the lobby at the Post Office, and the gazebo at the nursing home. We dress bears for the Community Resource and Salvation Army Christmas party. We go caroling and deliver fruit baskets to residents in our community and surrounding area. After caroling, we return to the hall for a warm-up party of hot chocolate and snacks. Santa always stops by for a visit. One of our members serves on the screening committee for the Adopt-A-Family, and Silverton Grange adopts a family. This program was started 35 years ago and they use our hall to get everything together for delivery on Christmas Eve.”
“Fund raisers start in January when we start making our Chocolate Covered peanut butter Easter Eggs. Last year we made over 4,000 eggs, and we are already up to our elbows in chocolate this year. We’ll be making eggs until Easter and local businesses sell the eggs for us.”
“We held a couple of successful bean and cornbread dinners. In addition to the food, we gave away door prizes and had music by locals. Recording artists Johnny Staats and the Delivery Boys even stopped by and showed off their talents. They have a great CD if you like country, bluegrass. On March 10, we are sponsoring a bus trip to the Amish Country of Ohio. We are looking forward to this trip.”
“For National Grange Month, we had our Grange proclamation signed at a County Commission Meeting. We’ve had a guest speaker from the Board of Education and given our Community Citizens Award. We’ve held Candidates’ Nights.”
“We collected ink jet cartridges for a nearby Mom to help with a scholarship and to raise awareness of SID's. We collected over 31,500 pop tabs for the Ronald McDonald house in Charleston last year. We made donations to the National Grange Youth Fund, to the Silverton Volunteer Fire Department and to a local girl with cancer.”
“We attended the first ever West Virginia State Grange Day and handed out National and State Policy Books at the Capital, and we attended Ag Day at the Capital in January this year.”
“Silverton Grange was awarded the West Virginia State Grange of the Year as well as West Virginia State Master of the Year, and Silverton Grange was honored to receive the First Place Community Service Book Award.”
“We are known throughout the community for being hard workers and getting projects done. We’re always willing to help. When we can’t see the end of the road, we figure it out and make it to the end of the road,” says Kristi Casto, newly appointed Lecturer of Silverton Grange.
“We’re a very family-oriented Grange,” says Kristi. “JR is third generation Grange member, and his son is the fourth generation. We all work well together. We see a need, jump on the bandwagon, and get it done. Our main goal is to put ourselves out in front of everyone in the community so that they know what Grange can do here.”
“We have a great location,” says Barbara Green, Secretary. “Our Hall is located less than a mile off interstate 77. We meet on the 1 st Monday and 3 rd Saturday. We start with a covered dish meal. Then we open the Grange with ritual and have our meeting. And then we always have fellowship afterward.”
“We have 36 members,” says JR. “Our age range is from 16-73, with an average age of about 50. We just lost our oldest member. About twelve of us are active most of the time. When you look at everything we do, twelve people do a lot of work!”
“Our annual dues are $20 – just the same as state dues. We don’t make any money on dues,” says JR.
“At Silverton Grange, we always say that if you work hard, you get fed pretty well,” says Kristi. “We are all good cooks and we sure do know how to eat!”
“We really think of ourselves as a family active organization. We are so blessed because we have several little ones who have grown up right here in Grange. We have one little girl right now who is always so happy at our meetings. This is her life and she knows it. She’s part of this Grange family. If she’s fussy or something, it doesn’t matter who it is that picks her up. She knows everyone, and she’s very happy in our family atmosphere.
”Kristi adds, “If you’re ever traveling through our beautiful state, give us a call and come to one of our meetings. We’d be glad to have you. And we’ll set an extra plate for you!” |
