Successful
Actions of Stanford Grange - NY
Stanford Grange #808 is found in rural north central Dutchess County, in New York State, about midway between Albany and New York City. “We’re about 15 miles from the Hudson River to the west and about 15 miles from Connecticut to the east. Our closest village is Stanfordville,” says Oliver Orton, Secretary of Stanford Grange.
Our Grange was founded on January 23, 1896, and we recently celebrated our 111th Anniversary with a great celebration. We are a rural area with a diverse agricultural base - only three dairy farms left in the township, with most turned into horse farms. There are also Christmas tree farms and hay and silage farms. Most residents commute to Poughkeepsie, Kingston, and some to New York City for employment. It takes about two hours on the train to get to New York City so it’s quite a daily commute for some.”
“Our Grange membership is currently at 97,” says Oliver. “Why are we successful? We have an active membership who cares with those attending meetings aging from 14 to 93. Our median age is somewhere between 50 and 55. We took in 16 members from consolidating with Pine Plains Grange.”
“We have 20 Officers,” says Oliver. “At each meeting we average 16-17 of those 20 attending. We do the 1 st and 2 nd degrees and we have a county team that does the 3 rd and 4 th degrees.”
“We are very active in the community with community service projects. We recently raised over $6,000 for a local 11 year old boy who developed a cancerous brain
tumor. We sponsor our annual Christmas Party for the families of foster children each December, and our active Junior Grange uses the dictionary project for the 3rd graders at both elementary schools in our school district.”
“We meet twice a month on the second and fourth Tuesdays. The second Tuesday is strictly a business meeting. The fourth Tuesday is an open house meeting and program that begins with a dish-to-share supper at 6:30 p.m. Grange provides the beverages. We open the program up to the public at 7:30 p.m. Some of our featured topics have included: the potential of an avian flu pandemic, training dogs to visit with ill people in hospitals and nursing homes to cheer up their day, a meet the candidates forum for local and state officials in October and the Board of Education in May, a seminar on Lyme’s disease, to just name a few.”
“On the 3 rd Tuesday in May, our community votes on school budgets. So just before then, we invite candidates for local School Board to visit with us. If they are new to the school board, we ask them to tell us what their positions are, and if they’ve already served on the school board, we ask them to justify the school budget.”
“We have invited our sister organizations to meetings to tell us about their goals. We invite them as our guests, and we’ve been better able to work together because we know each other.”
“We own our Grange hall. We’ve been remodeling our kitchen with new cabinets, sink, and stove hood. In the dining room, the floor still has to be done. Several years ago we built a snack bar to cater to baseball teams in the spring, town recreation programs in the summer, and baseball again in the fall. That becomes part of our income.”
“We also hold a fund-raising dinner the third Sunday of every month, except for July and August. We rotate the menu so that we offer something different each month. It might be an Italian buffet, Roast Turkey, or Chicken and Biscuits. These dinners turn out to be a community service for elderly residents,” says Oliver.
“We hold raffles and penny socials, which are sort of like playing bingo but with prizes instead of money. All the prizes are donated – either from local businesses or from our members. Our dues are $17 – just enough to cover State and National Grange dues. We make enough money on our fundraisers so we don’t need to count on dues income. And we compensate the members who work by giving them a break on dues. Some of our members have free dues because they work so much.”
“We also have had a ‘Fairy Godfather’ who was a Grange member for 25 years. He gave us $26,000, and that has been very helpful as we’ve done remodeling in the hall. We also received funds from the consolidation with Pine Plains Grange.
“Stanford Junior Grange was chartered in 1938 and has been active ever since,” says Margaret Plantier, Junior Grange Leader. “Our motto is children helping children. For instance, some of our members have a friend who was diagnosed with cancer. So our Junior Grange raised $6,000 for their 11 year-old friend by holding a spaghetti dinner, flea market, penny social, and so forth. The family has really been able to use that extra money for transportation to see specialists. And the great news is that Jonah is back in school and doing fine!”
“The Juniors sent 17 large boxes filled with candy, toiletries, decks of cards, etc. for our troops in Iraq. They have adopted grandparents at a local nursing home and visit them regularly. They hold a Christmas party for children in community who are in the Foster Care program,” says Margaret.
“Our Junior Grange does the Dictionary Project. We have given out 100 dictionaries each year for the last 3 years. We don’t have to call the school district any more. They call us to see if we’re going to do it!”
“Junior Grange is not all work, though! We’ve gone on field trips to Albany to learn about state government and to see the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. We brought all the kids back home too! We’ve gone to local farms to see how cheese is made, and we might stop and eat pizza at a local pub. Four Juniors attended New York State Grange Camp,” says Margaret. “We want the Juniors to learn that nobody is an island and all of us are connected.”
“Grange helps fund trips and camp for the Juniors, but the Junior Grange also has fundraisers. Whenever we get short of funds, we have a fundraiser. We do a lot of bake sales at a local flea market where we can hire a table for $10. The women in Grange bake a lot of food for us to sell. You know, everyone likes homemade goodies,” says Margaret.
Dave Tetor, Town Supervisor says, “I am proud and pleased to be part of the community of Stanford. It’s a great town - and one reason it’s a great place to live is Stanford Grange. I’m proud to be a Stanford Granger too! One reason that our Grange is so strong is that we have outstanding leadership that has kept the Grange going and changing over the years.”
“Stanford Grange has sponsored the Annual Stanford Community Day for almost 50 years. It’s our big project! This year will be our 49th Annual Community Day on September 16th. We get the cooperation of 15 other community organizations to plan, work, and carry out the day with each one doing their part to make this a total community effort. Everyone has chores for Community Day. It really brings people together. We have a great parade. Organizations can set up a booth to raise money. I have to say that Stanford Grange makes the best chicken barbeque around. It’s always a sell out!” says Dave.
“At the Community Day, Stanford Grange takes the opportunity to honor an outstanding citizen. This year, our fire department is 75 years old, and we honored them.”
“Stanford Grange is an Action Grange so we hold open meetings and invite the public in to hear our programs. We’ve had programs on bird flu, and what to do should a pandemic break out. We had a teacher who has a snake collection bring some of his snakes for us to learn about. Of course he has to register his snakes with the town,” says Dave, wearing his Town Supervisor hat. “Really and truly, Stanford wouldn’t be the great community it is without the Stanford Grange.”
“If you’ve listened carefully to Oliver, Margaret, and Dave, you’ll realize that all the people in Stanford Grange and the people in our community who support Grange makes being Master easy and rewarding,” says Cathy Stark, Master of Stanford Grange.
“I’ve been a member of Grange for 30 years, and Master for many of those years. People sometimes ask me how I can do the job of Master for so long and still be so committed. I tell them that it’s really a rewarding and effortless job! It’s the people working with me that make it so easy and rewarding!”
“We are really one big Grange family. We span the ages of 14-93, and we all work together. There are no problems between members as we sometimes hear about in other Granges. We really have a sense of Grange family. There’s no ‘I’ in teamwork, and that’s what Stanford Grange is all about. There’s respect among all our members, so that no one is shy about raising an idea. Everyone knows that others will listen to their ideas,” says Cathy.
“Another aspect of effective leadership – and our success – is the cooperation we get with our committees. They really make it work smoothly and effectively. The Executive Committee takes care of problems between meetings. The Junior Grange Committee reports at every meeting about what they’re doing, and so do the Youth, Membership, Family Activities, and Leadership Committees. Community service is a very big thing for us,” says Cathy.
“We have a very active Committee on Men’s Activities. In fact our monthly dinners are all sponsored by and taken care of by the Committee on Men’s Activities. It was started more than 30 years ago. Our Grange Master at the time delivered a directive to bring in funds every month, and the men decided to sponsor these dinners. They do a heck of a job too, and give the women a little bit a break – though you’ll usually find the women helping out in the kitchen too!” says Cathy.
“Really, it’s the people in our Grange that make our leadership effective. It’s those people who make our organization strong!”
“Out of our 97 members, 15 are aged 25 and younger,” says Ryan Orton, Past Lecturer and Former Youth Committee Chairman. “That makes our Grange very fortunate to have so many young members involved. Right now, the Assistant Steward is our only youth officer, but a few years ago, many other youth served as officers including our Overseer, Lecturer, Steward, Assistant Steward, Lady Assistant Steward, Ceres, and Pomona. If the Master wasn’t able to be there, a youth member ran the meeting. Older and younger members participate together in Stanford Grange. In fact, I remember at one meeting in 2004, youth actually outnumbered older members about nine to six!”
“Two youth have served as Pomona Officers (Assistant Steward and Gatekeeper), and four youth have served as State Grange Youth Officers. Six have been on the State Grange Drill Team. Two served as National Grange Youth Officers (Assistant Steward and Chaplain), one served as the John Trimble Legislative Participant, and three were Youth Ambassadors,” says Ryan.
“We do a variety of youth activities. We’ve hosted two State Grange Youth Weekends where we have taken a tour of the Franklin Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, conferred the 5 th degree, and attended both Mid-Atlantic, and New England Youth Conferences. We work at the Pomona Grange Snack bar at our county fair.”
Ryan adds, “Youth members tend to stick around after Grange meetings. Dartball is a favorite activity. Our Grange members place faith and trust in the youth to treat the building well and close it all up tight after we’re done. For a few years now, it’s been a tradition for the youth to go to movies right after a Grange meeting. When we meet happens to be bargain night at movies in the town about 30 minutes away, so we all drive over together and make a social occasion of it.”
“I’m very proud to be a Grange member, and I stay active, even though I’m now at college four hours away,” says Ryan.
Dave adds, “Ryan has been a really important member in our Grange. He actually started a Grange in our local high school – which meant he had to convince the principal and others that it was okay. And Ryan did convince them. He said school is exactly a proper place for Grange.”
“A big part of our success,” says Oliver, “is that we are a part of our community. We’re very visible in our community, and people know that we're willing to cooperate and work with others to take care of a community need.” |
