Successful
Actions of Victor Grange - ME
Victor Grange is located in Fairfield, Maine, about 25 miles north of Augusta. “Our Grange is a little over 137 years old,” says Roger Shorty, former Master of Victor Grange.
“I joined in 1977 when I met my wife Wanda. You might say I married into the Grange,” says Roger. “At that time we met twice a month, and I’d say we were a semi-active Grange. About all we did were those twice a month meetings. We limped along like that for maybe 15 or 20 years, and then around the turn of the century, we felt like we faced a crisis. Our membership was aging quickly and our Grange Hall needed some structural work on the foundation. We thought about closing up the Grange.”
Madeline Hill, Victor Grange secretary offers a little historical background. “I’ve been a Grange member for 63 years. When I first joined we had over 200 members, and many of those people were active. There were never fewer than 40 people at a meeting. But people passed away and things changed. We were getting down so that there were only 6 members coming to a meeting. And that’s when Roger went door-to-door to invite people to come in – and that’s why we’re still open!”
“We decided,” says Roger, “that it was time to open up our Hall and invite the community to join us. We just said, ‘come eat,’ and invited people to a potluck supper. Well, over 100 people came, and we had a great potluck supper. We explained to them what Grange was about, and that really it belongs to the community. We asked them to get together and support us so the community wouldn’t lose the Grange.”
“A few people thought it was a good idea, and most of them are taking a lot of leadership and really making a difference here. We really opened up our Grange to the community. One of the best things we did was to partner up with the Methodist Church, which is right across the street from our Grange Hall. They were struggling a little. We were struggling too. By leaning on each other, we’ve both been able to get stronger.”
“I was the Master for a long time,” says Roger. “No one else seemed to want to do it. It’s not that it’s a hard job, but I guess it’s a scary job for people who don’t understand. We got a few new members in from our Open House. And we do the degrees every year now and bring in candidates every year. But we’re not really pushing membership. We’re pushing to increase our community involvement. We think that if we take care of the community, then membership will just naturally come along with it.”
Bill Matuzas is the current Master of Victor Grange. “Bill’s been Master for a year now, and he’s doing a great job,” says Roger.
Bill says, “I’m a relative newcomer in the Grange. I joined in 2002. One day I was out in my yard trying to figure out how to plant something – because I was new to the area too. And Roger drives up and invites me to a potluck supper. My wife Joanne and I have been members for four years now, and it’s really been very rewarding for us – and a way for us to become really involved in the community because that’s what our Grange is about.”
“We’ve tried a number of activities that were successful enough that we’ve chosen to do them now year after year,” says Bill. “One of those activities is Spring Fest held in May. We sell plants and crafts, food for lunch of course, and we have some drawings. It’s become a successful event for us.”
“And then we started doing a festival in the last quarter of the year. Our first one was kind of a Winter Fest. It was sometime around Christmas because I remember somehow getting roped into wearing a Santa Clause costume. They had me dancing around along the highway trying to attract people to come in – and I guess it worked because people did come.”
“Well, now that’s evolved into a Harvest Fest. This year we’re already starting pumpkin seeds which we hope our members will take and plant in their gardens. And then we hope we’ll have enough pumpkins to hold a carving contest. We have apple orchards in the area and one of our community members has an old-time apple press. So we’re going to be making apple cider during the Harvest Fest too. We haven’t got it fully planned yet, so maybe we’ll even pull in some of the small farmers in the area. It’s still being structured and defined.”
“Three years ago we started doing a dinner theater in November,” says Bill. “One of our members was involved in Community Theater here in central Maine – which apparently was pretty active. His name is Stan Pinette and he became our director. Several Grange members have played parts in the plays. Our first one was Mud Season, then we did Cinderella Yet Again, and then last year we did Home on the De Range. We do three performances, Friday night, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon. At one performance we had 125 people, and at our least-well attended performance, 80 people came. It’s an event that people look forward to. They even start asking ahead of time when it will be.”
“Another event we do is a Silent Auction. We work with the church on this one. They had done silent auctions in the past, and we just partnered up with them to make it bigger and better. It’s in June and we link it with a chicken barbeque. Last year we even had a street dance that went along with it.”
“This year we’re starting a new annual tradition. To celebrate Grange Month, we’re going to hold an Open House, and as part of our celebration, we’re going to give a Citizen of the Year Award to someone who has given a lot to the community. We’re going to present the award and also show off some of the wonderful historical and informational materials that our Grange has come to possess. Barb and Ed Finch have been really instrumental in gathering some of that as part of the senior program.”
“We have a gathering for senior citizens once a month,” says Barb Finch. “It evolved because we saw that there’s a need for seniors to get out and have some socializing with each other and other members of the community. So we have a potluck and we have speakers on lots of different topics that are important to them – Medicare, hearing aids, that kind of thing. They play games, and they just love to socialize with each other. We send them home with a ‘fun-pack’ that has jokes, riddles, puzzles, and that kind of thing, along with a newsletter that has information in it – to help them avoid scams and those kinds of problems. Grange has been great about opening the Hall for the seniors and keeping the heat on for us.”
“We put together a collection of historical pictures to put on display, and from that, they’ve started bringing in their own photographs. Some are of them in front of a one-room schoolhouse, or all kinds of things from their own lives. Well, now Grange is putting together a Photo Exhibit about the history of agriculture and we’re working with the museums in town that are doing historical Photo Exhibits on different topics. So this will be a big exhibit, but housed in different parts of the community. It will really take people out into the community and in different sites all over central Maine.”
Roger adds, “The senior group got us started on a Coffee Open House thing we do every Saturday morning in the summer months. We just open up the Hall and put coffee on, and people just stop in for coffee and chitchat. Five to six years ago, I wouldn’t have thought this could happen, but since these wonderful people – my new friends – have come in, we’re able to do all kinds of great things.”
“One of the great advantages we have is our location,” says Ed Finch. “Our building is in a heavy traffic area where four roads come together – from Skowhegan, Waterville, Norridgewock, and Oakland. People have always known that the building was there, but it was empty. Now what I hear folks saying is that there’s something going on in the Grange. And there is. You drive by now and there are cars parked and something going on. People are starting to know a lot more about us.”
“Another thing that’s made a difference is that our local cable access channel comes to tape our dinner theater – and they air the show on cable access television. So that’s generated more interest – in getting involved or in coming to watch. What precipitated some of this was that we needed to do some structural work on the building and we needed to get on the stick and raise some money. Now that we’re past that crisis, we still need ongoing maintenance. But once we get people there, the Grange Hall acts like a hook for us. We rent it out to organizations in the community, and now people know that we’re here and we’re active. A lot of people who aren’t members still support us.”
Ed Finch adds, “My grandparents were Grange members way back in the 1900’s, and I was never interested. Then Roger started preaching community involvement, and I got interested. I don’t think that people join for traditional reasons any more. I think they really want an organization that is active and involved in the community.”
“Roger made a real difference when he went door-to-door,” says Madeline. “That’s why we’re still open, and I don’t want people to forget that.”
What did Roger say when he went door-to-door? “I said, ‘Come eat!’ It was a crisis situation and we some people to get involved. And what we found out was that people really were interested.”
“Maine is a very traditional and ritualistic state,” says Roger. “I believe that the lessons in the degrees are very important. But the way we do business day-to-day can be pretty cumbersome. We have some new members so we’ve been going through the traditional opening and closing so they get a better sense of the Grange. We don’t really take up the password because our Steward knows everyone who is a member. We’re in the process of re-doing our by-laws, and in that process, maybe some things will change. It’s a long process.”
“I think that Grange activity is really evolving,” says Bill. “Formal meetings are less and less the focus of Grange. It’s our annual events that engage and energize us more. Our meetings turn into a smallish group who meet at the traditional time and who are involved in planning the events and activities. The actual activity is outside those regular meetings. Sometimes it depends on how many people come to a meeting. If there are more people, we tend to be more formal.”
“We have 61 members now,” says Madeline. “Ten to fifteen come out regularly to the meetings. But when we have an annual event – they all come. Every last one of them!” |
