Patrons of Husbandry – a website dedicated to the Granges located in Maine
National Award Received for Community Service Project
With great delight, Master Jill Sampson presented our Junior Grangers with a FIRST PLACE medal for their National Junior Grange Community Service Project entry, a “Coastal Cleanup” of Vienna’s own Mill Stream. The prize was announced at the Awards Night during the National Grange in November. Congratulations Juniors! We’re very proud of you!
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Mill Stream Grange in Vienna has a dynamic duo of Junior Grangers! If you’ve been following recent posts, you may have noticed them.
Natalie Heck recently received the Passion to Progress Award, bestowed through the Maine Academic Scholarship Pageant and presented by Rosie Haibon, USA Ambassador Miss. The award is based on her essay regarding volunteering at the Mount Vernon Food Bank this past year. Natalie also earned the Crossroads Leadership Volunteer Service Award for completing 50+ hours of community service during her reign as 2025 Miss Western Maine Pre-Teen.
We were pleased to recently feature her as a guest columnist with her award-winning Passion to Progress Essay.
Natalie’s sister Caroline is equally ambitious and community service-minded. Caroline is working on an outreach program to raise awareness of the importance of childhood literacy. The project includes building and placing a Little Free Library TM at the Mill Stream Grange Hall. Her outreach includes designing a bookmark with statistics and facts about the importance of reading to children. These will be printed and shared locally through her Girl Scout Troop and Service Unit, in the pre-K classrooms at Mount Vernon and Cape Cod Hill elementary schools, and in Mill Stream’s Words for Thirds.
She has already collected 203 books, a mix of board books, picture books, early chapter books, and middle-grade novels, all donated by the local community. If you’d like to support Caroline’s outreach program, contact her Mom, Kirstine Heck, or visit the Vienna, Maine, Mill Stream Grange Facebook Group.
Both girls demonstrate the value and power that come from collaborating with like-minded organizations. Energy creates energy. We are grateful and proud of their efforts and accomplishments.
A third Junior Granger, Sam Hanley, recently became an adult member and will surely continue to support his friends and the community. Earlier this summer, these Junior Grangers and another friend organized a Coastal Clean-Up that brought people together to clean the banks of the Mill Stream, which gives the Grange its name. They know how much fun Community Service can be! Maybe we should all find some kids to hang around with!
By Mill Stream Junior Granger Natalie Heck
My Girl Scout troop, 2096, makes birthday bags every year for Juliette Gordon Low’s birthday. This is a project we have been doing for eight years. We make birthday bags for people who don’t have enough money to have a nice birthday party for a loved one. We put cake mix, frosting, sprinkles, candles, paper plates, and napkins in the bags. Then we take them to the food bank. The people who volunteer at the food bank say that their customers really appreciate the birthday bags. It makes me happy to know that maybe a little girl or boy is having a nice birthday when they might not have been able to otherwise. This project inspired me to volunteer in person.
On March 15, 2025, I spent my morning working in the food bank at the First Baptist Church in Mount Vernon, Maine. The food bank serves my neighbors here in Vienna and Mount Vernon, as well as the surrounding communities. My mama helped me reach out to food bank volunteers and get permission to come in and help. We arrived at 8:00AM and helped carry all the fresh food into the building that had been donated by Hannaford. I helped sort fruits and vegetables and baked goods onto tables, and some canned goods onto shelves. When the food bank opened, I helped people find what they needed and packed it into bags for them.
In between customers, I interacted with the other volunteers and talked about my pageant experience. I helped make toiletry bags, and split bulk toilet paper packages into smaller bundles. At one point, I saw one of our Girl Scout birthday bags go home with a family. I felt really proud that I was helping people, and that I knew our kits were being taken.
I completed over fifty hours of community service this year, but this was my favorite because I felt active in my community. I was sad that so many people need help but felt happy that I was able to make a difference. I think the Mount Vernon Food Bank is very important to the people in this area. A lot of the community seems to rely on it.
I would like to be able to give my time to work there again in the future. My whole Girl Scout troop is going to volunteer at the food bank in November to help with Thanksgiving boxes, and I hope to be able to help independently again soon.
Natalie Heck is an active Junior 1+ Granger from Mill Stream Grange in Vienna. She recently received the Passion to Progress Award for this essay, which describes her volunteering experience at the Mount Vernon Food Bank. While it focuses on her work with her Girl Scout Troop, she and her sister, Caroline, are amazing Junior 1+ Grangers who certainly have a passion for progress in community service.
Maine participates in the National Grange Junior 1+ Program. If your Subordinate Grange has Junior 1+ members, please advise Maine State Grange.
By Beth Morse, VSG Fall Festival Director
802 388-2653
Maine Grangers are invited to join us at the VT Grange Center (located at 308 West St, Brookfield, VT 05036) for our annual Fall Festival on Sept 5th, 6th & 7th.
Like many fairs, we give Grangers the opportunity to showcase the quality products they produce. (Forms are listed at the end of this post.)
Here is a copy of our schedule of activities for the weekend:
Friday:
Saturday:
Cribbage Contest
Checkers Contest
Hula Hoop Contest
Horseshoe Contest
Cornhole Contest
Selfie Photo Booth
Pumpkin Checkers
Pumpkin Ring Toss
Frying Pan Throwing
Rolling Pin Throwing
There will be sign-up forms available for each contest.
Sunday
Festival Registration (Meals and accommodations)
Festival Information (Contest Categories)
Festival Entry Form
Vermont State Grange Website