Tag: Grange News

Community Service/FHH – April 2024

By Brenda Dyer, MSG Community Service/FHH Director
(207) 608-9193

The unplanned community service activities are bountiful. Helping the community during the last few storms and power outages are endless. Congratulations!!!

April is Grange Month. Have an open meeting, invite the community to participate, and discuss the advantages of being a member!

May is Community Service Month. Choose a new community project. 

April 

  • Grange Month – Follow the National Grange theme. Picture and advertisement needed as proof.

May

  • Set up and complete a new project in May. Send in a write-up and pictures with the Family, Health, and Hearing Reports.

Reminder:

  • Coups for Troops

Happy Spring!

Valley Grange Celebrates Community

Ways to support the celebration…

Valley Grange is located in Guilford Maine

This is not a fundraiser—it’s a fun raiser! The purpose is to celebrate our communities and way of life. We’ll also honor some special community citizens—the Piscataquis County 911 Dispatchers! Here are some ways you can help support this fundraiser.

  • Attend the potluck supper, meeting, or both!
  • Bring people with you to the potluck supper, meeting, or both. Create a carpool!
  • If you truly can’t attend, drop off a dish for the potluck supper. We can also use rolls, butter, drinks…
  • Call some friends and tell them about it. Encourage them to come.
  • Download and print some flyers then post them around your community–stores, banks, town offices, hair salons…
  • Visit the Valley Grange Facebook Page and share the event.
  • Tell your local fire firefighters, EMS, LEOs, etc. about it. They appreciate our dispatchers too!
  • Invite any local, county, state, and federal politicians you can think of! They usually love things like this! If they can’t attend, ask them to endorse and promote the event!
  • Write a letter to the editor of local publications sharing your appreciation for our dispatchers and mention Community Night.
  • Think spring and hope for great weather.
  • If you have any questions or ideas regarding the event, contact Walter Boomsma, Program Director.
  • If you’d like to help with the potluck supper and have questions, contact Mary Annis or Janice Boomsma.

In a recent blog post, Seth Godin noted that ideas that spread win and because of technology and the changes in media, ideas that spread “horizontally” spread the fastest and farthest. Yelling from the rooftops doesn’t work so well. Telling a neighbor or friend does.

Freeport Grange Celebrates!

Happy Anniversary, Harraseeket Grange!

Recycle Eclipse Glasses

At least one company is collecting used but undamaged Eclipse Glasses. They will be sent to schools in Latin America so children can view the October 2024 Eclipse.

Could your Grange start a collection program as a community service? (The answer is “yes.” All it takes is a box and commitment to ship what you collect by August 1, 2024.)

Eclipse Glasses Give Back Program Info

The shipping address is Eclipse Glasses USA, LLC, PO Box 50571, Provo, UT 84605, and the deadline for shipping is August 1, 2024.

If your Grange decides to do this, please let us know! We’ll post a list of Granges that are “drop-off points.” (Leave a tote on your front porch. Keep it simple and easy!)

Email Scam Alert

From National Grange

Grange Songbooks Exposed!

As most know, Grange Friend Katherine studies and performs vintage songs of the Grange. After completing exhaustive research, Katherine has published an extensive history of Grange Songbooks and Sheet Music on her website. Where available, links to digital copies are provided, as well as more in-depth information. Like so much of Grange History, there is much color and a few surprises! Did you know, for example, that The Grange Polka was written by Frank Howards and published in 1874 by John Church & Co.?

On the introductory page, Katherine reminds us of one song that proclaimed the motto of the the Patrons was “Plow Deep.”

Bold monopoly and faction we’ll ever keep at bay
“Plow deep’s” the motto of the Patrons!
And dishonesty shall tremble when farmers clear the way,
“Plow deep’s” the motto of the Patrons!

George Cooper

Like many of the lessons of the Grange, a motto proclaimed in our early history and still applicable today!

We are grateful to Katherine for “plowing deep” and providing this labor of love. Not only do we learn a lot about Grange music, but her complete history provides insights into how the Grange worked many years ago.

The detailed History of Grange Songbooks and Sheet Music

Contact Katherine
Katherine’s Website
Katherine’s Fac

ebook Page

April Events

(Before we leave March, don’t forget this weekend [March 23-24, 2024], is Maine Maple Weekend!) April is Grange Month, with celebrations throughout the month. Here’s some we know about!

  • April 2, 2024, Open Mic Night at Trenton Grange. Doors open at 5:30 pm, and the event is from 6:00 to 8:30 pm. $5 donation cover. Trenton Grange Website.
  • April 2, 2024, Piscataquis Pomona Meeting at Valley Grange Hall. Contact Bill Bemis FMI. (Note different day of the month.)
  • April 5, 2024, Community Potluck Supper at Trenton Grange, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m., 1134 Bar Harbor Road in Trenton. For more information, see this post or visit the Trenton Grange Website.
  • April 6, 2024, Benton Grange Craft Fair and Flea Market, 9 am until 2 pm. Call 207 453-4796 for information.
  • April 6-7, 2024, Community Bazaar (crafts, farmers’ market, yard sale…) at Trenton Grange from 9 am until 2 pm both days. For more information, see this post or visit the Trenton Grange Website.
  • April 8, 2024, Solar Eclipse Day Are you safe?
  • April 13, 2024, Kennebec Valley Grange Take-out Dinner, starting at noon. For more information, see this post.
  • April 13, 2024, Parkman Grange Daddy Daughter Dance starting at 6 pm, see this post!
  • April 14, 2024, Deadline for the MSG Bulletin
  • April 14, 2024, Cumberland Pomona Degree Day at North Scarborough Grange starting at 1:00 pm. Contact Yvonne Johnson FMI. (603 506-1374)

Parkman Grange Springs into Spring!

The Parkman Grange has a busy spring planned, starting with its Daddy Daughter Dance on Saturday, April 13, 2024, from 6-8 PM. Young ladies are invited to attend with their dad or an important person in their life. D.J. Steve Boddy will spin tunes and have fun dance games with prizes. Light refreshments will be available. A keepsake photo will be taken to remember this special night. Admission is $5 per person at the door.

The popular Mother’s Day Tea will be on May 11, 2024 from 10 to noon.  Kelly Brasier is the guest of honor.  Tea sandwiches, sweets, and beverages will be served. Live entertainment and lots of door prizes make this a special occasion which has become a spring tradition for family and friends. Admission is $5 per person, under 5 free. Reservations are required at 207-717-6248. 

Applications for the Minnie Bridge Scholarship are available at the Parkman Town Office or anytime on the bulletin board on the porch of Grange Hall. These $500 scholarships are for SAD #4 area, second-year higher education students. The deadline is July 12, 2024. 

 The Parkman Grange meets on the first Tuesday of the month at 5 PM at the Grange Hall. If you are interested in these and other community-based events, come join them; you don’t need to be a Parkman resident. The hall is located on the corner of State Hwy 150 and North Dexter Road in Parkman

Jonesboro Grange Featured on WABI

Jonesboro Grange is recently featured on WABI-TV5. Watch the story online!

Watch Jonesboro Grange on WABI

and don’t forget their Easter Basket Festival March 22-24, 2024!

  • Free Easter Egg Hunt for ages 12 and under with 7,000+ Eggs on March 23rd1
  • Free Photos with the Easter Bunny
  • $50 Door Prize
  • 50/50 Raffle

Community Service/FHH – March 2024

By Brenda Dyer, MSG Community Service/FHH Director
(207) 608-9193

March is when Spring officially starts. We are on Daylight Savings Time, and the days have more daylight. Many have started seedlings for themselves, neighbors, or a community plant sale. Craft fairs are starting to spring up. EVERYONE is Irish for one day. The opportunities for community service are endless.

There are many services that will overlap with other Grange committees. Please make sure to include these in your report ( ie. The CWA committee may make a quilt to be used for a community service event.) This should be reported in the Community Service report under the event and the CWA report. 

I am receiving some Coupons for the Coups for Troops. Keep sending them! Thank you Valley Grange and Lakeside Grange. 

Family Health and Hearing

March  Women’s History Month
             17th   ST. Patrick’s Day
             30th   National Doctor’s Day

April Grange Month

          Maine State Grange is 150 years old as well as several Subordinate Granges. 
          Have an open meeting and invite the community to learn about the Grange. CELEBRATE!
          Follow the National Grange Theme. Make sure to take pictures.

If you email me, please text me to let me know so it won’t go to spam and/or get deleted. Thank you. Happy Spring!