Tag: Grange Advocacy

Notes from National – February 2022

Contest Deadlines

Please note that the June deadline is only true for certain, specific contests, including the Quilt Blocks, Photography, Publicity Items, and certain contests in the Junior and Youth Departments. Please consult the National Grange website or program guides for other deadlines. We will continue using social media and the Patrons Chain (as well as Good Day! magazine) to list upcoming deadlines.

National Grange Heirloom Program

The Grange Heirloom Program gets underway in March–just in time for Grange Month! Grange Heirlooms are snippets from the lessons of the Grange as taught in the Ritual and Declaration of Purposes. Please share “success stories” about the use of the program with us, or if you come up with other innovative ways to incorporate the Program in your Granges

National Grange Rosters

This roster lists the state officers for every State… it’s available in booklet form (as a pdf) and as a spreadsheet.

New Member Recognition in Good Day Magazine

Want to see your new members recognized in Good Day Magazine? Anyone who has not been recognized as a new member in the past year can be included. Use this link to share the news. The deadlines for each issue are:

  • April 30, 2022
  • June 30, 2022
  • August 30, 2022
  • November 30, 2022

156th National Grange Session is scheduled for November 15-19, 2022 in Sparks, NV

Resources to Help With Electric Bills

MSG Comm Department Logo
This article is reprinted with permission from an e-newsletter published by Paul Stearns, State Representative for District 119.

If you’re having difficulty managing your energy bills, there are free programs and services available to help you get caught up and manage your energy costs.

Below are just a few resources designed to help. For a full list of programs, please visit www.cmpco.com/helpwithbill or www.versantpower.com/residential/programs-and-services

  • If you rent your home and need assistance with your electric bill, funding is now available through Maine’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program. For more information about the program please visit: mainehousing.org.
  • The Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) is a federal grant program that helps income-eligible households pay for energy bills, repairs, and weatherization. Please contact your local Community Action Agency to apply for HEAP. Qualifying for HEAP is the first step to be eligible to apply for programs.
  • If you have fallen behind, call your electricity service provider. They have payment plans that will help you get back on track. In addition, the Electricity Lifeline Program offers eligible customers a credit on their electric bill. Arrearage Management Program helps eligible customers reduce their past due balance.

There’s Still Time!

Grange Heirlooms are snippets from the lessons of the Grange as taught in the Ritual and Declaration of Purposes.

The new Heirloom Program kicks off in March. If you haven’t heard about it yet, it’s an exciting program designed to remind seasoned members and introduce new members to the values and lessons of the Grange. National Membership and Leadership Development Director Amanda Brozana Rios is hosting several introductory Zoom meetings to provide more details about the program and its use, answer questions, and brainstorm how Granges may build from this great resource. Several sessions have been scheduled to ensure everyone who wants to attend can. Each of these sessions will cover the same material, so you need only attend one.

Each Grange that sends a representative to attend one of the meetings will receive a certificate of recognition and a prize. The State Grange with the highest percentage of Granges attending meetings AND with at least one of the following attending will also receive a prize (President; Lecturer; Secretary; State Communications Director or Newsletter Editor; State Membership Director). You can attend any of the scheduled meetings by clicking this link a few minutes before the meeting.

We’ll be adding a resource page to the Maine State Grange Website soon. It will include all of the information you need to take advantage of this great new program. We’ll also be posting a Grange Heirloom every month. Make sure every member in your Grange knows about this! It’s a great time to subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website!

Subscribe to the MSG Website — don’t miss a post!

Sweet Jonesboro Grange!

Jonesboro Grange Creates Candyland

On February 12, 2022, Jonesboro Grange #357 hosted the first Candyland event at the Grange. For $5, guests were given a box to fill with sweet Valentine’s Day treats. 

The hall was decorated with candy decorations and transformed into a candy land. We had eight tables filled with Needhams, cookies, fudge, homemade chocolates, dessert bars, peanut butter balls, and more! 

$1,200 was raised for the 2022 Grange budget. Grange members have been working hard to bring new and exciting opportunities to the community while raising funds to restore the historic building. 

A table full of Valentine’s Day baskets was raffled off and two Candyland games were offered as door prizes.

Maine Legislative Memorial Scholarship now open

MSG Comm Department Logo
This article is reprinted with permission from an e-newsletter published by Paul Davis, State Senator for District 4.

The Maine Legislature annually recognizes one student from each county who is currently pursuing or planning to pursue education at a two- or four-year degree-granting Maine college or technical school. Through the Finance Authority of Maine (FAME), these awards are given to Maine resident high school seniors or full- or part-time post-secondary students accepted to or enrolled in accredited Maine colleges for graduate or undergraduate degrees.

The 2022-2023 application cycle is now open and scholarship applications are being accepted until the deadline of May 1, 2022. Scholarship awards of $1,000 will be given to one student in each of Maine’s counties (16 total). Only complete applications will be considered, which should include the following:

  • A completed 2022-2023 Maine Legislative Memorial Scholarship application
  • An essay (make sure the applicant’s name appears on all pages)
  • Submission of transcripts, recommendations, and a 2022-2023 Student Aid Report (SAR)
  • College students should include both college and high school transcripts
  • All transcripts should also indicate graduation date or anticipated graduation date
  • A copy of a high school diploma or equivalent

Recipients selected from applications submitted by the May 1, 2022 deadline will be selected and notified in the fall. Notifications are not sent to those applicants not selected. It’s important that students submit the 2022-2023 free application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) in time to receive the Student Aid Report (SAR) back from the federal government. The SAR with Expected Family Contribution (EFC), income information, and the number of family members must be sent to FAME and postmarked by the deadline during the application period.

Communications Column — February 2022

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

Planning for Grange Month

It’s not too early! How are you going to create a stir in your community? For many Granges that should ask “How are you going to create a bigger stir in your community?” I recently had an exciting conversation with a member who described the overwhelming support their Grange is receiving because the community loves what they are doing and wants to keep things happening. I don’t think that’s a Grange that will need much help figuring out what to do during Grange Month!

National Grange has offered the theme “Raised Right Here” for this year. An interesting addition is a plan for a special “Grange Spirit Week” April 3 – 9, 2022. Each day of that week is dedicated to one particular aspect of the Grange.

If that feels overwhelming, think of it as an idea starter. Could, for example, your celebration of Grange Month include information about your Grange Friends? In addition to recognizing a “Community Citizen of the Year,” why not celebrate individuals and organizations who your Grange counts on for help when it’s needed? And, while you’re at it, how about a history of your Grange Hall that includes features available to those who use or rent it? Think about posters and displays. Can you enlist a member of the local media to write a series of articles? Are there organizations you could collaborate and partner with?

The idea is to overwhelm your community with awareness of the Grange. There’s not much time, so get on the phone, schedule a Zoom Meeting, or have an impromptu meeting at your Grange Hall. Throw out some ideas–the crazier the better! You may not do them all, but you just might be surprised at the energy you’ll generate.

Remember, we’re happy to post your events on the Maine State Grange Website–but you have to tell us about them!

If you are going to celebrate a Community Citizen of the Year, don’t forget to order that award from The National Grange Supply Store.

I’ll be updating the Grange Month section of the Program Books and Information Page over the next week or two as resources become available for National Grange. Don’t wait! Start planning the party now!

► FACT: The Maine State Grange Website was visited by over 600 people during the month of January 2022.

Subscribe to the Maine State Grange Website

Scholarship Info Updates Due

We have the following scholarships listed as available. Since students will soon be looking for support, it’s important our information be current and accurate. If your Grange is offering financial support, we’d like your current information soon! We especially need deadlines for applications and who to contact for additional information. You can use the submit tab on the website or simply email the webmaster. Thanks!

National Grange Scholarships

Sponsor: National Grange GROW Club
Scholarship: National Grange GROW Club Academic Scholarship

Maine State Grange Scholaships

Sponsor: Maine State Grange Ag Committee
Scholarship: Maine State Grange Ag Scholarship (2022 information has been submitted)
Sponsor: Maine State Grange Educational Aid Fund
Scholarship: Maine State Grange Educational Ed Scholarship
Sponsor: Maine State Grange Howes Nurses’ Fund
Scholarship: Maine State Grange Howes Nurses Scholarship

Local Grange Scholarships

Sponsor: Hollis Grange #132, Hollis
Scholarship: Hollis Grange #132 Scholarship
Sponsor: Kennebec Valley Grange #128, Madison
Scholarship: Carroll Dean Memorial Agricultural Scholarship
Sponsor: Mill Stream Grange #574, Vienna
Scholarship: Dorothy Waugh Memorial Scholarship
Sponsor: New Norland Grange #580, E. Livermore (closed)
Scholarship: New Norland Grange Memorial Scholarship
Sponsor: Parkman Grange #305, Parkman
Scholarship: Minnie Welts Bridge Memorial Scholarship
Sponsor: Somerset Grange #18, Norridgewock
Scholarship: Somerset Grange
Sponsor: Winthrop Grange #209, Winthrop
Scholarship: Winthrop Grange Scholarship


Is It Time for a Re-run?

Are you old enough to remember when television programming involved sometimes dreaded and sometimes eagerly anticipated summer re-runs? What we call “media” was certainly different.

In completing some recent research, I happened to look at a program Amanda Brozana Rio and I did together on April 18, 2020. While it was centered on the book I wrote about the Grange Way of Life, we spent considerable time on the challenge of maintaining the Grange Way of Life during the pandemic.

Whether or not things have changed much since this interview is perhaps debatable, but that’s not the intent of reposting it. The Grange Way of Life doesn’t change much fundamentally, even if how we live and practice it does. Therefore, it seems worth reposting this for consideration. Don’t miss the part about caterpillars and butterflies.

http://:abbotvillagepress.com

The Twelve Days of…

By Marilyn Stinson, Enterprise Grange

As the Community Service Coordinator for Enterprise Grange #48, I’m challenging ALL Granges, Grangers, and Friends to consider their local food pantries for the 12 Days of Christmas which starts on Christmas Day, using the song as a guideline. Let’s see what innovative items people can come up with. Let’s fill Community Service Reports with pictures of what they came up with.

For a previous year, the reasoning was:

Day 1. Pear Tree = can of pears.

Day 2. Turtle Doves = ??? turtles are in the sea and so is tuna, so Chicken of the Sea Tuna.

Day 3. French Hens = French cut green beans. (add a can of mushroom soup for a casserole)

Day 4. Calling Birds = oatmeal or dry cereal to call them with?? Birds like uncooked cereals.

Day 5, Five Gold Rings = rings of canned pineapple. Or spaghetti-O’s.

Day 6, Geese-a-laying = I had hens laying eggs so I shared. This year, I’ll use cans of corn to feed the geese.

Day 7, Swans a-swimming = chicken soup (swans taste like chicken??).

Day 8, Maids a-milking = cans of milk (put with the corn for corn chowder). Or the boxed regular milk.

Day 9, Ladies Dancing = Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix would be Swiss ladies dancing, I think.

Day 10, Lords-a-leaping is another challenge. I used baby wipes because once you open the package, the rest leap out at you. Tissues would do that, too. Maybe corn to pop??

Day 11, Pipers Piping = elbow macaroni looks like little elbow pipes and food pantries sometimes ask for pasta.

Day 12, Drummers Drumming = dry spaghetti for drumsticks, or frozen chicken drumsticks. Or isn’t there a snack cracker that is drumsticks?

(Donations of can openers would also be an extra item.)

The Twelve Days of Christmas start with Christmas Day and end with the eve of Epiphany on January 5th. The Twelve Days of Christmas dates back to English origins in the sixteenth century although the music is reputed to be French. The first publication date for The Twelve Days of Christmas (The 12 Days of Christmas) was 1780.