Community Service/FHH – December 2023

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

May the spirit of the season be with you. 

Community Service opportunities are endless during the Christmas season. Visiting a person who lives alone, shoveling a pathway or driveway for a neighbor or fellow Granger, inviting community members to a coffee/tea social and share time together, calling a friend on the phone, sending a note to a shut-in, volunteering at a local facility and talking to residents, and become Christmas Carolers for the community are a few suggestions.

Family, Health & Hearing 

December  A Grange Holiday Season – display what it is to be in Grange and not only during the holidays but all year round.

January  4 – National Buffet Day
January  9 – National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day
January 28 – National Lego Day

These are suggestions, and your Grange may add to these. It is not too early to be thinking about submitting “Granger of the Year,”  Police, Firefighter/EMT of the Year.

Merry Christmas and a Healthy, Happy New Year!

NE Leader Conference Packet

Yes, there was an error in the original posts! Thanks to John Lowry for spotting it and bringing it to my attention. It has been fixed and is included here for your convenience.

The moral of the story is, “Don’t use a new software feature until you’ve thoroughly tested it.”

A secondary lesson might be, “Don’t be surprised at the methods software developers will use to introduce their software to new users!”

Sorry for any inconvenience or confusion!

Northeast Leaders Conference Announced

The Northeast Leaders Conference is scheduled for January 12 – 14, 2024, in Concord, NH.

Hotel reservations must be made by December 20, 2023, and Conference reservations must be made by January 4, 2024.

All are welcome at your own expense, and everyone must make their own hotel and conference reservations. All information and a schedule is available in this online packet.

You are welcome to share rooms and transportation. Contact Sherry with questions at my email SHarriman@twc.com or call my cell phone listed in the roster and web. 

CWA Report – December 2023

By Margaret Henderson, Director
Committee on Women’s Activities
207 948-2762

Committee on Women’s Activities

I hope some of you are starting to plan activities for next year. My Grange is planning to make lap robes for Veterans. I believe this will be a great project for us. I am sure there are many wonderful projects across the state that we can participate in.

I hope that you all will have a very Merry Christmas, enjoying time with your families and friends. Stay healthy and safe.

Peter Ivers Honored

Photo of Peter Ivers and Harrimans.
At the December Cumberland Pomona Grange meeting, State President/Master Sherry Harriman and her husband Richard, presented Pete Ivers with his Assembly of Demeter sash. This recognizes his status as a Past National Delegate. Sister Sherry reported on his unexpected appointment in her most recent monthly column.

Submitted by David Gowen

Membership Moments – December 2023

By Rick Grotton,
Membership Committee Director
207 582-5915

All the Mainers who attended the National Grange in November had a great time in Niagara Falls and were greeted with great weather. It was great to be reacquainted with friends from across the country who I haven’t seen in a few years. It was wonderful to find out that a number of State Granges had overall increases in net membership this past year!  Maine can do the same if we focus and let people know we exist!! Thanks to those Maine Granges who did have net gains; keep up the great work!

Let’s make a group resolution for the upcoming year to increase our memberships. At State Grange in October, during the Memorial Service, the Grange was described as a four-story home with the Subordinate/Community Grange as the main floor with Pomona, State, and National as the upper floors, consecutively. Everyone enters the ground floor and climbs up to the upper floors, where more lessons await. Thus, without the ground floor, there would be no house. That is why it is important for us to bring in new members; if not, the house collapses. Our Grange “house” has existed for all of these years so repairs are needed and upgrades necessary. We have gone through periods of change, and more are needed today. Please be an integral part of our growth and continue to contribute as you have over the course of your membership. We all need to support one another to help keep our “house” sturdy and functioning. A little TLC (tender loving care) helps tremendously.

Over this holiday season, please reflect on how grateful we are in so many areas. How can we improve ourselves? How can we help others? How can we increase our Grange membership? What needs to be changed? All of these questions are vital and extremely important and require an answer. Let us get a head start and start to make resolutions for the new year so these questions can be answered.

The State Membership Committee wishes all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Stay safe, stay positive, and stay grateful.

The Chaplain’s View – December 2023

By Christine Hebert, MSG Chaplain
(207) 743-5277

Let us finish this year with a grateful and thankful attitude, looking back on the positive events in our lives; rejoice and be glad that we are loved by many and live with hope for the future.

          Let us all remember that “Jesus is the reason for the season” and carry the joy of this time with us through the coming year.  Wishing you a Holy and Blessed Christmas.

 I bring you good tidings of great joy…For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Luke 2:11 (KJV)

Creating Fresh Holiday Wreaths and Arrangements

Reprinted from December 2023 Central Maine Garden News, an e-newsletter of the UMaine Extension Service.

For those seeking to “spruce” up their interior spaces during the holidays, fresh evergreens are a great place to start. In addition to the natural feel and fragrance, evergreens are especially forgiving to work with. Even those with little experience in floral design can effectively use greenery with just a little practice.

Start by observing the difference between greens that drape, like pine and cedar, compared to those with stiffer ends, such as fir and spruce. These will serve different roles in an arrangement. Stiffer branches are the structure, providing shape and line, while branches that “drape” are usually added later. Paying attention to the natural shape and direction of branches will save a lot of frustration — the best results come from working with the lines and flow of the material rather than trying to control it.

A word of caution about trimming material from evergreen trees. Conifers (evergreens) do not respond to pruning in the same way that other trees do. Don’t cut large branches off and expect that they will “grow back.” A better approach to harvesting from a landscape tree would be thinning, or removing branches from a full area of the tree, where they will not be missed after removal.

There are numerous books, videos and websites with step-by-step instructions for creating holiday arrangements with greenery. Use the tips below to help fine-tune arrangements and have them last longer. Read More!

Grange Heirloom — December 2023

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

Use the icons below to share this Grange Heirloom on social media and help others understand what the Grange stands for! If this heirloom has a particular meaning for you, click the “leave a comment” link at the left and share your comment with us!

For additional information and resources regarding the Heirloom Program, visit the Heirloom Resource Page on the Maine State Grange Website.

President’s Perspective – December 2023

Portrait of Sherry Harriman

By Sherry Harriman,
Maine State Grange President/Master
207 490-1029

A quick reminder:  Deputy School, scheduled for Dec 2 has been canceled. Your packets of information will be put in the mail next week. Thank you for your understanding.

We had 20 Grangers from Maine attend the National Grange Convention in Niagara Falls, NY, the week of Nov. 12th. It was a very busy seven days for all who attended. There were close to 600 Grangers registered, the most in recent years.  25 candidates received the 6th degree, and 150 took their 7th degree, again the largest class of candidates for quite some time.  The Northeast Region hosting the convention did a tremendous job planning and carrying out the conference and activities. Debbie Ivers was Maine’s host coordinator. Thank you, and congratulations on a job well done.

Richard could not attend the convention due to a health issue just before we planned to leave.  Since Maine is allowed two voting delegates, I asked Pete Ivers to fill in as delegate with no advance instructions or information on what is involved.  Pete did an exceptional job being fully involved in the Grange work and participated in committee work, discussions, the resolution process on the floor, full elections, and all activities that were part of the session. I was very proud of his involvement. Congratulations, and thank you very much, Pete. There were a total of 134 resolutions presented for consideration by the seven committees of the delegate body. Pete was assigned to Labor, Judiciary, and Transportation, and I was assigned to the Citizenship and Taxation committee. 

Workshops were presented on a variety of subjects, and new programs/partnerships were introduced. The National Grange is requesting e-mail addresses from the membership to provide program information to all. Please sign up for National Grange posts and newsletters. Full elections were held, with Chris Hamp (WA) being elected as the new President and John Benedict (NJ) as the newly elected Vice-President.  Several other new officers were elected, and several remained the same. The full list was posted on the web. Thousands of socks were collected for a local mission as part of the regional community service project. 

Jim Meserve was honored by the “Quilts of Valor,” receiving a beautiful quilt during the presentation ceremony. 

Roberta, Rick, Jimmy, Judy, Tracy, and Bill helped out in the hospitality room and cleaned up at the end of the week.  Thank all of you for being there. Sharon and Henry ran the National Grange store during the session, selling Grange jewelry, Grange socks, etc.. Great job.

Terry LaCombe Stevens and Betty Young, Co- co-junior directors, drove out bringing Carrie Coffin, Nicole Nickerson, and 5 Junior Grangers with them: Edith, Mary, John, Laura, and Sebastian, to participate in the Junior program and activities. It was great to have you there.

It was very exciting sitting in the audience and hearing a Grange or member from Maine having their name called to receive one of the many awards presented. Congratulations everyone. Items will be mailed to you.  Maine received the following recognition awards:

Photography:   Rebekah Hodgson, Jonesboro – 1st in “Grange Family”
Photography:  Laurie McBurnie, Willow – 2nd in “Potluck Activity”
            (each received a ribbon and a package of winning photo postcards)
Communications:  National Grange Connector Award: Rebekah Hodgson, Jonesboro
Membership & Leadership Awards:

Honor Subordinate/ Community Granges for Net Gains:

  • Huntoon Hill #398  plus (20)
  • Pleasant River #492 plus (12)
  • Harraseeket #9 plus (10)
  • Jonesboro #357 plus (10)
  • Union Harvest #591 plus (9)
  • Saco #53  plus (8)
  • Trenton #550 plus (6)
  • Wayside #550 plus (5)
  • Lamoine #264 plus (3)
  • Old Town Riverside #273 plus (3)
  • Granite #192 plus (2)
  • Hudson #456 plus (2)
  • Paugus #450 plus (2)
  • Farmington #12 plus (1)
  • Golden Harvest #33 plus (1)
  • Lakeside #63 plus (1)
  • Oak Hill #104 plus (1)
  • Pioneer #219 plus (1)

Richard and I wish to send you, your families & friends a most wonderful Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  Take care of yourselves; we care about all of you.