Parkman Grange Scholarship News

Parkman Grange is located at the four corners in Parkman, Maine!

The Parkman Grange is announcing plans to award 2022 Minnie Welts Bridge Memorial Scholarships to one or more deserving SAD 4 residents continuing their education beyond high school. If and when there will be a 2022 Memorial Grange Supper is yet to be determined. The last two Suppers were canceled because of the pandemic. The Grange last awarded $500 scholarships to David Hession and Bailey Woodard, both of Parkman, in 2020. No applications were received in 2021.

This is a call for qualified applicants for the 2022 Minnie Welts Bridge Memorial Scholarships. Applicants must be SAD 4 residents, must have successfully completed at least one term of post-high school education, and be enrolled for the upcoming term. Application packages may be picked up at any of the Parkman, Guilford, Sangerville, Abbot, Cambridge, and Wellington Town Offices. Completed applications must be submitted by June 30, 2022, with no exceptions. Winners will be announced in August.

Minnie Bridge (1909-2011) was a lifelong resident of Parkman, a retired schoolteacher, and a life member of the Parkman Grange. In her memory, the Grange established the Minnie Welts Bridge Memorial Scholarship Fund, originally to benefit deserving Parkman students continuing their education beyond high school. Due to a lack of Parkman applicants last year, the Grange has decided to expand eligibility to include all SAD 4 residents.

The Grange annually awards one or more scholarships funded through donations and the proceeds from an annual supper in Minnie’s name. To date, the Grange has awarded $12,000 in scholarships. For more information contact Sue Manchester, 277-3942.

Junior Grange April Meeting Date Change!

Due to a scheduling conflict, the April Spring Challenge Meeting will be held on April 9, 2022, at Enterprise Grange from 9 am until 2 pm. This is an “in-person” meeting! For more information, contact one of the Junior Directors.

View from the Farm — March 2022

By Heather Retberg, Quills End Farm

The light is strengthening and lengthening.  The first smell of change wafted across the farm this week as winter begins to yield to spring.  Mud replaces ice. The search for spring shoots has begun, the bare branches brought into the house to “force” spring where we can see the buds swelling with leaf and blossom long before they show up outdoors.

 And…the sap is rising.

 Phil found a spare hour on Monday to tap the trees and the first harvest of 2022–and a new daily chore–has begun.  Each afternoon before evening milking now, Phil and Carolyn or visiting friends check the taps, empty the sap pails into 5-gallon buckets, bring the 5-gallon buckets to the wood stove in the house, pour the sap, ice and all, into the pan, keep the stove hot, and boil that sap down.

There’s a certain sound it makes when the whole pan reaches a simmer, a sizzzzzle loud enough it is its own voice in our conversations–the company of maple syrup.  The sap that has dripped out of the buckets coats the stones on the hearth with a sugary shellac and we stick a little to the floor passing by the stove.  It’s syrup time.   The house smells and feels like a maple sauna, that time of year when we keep it cranking more for the syrup than the humans.

 The wildlife returned to the fields this week, too. So long as the cows are away, the deer and turkeys will play.  The non-domestic Quill’s Endians are first growth opportunists.  The fox looks sound and healthy, the deer have emerged from the woods looking plump and well, the turkeys are still great in number.  The winter was not too harsh for them.  We hope the ticks and parasites have fared worse.

In the cow barn, Chirp’s little feller has gotten vibrant and spritely and has caught onto drinking milk from a nipple bucket.  Good and clever for a 2 week old.  Chirp is re-accustomed to the milking parlor and has taken it all well in stride.  The next-gen Bonnie calf (sometimes called ‘Cube’ as she is our 3rd Bonnie) got weaned this week and filled the barn with wailsome protest.  All else is well and spring fever has not set into cow realms in earnest…yet.

 All told, we’re emerging from winter fairly well.  Mud and mess and boiling maple sap, green shoots, and starlings in the birches, and, oh!, the smell of spring triumphing once again over the still sterility of winter!

May your week be filled with hopeful observations and peace-instilling reminders of constancy and life.

Heather and Phil Retberg together with their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously given us permission to share some of her columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Lowe’s Hometown Grants Program

It was recently announced Lowe’s is looking for nominations for this year’s “Lowe’s Hometowns Grants Program”. 100 projects across the nation will be selected to receive funding. Projects must benefit the community as a whole and not just a single group. Projects must be able to be completed on or before November 15, 2022 and be located within a reasonable distance of a Lowe’s store. Full rules can be found at https://lowes-hometowns.com/en-us/Rules.

Individuals can nominate up to two projects through the Lowe’s Hometowns Grant Program online portal.

The nomination period runs from March 1st, 2022 – March 28, 2022 at 11:59:59 PM ET.

Projects must fall into at least one of the following categories:

  • Community Resources/Space (e.g. park, senior citizen center, youth center, etc.);
  • Safe Affordable Housing (e.g. critical repairs, block of homes, accessible home needs, etc.);
  • Cultural Preservation (e.g. theatre, memorial renovation, sustainability, etc.);
  • Area Revitalization (e.g. a new playground at a community park, small business renovations/repairs, renovations to downtown areas, etc.); and/or
  • Skilled Trades Education initiatives (e.g. mobile training programs, high school vocational, etc.).

Note that recipients must be capable of being sponsored by a nonprofit entity recognized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (“Nonprofit”) or a government entity.

Kennebec Valley Grange Ham Dinner

Saturday, March 26, 2022 – 11: 30-until gone
Public Ham Dinner, take home only, NO dine in. Menu includes ham with raisin sauce, mashed potato, green beans, coleslaw, homemade biscuits, 4 choices of homemade pies.
Kennebec Valley Grange #128
560 Main Street Madison, ME
$10.00 per meal
FMI- call Diane Pinkham 314-5135

Kennebec Valley Grange Facebook Page

Grange Month Resources Now Available

Grange Month Resources are now available on the National Grange Website! In addition to the traditional sample press release, proclamation, etc. there are a number of graphics including customizable posters! These are all free for downloading and use.

Grange Month Resources

Use these to help celebrate the Grange in your community!

Don’t forget to submit your events and news to the Maine State Grange Website!

Fraternal Concern, Dorothy Shores

Submitted by Sharon Morton, MSG Secretary

It becomes my sad duty to inform you of the death of Dorothy H. Shores, on March 4, 2022. The mother of Susanne Verrill, Dorothy was a  former Flora of the Maine State Grange and Ceres of the National Grange.

Condolences may be sent to Susanne Verrill and her family at  270 Bailey Hill Road, Poland ME  04274.  Memorial donations may be made to the Maine Alzheimer’s Association, 383 US Route One #2C, Scarborough, ME  04074 in Dot’s memory.

Read the complete obituary here.

Heirlooms at Maine State Grange Headquarters

Okay, so these are a little different than the ones released by National Grange. As mentioned in her March President’s Perspective, Master/President Sherry has completed an inventory of items currently being stored at MSG Headquarters: seals, charters, and records of Granges that no longer exist. As some will recall, these are available to interested local historical societies. The list is sorted by the original Grange Name and is four pages long! A copy is also being mailed to Subordinate/Community Grange secretaries.

Check the list to see if there are items that might be of interest to historical societies in your area! These items certainly deserve a good home. There is a Historical Society Agreement Form that should accompany any items provided. Both the list and the form will remain available in the Historical Resources Page of the Program Books and Information Page.

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.”

Mahatma Gandhi