Good DAY!
A quarterly publication of the National Grange Vol. 3, Issue 4 l Winter 2019-20
THE TIE THAT BINDS From local milestone celebrations to National meetings, friendship is a key part of the Grange experience Photo by Anson Dietrich, Virginville Grange #1832 (PA)
™
Grange Membership
BENEFITS Below is an overview of some of the benefits that are available to Grange members across the country. A full, detailed list can be viewed on the National Grange’s website: www.nationalgrange.org/benefits
$
SHOP
We have partnered with Office Depot/Office Max and The Azigo CashBack Shopping Mall. When you shop at these locations or use these services, you are giving back to the National Grange and receiving special deals in the process.
FINANCE
The National Grange has partnered with TSYS Merchant Solutions, which has been serving merchants for more than 30 years and offers a payment processing program tailored to your business needs. If you have a small business, this advantage could help you.
TRAVEL
R/
X
With discounts from Choice Hotels, Wyndham Hotels, Hertz, Dollar Car, and Thrifty rental car services, as well as other hotel and rental car businesses, these exclusive Grange benefits are sure to help you when planning your next vacation.
HEALTH
Our partnerships with Comfort Keepers, one of the top companies in the eldercare industry, Life Line, and the Medical Air Services Association, the oldest prepaid emergency transportation and screening organization, are sure to give you peace of mind about your health.
PHARMACY
We have multiple partnerships to help Grange members obtain discount pharmacy cards. CVS Caremark offers the RxSavings Plus Card. The U.S. Pharmacy Card is a free discount prescription card available to Grangers. Last offer excludes members in NC. Also a partnership with National Affinity Services allows access to the public subsidized government marketplace.
INSURANCE
We have partnerships with United of Omaha Life Insurance Company and MetLife Home and Auto Insurance to give our members discounts on insurance rates and deals. We are proud to announce a new benefit partner, Clouse Insurance Agency. State-based and property-based restrictions apply. Contact agency directly. Excludes Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, and North Carolina.
... and many more plus new ones added regularly. Check our website for all active benefits. www.nationalgrange.org/benefits
Good DAY! N
NATIONAL NEWS & VIEWS
8
®
SPECIAL COVERAGE: 153rd Annual Convention
MASTER’S MESSAGE: Grange Connections define what it is to be a member EDITORIAL: Misunderstood rural communities need Grange as voice in 2020 LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Member seeks others to start Grange motorcycle club
L
LEGISLATIVE AFFAIRS
46 63
BOARD: With major hurdles behind us, time to look toward future with great hope
A look at the new policies established by delegates at 153rd Convention
Grange makes most of introduction to 70,000 people at National FFA convention
OP-ED: Congress must consider vital need for rural airports when debating infrastructure
2019 Firefighter, Law Enforcement Officer and Teacher of the Year; Cape of Honor winner announced
FCC lauded for $9B proposed expansion for rural broadband, precision ag
Winners of Grange in Action, Distinguished Grange, Honor Granges and Legacy families recognized
M
MEMBER NEWS, SUBMISISONS & RECOGNITION
21
VIEW: Service before honor chosen when member got call for help A look at the 14 new, revitalized Granges and what they can teach about organization in 2020 Charter, new members welcomed; milestones celebrated; past leaders memorialized Delaware member recognized for rural road safety initiative while Oregon Grange posts signs to encourage safe driving ESSAY: Let new members “drive”
OP-ED: Lifeline phone service still necessary for low-income users
PERSPECTIVE: Reducing Food Waste
P
Farm Aid booth successful in educating, interesting concert-goers in Grange RESOURCES: Game, posters, worksheets, recipes and more are all part of tools you can use in Grange, at public display Demonstration shows how to help farmers by using cow’s milk to make soap Recipe provided can be fun way to make soap as gift, to learn new skill
J
JUNIOR GRANGE
ESSAY: New ducks needed in Grange parody Granger, female WWII Navy officer honored with Patriot’s Program certificate
70 97
Challenging 5-star Passport focuses on reducing food waste
Y
™
GRANGE YOUTH & YOUNG ADULTS
101
COLLABORATION: Youth, Juniors invited to new event focusing on advocacy, provides inside look at Washington, D.C. New program announced, will take place of achievement awards ADULTING 101: Initial stages of planning for retirement should be taken while young
H
HOBBIES
107
2020 quilt block contest offers sewers two pattern options
R
FOOD & RECIPES
109
Venison adds new protein option, especially in winter months Master’s Recipe: Smothered Venison Cubes
L W
LAST WORD
112
Woman makes first quilt to honor her mother’s military service
C
CLASSIFIEDS
114
Fundraising items, membership assistant announcements
Good Day! Magazine is a quarterly publication of the National Grange. located at 1616 H St. NW, Washington, DC 20006. ISSN: 2688-6030. | All comments and questions can be directed to communications@nationalgrange.org
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE ®
www.nationalgrange.org
3
Submitted Photo Members of Skyline Grange #894, Oregon, hold up pieces of hand-made signs the Grange posted along rural roads in their community in 2019 to encourage safe driving.
Grange posts safety signs on local rural roads SUBMITTED CONTENT Skyline Grange #894, Oregon “Rural Roads | Very Bendy | Accidents | Very Spendy” This jingle is one of 19 now posted by Skyline Grange #894, located in Multnomah County near Portland, Oregon, along their local roads.
The major thoroughfare in
the area, Cornelius Pass Road, carries 14,000 vehicles a day and has been completely closed since July 22 for
and discourage speeding, tailgating, littering, and drinking. The
price
of
signage
made
professionally was too prohibitive, so Grange members studied the art of sign making, designed a sign-making process that hopefully wouldn’t look too amateurish, and was within the Grange’s budget.
Luckily labor was
cheap and committed to this project. 12 Grangers and three community volunteers industriously worked for seven days to produce 93 signs. With the local hills, curves and abundant
improvements, and will be until at least
vegetation,
October forcing traffic onto smaller
straight stretches of roadway for sign
local roads.
placement was a challenge.
Remembering the old
finding
undistracting,
Burma Shave roadside signs of the last
“It truly is a community service with
century and their humorous reminders
the whole community participating….
to drive safely, Skyline Grange devised
and commuters too since they have
a unique community service project.
read
the
signs,”
Skyline
Grange
The Grange asked the community
President Sen Speroff said. “Subtle,
to submit Burma-Shave type jingles
but good advertising for Grange. We
addressing traffic concerns. The jingles
had a great time doing it.”
had to be constructive, hopefully with
The Grange hopes these signs
humor, and not too dark. They received
bring a little humor and to gently
55 submissions. After a bit of tweaking
remind drivers that their roads are
and condensing, nineteen jingles were
county roads, not freeways and all
chosen. They encourage carpooling,
have to drive with caution, courtesy,
use of ashtrays, and mindful driving;
and care.
36
M
Other jingles posted by the Grange •
repairs | Now pay twice •
One text or call | Could end it all
•
Trash abounds | Near and far | Keep yours | In your car
•
Vodka’s nice | So is beer | Neither are | Welcome here
•
Logie Trail | Steep & curvy | Don’t slide off | Just start early
•
On our road | Best go slow | Around bends | You never know
•
Stay back | Leave space | Tailgating | Not safe
•
Reach out | Join a carpool | Make a friend | Save on fuel
•
20’s the Rule | At our school | Hit the skids | Honor our kids
•
Use an ashtray | If you smoke | Woodland fires | Are no joke
•
White knuckled | Wide eyed | Slow down | Enjoy the ride
•
Physics defied | Texted & died | Missed a turn | Got an urn
•
It’s no jive | To stay alive | Just drive | Thirty-five
•
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org
That shiny car | Quite a price | Add
Impatience | Caused it all | Service, coffin | And a pall
Delaware member readying to share lauded rural road safety program with Granges across nation By Amanda Brozana Rios
National Grange Communications & Development Director June Unruh, wants everyone to have safety in mind when on rural roads. The Delaware State Grange Lecturer launched a program in 2016 to raise awareness about slow moving farm machinery and sharing rural roads after a neighbor, past National Grange delegate Wills Passmore, lost his life while driving his tractor on a rural road due to a reckless motorcyclist. Unruh began envisioned a program that would help educate people about safety and precautions when driving on rural roads in either passenger cars or farm equipment. “Our state is being gobbled up with housing developments and there are few farmers left and the people moving in don’t understand how the equipment works or how slow it is so they try to pass you. It’s dangerous,” Unruh said. “It’s important for people who care about farmers and rural communities like Grangers to be out there educating these folks who may be moving near farmlands for the first time on how to safely share the roads.” Unruh is now working with the National Grange to prepare the program for digital distribution through the National Grange in the first two months of 2020. The program started when Unruh worked with a her State Senator Bruce Ennis to hold a stakeholder summit at the Delaware Department of Transportation office. The room included representatives from the Delaware State Grange, Farm Bureau, Department. of Transportation, University of Delaware Extension and local farmers. Both the Delaware State Grange and Delaware Farm Bureau committed resources to ensure the project is a success. Unruh also wrote a grant through the Grange to receive local funds from New Castle County government to help seed the project. With funds from both organizations in
Submitted photo courtesy of June Unruh ABOVE: A variety of brochures, signs and stickers have all been made as part of the awareness campaign to encourage rural road safety in Delaware as part of the efforts spurred by Grange member June Unruh. BELOW: Unruh has been on several radio stations across Delaware to speak about rural road safety.
addition to the grant, a rural road safety brochure with tips for motorists and farmers on how to be safe while sharing the road was created and distributed at Grange food booth at the Delaware State Fair and various other fairs and festivals. She also went to her niece’s 4-H Club that made posters about the issue, which she took to 151st Annual National Grange convention in Washington, D.C., in 2016. The posters attracted quite a bit of attention
M
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org
and discussion about the topic. She had the same 4-H Club put a display in a local parade, bringing another group in to advocate for rural road safety. She also had portable signs made for farmers and distributed them through Grange and Farm Bureau that warned drivers of farm equipment being used in the area that may enter the roads. Sen. Ennis also helped get metal signs that are now placed around the state to announce to drivers to be aware of farmers working in the area. The Department of Transportation has digital signs on major highways that now carry alerts that help motorists prepare for the potential of slow-moving farm equipment on their path, especially during planting and harvest seasons. In addition, Unruh pushed hard to get legislators in the state to understand the issue and as a result, the “slow moving vehicle sign” has been included in the newest edition of the Delaware driver’s manual for the first time. She is also working with several others
37
Minnesota location for 153rd Annual Grange Convention makes for true homecoming Members attending the 153rd National Grange Convention in Bloomington, Minnesota, found a welcoming atmosphere and lots of Grange connections to be enjoyed inside the halls of the event center, with speakers who had a deep connection with the organization and its mission and around the area, most notably, with tours to the Oliver Hudson Kelley Farm. Delegates went on tour Monday morning before they were to begin work in the afternoon. The Youth and General tours were slated for Thursday and the Junior Grange toured the farm Friday morning. On the tours, Grangers saw both the preserved historic Kelley farm, and the farm lab, which reviews modern farming practices and highlights the innovative work the modern Kelley Farm is doing today. “We’ve been looking forward to it for years and years,” said Judith Barnes of North Carolina’s Westbrook Grange #1016,
Photo by Philip Vonada In the historic home on site at the Oliver Hudson Kelley Farm in Elk River, Minnesota, a room includes a display set up of a Grange meeting with information about the stations and officers.
Photo by Karen Cline Juniors on tour at the Oliver Hudson Kelley Farm during the 153rd Annual National Grange Convention in Minnesota try to make gingerbread in an old-fashioned manner.
noting that her Grange sends a donation to support the facility each year. Staff members at the site showed off heirloom vegetables, hogs and sheep. They also spoke of Kelley’s innovations, noting that many of his structural designs came from reading. Grangers on the tour participated in a sorghum pressing demonstration and gingerbread making in the historic kitchen. Within the historic home, a subordinate Grange room was laid out, and on one of the walls of the room was hanging the charter of Oliver Kelley’s own Grange, Sunbeam Grange #2, which is still existence. Then the tour guides flipped the script, taking members from old to new to show them what has been built from Kelley’s time to today, and what changes have come to agriculture. The tour concluded at the on-site learning kitchen where staff made molasses from the sorghum demonstration. Mary Jordan, a member of Holden Grange #78 in Massachusetts, and working dairy farmer said the work of the Kelley Farm, which hosts about 45,000 to 50,000 children annually in very important. “Our philosophy is changing because we’ve realized the best way to educate the consumer is to get them onto the farm,”
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE
46 ®
www.nationalgrange.org
Jordan said. Other local sites of interest were Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis, the resting place of another Grange founder, Caroline Hall, and the historic Minnehaha Grange Hall in nearby Edina. Getting down to business Much work was already done by the time National Officers donned their gold sashes and marched in for the official opening of convention on Tuesday afternoon, and no time was wasted getting down to business. After some formalities transpired as part of the Seventh Degree opening, National Grange President Betsy Huber lowered the Grange to the Fourth Degree and invited all members present to join those already gathered prior to presenting her two annual addresses – the internal remarks that look at Grange activities through the year and the external address, which looks at priority areas and provides the Grange’s view on current topics. Huber praised the work of Legislative Director Burton Eller in both of her addresses, noting that he has done much to raise the profile of the Grange in Washington and beyond, running in circles to keep up with the many issues that
Grange cares about and wishes to weigh in on. As such, she said, “Coalitions and organizations are coming to the Grange for its insight and its support on issues and matters of public policy,” and our grassroots structure is what makes our opinion so valuable. “The National Grange gets its power from the voice of our grassroots members,” Huber said, noting that power requires that members are connected to the issues by receiving updates and notices through email from the National Grange, or sharing email received with those in the membership who do not use the internet. Huber outlined several areas that will be priority areas for the National Grange over the next year. She said rural broadband expansion will continue to be near the top because it tackles so many of the Grange’s asks – equitable access to quality health care,
Junior Mentor Award Winner Audrey Bowers Vinita Grange #360, OK
Additional Honorees Rylee Furr St. John’s Grange #729, NC Christine Andrew Kickemuit Grange #24, RI
education and the ability for businesses to compete in the global marketplace to name a few. Also at the top of the list is legislation that addresses ag labor through a comprehensive immigration bill – a priority issue that Grange hopes to see taken seriously as the current H2A visas and other programs are not working. The Grange is giving a thumbs up to legislation to address surprise medical billing – with certain conditions – while giving a thumbs down to any move to allow unregulated prescription drugs to be imported and sold in the U.S. Finding solutions to the U.S.-China trade war and getting a USMCA trade agreement signed are all issues of great interest to the Grange as well, Huber said, because all things trade related have a heavy impact on all sectors of agriculture. In addition, the National Grange is working for plant-based drinks and labgrown meat to be named in a manner that does not confuse them with animal produced dairy and meat products. The opioid crisis and its impact on communities is also an area the Grange will find ways to address, one of which starts with our Youth, sending several young members to receive leadership training with the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) and consider options of how to form partnerships to provide resources in their hometowns. During her internal address, Huber
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE ®
www.nationalgrange.org
reported that all systems in the National Headquarters were now working and that several additional, necessary updates to the building are still in progress. However, many repairs and replacements will be needed in the building over the next five to ten years at potentially huge costs, according to a building systems and engineering study commissioned by the National Grange Executive Committee. “It may be time to take a hard look at the building, its cost and benefits, and make some hard decisions,” she said, “This is a challenge for the delegates here to consider.” During her tenure, Huber has spent a lot of time dealing with legal issues from the ongoing California Grange-Guild court battle and its related trademark case – which she reported “both major court battles have finally concluded” – as well as a lawsuit against the former building contractor working to repair the chiller system that she reported the Grange has won a summary judgment against. To the California issue, Huber said, “The extended ordeal tested and tried our beloved Grange organizational structure and even our fraternal bonds, but our Grange laws were judged to be strong and valid by the U.S. court system… I thank you all for your support through the process, either financial or encouragement or prayers.” She also told the membership of successes throughout the year, including
47
PERSPECTIVE
Grange uses game, info boards about food waste as way to educate, engage By Amanda Brozana Rios National Grange Communications & Development Director On Saturday, September 21, state leaders and national staff attended Farm Aid in East Troy, Wisconsin, introducing the Grange to a large number of the more than 30,000 event attendees. Wisconsin State Grange Secretary Lexi Gegare and her brother, Kedric, a Junior Grange member, Amber and Kymm Scott, also Wisconsin Grangers, and National Junior Director Samantha Wilkins provided assistance with the Youth Market – a set of concession stands at which local produce and other food products from local farms was sold by young people interested and involved in agriculture-oriented organizations like Grange, FFA and 4-H. As part of the event, the Grange also provided a demonstration workshop on cow’s milk soap making and set up a booth at the Homegrown Village to introduce concert-goers to the issue of food waste and provide them a bit of insight into how they can work to reduce food waste and lessen the environmental impact of such waste. Minnesota State Grange Lecturer Ann Bercher and National Grange Communications and Development Director Amanda Brozana Rios worked to create the materials for the program, and were the key presenters for the soap-making demonstration where nearly 100 people learned a bit about the dairy crisis and how individual consumers can find different ways to reduce the surplus of milk. The big hit of the day, however, was the interactive booth where Grangers including National Grange President Betsy Huber, Wisconsin State Grange President Deb
70
Photo by Amanda Brozana Rios Minnesota State Grange President Ann Bercher stands with past Wisconsin State Grange President Duane Scott, dressed as a browning banana, before the 2019 Farm Aid concert got underway near the National Grange’s booth. Gegare, Wisconsin State Grange Executive Committee member Royal Vine, National Grange Membership and Leadership Development Director Joe Stefenoni, Illinois
P
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org
State Grange Vice President Karie Blasingame, Bercher, Brozana Rios and Wisconsin State Grange Vice President Duane Scott, dressed as a browning banana, test-
ed attendees’ knowledge of food waste and provided them tips and tricks on how to reduce waste in their homes. Attendees were asked if they wanted to test their knowledge about food waste by playing a game called “Higher or Lower,” where a Grange booth member would read them a series of two or three statements with a statistic. The participant would have to decide if the real number was higher or lower than that stated and use a higher/lower paddle to indicate their response. Some of the facts were shocking and helped compel the audience member to offer their own experience when presented a paper with 10 different commonly wasted food types and asked “what food do you most throw away?” Based on their response, the booth member would present them a small display board with a paper laminated and mounted to it that contained tips and tricks for reducing food waste in that category. For example, if you said you more frequently than you’d like throw away apples, you’d get a board that explained that apples go bad faster if they touch where they are stored, so a simple suggestion that may add a few more days of shelf life is to keep them from touching by taking them out of your fruit bowl and placing them into your refrigerator with a bit of space between them. We then offered to send all the tips and tricks, as well as recipes to help reduce food waste, to the attendees who provided their email, or if they did not want to share their email, they could visit our website to find the information. “This is something local Granges can do in their communities easily, and it is two-fold,” Stefenoni said. “It helps meet our mandate as members to help educate the public on agriculture-related issues and encourage them to be better consumers and stewards of the land. It also allows the person to learn about some of the Grange values and see a Grange in action long before they are directly solicited to join.”
Photo by Amanda Brozana Rios Several National staff and Grange members from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois assisted at the 2019 Farm Aid booth, introducing concert-goers to new ways to consider reducing their own food waste. Brozana Rios said the approach feels more natural than asking people immediately to join an organization that they may not know much about. “If you’ve ever been asked out by a complete stranger, you know how odd and uncomfortable the kind of cold-call membership appeals feel,” Brozana Rios said. “This helps us introduce ourselves slowly, and show our values and our goals and gives them a sense of what role they could play or role we can play in their lives.” Stefenoni encouraged local Granges to try this at a future event by downloading the resources for the activity on the National Grange’s website. “The concept is simple: set up a booth at a local farmer’s market, in your Grange as part of a larger community event and present some quick facts to those who visit your booth about this pressing is-
P
GOOD DAY!™ MAGAZINE www.nationalgrange.org
sue,” Stefenoni said. “Then, ask them to provide you their name and email address – an added bonus is to request their age range and zip code for more targeted messaging at a later date - so that you can send them the tips and tricks they saw as well as recipes and other details about how they can reduce food waste in their homes and their community.” Any Grange who replicates this activity should contact Stefenoni for more details on best practices for follow up emails to those who stopped by the booth and how and when to invite them to other Grange events or to join. “Each Grange is different and all individuals are different, but there are certainly some best practices to advise and follow in specific situations and that’s the type of guidance I’m happy to provide,” Stefenoni said. Brozana Rios said using well-de-
71
®
®
®
®