Greetings from western
PA. By the time you read this article, I am hoping and praying for
spring to rear its head. We have had a real variety of winter this
year. We have been snowed in, iced in, rained on, snow piled high
and sometimes no place to put what just fell. This has also caused
our little streams to turn into rushing creeks and washing things
away. Oh well, it is over for several months and the grass is
beginning to green up and that requires me to get out the big green
machine and tune it up. I know that my wife has had enough. She was
ready to mow grass in January when we had the big break in the
weather and got up to almost 70 degrees. Now that it is getting
green, I am like everyone else, getting the summer equipment up and
running.
Are you all up and
running this spring? I don’t mean it to refer only to the grass and
outside work. I am referring to the Grange. We all sit in all winter
because of the weather, but now we need to get our Grange halls all
fixed up inside and out by getting out members helping out. Have you
given thought to a work day at the hall? This is one thing we all
need to do. Our halls sit out in the community. We need the
community to be a part of us as well. Have a spring community day at
the hall. Open it up for a community yard sale. Let the community
know that the building is there for more than monthly meetings. Hold
things in your hall that will encourage the community to attend.
Hold a luncheon for Mother’s Day, honor your area servicemen with a
dinner and program. After all, you can see on the calendar that
there are many days that we need to be flying the flag and giving
proper honor to those who serve this country.
Now that things are
cleaned up, it is time for us to get busy on getting members. At all
of our regional meetings things were presented to us on ways to do
just that. We learned of ways to improve things for ourselves in the
Grange. After all, if we have a hall we cannot keep it open without
members. I hope that you took away some ideas for your Grange, but
most importantly, you will take the ideas back to your Grange and
put them into place. We cannot sit back and let the rest of the
state do our work. We must take the first steps and then if you need
more help, ask for it. Don’t be too proud to ask. Reach out to your
neighbors and friends and ask them to join. Keep in mind that this
great organization we belong to is for the “entire family”.
Therefore they can get it all by going out as a family and coming
home as a family, also knowing that they can be a part of action to
make their community in rural Pennsylvania more to their liking. Let
them know that what we do is for our families and community, right
down to the resolutions we sponsor and the work we put into
legislation for rural Pennsylvania.
Let’s all work together
and keep our 1st place ranking in the National Grange by membership.
After all, we all worked
hard to get there, so let’s not just give it away.
Fraternally,
Dick Mangel
State Gatekeeper