Nov 1, 2012 4 min read

WIND RIDGE – New Freedom Grange, Wind Ridge, became Pennsylvania’s newest grange in October following approval by the national organization and presentation of the group’s charter at the Pennsylvania State Grange’s Annual Session held in Butler. Four members of the new group served as members of the host committee for the annual meeting and were on hand to receive the charter from state grange master, Carl Meiss. The new grange became the 2,108th grange to be chartered by the national organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C.”The grange is a great organization,” said president Dr. Lonnie Brewster. “It began during the Reconstruction Era, following the Civil War. Masons who were traveling in the South saw the devastation caused to farms by the war. They founded the grange to unite farmers and to give them a legislative voice in Washington,” he said. “The grange continues to lobby on behalf of farmers, for example, trying to get Congress to pass the Farm Bill to assist farmers devastated by this past summer’s severe drought. But with fewer farmers providing food for the country, the Grange has also evolved into a community service organization and a place where people of all ages can learn about crafts, food preservation, conservation, sustainable agriculture, backyard gardening and other practices that have always been a part of rural life,” he added.The grange is not for everyone, Brewster stated. “Like many churches, and like the Masons, it has a degree of ritual that is followed to open, to conduct and to close meetings.”The ritual closely follows Robert’s Rules of Order, but there is a bit more. For example, an open Bible and an American flag are required in order to conduct a meeting because of the group’s faith in God and sense of patriotism. As with the Masons, members are awarded degrees, with the first four awarded at the local level. Each is connected to life on the farm, the home, and the seasons of the year.Various farm implements are used as symbols for the degrees, representing planting, tending to, and harvesting of crops. The fifth degree is awarded at the county level, the sixth degree at the annual state session, and the seventh degree at the annual national session. The importance of family is stressed by the grange.”New Freedom Grange came into existence because some of us who were members of another grange felt that we needed more freedom to plan youth activities, to organize fundraisers, to foster leadership among more members, and to better serve Wind Ridge and the outlying communities,” Brewster noted. “We chose to demit or leave our parent grange; then we contacted the state office about chartering a new community group. Stacy Bruker, public relations and membership director for the Pennsylvania State Grange, came here from Harrisburg to help us organize and to make sure we abided by state and national bylaws during the organizational process. We recruited members, submitted our charter application, and now we are an active grange,” Brewster said.New Freedom Grange will join East Franklin Grange in sponsoring a float in the Christmas parade on Dec. 1 and a bus trip to Washington for dinner, followed by a concert by the Washington Symphony Orchestra on the same day.The group will meet at 7 p.m. on the third Monday in the community building at Ryerson State Park. All meetings are open to the public. Planned activities for the new grange include recycling scrap metal; conducting a stream study at Ryerson Park; helping senior and disabled citizens to maintain their homes and yards; sponsoring contests for beautiful yards and gardens; participating in the annual cleanup of Ryerson State Park; sponsoring a spring cleanup, paint-up, fix-up week for the Wind Ridge community; and sponsoring a spring trip to the Smithsonian Museums in Washington. The group also hopes to work closely with the West Greene FFA, the Richhill Township supervisors, Friends of Ryerson Park and Greene County Farm Bureau.