Grange members to meet in Ellsworth

ELLSWORTH – The Maine State Grange will hold its 128th convention here next week with its annual meeting Oct. 24-27.

Between 500 and 600 Grange members from around the state are expected to attend, Maine State Grange President Phillip Herbert said Tuesday.

The Grange has changed a lot since the days it was founded as an agricultural organization, Herbert said. The statewide Grange, which has an estimated 8,500 members in 195 local Grange branches, is more interested in community service than in conventional farming issues, he said.

“You have to change with the times,” Herbert said. “Our biggest problem is that we’re not well-known.”

The annual convention will begin with a 6 p.m. banquet on Wednesday, Oct. 24, at the White Birches Country Club on Route 1 in Hancock, just over the town line from Ellsworth. The actual convention will get under way at 8 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Holiday Inn in Ellsworth.

Herbert said the annual meeting would consist primarily of the organization’s convention, at which Grange delegates will consider resolutions submitted by individual Granges. The proposals will be sent to committee before being voted on by the delegates, he said.

Resolutions that are adopted and pertain to state policy will be sent to the Legislature with the hope that they will be supported by elected state officials.

“It’s like any other democratic process,” Herbert said.

Herbert said the number of resolutions introduced could number anywhere from 25 to 100. Some of the resolutions to be considered at the annual meeting include a proposal supporting the earliest possible testing for infants who may be suffering from hearing loss. Another is in favor of allowing referendum questions to be placed on election ballots by way of petitions, he added.

The convention will be on Thursday and Friday, Herbert said. On Saturday, junior Grange members will meet with and be honored by adult Grange members. Herbert said the junior members would get awards for community service and creative projects with which they have been involved.

The junior Grange members are one way the statewide Grange hopes to preserve and grow its organization’s ranks in the future, Herbert said.

“If their parents aren’t [members], their grandparents are,” Herbert said.