Little Lake Grange Presented with Heritage Award
by Mike A'Dair The Willits News
The Little Lake Grange recently was named a Heritage Grange by the State Association of Granges. Bob McFarland, president of the State Grange Association, spoke warmly of Little Lake Grange during a recent conversation, and said there were three reasons why the Willits Grange was given the award.
Little Lake Grange, he said, was 'the best example we have of how a mix of different eras can come together to make one grange."
McFarland was referring to the recent influx of baby boomer (and younger) members into Little Lake Grange, which by 2005 had become an organization composed predominantly of older members.
"In Little Lake Grange, they have people who have been members for 60 years, and they have people who have been members for two years or two months. Those people are working side by side.
State Grange President Bob McFarland (right) presents Little Lake Grange with a trophy for sending the most young people to the state grange convention. Receiving the trophy on behalf of the grange are Ellie Bruce (left) and Tara Logan. Not pictured is Miranda Moog, who also attended the convention.
"I can think of Hank Strock, who is one of the Little Lake Grange's longest-serving members," McFarland said. "Hank was willing to voluntarily step aside so new leadership can take form. Yet he is still there, so his experience and his knowledge can be available to newer members. That's a lesson for all the other granges in the state.
"The Little Lake Grange has been exemplary at living and practicing and embodying the values and the philosophy of our organization," he added. "They have helped small farmers, by putting in that commercial kitchen and by becoming a home to the Farmers' Market.
"They have given the local area's small producers a meeting place and a cultural center. They have done an exemplary job in education, through sponsoring a number of programs, such as the classes in how to have a healthy diet and how to fight diabetes, or the work of the local watershed group, or the Now and Then film series, or the conversations with the elders series that the grange sponsored a few years back.
"They have demonstrated an altruistic community spirit by first sponsoring and then taking over the management of the grains project, through which they have shown a willingness to feed the whole community in case of a disaster. For all of these things, the Little Lake Grange has demonstrated that it is a heritage grange."
McFarland also praised the willingness of Little Lake Grange to embrace the ritualistic aspect of the organization. "If you dig through our old records and how those rituals came about, you will find they are almost like a worship of agriculture and a ritualistic testament to the relevance of agriculture to everyone's lives," McFarland said.
"The Little Lake Grange embraces our ritual, and has made it relevant to people today. They have found a way to interpret our rituals so people now can appreciate it."
McFarland especially praised the contributions of Willits resident Annie Waters in this regard.
At the January meeting of Little Lake Grange, McFarland presented the organization with a trophy for sending more young people to the state grange convention than any other grange in the state.
According to Grange member Cyndee Logan, who was one of the youth's chaperones at the convention, the award was actually for "not only sending the most kids, but it was the kids who actually attended the legislative sessions and spent the most time actively participating in the political aspect of the convention."