2011 Community Citizen Award Ceremony

Pine Grove Grange #298 and the National Grange presented the 2011 Community Service Award to Betty Fenoff at a ceremony on April 4 at the Bath Town Hall.  This honor is given each year to a citizen who has had a positive impact on the community of Bath, New Hampshire.  Mrs. Fenoff received the award in recognition of her noteworthy service over the past 21 years while serving as the town Postmaster Relief and Postmaster, a position from which she retired earlier this year.  Many of Betty's friends and family were on hand to celebrate her award, and the meeting concluded with refreshments and fellowship.  All in all, it was a fun night, and it was good to see the Grange Hall hopping with all of those people!

Now it's on to the Bake Sale on April 16 to earn money for candy for the annual Easter Party and Egg Scramble, which will be held at Bath VIllage School on Saturday, April 23 from 1 to 3 PM.  (Rumor has it that the Easter Bunny will make an appearance.)

The Grangers Have Been Busy!!!

Pine Grove Grangers could never be accused of being bored!  In spite of the snowy winter that has resulted in a few meeting cancellations, we've still managed to find time to have some fun times.  On February 7, we met at Grafton County Nursing Home and had a party for residents of Bath and our Grange brothers and sisters who are currently at the Home.  Cookies, ice cream, and fellowship were enjoyed by all.  On March 14, former State Representative and Senator Harold Burns regaled us with stories of maple sugaring.  We learned about the history of sugaring and the methods that are used today to produce maple syrup in large and small operations,  and saw his collection of old taps.   All in all, it was a most enjoyable evening.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, April 4 at 7:00 PM.  We will present the 2011 Community Citizen Award to former Postmaster Betty Fenoff.  All of Betty's friends and family are invited to the ceremony.  We will provide refreshments after the meeting.

                                           Cookies, Ice Cream, and Fellowship at Grafton County Nursing Home

                                      
                    Harold Burns gave a wonderful talk about maple sugaring in New Hampshire at our March 14 meeting

The Dictionary Project

Pine Grove Grange has participated in the Dictionary Project for many years.  The goal of the project is to ensure that every third grader in the U.S. receives their own dictionary.   Pine Grove Grange purchases and distributes dictionaries to the third graders in the towns of Bath, Lisbon, and Monroe.  This year, the dictionaries were presented by Master Linda Lauer, Executive Council member Bill Scott, and Grange member and New Hampshire Executive Counselor Ray Burton.  I think that we had as much fun as the kids did!  The enthusiasm of the students is heart-warming.  A few photos of the Grange crew and students.......

Master Linda Lauer with the students at Bath Village School (yes, there are only 5 students)

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Executive Counselor Ray Burton, Linda Lauer, and Executive Committee member Bill Scott with the 3rd grade at Monroe School

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Ray Burton at Bath Village School.  Ray is a life-long resident of Bath and attended Bath Village School as a child.

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Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells

We held our Christmas party on Monday, December 20 with 14 Grangers present.  After a short planning meeting and business meeting, we got down to the business of having fun.  Home-made gifts were distributed and then redistributed with a fun-filled Left-Right rendition of The Night Before Christmas.   The night ended with a pot-luck with tasty treats like grapenuts pudding (a New England favorite!), clementines, cake balls, and cookies.  We did manage to take a moment to pose for a picture in front of the Christmas tree so that we could send a photo to our newly discovered sister Pine Grove Grange in Hood River, Oregon.

During the meeting, we also collected items for the residents of Glencliff Home, food for the local food pantry, and items to be sent to a serviceman in Afghanistan.  Our Master, Linda Lauer, delivered the food items to the local food pantry the next day.

Our next meeting is scheduled for Monday, January 3 at 7:00 PM at the Grange Hall.  The program will be "Show and Tell," so bring sonething to share.  The snack will be potluck.

Reminder: Grange Christmas Party on December 20

Our Christmas party will be held at our Dec 20 meeting, which will begin at 6:30 PM to give us some time for a planning meeting.  Please bring items for Glencliff to the meeting.  The residents can always use toiletries, large print word search books, fleece throws, slipper socks, scarves, gloves, hats, wallets, stamps, inexpensive jewelry, throw pillows, mugs with large hand holds, hot chocolate, instant coffee, tea, etc.  Also, we will take a box to the food pantry after the Dec. 20^th meeting, and donations are welcome.  Finally, we are still collecting items to be donated to a member of the Armed Services. 

We will have a gift exchange of homemade items at the meeting.  The snacks that night will be potluck.  See you there!!

Community Christmas Party

One of the joys of living in a small town are events like the Community Christmas Party on December 8.  The school held its concert, which was great fun in and of itself, and the school provides holiday cookies for the attendees.  The highlight of the night, however, is the arrival of Santa Claus, complete with wrapped toys for each of the Town's children. 

Santa needs some help with the toys, so local organizations share the expense and work.  The members of Pine Grove Grange, the Bath Fire Association, the Friends of Bath, Bath Congregational Church, and the church's Women's Fellowship work together to make the night special for the children.  Their reward for the hours of shopping and wrapping is the look on each child's face as he or she receives her gift from Santa.  This year,  gifts went out to 61 school-age children and 27 pre-schoolers. 

SNOWED OUT

Monday night's meeting at the Grafton County Nursing Home was cancelled due to the poor condition of the roads.  Our Grange meets at the nursing home once each quarter.  Three of our Grange members, plus members of other Granges, are permanent residents at the facility and our quarterly meetings are their only chance to participate in a Grange meeting.  The response has been very positive- so much so that we encourage other Granges to consider doing something similar.

Our next meeting will be on Monday, December 20 at the Grange Hall for our annual Christmas party.  Until then- stay warm.