It’s Grange Month… Lets Celebrate And Promote Grange
By Tom Gwin
State Grange
Master/President
Welcome to GRANGE Month!!!
For several years, the National Grange has celebrated and brought awareness to our cause through Grange Month and the amazing things our Granges do throughout the nation. It is a fun time for everyone, with a multitude of events, themed days and weeks, all falling into a month of celebration for the organization we all love.
This special month is all about seeing entire families benefit from our celebrations, participating in programs and activities, and having meaningful conversations on improving our communities. Our intent is to use the month of April to strengthen our families and communities for the greater good.
We wish to build our organization to have a greater impact on the future of our communities, state and nation. Our goal is to make our Granges and our communities stronger tomorrow than they are today!
The National Grange has promotional materials available for download for each Grange. Visit the National Grange website: https://www.nationalgrange.org/grange_month_2024/ to get your copy of the promotional materials.
It is not too late for your Grange to still make plans to celebrate GRANGE MONTH! Take a look at the available items. A couple easy projects instantly come to mind:
• Set up a display in your community portraying the positive impact you are making.
• Invite non-members to a potluck at your Grange Hall
• Sponsor a class or workshop for the community at large
• Plan a special service project that will benefit the community
• Hold a work party to spruce up your Grange Hall
• Attend an event with your fellow Grange members in masse, all wearing your favorite Grange shirt
• Make a special presentation to an outstanding citizen in your community
• Celebrate GRANGE Spirit Week, promoted on the National Grange website; encouraging your members to do the same
All Granges have the opportunity to put a program together to positively portray the impacts our Granges are making across our state.
The State will conclude GRANGE Month in late April by hosting the Western Regional Grange Youth and Leaders Conference. The conference, at the Terrace Heights Grange Hall, will bring Grange members from all the Western States together for three days of fellowship, activities, and fun. The educational workshops will continue to make our Granges stronger tomorrow than they are today. Registrations are due by April 10.
A final note…..
Last month, one of the pictures printed in The Grange News could have been considered offensive to some of our members. For that, we apologize. There was never any intent to offend anyone by printing a picture that could be considered offensive. We will continue to scrutinize each picture for appropriateness and the potential hidden messages. The Grange, at all levels, will continue its non-partisan stance as stated in the Grange’s Declaration of Purposes.
Initiatives To The Legislature
By Jesse Taylor
Legislative Lobbyist
Springtime is upon us and I hope you and yours had a great Easter with friends and family! When I look back to my childhood and think about April, two things always come to mind. Baseball and Spring Fair. The Mariners have already begun their 2024 campaign and right behind them hard-working volunteers from all across the state will give our youth fairgoers a lifetime of memories, friends, smiles, scars and tears.
As always Whatcom County will kick off the fair season with the Youth Fair on April 5th and 6th in Lynden, WA. That will get the ball rolling into the Puyallup Spring Fair, Asotin County, Evergreen Fair in Monroe and then just as the calendar turns the Spokane Junior Livestock Show will welcome us to May. You can see the entire schedule at this page. https://www.wastatefairs.com/events/filters/iso=1
Washington State is home to 69 different agricultural fairs each year varying in size and scope. These include 38 area and county fairs, 19 community fairs, and 12 youth shows. Among these events we will see up to 70,000 exhibitors, and 6,000 volunteers. The latest economic impact statement about fairs in Washington state shows they bring in an estimated $397 million in business revenue to the state economy. Around 3,200 jobs statewide. Roughly $152 million in labor income (including benefits) in Washington state. And an estimated $10 million in state sales, business and occupation, and other taxes statewide.
So go support your local fair and watch the kids show their projects to the public. If you want to find faith in the generation coming up, stop and talk to one of the youth showmen or exhibitors and listen to their journey through their youth program and their project.
Initiatives to the Legislature
This year signature gatherers across the state qualified six initiatives for the General Election at the end of the year. In the final days of the legislative session, lawmakers took up three of those proposed initiatives that qualified for the November ballot. Ultimately legislators passed three of those making them state law. The three initiatives, in effect, bar an income tax, put a “parents’ bill of rights” into law and lift some restrictions on when police can chase suspects.
The remaining three initiatives, which legislative leaders have said they will not act on, would repeal the state’s capital gains tax, repeal the Cap & Trade Carbon Tax, and make the payroll tax to pay for a state long-term care insurance program optional. If the Legislature doesn’t act in a special session this summer, each of these initiatives will go on the ballot in November.
The author of the remaining three initiatives is a group called Let’s Go Washington. You can see their detailed information about the initiatives at https://letsgowashington.com/
To be clear, these initiatives will not be part of the August primary as they have already qualified for the general election through signature gathering.
Please stay apprised of these as well as legislative primary elections coming to you soon.
By Owen Sexton
Centralia Chronicle
owen@chronline.com
Morgan Browning honored with 2023 Firefighter/EMT of the Year award, becoming the second Mossyrock firefighter to earn the accolade.
Born and raised in Mossyrock, Morgan Browning still lives in the East Lewis County community famous for its blueberries. She is currently pursuing a firefighting career while volunteering for Lewis County Fire District 3.
On Tuesday, March 12, Browning was honored in the fire district’s fire station in Mossyrock after she won the National Grange 2023 Firefighter/EMT of the Year Award. Nine members of the Mossyrock Grange, along with Browning’s fellow firefighters, were in attendance to see her receive the award.
“This is quite the accomplishment. I was privileged enough to get this award a couple of years ago,” Lewis County Fire District 3 Fire Chief Doug Fosburg said.
Fosberg won the award in 2021.
Mossyrock Grange President Darell Myers said they originally nominated Browning for a different award.
The Mossyrock Grange first nominated her for the Washington State Grange Community Service Volunteer Award.
The State Grange then submitted the same nomination they received to the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry for its Firefighter/EMT of the Year Award.
“So that’s two people from this fire department now that have won this award from the National Grange,” Myers said.
Honored to receive the award, Browning said watching the announcement ceremony was somewhat nerve-racking.
“We were watching it live on Facebook, and the second right before they announced it, the audio cut out,” Browning said.
Though only 22, Browning already has six years of experience in firefighting. She started as a cadet for Lewis County Fire District 3 in 2017, according to the Mossyrock Grange’s nomination form.
She became a volunteer firefighter for District 3 as soon as she turned 18 in 2019. She became an EMT in 2022. Just last month, she received her advanced EMT certificate from the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians.
Additionally, Browning graduated from North Seattle College in June 2023 with an associate degree in fire services.
Aside from her work as a firefighter, Browning volunteers for community events the fire district helps out with, including Mossyrock’s Easter egg hunt, the Halloween trick-or-treat event, the Blueberry Festival parade and giving Santa a ride in a firetruck to the town’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony.
Along with other volunteer firefighters, Browning has worked with Mossyrock Elementary School to bring the ambulance and firetruck to do demonstrations for students.
She has also recently obtained her pyrotechnics license to help with fireworks displays the City of Mossyrock puts on for various events — as long as no fire restrictions are in place.
“Morgan is a volunteer that can be relied on to get things done, not only on calls, but at the station,” the Mossyrock Grange wrote on the nomination form. “She will respond 24/7 to calls in our district and other districts as well if she is available.”
Browning is planning to attend paramedic school this fall and hopes to return to continue her firefighting career in Mossyrock after graduating.