Today

Elderly at Home With the Grange

There are granges that struggle and granges that thrive. The Deer Isle Grange No. 296, whose charter goes back to 1877, is the second kind. It closed once, in the 1920s and 1930s, only to regain both its charter and its strength.

This grange has a membership of 49 and a commitment to meet every Thursday at 7 p.m.

“Well, we are making our way,” said Myron Hardy, who served as the grange’s master for nine years.

Located on Route 15 in Deer Isle, just south of the causeway that connects Little Deer Isle with the rest of the island, the Deer Isle Grange has members who are mostly in their 70s and 80s. Many of them just drive across from Little Deer Isle, a part of the island where residents are generally older.

Admittedly, not all of the members actually go to all the meetings. A good meeting, Hardy says, draws between 12 and 20 members.

“At least it gets you out of the house one night a week,” said Denise Hardy, Myron’s wife who serves as the grange’s treasurer.

“We really do enjoy going. You get together with your friends, sit there and talk and talk.”

That’s during the refreshments portion of the meeting. People take turns bringing in cookies or, if someone has a birthday, ice cream.

Both Hardys are regular grange-goers, partly because they are both officers (Myron is now the assistant steward).

“The people there keep us going,” Myron Hardy said. “When some people fall by the wayside, you just take on more duties.”

Hardy gave up his master title two years ago to make way for Dan Sylvester. Sylvester in turn will hand over master duties to Jeanette Taylor this fall.

There are eight or 10 former masters who still are active. One of them is Clyde Snowman. Now 91, Snowman is the grange’s longest-serving member after 62 years.

He joined as a 14-year-old in 1925. But soon the grange closed and gave up its charter, and didn’t start up again until 1939. Snowman rejoined, and his count of years on his grange membership started anew.

Snowman may be the member with the most years, but he is not the oldest. That distinction goes to 98-year-old Helen Gelinas.

Even some of those who can’t drive themselves make an effort to get to the grange. One member in a nursing home gets picked up every week.

Aside from its weekly meetings, the grange does the usual fundraising things. Members put on two of three public suppers in the summer and an auction each fall.

They used to stage suppers every month, until the workload got too much for the members. So few people are helping to cook and provide goodies, Hardy said, that those who do cook have to bring three or four dishes each.

Grange members also pitch in when a member of the community is in need. Hardy estimates that about a quarter of the grange’s income goes toward charitable purposes.

Fortunately, the community pays close attention when the grange holds a supper. A full seating holds 73. The last dinner served there, on June 22, was a sell-out.

Not that the grange needs any windfall of money. Expenses each year are limited largely to the upkeep and insurance of the building, plus enough to pay for lights and fuel.

“If some work needs to be done on the building, we all pitch in,” Hardy said. “We don’t charge for our labor. We get by.”