by David Cantieni, President of Guiding Star Grange #1

The Guiding Star Grange is one of the most beautiful granges in the country. I know this because, as a traveling musician, I have seen many of the grange halls sprinkled over the countryside from Michigan to North Carolina, to Washington state. We have a gem!

Our grange has become a focal point of the living growing contra dance community. In recent history, the older members of our grange, beleaguered by debt and a decaying building, as well as dwindling membership, almost gave their hall to the town of Greenfield to be used as... well, who knows? It didn't happen only because David Kaynor put out an urgent message to the music and dance community to save the hall, join the grange, get involved! Many of us did and grew to love it. I'm sure the older grange members were not a little apprehensive about the new influx of dancers who had no history with the grange organization. We, for our part, had no idea what we were getting ourselves into either. Surprisingly, or maybe not, the two factions took an instant liking to each other. ...It's great for us newcomers to be working side by side with the old guard.

Please consider the benefits of becoming more closely tied to the workings of the grange by becoming a member. It has great potential to affect political and social growth in our community.