NAOMI FLETCHER, LECTURER
14685 25.75 Road
Rapid River, MI 49878
Tel: 906-399-2815
Naomi.fletcher54@gmail.com
JULY/AUGUST 2026 GRANGE NEWS
How did you celebrate our nation’s 250th Birthday?? Write it down, journal it, scrapbook it, poster board it, and bring it to state session to show off!! And don’t forget that Patriotic Centerpiece part of the Lecturer’s Contests!! After they are judged, we will hopefully use them as centerpieces at our Celebration banquet!
Give an example of each of the following: cereal, legume, root crop, tuber, bulb, fiber crop, forage crop. How are forage crops mainly used?
Write a few lines from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Where was this speech delivered? (Everyone should know the second part.)
Happy Birthday America!!!!
How did you celebrate our nation’s 250th Birthday?? Write it down, journal it, scrapbook it, poster board it, and bring it to state session to show off!! And don’t forget that Patriotic Centerpiece part of the Lecturer’s Contests!! After they are judged, we will hopefully use them as centerpieces at our Celebration banquet!
Eugene, my trusty back seat companion, and I returned recently from the Mid-West State’s Grange Conference held on the Boone County Fairgrounds in Belvidere, Illinois. The grounds were beautiful, and we were able to tour the old-fashioned schoolhouse museum and the newly built Grange Hall Museum. Very interesting with a lot of Grange memorabilia donated by families across Illinois. If you’re ever in the area, give them a shout and I’m sure they’d be happy to open up the museum for you. They are closed in the winter months, well, because winter…..
One unique document I discovered in the Schoolhouse was the matriculation examination from 1927. A few of the questions on the test were as follows - can you answer them?
Give an example of each of the following: cereal, legume, root crop, tuber, bulb, fiber crop, forage crop. How are forage crops mainly used?
Write a few lines from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Where was this speech delivered? (Everyone should know the second part.)
“Books are full of friends,” the poet says. What friends have you enjoyed in “Reading and Living?” (Have you ever read this book?)
I sent the full test to my daughter, and she’s never read some of the books where writing prompts are asked. (there are about 25 questions on the full test) My daughter was born in 1978, I was born in 1954. The test was from 1927! I’m not sure anyone could answer many of the questions on the test.
And then, at the end of the test, is this quote from Alfred Tennyson:
“And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river:
For men may come and men may go
But I go on forever.”
Grangers, can you write a paragraph on the meaning of this short poem? Present it at your Grange as part of the Lecturer’s program. Ask others how they interpret it. I see a quiet brook flowing over river stones, meeting up with it’s parent river, on to the great lake or sea. Does your stream continue on into the great lake or sea, or does it just stop in the little pond? Does your Grange ebb and flow like the lowly stream? Things to ponder for your Grange’s future. Until we meet again…..I remain your humble Lecturer
MAY/JUNE 2026 GRANGE NEWS
The winter of 2026 will be one to go down in history with the excessive snow events, flooding, continued rain and ice storms. But more than that, it’s the way we feel confined to our own space that leads me to this article. Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) is a real mental health issue to those who live in isolated winter environments. Being closed up, the sun only shining maybe 8 hours in a day, overcast. No Vitamin D or UV rays to brighten up our spirits because the sun doesn’t shine long enough for us to enjoy it. And if it does, it’s so cold we don’t want to bundle up and go out.
Mental health resolution takes a village. Ask. Ask for help. Offer assistance. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t feel right” and not just in a physical way. Build a circle of like-minded individuals where you can freely discuss your mental health without judgement. Don’t let SAD get you down. All the vitamins and sunshine in the world may not be enough. But a few like-minded friends might.
On that note: Take a look back at the Michigan State Grange Handbook for 2026. Find something there to occupy your winter and early spring that you can enter in the MSG Contests in October. Grow something, write something, make something. Keep your mind occupied by keeping your hands busy doing something you like to do. Until next time.
The winter of 2026 will be one to go down in history with the excessive snow events, flooding, continued rain and ice storms. But more than that, it’s the way we feel confined to our own space that leads me to this article. Seasonal Affect Disorder (SAD) is a real mental health issue to those who live in isolated winter environments. Being closed up, the sun only shining maybe 8 hours in a day, overcast. No Vitamin D or UV rays to brighten up our spirits because the sun doesn’t shine long enough for us to enjoy it. And if it does, it’s so cold we don’t want to bundle up and go out.
When we lived in California, we didn’t have extreme weather like we’ve had here in Michigan, but we did have incessant fog. Tule fog, it was called. It just laid in the valley like a furry blanket for the better part of two months. But we could escape, even if only for a little while, by driving into the foothills and having a day in the sun. Just above the fog level. Here in Michigan, we can’t just drive to a better spot
unless we drive further south. And I mean a lot further south than just Kalamazoo or Detroit. I think that’s why we have so many snow -birds escaping Michigan Winters by going south or even to the southwest-Arizona, New Mexico and the like.
Mental health does deteriorate in the winter for all these reasons. The National Grange has taken on the Rural Life Initiative these last few years to address this very topic. The Rural Life Initiative supports locally driven projects that strengthen rural communities, enhance quality of life, and build long-term resilience. Through community events, educational programming, and wellness resources, the Initiative helps communities address local needs, reduce disparities, and sustain a strong rural identity. Stop by the National Grange’s website to see how your Grange can bring Rural Life and Health to your community by visiting https://www.nationalgrange.org/ rural-life-initiative-program/.
Mental health resolution takes a village. Ask. Ask for help. Offer assistance. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t feel right” and not just in a physical way. Build a circle of like-minded individuals where you can freely discuss your mental health without judgement. Don’t let SAD get you down. All the vitamins and sunshine in the world may not be enough. But a few like-minded friends might.
On that note: Take a look back at the Michigan State Grange Handbook for 2026. Find something there to occupy your winter and early spring that you can enter in the MSG Contests in October. Grow something, write something, make something. Keep your mind occupied by keeping your hands busy doing something you like to do. Until next time.
