{"id":15653,"date":"2021-03-10T00:36:43","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T00:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=15653"},"modified":"2021-03-09T20:38:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-09T20:38:26","slug":"finding-a-home-at-the-grange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/03\/10\/finding-a-home-at-the-grange\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding A Home At The Grange"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><em>By Mike McKenna<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15655\" src=\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-300x224.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-300x224.jpg 300w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-1024x765.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-768x574.jpg 768w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-1536x1147.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-2048x1530.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-485x360.jpg 485w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-696x520.jpg 696w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-1068x798.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-1920x1434.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-562x420.jpg 562w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-80x60.jpg 80w, https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/The-Grange-4th-July-Parade-265x198.jpg 265w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>M<\/span><span class=\"s1\">ost of us don\u2019t actually know what The Grange is. Sure, we know The Grange\u2019s little sage-green building tucked next to the fire stations on South 3rd Avenue in Hailey. But we don\u2019t really know what it\u2019s all about.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Manon Gaudreau was once one of us clueless folks. That changed in 2014 when she decided to join and soon realized the invaluable\u2014and often overlooked\u2014roles The Grange plays locally.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cTo me, The Grange means community,\u201d Manon said in her French-Canadian accent. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Manon is a certified master gardener who grew up Quebec. She moved to Hailey in 2010, but didn\u2019t begin to truly connect with the community until she joined The Grange.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cGrange people are very welcoming and caring,\u201d said Manon, who now serves as the organization\u2019s treasurer and webmaster. \u201cI love the sense of community involved with The Grange.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The Upper Big Wood River Grange #192 was founded in 1924. Part of the national, nonprofit Grange foundation, Hailey\u2019s branch was originally focused around connecting farmers and ranchers. After a bit of a lull, the Hailey Grange has been invigorated recently, playing roles in the local food movement, creating a massive seed library and hosting a wide variety of events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">Events held at The Grange\u2019s \u201cHall\u201d\u2014which will hopefully return soon\u2014include 4-H meetings, veterans\u2019 luncheons, the Fourth of July pancake breakfast, family and life celebrations, craft workshops, and a variety of music and dance events, from the pros at Footlight Dance Centre to swing dance lessons.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The Grange is also home to the Wood River Seed Library.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Seed Library\u2019s purpose is to grow, save and share seeds for free within the community. Locally produced seeds are adapted to our local environment and weather and by preserving these seeds it allows for a diversity of plant species for the future.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>The Seed Library\u2019s role has been especially important recently as there has been a worldwide seed shortage. Seed and plant exchanges have been planned for both April and May.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The Grange also supports the local food movement through education. The Grange is teaming up with the 5B Resilience Initiative, Local Food Alliance and the Hailey Public Library to offer a series of free online gardening webinars this spring. The Grange has created a new Community Garden behind its building. The garden will be used as an educational facility. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The large Rocky Mountain Douglas fir that stands next to The Grange has recently been named the first Heritage Tree in Hailey. Estimated to be 65 years old and 55 feet tall, the native, drought-tolerant tree is a beautiful symbol for The Grange and all it quietly does to make our community stronger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">The Grange is always welcoming new members and donations of any kind\u2014money, materials or time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cThere are so many people who have become dear to my heart because of The Grange,\u201d Manon said. \u201cHelping people realize they belong to such a kind and caring community is what The Grange is really all about.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>For more information about events and\/or becoming a member, go to grange.org\/upperbigwoodriverid192 or check out the organization\u2019s Facebook page.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p5\">\n<p class=\"p5\">\n<p class=\"p5\">\n<p class=\"p5\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mike McKenna Most of us don\u2019t actually know what The Grange is. Sure, we know The Grange\u2019s little sage-green building tucked next to the fire stations on South 3rd Avenue in Hailey. But we don\u2019t really know what it\u2019s all about. Manon Gaudreau was once one of us clueless folks. That changed in 2014 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,38],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chamber-corner","8":"category-sponsored"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15653"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15658,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15653\/revisions\/15658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}