With 335 years of membership between them, some of Sequim Prairie Grange’s most tenured members were recently honored at the organization’s holiday party.
Special honorees included Helen Bucher for 75 years membership, Robert “Bob” Clark (60 years), Dorinda Becker (50), Kim Moulson (45), Fred Grant (45), Sara Clark (35) and Sue Hargrave (25).
They received special membership pins as recognition.
“It’s because of these individuals the foundation of the Grange is held together,” Sequim Prairie Grange President Dave McDaniels said.
“The pin is small in size but represents so much more,” new Grange member Sherrie Cerutti said. “It serves as a sincere expression of our gratitude for their lifelong commitment to the Grange and our community.”
Membership ranges, Grange members said, with some members being active for five years to 10 to 20 and somewhere in-between.
Bucher, a retired teacher, said she joined at age 16 because her parents were grange members.
“It’s like one big family,” she said. “Everyone knew each other and had similar likes. We were mostly farm kids.”
Over the years, Bucher has held every position in the grange and helped and participated in its many activities. She’s kept going for the camaraderie, she said.
Clark, Clallam County’s former treasurer, echoes the grange creating a family environment.
“When you’re a member of the grange, it is a second family and you have brothers and sisters you care about and you help,” he said. “We work together to help the community.”
When Clark joined the grange it had 700 members, and during his first job as grange secretary he recalls writing a lot of receipts for grange dues for pennies, he said.
Clark said his late wife Glenda was a granger long before him and his parents were charter members in Sequim “but for some reason my brother and I weren’t junior members.”
His daughters and son are life members, too, and he served as Washington’s State Master/President from 1989-1995.
“The grange means a lot to me,” Clark said.
According to grange members, Sequim Prairie Grange became an organization on Aug. 9, 1942, with about 30 chartered members meeting in the Carlsborg Schoolhouse.
Shortly thereafter, they began using the Macleay School as a permanent home, which had been built on land donated by Donald Macleay, a timber investor; the school was unused from 1937-1942, grange members said.
Through its history, the Grange hosted event rentals, ice cream socials, pancake breakfasts, holiday events, and much more.
Local grangers say everyone is welcome to join their meetings at 7 p.m. the second Wednesday of each month at 290 Macleay Road.
For more information, find the group on Facebook by searching “Sequim Prairie Grange No. 1108.”