MARY ANN ROCCO
145 Beadle Lake Drive
Battle Creek, MI 49014

​​Tel: 269-209-6640

​​Email: roccomaryann@yahoo.com
​
THE DICTIONARY PROJECT

"The Dictionary Project" started in South Carolina. The purpose of the project is to put dictionaries into the hands of third graders. These dictionaries are theirs to keep. The organizers of this project are well organized, and have structured the project to make it a success with a minimum of effort. The website includes sample letters, suggestions for labeling the dictionaries, press releases... in short they have thought of everything you need to make the project a success. You may even send for samples of the dictionaries that are offered for sale. Since the current school year is at an end you will have plenty of time to collect information on you school, ordering the dictionaries and make presentation to the school.

There are four things to recommend this project:

GOOD PURPOSE — The Grange has always supported the advancement of education

MEDIUM EXPENSE — The dictionaries are available at a reasonable cost. The books are sold in case lots.

MINIMUM EFFORT — The instructions are very complete. All the thinking work has been done for you. And it would take very few people to finish the project. A small committee could handle it easily.

GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS — This project would make a very newsworthy story for print or radio.

Please consider this project. If you are interested please contact:

http://www.dictionaryproject.org  or

Mary L. French
P.O. Box #1845
Charleston SC 29402
COMMUNITY SERVICE
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2019 GRANGE NEWS

Summer is coming to an end and Fall is right around the corner. This means that your Community
Service Report is due very soon. Hopefully you have completed your Community Service Report or
are working on completing it.

All nominations for the VIP Award are also due and postmarked by September 10th. You may mail them in the same package as your Community Service Report.

Don’t forget if you have honored a Firefighter, Teacher or Law Enforcement Officer this year to send an essay with a picture if possible along with your Community Service and VIP entries for judging. The state winner of the Firefighter, Teacher and Law Enforcement Officer entries will go onto National Grange for judging. They are also do to me by September 10th.

I have tried to pass along information in previous Grange Newsletters as a guide and have mailed out your registration form along with the guidelines for your report. If you have any questions at all please give me a call or email me.

Your Community Service Report needs to be mailed to me in Battle Creek and postmarked by September 10th, 2019 to be judged.

Enjoy the remaining days of summer and I hope to meet you at the Michigan State Grange convention.
JULY/AUGUST 2019 GRANGE NEWS

What is Community Service?
One of the graduating seniors from the Battle Creek area had to write an essay on his involvement and ideas of what Community Service is. He has worked many hours for the Grange and I thought you would like to see what one of our Youth Members thinks about Community Service...

​During all of the hours that I did for this project I didn't necessarily deal with fix or face any huge problems or any major complications, I mostly just helped the community through the Fredonia Grange. One of the things that I believe dealt with a problem would be when we made quilts for the homeless and the elderly along with making dog pads for the local animal shelter. Over the summer, including the
school holidays, snow days, or weekends my grandma would come to our house pick my brother and me up and take us to the Fredonia Grange. We would go make pet pads out of donated fabric for the local animal shelter and make quilts for the elderly, people in need and the disabled. I remember piecing together all the different fabrics into patterns that I thought looked well. I would help sew the quilts and once we made enough quilts we would bring them to the retirement home or to a shelter and hand them out to people.

​Other than making and giving out quilts we also served food at the Marshall fair and weekend pancake breakfasts in the Fredonia kitchen. This helped raise money for the Fredonia Grange expenses including the money to make the quilts.

​​​Along with that, I helped out our local zoo a lot and helped teach younger kids new soccer skills. I enjoyed teaching kids different skills for my favorite sport. One of the biggest things that motivated me to become involved in these community projects would probably have to be my grandma and great grandma they both have always been super involved in community service. I've always looked up to them and how they have been able to dedicate all of that time to a greater cause. I've learned so much from my grandma, great grandma, and the Grange that it is almost impossible for me to pick one specific thing that stands out above the rest but if I had to choose it would probably have to be that you can always help someone whether it's directly or indirectly. There is never a shortage of ways to help someone and I have always encouraged everyone to take full advantage of that.

T​here is no greater feeling than getting told that you made someone's day or that they look forward to seeing you, you just can't beat that feeling. I plan on doing community service until the day I am physically not capable of doing it anymore because that is how much I love it. To be honest, I didn't find out about this scholarship until I had 200 or so hours already completely done because that is how
often I volunteered. The fact that I could use those hours to put some money towards my education was just a huge benefit because I would've done that 400 hours whether or not there was money in it for me. My friends think it's crazy how many hours I've spent volunteering but that is one of the things that I feel makes me unique. I wouldn't trade those 400 hours of helping people or being surrounded by people that I love and who love me, for anything at all.

​I hope we can all agree that this Grange Youth Member has Community Service in his heart. ​Continue working on your Community Service Report. Review the guide lines for your Report and it needs to be mailed to the Community Service Director by September 10th, 2019.