| January 3, 2022 -- Happy New Year everyone! New Year’s brings with its new opportunities for all of us and as your new Connecticut State Grange Lecturer, I wanted to start slowly sharing some thoughts and ideas with all of you.
I must say that no one was as surprised as my family and me when I attended the Connecticut State Grange Convention last year in Norwich as the newly elected President/Master of Riverton Grange (and newly elected Vice President/Overseer of Mountain Laurel Pomona Grange) and received 3 votes on the first ballot for State Lecturer. 13 individuals received votes on the first ballot and after many of these folks declined the position for a variety of reasons, I was elected on the third ballot. After the voting, one member told me that I was the first male State Lecturer in over 5 decades. Wow, breaking those glass ceilings! Another Subordinate Grange lecturer wrote me a note saying, “You are very brave taking on State Lecturer after Marge; good luck to you!” HOW TRUE!
So, let us begin our new journey together by sharing with you a little about my background. My great grandparents were charter members of Riverton Grange in 1908 and my family (Grandmother, father, me and now our daughter) has belonged continuous to Riverton Grange for five generations. I joined Riverton Grange 45-years ago and served as Assistant Steward, Overseer, and was fortunate to be a fifth, sixth- and seventh-degree member. I then went off to college and had an extensive a career that started in the Pentagon, saw service with the U.S. Air Force in Europe, U.S. Congress, private industry, non-profit industry and for the last 12 years I was an elected official in southern California. I retired in 2017 and moved back home to Connecticut where my family has lived since 1629. I am a member of the 13th generation of my family living here in Connecticut.
My spouse Wally and I have six children ages 9 years to 26 years old; four of our six children still live with us at home. Our 26-year old serves in the U.S. Air Force and is stationed with his wife in New Mexico. Our 21-year old graduated from Granby Memorial High School and is employed full-time in Massachusetts. In addition, I serve as a conservator for my 89-year old Mom, 97-year old uncle and 58-year old cousin. All in all, we are very blessed.
Both Todd Gelineau and Terri Fassio have been working to help me get up to speed as the new State Lecturer. I sure appreciate both of them and their service! New monthly Lecturer reporting forms have been sent to all subordinate Grange lecturers with my contact information.
My hope is to use this column to spotlight some of the great work our local Granges are sponsoring around the state of Connecticut to serve their communities. Please include any information in your reports that I might share to encourage other Granges to consider undertaking.
Here’s to a very happy and healthy new year!
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