Events
Ground Breaking Event
Sep
The Ono Grange Broke Ground today for the new Hall!
Blog Post & Photos By Katie Girtler, Media & Advertising Chair
A historical event took place this morning at 9 am when the Ono Grange #445 members joined together to break ground on the new building.
President Vicky Egar-Klein opened the ceremony with a speech and greeting.
“Today is a very important day for the communities of Ono and Igo, as we break ground for the rebuilding of the Ono Grange! Today is the day that we start capturing our current events, memorialize our attendees and create our future history!” Vicky said.
The Grange Hall has been a place for many of the Igo/Ono residents to come together to get to know one another, share ideas, seek advice from other rural resident on a variety of topics and enjoy friendly talks, parties and local traditions.
When the hall was lost, however, all of those traditional events were more difficult to bring together. With the help of other community organizations and creative planning, the Grange Members of Ono Grange #445 continued to work.
Today is the day that we start capturing our current events, memorialize our attendees and create our future history!– Ono Grange President Vicky Egar-Klein
The efforts of all members were required to get to this point and are still required to see the project all the way through to the grand opening. That is the basic element of what a Grange is based off of though, a community coming together, each with their own expertise, to help lift each other up, and create something wonderful for the present and the future.
Both future Junior Grangers and current Junior Grangers in attendance to witness this historic event. When the Grange Hall was lost in the 2020 Zogg Fire, local history was lost within the wall.
“I know that I will never see that printed photo of you, playing in a band on the stage again, well, perhaps a copy of it, but not that one!” Lisa Steinberg said to lifetime member Norman Bailey. Grange members are continually working toward plans for copies of photos that once lined the walls of the original Grange Hall to be reprinted, framed and hung in the new hall. Included in those images will be a pen drawing of the original grange, known affectionately by members as “Merla’s Grange” (You can see a digital version here)
“My kids loved looking at the names of the founding members, hanging on the wall and trying to match family members in attendance at events, to those names” Karina Pearson said while planning for this event and requesting a sign in sheet for future generations to do the same.
The Grange may have been lost, but the history, the love and devotion are still very much alive. We look forward to announcing a ribbon cutting and reopening our hall for traditional and new events!
