The White Eagle Grange, located halfway between Pendleton and Pilot Rock, is best known for its monthly breakfasts complete with pancakes, French toast, potato patties, eggs, ham, sausage links biscuits and sausage gravy. <BR><I>Staff photo by Samantha Bates</I>

The White Eagle Grange, best known for its monthly breakfasts, may face closure if it doesn’t get some more active members.

At its meeting Monday night, only five members attended. To keep its status with the national grange, it needs at least seven to make a quorum, and more would be ideal.

Though it didn’t have enough members at its last meeting, Gail Wilson, the grange’s secretary-treasurer, said the state grange will try to help them stay open. But if things don’t change, the building, which is technically owned by the state grange, would default to that organization and White Eagle would be no more.

“I’ve been a grange member all my life and it means a lot to me,” said Gail. “I’m going to fight as long as I can.”

The problem isn’t necessarily a lack of members – the White Eagle Grange has 28 members – it’s the age and ability of the members. Many of them are older people who may not be able to drive at night to come to a meeting, said Gail and her husband, Roger.

It’s not an uncommon situation for granges, said Tom Serface, who is county grange deputy and a member of the Columbia Grange in Hermiston.

Oregon has 247 granges, but it used to have more than 400.

Umatilla County used to have granges in Echo, Irrigon and at Westlund, Serface said. Three granges have closed in the county in the last six or seven years: the Cold Springs Grange outside Pendleton, the Tillicum Grange at Meacham and the Stateline Grange in Milton-Freewater. They closed because of a lack of members.

There are now only three granges left in the county. Like White Eagle, Stanfield Grange is facing a decreasing and aging membership. Columbia Grange is still pretty strong, Serface said, but it faces the same challenge.

“That’s the trouble,” Serface said. “Our people are, well, I’m 78 and we’re all getting up in age. … It’s just hard for our older members to get out now. They used to be real active 20 years ago and now they’re not.”

Serface sees the same thing at fraternal organizations he belongs to – such as the Elks and the Masonic Lodge.

Most people know White Eagle Grange for its breakfasts on the third Saturday of every month – complete with pancakes, eggs, biscuits and gravy, French toast, potatoes patties, ham and sausage links. The Wilsons said between 80 and 130 people will come to those. But the Wilsons and Serface said the grange has a lot more to offer than good food.

Gail describes it as a legislative organization. It’s a place where people can come up with laws and move them to the state and national governments. She and Serface said rural electricity and rural mail delivery had their legislative roots in granges. In Umatilla County, they said, a woman proposed a law to have babies’ hearing checked before they left the hospital after being born. It became law.

The Wilsons also said the grange has been great for their sons, who are also members. Their younger son, Cole, who is 12, competes in state singing competitions with the grange. Gail said he’s always been willing to speak in front of a class because he started speaking in front of people at White Eagle Grange.

Serface admitted the grange isn’t what it used to be. While White Eagle has its breakfasts – as does the Columbia Grange on the second Saturday of the month – there used to be more. People used to host sewing bees, card nights and dances.

“We’re working on new ideas to bring new members and to entice the young people,”?Serface said. “A lot of it is our granges’ fault because sometimes they get stuck in a rut and forget to ask people to join their organization. All you have to do is take them out and have some fun.”

Gail said she would like to bring some of that fun back. This winter the White Eagle Grange will host breakfasts twice a month – on the first and third Saturdays. She would also like to see bluegrass and old time jam sessions come back.

“You get out of the grange what you put into it,”?Roger said.

“Everybody thinks you have to be a farmer to be a granger,” Serface said. “That’s a misnomer. Anybody can join a grange.”

People can live in the country or the city. All a person has to do is sign up and, in the case of the White Eagle Grange, pay a yearly $35 membership fee. Of that, $30 goes to the grange’s membership with the state and $5 goes to the grange itself.

For more information about the White Eagle Grange, call Gail or Roger Wilson at 541-276-3778, or e-mail them at rgwilson@oregontrail.net.