DUBLIN, Ohio – Bev Foutz, a 52-year member of the Collinsville Grange, was named the Granger of the Year at this year’s state convention.

“She just eats and breathes the Grange,” said her sister, Lynn Eisele, who nominated Foutz for the award. “Every time we have a meeting, she has everything so organized.”

When it comes time to get the Grange booth ready for the Butler County Fair the group comes up with ideas.

“The next time we come to a meeting she has everything typed up, on posters, set up in the living room, how the booth is supposed to look,” Eisele said. “When we all get there, we all know what to do.

“She does whatever it takes to promote the Grange,” Eisele said. “The Grange is an old one of the oldest agricultural organizations and she wants to keep the publicity about the Grange out there.”

She does it because a group has to stay active, otherwise, the members have no reason to come, Foutz added. Why be in something if you’re not doing anything?

“It’s not a social organization,” Foutz said. “We want to bring families together. We want communities to be places where people feel safe and they’re communicating and enjoying being together.”

Foutz sees so many things to do and is so thorough in doing them, said fellow long-time Grange member Norma Jean Bolton. She leaves nothing untouched and is that way with every project.

“She is very well organized, has lots of ideas, she keeps working and then one thing develops into something else,” Bolton said. “It is a continuous thing with her, not only with Grange but with the church and the community and anything she is involved in.”

The Grange community kept the award a secret from Foutz. She was surprised when she saw family members and friends filing into the banquet room. The Collinsville Grange also received an award for another project and Foutz thought they must be there for that.

“We did win first place on the Spotlight on Service Award,” she explained. “The next order of business was to award the Granger of the year and that’s when I  found out why they were really here.”

The Granger of the Year is presented each year to someone for their efforts in promoting the Grange and doing things for the community, said Mike Russell president of Ohio State Grange.

“It is an award for service as a Grange member whether it be community or if they would take on a project that would help someone in the community, Russell said. “It is for their overall service to the Grange, the community, and their fellow citizens. It was a complete secret from her until the banquet.”

Foutz’s family, the Blakley family, has a long record of Grange service. They are a Grange Legacy family, having been members through five generations. Her parents and grandparents joined the Collinsville group in 1951. Seven of her grandchildren are members of the Junior Grange.

It was when those family members began filing into the room that Foutz thought they were there for the presentation of the Spotlight on Service, which the Collinsville Grange won for the purchase of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

“An AED was what they needed to use on Damar Hamlin on the football field,” Foutz said. “We found out that our Milford Township Community Center did not have one so we wrote a grant and received it through Butler Rural Electric, for $900.”

However, the AED costs around $1,600 so they asked other organizations to contribute, and then ended up with more money than they needed. They bought a Stop the Bleed Kit to be housed with the AED unit with the extra funds. They still had money left and used that to sponsor training sessions for the AED unit.

The Grange is an agricultural-based, grassroots organization.

“Over the years we have been more of a community service organization but we have an agriculture background,” Russell said. “We also have a legislative policy.”