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Ferrisburgh Grange Junior Group Learning Sign Language

photo by provided Smiling and excited to work with young people still, Liz Lowry loves sharing ASL with students.

photo by provided One of her earliest Kindergarten classes with teacher Liz Lowry.

Tuesday March 21, 2017

By Cookie Steponaitis

Gathering at the Grange Hall in Ferrisburgh once a month, the members of the junior Grange are hard at work learning sign language and are inviting more youth ages 5-14 to join them. Run by Grange Member Liz Lowry, the program is $ 2.00 to join as a Grange Member and $ 1.00 a year to belong. In fact, it was 1956 when Liz Lowry herself walked into a Grange Meeting for the first time and fell in love with the people and programs.
    Founded in 1867, the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange was started to advance agricultural practices in America as well as the social and economic needs of farmers. Active both politically and socially, the group came to be a gathering point in the communities across the nation for discussion, planning, action and sharing. Working with the ages 5-10-year-old participants on the ASL alphabet and easy words and the 10-14-year-old participants on learning to sign songs and communicate, Lowry is preparing the group to go and work at a summer camp with students who are hearing impaired or deaf.
    No stranger to working with children and teens alike, Lowry began her career in education teaching kindergarten in the basement of the Bixby Library in 1964. This Voice reporter was actually in her first class. After twenty years of working with the very young, Lowry transitioned to another twenty plus year career teaching reading, mathematics and communication skills at Job Corps. Constant through all those years of service was her involvement with the Grange and the desire to have young people experience and learn about their heritage, the land and the fun involved in working together.
    “They are shown to respect each other, respect the American Flag and to respect the Bible,” explained Lowry. “We have a small but growing group of students who come from locally and as far away as Forestdale and quite a way up north. If anyone is interested in joining or learning more about the ASL classes, please call me at (802)877-3031.” Each year the Grange holds its national convention in a different location around the nation and in 2018 it will come to Stowe, Vermont. Lowry plans on being there, with her ASL students and presenting to the assembled national delegation of members’ different ways they are learning, growing and exploring the state we call home together. Whether the year is 1956 or 2017 Lowry is certain of one thing. Young people like to learn and are quick to pick up on all the projects offered through the Grange and other civic organizations.

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