By Wayne Cooke
Last November, Wes P. sent a request for a copy of Graham's own unique 133-page book, “The People of Graham Tell Trier Stories,” and Wes also asked to be put on our e-mail list. Oh, oh! That so useful e-mail list was nonexistent. Meetings, too, were no longer held regularly.
The book's stories show a yearning for the community closeness of old when “everybody knew everybody,” but we in the Graham Historical Society had dropped the ball.
I’m sorry, Wes. This is what happened – and what can yet happen.
The Graham Historical Society (GHS) started four or five years ago. The first meetings, chaired by Lyn Mahler, went by the book, resulting in a hard-won certificate as a non-profit incorporation from the state in June 2014. The IRS certificate followed. Now the GHS could plan ahead.
The first two years saw some successful presentations, but plans for fund-raisers met roadblocks at every turn. The GHS couldn't even raise enough money to send in the yearly report and rechartering fee. The discouragement led to apathy. I was starting work on the “Graham book” on my own, bypassing help from GHS. Then health problems hit both Lyn and me, especially the loss of good vision, making driving impossible and everything else more difficult.
Yet all of that might be seen as good news to those who wrote their stories in the book and those who read the stories. The book put money in the GHS account. That made new initiatives feasible.
Since the GHS no longer officially exists, those who think a “Graham-Kapowsin Historical” group would be better can turn their vision into reality.
Can you find a way to use it to reconnect a community torn by the loss of their Grange hall and lost in the flood of 20,000 new residents who haven't yet found the real Graham?
But start with a well-kept e-mail list, with Wes' name on top.
For more information and encouragement, contact me at wcooke648@gmail.com, 253-847-4614 or l_ravenhill44@yahoo.com, 253-846-0293.
Wayne Cooke is a longtime Graham resident.
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