WHATELY — For more than eight-and-a-half decades, generations of families have come and gone through the Whately Grange 414.

To celebrate its legacy dating back to April 1940, the Whately Grange is welcoming the community to an 85th birthday party on Saturday, April 5, to highlight its history and the centuries of combined service time of its members.

The party will be held at Whately Town Hall, 194 Chestnut Plain Road, at 1 p.m. and will feature refreshments and music from Sarah the Fiddler. The Whately Grange will also welcome counterparts from the state organization, including President Corey Spence and Vice President Chris Szkutak.

For people who are involved with the Grange, like President Ruth Leahey and longtime member John LaSalle, the organization has served as a way to spend time with family and other community members, while also providing a chance to contribute to the community. Both members have more than 50 years of service in the Grange.

“This was social, as well as community enhancement,” said LaSalle, who noted he joined the Whately Grange when he was 14 and he is now 72. “At 14 years old, we didn’t have driver’s licenses, so we just went to different things and went to meetings, and one of the things about it is you’ve got three generations. That’s one thing that I think kids miss now — you don’t interact with other generations.”

It’s also a family affair. LaSalle joined because his family was deeply involved in the Grange, including his grandfather and father, James LaSalle, who had more than 75 years of service. The LaSalles before John served as treasurers for the organization and carried the same exact bag for more than 70 years. All these years later, the bag is still with the Grange.

Community service, Leahey added, is how the Grange has adapted itself to the modern era, bucking the trend faced by many longtime groups that have seen membership drop precipitously.

“It’s gone from in-depth on agriculture … to now more of community service,” Leahey said. “I love the Grange and I like what we do with the community. … You get out what you put in.”

Projects in the past have included planting flowers at Whately Elementary School, donating money to the Town Hall renovation project and, perhaps most notably, helping organize the honoring of then 103-year-old veteran Walter Harubin at the 2024 Memorial Day parade.

While this is the Whately Grange’s 85th anniversary, the roots run a little deeper than that. In 1910, Whately Grange 304 was organized with 71 members, but eventually disbanded in 1925, according to Daily Hampshire Gazette and Greenfield Recorder archives. The current iteration of the Grange was established with 59 charter members and has about 25 members today, although Leahey said active membership hovers at around 10 due to members’ health and other obligations.

There are 45 granges listed on the Massachusetts State Grange website, with other local chapters including the Guiding Star Grange of Greenfield, as well as groups in Shelburne, Hadley, Williamsburg and Orange.

If folks are interested in joining the Whately Grange, Leahey said they can show up to the April 5 celebration or the group’s next monthly meeting on April 10.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.