Masonic Angel Fund News Articles

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MASONIC ANGEL FOUNDATION UPDATE - February 6, 2001

 

Are You Performing Outreach with Your Schools?

 One of the cornerstones of any successful Masonic Angel Fund is the partnership that we form with the school personnel in our communities. Not only does this working partnership insure that the needs of all children are fulfilled, it is the "Masonic awareness piece" of the whole MAF program. Parf of the mission of the Masonic Angel Fund is to portray Masons as ordinary, everyday people who are concerned about children in our community.

Masonic Angel Funds that have been in business for a while tend to have a program of continuing outreach to the school. Some make periodic visits to the nurses and guidance staff - perhaps every sixty days or so. This are what those of us in sales call "bread and butter calls". We visit just to keep our name in front of the school and to remind them of what we do for children. Some of our Masonic Angel Funds print out these broadcasts and bring copies when they visit a school. The content in these weekly bulletins may prompt a nurse or counselor to think of a child they haven't before placed in context with MAF services. Others might forward these broadcasts to the school staff that have shared their email address - along with a one-line, personal note to that individual.

Such continuing outreach to our schools helps to keep MAF benevolence in front to the administrators, counselors and nurses. It also continues to examplify the "can-do" image that we in Freemasonry project in our communities.

 

WILLIAM PARKMAN LODGE ADOPTS A MASONIC ANGEL FUND

 On January 30, 2001 we receive a license package from William Parkman Lodge AF & AM of Wincehster, Massachusetts. During the rest of the week we had the pleasure of speaking with Paul Gleason (Lodge Secretary) and Hal Richardson (Lodge Treasurer) as they begin to set up their fledgling MAF. William Parkman Lodge has licensed itself to serve five schools with an aggregate population of about 1,585.

Best wishes to our new MAF in Winchester, MA! We look forward to hearing of your successes.
 
UNIVERSAL LODGE GIVES THE GIFTS OF BETTER EYESIGHT AND MUSIC

 The Masonic Angel Fund at Universal Lodge (Orleans, MA) this week funded eye examinations and glasses for two children in the Orleans Elementary School. These youngsters were referred by the school nurse. The services were performed by a local optometrist who happens to be a Mason.

Later in the week John Sherman received a call from the Academy of Performing Arts in Orleans in regard to a handicapped girl from Eastham. This child is known to local Masons through the CHIP child identification program. She is profoundly handicapped with no use of her legs and little use of her arms. However, the girl is highly intelligent and "sings like an angel". She takes voice lessons at the Academy, where we learned that her family was having a little difficulty paying the next semester's tuition. The Universal Lodge MAF granted her a scholarship to cover the portion of the tuition that the parents we short.

A reminder - this second grant is the type of program for which the Lucille Hawley Music Fund was created! Be sure to bring the green flyer on the Hawley Fund to your schools on your next outreach trip.

 
CHURCH VISITATIONS

 As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, John Sherman and Bob Fellows recently visited a Unitarian/Universalist Church to speak about the Masonic Angel Fund and came away with a good sum of donated money, plus several subsequent donations. 

In a nearby community, a women's church group donated $500 to the local Masonic Angel Fund.

We encourage you to send representatives of your Masonic Angel Fund out to speak in area houses of worship. Ask the members of your Lodge to help you secure speaking engagements at these churches and synagogues. Such engagements are a great source of donations and a terrific way to get the Masonic message out to the public!
 
"THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT" - Fraternal Impressions Unlimited

 On January 15, 2001 a Mason from Leominster donated his business to the Masonic Angel Foundation, Inc. For a number of years, this fellow was in the business of producing pocket-sized name badges for Masonic and other fraternal bodies throughout New England. Due to his impending retirement, he had been trying to sell the equipment and inventory of his business for a couple of years. In December, he approached Bob Fellows about donating everything to the Foundation in hopes of providing us with a continued income stream to fund our day-to-day operations and outreach programs.

The Foundation will operate this business under the trade name Fraternal Impressions Unlimited. We are in the process of training a group of volunteers who have agreed to handle production of the badges. We are hopeful that this enterprise will be a low/no-overhead solution to providing the Foundation with operating funds rather than our continuing to approach donors for infusions of operating capital. While Foundation overhead is limited to communication and printing costs, these expenses do add up over time.

The Foundation is also working with a Brother who hopes to set up Fraternal Impressions as an affordable purveyor of cloth and leather Masonic aprons.

We thank Most Excellent Carmen Borgia of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Massachusetts, who sent us our first order a few days after we assumed control of the business.

A more comprehensive announcement will be forthcoming as we work to assimilate this new component of our operation. Meanwhile, if your Lodge is looking for name badges please send an email to us via info@masonicangelfund.org - a separate email account and web site is in the works. If you have any questions about this project or would like to help, please drop us a note!
 
 "EVANGELISTS" ON THE MOVE!

 In the past few weeks your Foundation's volunteer staff has arranged many speaking engagements to help spread the word of the Masonic Angel Fund. We are visiting Lodges and Districts all over Massachusetts. Engagements are booked into April. Please, if you have a group of Lodges that would like a presentation on the MAF, please drop us a note. We have a growing number of evangelists in the field - and they would all be happy to pay you a visit!

We thank one and all for your outstanding support of the Masonic Angel Foundation, Inc.