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Freemasonry at its Best!

"Angel Mail" Update - July 2, 2007

Welcome to Our Newest Masonic Angel Funds
We are pleased to welcome the following new Masonic Angel Funds:

116 United Brethren Lodge Marlboro MA 10/04/2006
117 Mount Hope Lodge Somerset MA 05/01/2007
118 Mount Zion Lodge #135 Metuchen NJ 05/17/2007
119 Corner Stone Lodge Duxbury MA 03/31/2007

Since the Universal Lodge Masonic Angel Fund carries the designation of MAF #0, this places us at 120 Masonic Angel Funds in twelve states.

Needham Masonic Angel Fund Milestone
On May 15, 2001, Nehoiden Lodge in Needham, MA joined the Masonic Angel Fund network as the "Needham Masonic Angel Fund". They were the 27th Lodge to sponsor a Masonic Angel Fund. In May, the NMAF reached the milestone of its 100th benevolence.

The Needham MAF is one of the most consistently active affiliated Masonic Angel Funds in the system. The trustees are most diligent in their work. The Brethren and the community are most generous with their contributions. This MAF has received an award from the local school system for the positive impact it has made in the community and continues to receive countless acknowledgement notes from school professionals.

As mentioned before, the MAF network is almost nine years old. Multiply the achievements of the Needham Masonic Angel Fund by the dozens of active Masonic Angel Funds and one begins to get a feel for the terrific impact we are having on children in some 120 communities

A big "well done" goes out to our Brethren at Nehoiden Lodge for being such great friends to the children of Needham.

Summer Outreach
Please be sure to touch base with your schools a couple of times during the summer. Over the past few months we have seen a much higher than usual number of requests for assistance with summer program fees. Because of increased energy and insurance costs, many camps and structured summer day programs were forced to increase their tuition. Unfortunately, the parent that could afford to contribute $150 towards program tuition last year is not likely to be able to contribute significantly more this year.

We are concerned that "back to school" clothing requests may be up this year, as well. Be sure to touch base with your contacts a few weeks after school opens to see if there are any children who need school clothes.

John Cutler Lodge and St. John's Lodge Receive Gifts
In Abington, MA the John Cutler Lodge MAF recently arranged a gift of $600 from Wal*Mart.

The Foundation was fortunate enough to receive a gift of $3,000 from the Lynn General Electric Employees' Good Neighbor Fund to benefit children served by the St. John's Lodge Masonic Angel Fund .

Benevolence Stories
Below we have shared a very few benevolence stories. We receive so many bulletins from our affiliated MAF's that it is often difficult to choose which stories to include in a bulletin. Here is a representative sample:

Nehoiden Lodge/Needham MAF - Camperships for two boys, summer education program fees for seven-year-old twin boys and summer education program for an eight-year-old boy.

Tahattawan Lodge - From Littleton, MA we learn that TLMAF provided eyeglasses for one girl and dance classes for a physically-challenged little girl. School professionals often chose dance or karate classes for children with psychomotor challenges as opposed to clinical physical therapy programs. This also provided a campership for a ten-year-old girl and summer program tuition assistance for another girl.

St. John's Lodge - In Newburyport, MA the St. John's Lodge MAF provided clothing funds for a child who had been attending school for a week in the same outfit. They also provided camperships for twelve children with anxiety and confidence issues to attend a special program Advantage Riding Academy.

John Cutler Lodge - Assisted a nine-year-old girl from Abington, MA with tuition for a nine-week summer gymnastics camp. JCLMAF also provided camperships or field trip fees for seven other children.

Universal Lodge - ULMAF assisted with camp tuition for two middle school boys to attend the summer education program at the Mass Audubon facility in Wellfleet, MA. They provided general camperships for seven other children, including five local kids referred through Big Brothers/Big Sisters and one girl who will attend a special camp for diabetic children. Universal purchased eyeglasses and food coupons for a child whose mother was out of work for five weeks due to an injury.

Marine Lodge - MLMAF provided campership assistance for three Falmouth and Mashpee (MA) children referred through the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program.

Mount Horeb Lodge - Our very first affiliate MAF celebrates its seventh anniversary by assisting with camp tuition for four Dennis children referred through Big Brothers/Big Sisters. (Big Brothers/Big Sisters has a long-standing partnership with MAF. Serving over 500 children, BB/BS is a major vortex in the Cape Cod area for camperships. The agency is able to receive subsidies from many camps that work with them and also possesses a campership fund of its own. MAF helps where necessary with the parents' share of the tuition.)

Simon W. Robinson Lodge - This MAF was able to offer "stopgap" funding for necessary prescriptions for two siblings until their medical benefits became active. They also purchased eyeglasses for a child in Belmont, MA.

St. Alban's Lodge - Camperships for six children to attend the Southeastern Massachusetts Arts Collaborative summer program.

Wellesley Lodge - Provided clothing and necessary personal items for a displaced young man who ended up living with relatives after his mother lost her job and housing due to illness. WLMAF also provided campership assistance to a girl referred by the Big Sister Association and partial tuition assistance to a fourteen-year-old girl who was selected to attend a summer ballet program with the Boston Ballet.

Mt. Carmel-Damascus Lodge - Eyeglasses for three children in seven days.

Pacific Lodge - Camperships for five children to attend day camp in the local school system and bedding for two Amherst, MA children whose possessions were contaminated by a bedbug infestation. (We are seeing an increase in the number of bedbug infestations this year. Apparently there is quite an epidemic in Europe and folks are bringing them home and spreading the infestation here in the US.)

Azure Lodge - Camperships for five children.

Meridian Lodge - Camperships for twenty special needs children in Natick, MA.

Level Lodge - Camperships and summer program tuition assistance for nine children.

St. Andrew Fund - Emergency bedding and personal items for a military family at Westover referred through the USO. St. Andrew Fund also provided inexpensive air purifiers and other necessary items for four children with grave respiratory ailments.

Boston First Fund - Camperships for six children at Allston-Brighton Head Start, emergency clothing for two boys recently placed in foster care, work clothing for a teenager in foster care, camperships for three girls in the Big Sister program and clothing for two four-year-old fire victims.

Mystic Valley Lodge - Camperships for seven children.

When one reads through these benevolences there is no doubt in one's mind that MAF is literally changing the lives of many of the kids we serve. So often we "greet" a child at a fork in the road and provide the means for him to take the more hopeful of the two roads before him.

Military Benevolence Program
A reminder, if you have any children of military personnel who are deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan a generous private foundation patron has made a fund available to help local Masonic Angel Funds who are providing assistance to children of these brave men and women. Contact the Foundation if you have a benevolence request that might qualify for 100% reimbursement under this program.


Zip Code Directory
Several people in the MAF community have asked for an easier way to find out if a particular community is covered by an extant Masonic Angel Fund. Our current directory of Masonic Angel Funds lists the city where the sponsoring Lodge is located. However, there are many of our constituent MAF's that serve children in several towns.

In order to come up with a "zip code search engine", our webmaster needs a list of all zip codes that are served by each Masonic Angel Fund. Please save us some postage by emailing your MAF name and the zip codes/city names it serves to webmaster@masonicangelfund.org - information should be submitted as it is in the following example:

Universal Lodge Masonic Angel Fund
02653, Orleans
02643, East Orleans
02662, South Orleans
02631, Brewster
02642, Eastham
02651, North Eastham

Thank you for providing our webmaster with the information necessary to fuel this new search engine.

Share Your News!
Do you have benevolence stories you would like to share with the rest of the MAF on-line community? If so, please email them to info@masonicangelfund.org and we will pass them along to your colleagues.

Regards to all,
Bob Fellows, Co-Founder/Board Secretary
Masonic Angel Foundation, Inc.
info@masonicangelfund.org
www.masonicangelfund.org