Freemasonry at its Best!
"Angel Mail" Update - January 1st,
2008
Welcome to Our Newest Masonic Angel Funds
We are pleased to welcome the following new Masonic Angel Funds:
120 William North Lodge Lowell MA 05/09/2007
121 Mount Washington Valley MAF North Conway NH 11/07/2007
122 Mount Zion Lodge Barre MA 12/05/2007
Since the Universal Lodge Masonic Angel Fund carries the designation of MAF #0,
this places us at 123 Masonic Angel Funds in twelve states.
Post-Holiday Outreach
A few days after school has opened from the Christmas recess we suggest that you
touch base with your school contacts. While the holidays always seem busy, there
are many teachers and nurses who wait until after school vacation to see if
certain kids might have received necessary clothing and outerwear in the form of
holiday gifts. The weather here in New England will be turning quite cold by the
end of the week which gives us all the more reason to anticipate quite a few
requests for coats, boots and warm clothing.
This winter could be an especially challenging one for our Masonic Angel Funds.
Fuel costs are high, the economy is slow and a lot of families are really
struggling to pay their bills - perhaps more so this year than at any time since
we started the Masonic Angel Fund in 1998.
Expect another peak in requests sometime after April 1st. That is the time of
year when utility companies can once again terminate services to those who
cannot pay their bills. Many families are put on very challenging payment plans
which can cause other expenses to go unpaid. We often see a big increase in
requests for help with after school program tuition and summer program fees
throughout the spring. Experience has shown that the months of April, May and
June can be even busier than the holiday months of November and December.
Please stay in touch with your schools for these next few months. The kids will
probably need us more this year than ever before.
Semi-Annual Reports for the Fall Semester Due January
31st
Semi-annual report packets will be mailed out sometime in the next two weeks.
The reports are exactly the same as they were last semester. Please remember
that the reports for July 1, 2007 to December 31, 2007 are due at the
Foundation's office by January 31, 2008. In addition to the mailed packet, the
forms will be posted on our web site for download as soon as they are published.
St. Andrew Benevolence Builder Grant Series Continues
The winter series of Benevolence Builder Grants continues. The
Benevolence Builder program is made possible by a grant from The Lodge of St.
Andrew.
This grant series runs from November 19, 2007 through January 31, 2008 and will
conclude early if the allocated funds are expended.
Any Massachusetts Masonic Angel Fund in good standing may apply for a 50%
replenishment of benevolences conferred during the grant period. Please note
that each qualified Masonic Angel Fund may receive up to a cap of $1,000 for
this series. This means that we can replenish 50% of your benevolences up to
$2,000 during the life of this grant series.
To apply for a Benevolence Builder Grant simply email the particulars of each
benevolence to info@masonicangelfund.org - DO NOT save up your benevolences to
be submitted at one time - the money might very well be depleted before you
submit your request. Please send your requests as you confer the benevolences.
As always, we express our sincerest thanks to our Brethren in The Lodge of St.
Andrew for their continued generosity to Massachusetts' Masonic Angel Funds.
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:
North Quabbin Masonic Angel Fund (formerly Star-Athol
MAF) - Holiday gifts for more than 125 children. This Masonic Angel
Fund works closely with several community service groups to help an
extraordinary number of families each year. In 2006 the Star-Athol Lodge MAF
received a "Spotlight Award" from the North Quabbin Community Coalition for
"improving the quality of life for those living and working in the North Quabbin
region."
Cape Cod - Masonic Angel Funds across the
Lower Cape came together to provide holiday gifts for children served by the
Interfaith Council for the Homeless. Participating MAF's included Universal
(Orleans), Pilgrim (Harwich), Mount Horeb (Dennis), Winslow Lewis-Adams MAF
(Wellfleet) and King Hiram's (Provincetown). A rather shocking statistic for
those involved is that there are some 300 children classified as homeless living
in these towns.
St. John's Lodge - In Newburyport, MA the
St. John's Lodge MAF provided field trip fees for several children whose
families could not afford to send them on the school's Christmas field trip.
Nauset Light Lodge/St. Andrew Fund - Nauset
Light Lodge provided holiday gifts for eighteen girls who reside at the Latham
School in Brewster that were being left at the school over the holidays. Nauset
Light's benevolence was supplemented both with a grant from the St. Andrew Fund
as well as by a very generous donation from the father of a disabled child.
Level Lodge - Provided holiday gifts for
multiple children at three different schools in Worcester.
Gifts for Children of our Troops - Joseph Warren-Soley
Lodge and Simon W. Robinson Lodge joined together with the St. Andrew Fund
and a private donor to provide back-to-school clothing for thirty children and
holiday gifts for seventy-five children whose parent is deployed in Iraq or
Afghanistan. These children were referred through the USO New England Council.
This is the fifth year that MAF has worked with the USO on holiday benevolences
and we continue to be impressed by how much far they can stretch our money.
Massachusetts Freemasonry overall has provided outstanding support for our
troops since the War on Terror began in 2001.
Universal Lodge - ULMAF provided eyeglasses
for a youngster in Orleans, assistance with trip fees to several Brewster girls
involved with the Brewster Bayside Skippers and assisted with after school
program tuition for several children.
Marine Lodge - In Falmouth, MA the Marine
Lodge Masonic Angel Fund had a very busy season indeed. Recent benevolences
include holiday gifts for multiple children, many winter clothing requests,
eyeglasses and holiday gifts for children who are living in safe houses due to
domestic violence situations.
Mount Horeb Lodge - MHLMAF provided holiday
gifts to children in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program as well as some very
necessary clothing for two Dennis girls attending Cape Cod Technical School.
Pacific Lodge - The Pacific Lodge MAF in
Amherst, MA was able to purchase winter coats and boots for approximately twenty
children only a few days before Christmas. One of the school counselors took a
personal day on December 21st in order to organize the purchase and distribution
of the coats and boots. The counselor and her daughter contacted each family to
ascertain sizes and then obtained the winter gear at special prices through J.C.
Penny and L.L. Bean. The approximate average cost for this benevolence was only
$50 per child but what a difference it made!
Artisan Lodge - Winchendon, MA children were
fortunate to have Artisan Lodge MAF working for them this year. Seventeen
children received holiday gifts and a family who lost them home to a fire
received clothing and replacement bedding. Once again the smart shoppers in
Winchendon did all of this good work for only $950.
Wellesley Lodge - Provided holiday field
trip fees for children who would otherwise have been left behind.
Children in Foster Care - Mount Carmel-Damascus MAF, Golden Fleece Lodge MAF,
Amesbury MAF, Azure Lodge and the St. Andrew Fund came together to provide
clothing and holiday gifts for twenty-four children throughout eastern
Massachusetts in foster care with New England Center for Youth and Families
Big Sister Association of Boston - The Boston First
Fund and the St. Andrew Fund provided holiday gifts for some 137
children served by the Big Sister Association of Greater Boston.
Boston First Fund - The BFF provided funding
for holiday gifts to fourteen children in foster care under the supervision of
Mr. Anthony Pitts at the Roxbury DYS facility. Boston First Fund also partnered
with ABCD Head Start to provide clothing for several children who were under the
care of their great-grandmother as well as a bus pass for two children who were
moved to a shelter beyond walking distance of their regular Head Start facility.
Mystic Valley Lodge - Holidays gifts for
multiple children.
Golden Fleece Lodge - Field trip fees for
children whose parents could not afford to send them on the school's winter
field trip.
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.
A Big Thank-You
At this very busy time of year it is pleasing to see how many of our volunteers
come forward to help carry out our important work. As always, I call your
attention to our volunteer Treasurer, Lorrimer Armstrong, Jr., who spends most
of his waking hours on MAF work during the holidays. Our webmaster and
compliance officer Mario Mere keeps the information flowing and has proved
indispensable as we devise the new reporting systems that will be introduced
next year. We thank Southard Lippincott for taking a trip when no one could
leave their desks during Christmas benevolence season and Bill Reade for
ferreting out some absolutely last minute needs among the families of our
troops.
It is with the deepest of gratitude that we thank our donors who provide the
fuel that keeps the MAF fires burning.
Finally, we thank each of the volunteers in our 123 affiliated Masonic Angel
Funds. You local MAF trustees are the eyes and ears of this program. You are our
foot soldiers and gatekeepers. Without your outreach to the schools and social
service partners everything else here in MAF-land would be theoretical. It is
your day-to-day devotion to local children in need that is the true backbone of
the Masonic Angel Fund.
As the Masonic Angel Fund program begins its tenth year it is humbling to look
back and see how far we have come. In 1998 we auctioned Beanie Babies to raise
the money to advance the fledgling MAF at Universal Lodge. Today we are help
thousands of children across 123 communities. We continue to function with an
all-volunteer staff. We are fortunate to have our modest operating costs
underwritten by dues and donations to the operating fund by our members. Ten
years ago we said that 100% of a donor's money went to the kids and we can still
say that today. Let's all work to stay on that path through our second decade!
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