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UPDATE – July 1, 2002

In this issue - Welcome to Our Newest MAF, Color Brochures, Grand Royal Arch Matching Grants, Summer Concerns

• WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MAF
  We are pleased to welcome the following new Masonic Angel Fund's:
  #46 Star-Athol Lodge, Athol, MA 4/25/2002
  
  
• COLOR BROCHURES ARE HERE!
  On June 28, 2002 we received 10,000 of the new four-color MAF brochure. You can preview this attractive publication here 
  
  These brochures are available free of charge to constituent Masonic Angel Funds in reasonable quantities. If you would like some brochures please contact info@masonicangelfund.org with the quantity desired. We do ask that you pay for the postage or UPS charges the Foundation incurs in shipping the brochures to you.
  
  We thank Citizens Bank for their generosity in underwriting this new publication. We also thank www.capecodink.com for their willingness to produce the brochures at a drastically reduced cost.
  
  
• GRAND ROYAL ARCH MATCHING GRANTS
  
  The Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Massachusetts recently contributed $2,000 to the Foundation as a grant to underwrite matching grants of $100 each to the twenty newest Masonic Angel Funds in Massachusetts. This will be calculated from the Foundation's list of licensed MAF's as of June 30, 2002. 
  
  The Masonic Angel Funds listed below are eligible for this grant program. If you represent one of the MAF's listed please contact the foundation with a letter documenting that you have raised at least $100 since January 1, 2002 in order to qualify for this grant. The deadline for applications is August 31, 2002. Lodges not qualified by that date will be dropped and the next Lodges in precedence will become eligible. Once you are qualified, we will send a check to the Royal Arch District Deputy Grand High Priest for presentation at one of your Lodge meetings. We will not be mailing a notice - this is your only notification.
  
  Lodges eligible for the GRAC Matching Grants:
  
  #26 Nehoiden Lodge, Needham, MA 5/15/2001 
  #27 Philanthropic Lodge, Marblehead, MA 6/19/2001 
  #28 Wayfarers Lodge, Swampscott, MA 6/12/01 
  #29 Orient Lodge, Norwood, MA 7/9/2001 
  #30 Washington Lodge, Lexington, MA 10/10/2001 
  #31 Hammatt-Ocean Lodge, Saugus, MA 10/8/2001 
  #33 Azure Lodge, Walpole, MA 12/19/2001 
  #34 Hope Lodge, Gardner, MA 12/20/2001 
  #35 Beverly Masonic Angel Fund, Beverly, MA 1/22/2002 (joint venture of Budleigh, Liberty and North Shore Daylight Lodges) 
  #36 Wamesit Lodge, Tewksbury, MA 2/4/2002 
  #37 Dalhousie Lodge, Newtonville, MA 2/13/2002 
  #38 Damascus-Mount Carmel Masonic Angel Fund, Lynn, MA 02/16/2002 
  #39 Paul Revere Lodge, Brockton, MA 03/05/2002 
  #40 Pioneer Lodge, Somerset, MA 03/04/2002 
  #41 May Flower Lodge, Middleboro, MA 04/02/2002 
  #42 John Warren Lodge, Hopkinton, MA 04/09/2002 
  #43 Manchester Lodge, Manchester, MA 12/17/01 
  #44 Phoenix Lodge, Hanover, MA 5/2/2002 
  #45 Meridian Lodge, Natick, MA 5/15/2002 
  #46 Star-Athol Lodge, Athol, MA 4/25/2002
  Please address all questions on this program to info@masonicangelfund.org
  
  
• SUMMER CONCERNS
  
  Just because our Lodges "go dark" for the summer and school shuts down does not mean that your Masonic Angel Fund will lie dormant during the summer "intersession". Many constituent MAF's are busy already in their funding of summer campership programs and other recreation programs. Summer is also an excellent time for fundraising!
  
  The Foundation has received a few calls regarding support of summer programs. One of the questions we hear is "Am I sending this kid on a vacation or what?"
  
  The answer is "no" - you are not sending the kid on a "vacation". Many of our Masonic Angel Funds send children to specialized summer camps for kids with certain medical conditions, most especially diabetes. The Clara Barton Camp (for example) is most certainly not a vacation! The children go through an intensive program to teach them how to cope with and manage their diabetic condition. We know one seven-year-old girl who is severely diabetic yet manages her nutrition and medication almost entirely on her own - and does it very successfully. This is a child we sent to Clara Barton last summer when she was only six!
  
  For children who do not have a specific medical condition, a campership is still very often appropriate. In the summer of 2000 Universal Lodge's Masonic Angel Fund joined with several other local charities to fund an entire summer of day-camp and sleep-over camp for two boys who were alone with their father. Dad is a construction worker and needed to work from dawn to dusk. The boys (ages six and nine) were not able to be alone during the day, most especially because they were in danger from their mentally-ill mother. Summer camp was the only way the father could work and the boys could still be safe during the day.
  
  Still other kids may need assistance to participate in summer programs at their school. These are often a mix between academic and recreation activities, providing the child with necessary instruction while affording some time for structured recreation, as well.
  
  As we said above, this type of decision is a local matter. If you believe that the child will benefit academically or socially - or if she will be "safer" - in a summer program, it is perfectly appropriate for your Masonic Angel Fund to provide some or all of the financial assistance needed to make this possible for the youngster.
  SHARE YOUR GOOD NEWS!
  Please use our list server (angelfund@listserver.blackwidowweb.net) to share your benevolences and news with others in Masonic Angel Fund family. You may email your questions and stories to this address.
  
  Better still, if you hold a fund raiser or do some special project in your community send us photographs and a "press release" for the web site.
  
  Remember, the web site and these email broadcasts are everyone's forum to share and learn about how we all operate our Masonic Angel Funds.