Installation 2014

December 11th 2013 the Grand Ledge Lodge 179 held our installation for 2014.  We had a very successful year in the lodge this past year and we are looking to keep up the steam as we go into 2014.  We have a great line up this year of officers.

A big thanks to my Grand Officers that installed us this year.  Thank you Gill, Ron, Vaugn and Kim.

Officers for 2014

Masonic Christmas Party

December 1st we held our Christmas party at the lodge.  Friends, family, neighbors and all our brothers and sisters in the lodge were invited.  This year we had a very nice turn out.  Overall we had more than 70 people there.

Mrs. Claus reading to the kids.

Before Santa came down Mrs. Claus read a story to the children and then they sang a few Christmas songs.  Then came time for the big guy to come in.  

Santa is for all kids, young and old. 

We had over 20 children this year.  After the presents we had a piñata that they all loved taking turns trying to get the candy out of.  I only wish that I had got a picture of that.

Thanks Sherri

So all in all we had a very good turn-out for the party.  Kathy and I spoke a couple weeks ago and she hadn't received any RSVP's for the party and didn't know if we would continue it if it was only going to be a couple of us there.   Thank you for everyone that showed up.  I know the kids loved it.

On a last note, we didn't have a Santa due to brother Bill not feeling up to it.  I was asked to fill in and I have to say I had my reservations about doing it.  But after it was all said and done it was great to see the smiles and excitement on the little ones faces.  A big thanks to Kathy for putting it all together and making this a success.

Thanksgiving Community Dinner

Hall area set up for the meal.

For the past five years the lodge has been the location for the community Thanksgiving Day meal.  This year they served around 700 meals at no cost to anyone that wanted or needed a meal.  People could just show up and have a place to have a nice meal.  We have everyone from college kids to older people that have their families far away and just wanted to be able to have a thanksgiving meal without needing to cook a large dinner for only a couple people.

The dinner is put on in Grand Ledge by an army of volunteers.  Numerous churches are involved in the effort.  Many cook the turkeys in their church kitchens and then transport them down to the lodge for the serving.  This year there were 32 turkeys cooked and prepared for the meal.  

I can't begin to thank all of those that helped with the dinner.  Mike and Sherri were there all day.  It is a great honor that we get to use our hall to support such an event in our community.  I wish I could list everyone that was a supporter of the dinner but at this time I don't have the information on that.  We were presented with a certificate of appreciation that I will show in lodge this coming Wednesday.

Thanks again!

Past Masters / Honors Night

This past Wednesday night we took time to honor our Past Masters of the lodge and to award all of the legacy awards for those that have been in the lodge for more than 25 years.  We had about 34 people there at the dinner and even a couple of visitors.

PM Bob receiving an award and PM Ron sitting.

Brother Wayne

Brother Scottie

It was great to see all of the Past Masters that turned out for the event.  We had a 50 year spread of Past Masters going all the way back to 1961.  Brother Wayne was there to get his award and looked better than ever.

Brother Bob

We awarded the Mason of the Year to Bob Lindsay this year.  I can't think of a more deserving brother to get this award.  Bob puts in a lot of work to keep our lodge operating thru out the year.  If you see him give him a much needed congratulation.  In the pictures below are all of the past masters that were at the dinner.  If you notice to the left of them there is a picture.  We have taken the top row of our Past Masters at the lodge and put them on one picture to make room for future Past Masters.

 Past Masters

Past Masters with Awardees, Brothers Bob and Wayne

A big thanks to my wife Gayla for the dinner she made and served during the night.  There was a lot of hard work that went into it and I think we pulled it off in the end.

New Brothers

Three new Brothers

On Wednesday we had the the privilege to bring in three new Brothers to the lodge.  Todd came in last month but he showed up and we put him to work at the Junior Deacon for the night.  A big thanks to him, we couldn't have did it without him.  Seth and Kevin were the newest brothers to come in.  In the picture with us are Ryan, Mike and Ramone.  We are all looking forward to helping them continue on their masonic journey.

We will be having our Past Masters and Honors night this coming Wednesday.  Everyone is welcome to attend and encouraged.  We would love to see as many people there to show their respects for all the masters that have contributed to the growth and care of the lodge.  

Also dont forget our Pasty Dinner this Friday the 22nd.  We will be holding our 50/50 raffle during the dinner.

Lodge Spruce up

Paint that was damaged due to water problems.

The lodge held a day to spruce up the lodge and two of the areas that we decided to concentrated on was the hallways and bathrooms.  Recent rain problems and draining issues had allowed water to seep through the walls and flake the paint in several areas.  As you can see in the pictures above the paint that had been damaged.  This is of course after we had scraped the walls to prepare to paint them.

Our resident expert Ryan was on hand to help us tackle the job.  Anyone can paint but having the proper tools of the trade and small tricks of the trade made the work much easier.  Ryan was so fast at taping the walls and floors it amazed us.

Some of the pictures of the painting in progress.

I was telling Bob when we were painting that after we had been painting that I really couldnt see the difference in the walls.  It took the pictures to show me the difference.  A big thanks to the Bob, Ryan, Ramone and Gill for all the hard work.  Thanks again.

Hunters Night at the Lodge

Hanging out around the campfire.

Wednesday we had our regular meeting and the theme was hunters night due to the upcoming deer season.  Most of the brothers dressed up in their hunting garb.  We had a makeshift campfire, fully decked out with burning sterno cans.  We do what we can.

Worthy Brother Craig Mason from Grand Lodge was invited to talk about the Masonic Charity Foundations and other charity events that the Masons sponsor.  By the end of the night our lodge voted on sponsoring a sign that will be placed at next years golf outing.  It was great to hear how involved the Masons are with children's programs.  In March we will be sponsoring a bowling event at the Royal Scot Bowling lanes here in Lansing.  

After all the business was taken care of we elected the upcoming officers for 2014.  I was again elected to be the Worshipful Master again for one more year.  We have some great men that will be following me in the next couple years.  Our goal is to set them up with some of their programs that they want to see the lodge do when they get in office.  

New BGP

We did some traveling last week.  Five of us brothers, Gill, Kim, Ryan, Mike and myself went over to Grand Rapids on Wednesday for our new district meeting.  The state has changed up the districts and we landed in the "Lucky" 13 which has 14 lodges in it.

My congratulations go out to Worthy Brother Gill for being elected as the new BGP for the district.  I know you will do us proud.

After the meeting we received a outstanding tour of the lodge.  If you ever get the chance to travel to this lodge you will not be let down.

Lodge activities over the summer

Yankee Doodle Days in Grand Ledge MI

 The Masons here in Grand Ledge have been asked over the last couple of years to assist in the Yankee Doodle Days here in town to help run the beer tent and provide food and support.  We had a very successful year this summer.  We had a couple candidates come out of it along with some laughs and camaraderie between the brothers.

Blood Drive at the Lodge.

This year we started to assist the Red Cross by holding a blood drive in the lodge basement along with the Eastern Star.  It was a slow event and we didn't get the turnout that we had hoped but it may be the start of something good.  I had been told in the past that it was held here for years.  I've attached some pictures that I took during the set up.

Dinners out at local resturants

One of the few pictures that we got when we got together.  The wives and kids would join us and fill the tables.  This one was taken at Cancun in Grand Ledge.  Our largest turn out was at Delucas on Willow and we had over twenty people at the dinner.

Scholarships

Below is a scholarship that we gave out this year.  Attached is the article that was in the local paper.

The Grand Ledge Masonic # 179 awarded a financial contribution for the amount of $500 to    Bryanna Leach, a sophomore at Grand Ledge High School, towards her costs of attending the Washington Journalism and Media Conference this summer being held at the George Mason University in Washington DC. Bryanna was nominated as a National Youth Correspondent to attend this conference because of her academic record and sincere interest in journalism and media.

In her letter to the Grand Ledge Masonic Lodge she indicated that she is extremely excited about this once is a lifetime opportunity and student leadership experience and traveling to Washington DC. She will be recognized as one of the most promising young leaders in journalism and media and will join other scholars from across the country to share in this unique experience where she will attend seminars and speeches by industry leaders and be challenged to work with her peers through simulations and group discussions. Bryanna indicated that while she will also earn one college credit, she will develop her leadership skills and gain a greater insight into the issues surrounding the future of journalism and what she can do now to be a part of this exciting field

The $500 check was given to Bryanna Leach at the Grand Ledge Masonic Lodge #179 by Worshipful Master Charles Munson and Secretary Robert Lindsay.

November Regular Meeting

Nov 6            Regular meeting  6:30 Supper and 7:30 meeting.  Deer Camp/ Hunters supper

Nov 9            Lodge Clean-up, prep walls Nov 8th

Nov 13          EA Degree, possible 2 new brothers

Nov 20 Honors Night/ Past Masters Night - $10 per person, meal at 6:30pm, please RSVP if you plan on coming to have enough meals.

Nov 22          Pasty Dinner  5-7pm, Pasty build morning of the dinner, 50/50 drawing at the dinner

Nov 30           Masonic get together with other lodges in the area - location coming soon 

Greetings Brothers,

Where did the year go?  For our supper prior to the meeting we will be having a hunter themed meal.  There are a few brothers that are bringing in some wild game dishes and chili.  Some brothers plan on wearing there hunting cloths or dressing like they or heading to the great white north.  

We are into November and its time for the elections for next year already.  We have a few things that we need to close out for the year.  Like I said before we will electing the new officers at our regular meeting.  We need to wrap up the sales on the 50/50 tickets.  I think we will fall short of our goal but I think we have paved the way and learned from it.  I have already seen things that I would change to make it better.  So if you have tickets out there that you haven't sold please hit up the last few people you have and then we need to get those turned back into Bob so that he can close out the raffle and get it ready for the drawing.  Thanks to all of you that took time to sell or purchase a ticket or two.  

We will be having a visitor from Grand Lodge at the regular meeting.  Worthy Brother Craig Mason will be coming to talk to us about the Charitable Foundation and School programs.  If this is something you would like to hear about please stop on down and join us. It will be nice to see how we are impacting our local, state and federal charities.

As you can see in the calendar we are have an Honors/ Past Masters night.  If you don't have anything going that night I know the Past Masters would love to see you there.  Its a great night to just spend some time with the PM that came before and sit around and hear some of their stories.  Some of the issues that they dealt with when they sat in the East and how they over came it.  Just good ol' history of Our lodge.  We also will be giving out the awards and we always honor the widows of our brothers that have went to that lodge not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

I have started a blog as a way to let people know what is going on with the lodge and to help promote the lodge/hall. The link to it is    http://grandledgelodge179.blogspot.com  .  If any of you have pictures of some of the events that we do please feel free to send them to me so I can add them when I make my posts.  I got the idea for another lodge that did a blog to keep the brothers up to date that didn't use Facebook.   This allows others that may not be masons to see how active our lodge is and if they may be thinking of renting the hall to see the possibilities.

Lastly, we are planning on having a maintenance day at the lodge on the 9th.  We will be concentrating on the bathrooms and painting them.  We will be having a prep day on Friday the 8th to get the walls ready for paint on Saturday, which will speed things up.  If you can spare some time please come give us a hand.  I don't need your whole day, just some hours.  Many hands make light work, we will talk more about it in lodge at the regular.  Maybe have some breakfast before we kick off the work.

Take care brothers and we will see you soon.

WM Charles Munson

Pasty Supper

It's finally here, the day we all wait for all month...Pasty Supper.  As I write this there are brothers making fresh Pasties down in the kitchen of the lodge.

Part of the magic that happens behind the scenes. 

 The pasties are made from scratch on the day of the suppers.  About nine years ago some brothers went up north and learned how to make them from another lodge that had a successful pasty program.  Mike Beck and Steve Suchek have been the organizers and the life of the program.  Steve is away on a deployment right now and the rest of us are helping Mike keep the program alive and growing.  We start around 10 am making them and by 3pm they are done and the supper prep begins.

The supper is from 5-7 pm the third Friday of the month.  The only exception will be next month and it will be held on the 22nd of November for our raffle.    We also offer take out and frozen sales if that is what you desire.

Speaking of the raffle, if you haven't got your ticket or two yet stop by and purchase one or two.  It will be a 50/50 raffle with the prize being $10000 if we sell all 2000 tickets.  The tickets are $10 a piece so the odds are really good.If you don't know where to go, send me a message here and we will make sure you get one.  This raffle will help the lodge with its several local events that it does with the community, such as scholarships.  

We still haven't hit the $1000 night for the suppers, but we are getting really close.  Stop in for a taste of the U.P. today.  

A big thanks goes out to all the folks that make this happen.  It is a large task to accomplish the suppers and the pasty builds.  I tip my hat to all of you.  Thanks again for what you do.

Brought to Light

On Wednesday we had the pleasure of bringing in a new brother for the lodge.  I was out of town on a vacation/business trip and Brother Gill Lemonde sat in the East and officiated over the proceedings.  Thank you Gill and all of the other brothers that stepped up and helped out.  We had a couple of visitors that night also.

It's good to see the lodge growing.  We have a couple other candidates that will be coming into the lodge over the next couple months.  There were a couple that approached us at the Yankee Doodle Days here in Grand Ledge over the summer.  We also had a couple of transfers that came in from other lodges.

We are planning on a Lodge clean-up, fix up day on the 9th of November.  There will be some prep work done on the bathrooms the night before so that we can speed up the process on Saturday.  If you can help out, put on your work cloths and give us a couple hours.

See you soon.

Grand Ledge Color Cruise

Fall is here and the trees are changing, what better time to see it than a ride down the river on a paddle boat.  There is everything from food, crafts, exhibits and even horse drawn wagon rides.  There will be crafts and artwork in the basement of the Masonic lodge so feel free to stop in and see us, look around and share in a laugh or two.  Come join us in celebrating one of the last nice weekends before the cold weather arrives.

Keep us in mind for all of your rental needs.  Our hall is a great place to hold, graduation parties, meetings, dances and birthday parties.  For those of you that are looking to get married on the island, we are right across the parking lot, everything you need in one spot.  Give us a call if you have the need  or are looking for a great place to hold your event.

Grand Ledge Lodge 179 Pasty Dinner

GRAND LEDGE, Mich. - Fall has officially arrived in Michigan which means that the weather will start to cool off, the leaves will start to change, and warm dishes sound more delicious. To get into the spirit of fall, the Grand Ledge Lodge 179 will be hosting a Pasty Dinner on Friday, October 18 from 5PM - 7PM.

The Pasty Dinner is always a delicious and enjoyable event - one you won't want to miss out on! There will be two meal options, both a large dinner and a small dinner. The large dinner costs $8.00 and includes a 1 lb pasty, coleslaw, a beverage and dessert. The smaller option costs only $6.00 and includes a 1/2 lb pasty, coleslaw, a beverage and dessert - talk about a great deal!

Since pasty's are a favorite for any Michigan resident, we'll also be selling frozen pasty's, 2 for $10. This is a great option for all the deer hunters, or perfect for those that have busy days and want something quick and easy for dinner.

While you're enjoying the great company and delicious food at the Grand Ledge Lodge 179, make sure to pick up your 50/50 tickets for $10! Only 2000 tickets will be sold which means your odds of winning are pretty good! The minimum prize will be $500 and the maximum will be $10,000 - with Christmas right around the corner, the extra cash will be a great thing to have! The drawing will be held at our Nov. 22nd Pasty Dinner, so make sure to pick up your tickets while they're still available!

If you're interested in purchasing a raffle ticket, or you would like more information about the Grand Ledge Masonic Brothers, email cgmunce@me.com. The Grand Ledge Lodge 179 is located at 200 West River Street in Grand Ledge, MI. We are proud to be part of the Grand Ledge community but work hard to assist those in need on a local and national level. To stay in touch with our lodge, visit our Facebook page or stop by our website. 

For more information on Grand Ledge Lodge 179 Rentals, visit our Facebook page.