A&W Dinner Fundraiser

This is a bit late but I almost forgot to mention.  The lodge teamed up with the Grand Ledge A&W in April to hold a fundraiser for the Lansing Food Bank.  We did the advertising and A&W did the cooking.  All it took was people to come in and order a spaghetti dinner and they would contribute some money toward our charity.

After it was done we raised around $300 to go toward the Lansing Food Bank.  A big thanks to all of you out there that may have stopped in to support this cause.  We plan on doing more of this in the future so stay tuned to go and have a dinner for charity.

Yankee Doodle Days 2014

Another year is in the books for Grand Ledge Yankee Doodle Days and for us at the Masonic Lodge in Grand Ledge.  For the past few years we have been asked to provide the food at the beer tent here in town.  So as usual we set up our booth in the back of the tent to food for the hungry patrons.

A very interested bit of information is that we actually flew these pigs in.  Wait for it….so I guess you can now say pigs have flown.

Two hogs tied down in the aircraft.

This year we did something a bit different.  We decided we would try and roast a pig and that we did.  Our brother Jeff spearheaded that big task and spent most of the night cooking it.  They put it on the roaster at around 10pm on Friday and Saturday at 11am it was ready for eating.

Brother Jeff AKA the Grill master

 So during the parade we started to cut it up and prepare it for the many people that lined up to take part in eating it.  There were times when I looked over and there must have been at least 20 people in line.  A big thanks to brother Ed for keeping Jeff company and assisting him all night at the grill.

Brother Ed

Brother Kevin

Process of cutting up the pork for the sandwiches.

I don't have the numbers for this years festivities but from the way the sales were going I think overall it was a big success.  The rain held off and it wasn't overwhelmingly hot, making it pleasant to be one of the workers.  I want to again thank all of the workers that helped out this year.  A big thanks to all of the committees that worked on this for us.

I will update this when I get the numbers in.

Lodge and Star work together

Well we finally did it. The lodge and star had our first pasty dinner together. As the lodge we needed more worker and the star was looking for a fundraiser. I can only say from my point of view from being in the kitchen, it ran so much smoother this time. I think this is the start of a great thing.  One thing that I noticed right from the get go was showing up to build pasties Friday and the hall was already set up for the dinner, something that we would normally have to do once the pasties were made.  It wasn't one of our biggest turn outs but we continue to grow with each dinner.  

We built over 334 pasties due to Yankee Doodle Days this weekend and we were basically out of frozen pasties. A huge thanks to Mike, Steve, Bob and Kevin as well as all of the Star members that came out to work the dinner. The day wouldn't have been a success with out you.

Brother Kevin keeps working out products that seem to have started to streamline our process.  We will be dark, or otherwise won't be having dinners for the next two months, but if you would like frozen pasties let someone know and we can get you some.  $10 a box and that is for two 1 lbs pasties.

Great Pasty Dinner

So its been a while since I have been able to post and figured I would get back at it.  Between going to military schools, work and computer issues I finally have some much needed free time to be able to get back at this.

To start off I just wanted to say thanks to all of those that helped with the pasty dinner this last Friday.  We finally broke the $1000 mark that I wanted as WM.  Not only that but we completely sold out of all the pasties we made that day for the dinner.  I believe the number was around 151 pasties were made.  We sold out of beef pasties first and we had people in line to buy and when we told them we were out of beef they left.  Then we ran out of to go boxes and had to come up with a way to send people out of there with to go orders.

We were down to six chicken pasties left and 10 minutes left in the night when a lady stopped by and bought all of them for some men working at her house putting in a septic system for her.  It was an amazing night and I can't thank everyone enough.

Our brother Kevin put together an awesome flyer that was put out at several of the local stores.  I have to believe that had something to do with the success.

Well this was short and sweet, but I just wanted to get this up and running again.  Remember if you know anyone that is looking for a hall rental to get a hold of us.  Brother Kevin is working on the website to make it more interactive.  Until the next time.

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

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.

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.