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.

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.