Brethren,
July is here and summer is in full swing. The days are longer and hotter and the children are out of school for the summer. As we relax at the end of these hot days and reflect on our blessings, please let us also remember our responsibilities as Masons to our communities and also let us remember the examples of our predecessors and emulate them so our future brothers may look to our efforts and services similarly.
July will be a month of service to our community. We have several weekends of serving our community in the capacity of providing free Child IDs. These IDs are in the form of a picture and thumb prints with a form for the parents to fill out at home and keep safe. In the case of a missing child, the parent may provide this information to the police to assist them in finding the lost child. This is now a national program and missing and kidnapped children have been found as a result of the information the parents luckily had from this service.
I hope this article can reach you early so we can get in a final reminder of the July 4th event in the Woodland Hills Park. There is a free concert and fireworks show at the park. Our lodge will have 2 booths open for the public to visit. The first booth is our outreach booth that is open for the public to stop by and ask us about Freemasonry. The second and more important booth will be open to provide free identification cards for the children.
These booths are lightly manned and while only 2 are necessary to run the information booth, we need at least 4 to comfortably run the Child ID booth. Please contact Brother Johnny Johnson at (818) 897-1345 if you will be able to help even for a couple of hours and he will tell you the times he will need you.
July 19th will be our annual blood drive. Blood donated at this event will be used to save lives throughout the state. California is horribly lacking in available blood supplies and must import blood from other states in order to save lives. Your life giving donation can help to minimize this necessity and maximize the chances of saving someone's life.
Our Masonic Formation committee meets Wednesday July 2nd at 7:00 and set up for the stated meeting starts at 6:00. Please come on in and help us set up. This is sometimes as much fun as the dinner itself.
Lastly I would like to address the importance of the stated meeting dinners and reservations. It is vitally important to inform your lodge of your planned attendance BEFORE noon the Monday prior to the stated dinner. If you say you are coming food is purchased in advance on your behalf, entertainment costs are able to be met, birthday meals are covered and the most importantly, the ladies of our departed brothers are provided for. If you say you are coming and do not, the lodge must cover these costs and in effect, you are hurting your lodge and your Masonic family.
I wish to make this extremely clear to prevent this in the future. In June, 91 brothers and wives said they were coming and only 65 attended, 10 of which had not called in and just showed up. The Lodge lost several hundred dollars hosting this dinner. This also occurred in May. Please come to the dinner, we all have a great time. Kids under 12 are half price and now have a special place with coloring books and games. The ladies have entertainment provided while the brothers meet. The Chinese food in June was delicious and a lot of it had to be disposed of because the people who said they were coming did not. There are people starving to death and we have to throw food away! Please help us prevent this from happening again. I hope to see you at the next dinner.
Fraternally,
Arthur Melendez
Junior Warden