Month: February 2019

Coming Together to Give Back

In the 2017-2018 fraternal year, 18 lodges made the decision to support the Let’s Write the Future campaign as Pace Setter donors, pledging between $100,000 and $300,000 to the California Masonic Foundation. These unprecedented gifts truly set a new example of philanthropic leadership in our fraternity. Learn why three lodges chose to write a better future for California communities.

We Are Driven to Serve

Nevada Lodge No. 13

coming togetherWe are an older lodge, and many of our members are children of the Great Depression. We are conservative about spending money for any purpose because so many of us remember a time when our lodge was barely able to meet its financial obligations. As recently as the 1970s and 1980s, we were nearly broke. But mixed with that, we are a very generous membership. We want to be fiscally responsible, but we are even more driven to be of use to others. When we came together to discuss making a gift, the overriding theme was that we aren’t here to amass wealth; we are together to help each other and our communities; to take care of our brothers and their wives and children. Our Pace Setter gift was an ideal opportunity to do just that.

Coming together to make our gift has renewed our commitment to actively engaging in service within our own community. We are reaching out to our elderly brethren and widows, actively seeking opportunities to support them better and provide hands-on services. For the first time in several years, we partnered with our local Masonic youth for a service project. The last time we did so, four members attended. This time, there were more than 20. This gift has truly renewed a sense of community within our lodge.

– G. Sean Metroka, 2018 Lodge Master

We Give Our Best

Beverly Hills Lodge No. 528

we give our bestDuring a Foundation presentation at our lodge, we learned that presently, residents at the Covina Masonic Home might be sent to other facilities to get the care they need, thus separating couples. Our hearts went out to those seniors who would have to endure such a separation, while at the same time, the anxiety of being in a strange place. Together, we decided that it was extremely important for us to support advanced care at the Masonic Homes. The idea that there is a place that any of our brothers can turn to if we are in need makes us proud to be Masons.

Through the process of making our gift, every one of our brothers had the willingness in his heart to help; having a way to show this spirit collectively gave us the capability to participate as a team. It has been the culture of our lodge to help or lend a helping hand. Being a Pace Setter Lodge is something that we cherish. Through the years, we have always supported Masonic charitable causes, because we believe helping others is of utmost importance. Where we are able to extend a helping hand, we try to give our best.

– Ricardo Z. Escalante Jr., 2018 Lodge Master

We Set an Example

San Diego Lodge No. 35

we set an exampleWhen we learned about the campaign’s goals, and that the fraternity needed our lodge to step up, we basically said, “Yes, we’ll figure it out.” In the end, it was an easy decision: We have always seen ourselves as leaders in California Masonry, and philanthropy is no exception. We strive to set an example for other lodges. It wouldn’t do for us not to give.

Raising A Reader is near and dear to our hearts, as many of us have seen how reading has developed our children’s critical thinking skills and thirst for knowledge. As the saying goes, we spend the first seven years of our lives learning to read; the rest reading to learn. We have to foster a love of reading at an early age, so children can succeed at school and grow into productive adults. And, as Masons, we are obligated to care for the men and women who have supported our lodges for the entirety of their adult lives. To do it well, we need the Masonic Homes, and the new advanced care and memory care facilities we’re building. Philanthropy is just what we do. It’s part of our lodge culture.” – W. Jay Sener IV, 2018 Lodge Master

Photo Credit: Andy Amyx (top), Mathew Scott (middle), Danielle Penn (bottom)

Permission to reprint original articles in CALIFORNIA FREEMASON is granted to all recognized Masonic publications with credit to the author, photographer, and this publication. Contact the editor at editor@freemason.org.

For Our Children. For Our Future.

California masons’ partnership with raising a reader has brought crucial literacy training to nearly 600 classrooms – and we’re not close to done yet!

Every day in underresourced public school classrooms throughout California, young children are struggling to read. The majority – up to 95 percent – don’t have a single book at home. For these children, the letters on the page seem foreign; what they represent is opaque. And if the children can’t achieve literacy by third grade, their chances for educational success are grim. When compared to their peers who are academically on track, impoverished children who cannot read at grade level by third grade are 13 times less likely to graduate from high school.

These alarming statistics are at the crux of the California Masonic Foundation’s partnership with Raising A Reader (RAR), a nationally recognized leader in early childhood literacy. RAR provides children with high-quality books, teaches their parents the importance of reading at home – and how to begin – and connects families with local public libraries for a lifetime of learning.

RAR works. In the 448 California classrooms that have benefitted from our partnership so far, educators have seen dramatic improvements in test scores, comprehension, and family engagement. Our RAR schools have 42 percent more students reading at grade level than those without the program – after participating just a single year.

Deborah Hoffman, a Head Start teacher who works with RAR families in the Coachella Valley, has seen this impact first hand. “When I have done home visits I have found that there’s a great need for books in the homes. With technology now, you don’t see a lot of books,” she says in a recent interview with CBS News. “This is a fabulous program.”

Recent research by United Way of the Desert corroborates her praise, noting that RAR has been able to successfully impact the region’s most economically disadvantaged students.

“I’ve had kids come back to me two or three years later and they’ll say, ‘Ms. Hoffman, I remember that book, when we read ‘Chicka Chicka Boom Boom.’ It’s like wow, I really made a difference. They remember reading those books.”

Perhaps Sabrina Hijazi, mother of an RAR student says it best: “Without reading you don’t have anything else to begin with. It’s fundamental and a building block to anything.”

California Masons are making a profound difference in the lives of families who need us most. And, by working together, we are capable of reaching so many more.

Watch a video about Raising A Reader’s impact in the Coachella Valley.

Photo Credit: Angela DeCenzo

Permission to reprint original articles in CALIFORNIA FREEMASON is granted to all recognized Masonic publications with credit to the author, photographer, and this publication. Contact the editor at editor@freemason.org.