140 year of Shriners

140 year of Shriners

Friday, November 30, 2007

Visalia Masonic Lodge 150th Anniversary

Visalia Masonic lodge members and their wives will gather Saturday at the Holiday Inn to celebrate the lodge's 150th anniversary.

Also attending the sesquicentennial of Visalia-Mineral King Lodge No. 128 F. & A.M. will be Tulare Masons celebrating their club's 125th anniversary.

As a bonus, they'll all hold a reception for statewide Grand Master Richard Hopper of Visalia.

The Masons are a fraternal organization whose tenets are brotherly love, relief and truth. The Visalia lodge sponsors college scholarships, including for career technical education.

Bill Fulmer, the "worshipful master," or lodge president, said a spirit of fellowship keeps him coming to the Thursday meetings at the lodge's distinctive 1934 art deco building on Mineral King Avenue. Longtime local members include George Pope, Gus Weldon, William Wilson, Steve Gerrard and Gene Miller.

"It's not a religion," Hopper said, but members are encouraged to practice a religion. It's not a secret organization, either, but "we do have secret signs, words and modes of recognition."

Freemasonry traces its roots to the stone masons of the Middle Ages who built the cathedrals. Traditionally, Masonic lodges put into place the cornerstone of public buildings and schools. Today, it's a ceremonial event after the building is complete.

Subunits of the Masons include the Shriners (they drive the little cars in the Candy Cane Lane parade and raise money for Shriners Hospitals for Children), and Order of the Eastern Star, which is open to female relatives of Masons.

A highlight of Saturday's assembly will be the distribution of a history of the Visalia lodge. Walt Hill and Ray Offutt "worked like dogs" on it, Fulmer said.

Among its nuggets are that Edward Farris Storey served as the first master when the Visalia lodge was started on Dec. 19, 1857. Storey soon moved to Nevada to follow a silver strike. Today, Storey County in Nevada is named after him.

Col. Thomas Baker served as the lodge's first secretary. He moved south to the Kern River, where his land holdings included "Baker's Field," now Bakersfield.

Joseph Clarence "J.C." Ward joined in 1873. While in his teens in Michigan, Ward learned to operate the telegraph and taught Morse code to his pal Thomas Edison. Ward became a friend of Samuel F.B. Morse and in the Civil War served on the staff of Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.


Lewis Griswold’s column appears on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. He can be reached at lgriswold@fresnobee.com

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Joy & Toys

Are you ready for this weekend? You can't say there is nothing to do. Apple Valley SC is going to a parade and so is Woodland Hills SC.

Christmas is on its way and starting down every main Street in several towns this weekend. The bell ringers are out and Joy is in the air.

The Shrine Motor patrol is collecting toys and Clothing for the Midnight Mission( check an early post for more information). The LA Police Band is playing at the Shrine Auditorium also on Dec.2nd.

Several Lodges are getting ready for the New Year with new officers taking office this month and next.
If you have a day or night open and want something to do check with your local Lodge, Shrine club, the Shriners Hospital for Children. Most cities have a list of Non-profits and all of them are looking for help this time of the year

Saturday, November 24, 2007

We All Love Kids Charity Tour/Mike Brown

By Zachary K. Johnson
Record Staff Writer November 24, 2007

STOCKTON - A Placer County man on a spur-of-the-moment trek to Los Angeles to raise money for children's charities passed through San Joaquin County this week.

Mike Brown's journey both began and was conceived Monday at his Granite Bay home, he said. Brown has given money and time to the University of California, Davis, Children's Hospital and Shriners Hospitals for Children in Northern California for years, but when he woke Monday morning, he decided he needed to do something more.

He started walking. And he hopes he can spur others to follow his example.

"It's completely spontaneous. It tells people: Get up and do something," Brown said. "Be creative, or just be simple, like opening up your wallet and taking out a $5 bill."

Brown calls the event the We All Love Kids Charity Tour, because it contains the acronym: WALK.

Brown, 50, kept the name after he staggered into a Wal-Mart in Sacramento, bought a Schwinn and continued on his journey, he said. He describes himself as overweight and out of shape but says his body is getting used to the demands of the road.

Putting together an event like this on the fly means making adjustments, he said. After wandering through unknown vineyards between Lodi and Stockton on Thursday, Brown invested in a compass, he said from a Holiday Inn in Stockton on Friday.

Everyone does love kids, he said. And people are bound to help if they only knew how much these hospitals help burn victims, trauma patients, terminally ill children and other young patients, he said.

So far, Brown has found 39 cents on the ground that will go straight to the hospitals. But others wanting to donate money can go to a Web site set up by Shriners Hospital.

Brown said he first called the hospital about his journey after it began.

He estimates it will take him two weeks to get from Stockton to the office of his Los Angeles company, Apparel Label, which makes labels for clothes.

Brown was excited Friday morning as he checked a map and the Internet in his hotel lobby, looking for the route he planned to follow to Modesto.

A clerk asked him if he was going shopping. It was, after all, the day after Thanksgiving.

"Uh, no," he said. "I'm going for a bike ride."

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com.

How to help

To make a donations to the University of California, Davis, Children's Hospital and Shriners Hospitals for Children in Northern California through the We All Love Kids Charity Tour, visit www.acteva.com/ booking.cfm?bevaID=147509.

To learn about the hospitals, visit their Web sites: www.shrinershq.org and www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/children.

Friday, November 23, 2007

"A blessing that he's here"North state 2-year-old returns home for Thanksgiving after being burned

By Christy Lochrie (Contact)Record-Searchlight,Redding,Ca.
Thursday, November 22, 2007

BACK HOME: Sonja Armstrong and her son, Beau, have a homecoming moment in their Redding backyard. Beau, 2, suffered second- and third-degree burns when his great-grandparents’ travel trailer was engulfed by flames in an accident on Oct. 12. The boy spent 5 1/2 weeks at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento. He’s home with his family for Thanksgiving.

Sonja Armstrong will be caring for her son, 2-year-old Beau Armstrong, full time while he recovers from third-degree burns and skin grafts after a trailer fire in October. So far, the community has donated nearly $5,200 to the family. Quinten and Barbara Erlei, who hosted a benefit dinner for the family, are collecting donations. To donate, call them at Erlei Healthy Start, 244-7990 or visit the store at 2964 Churn Creek Road in Redding.

Beau Armstrong knows things that most 2-year-olds don’t. Like holding still for hour long bandage changes, recovering from third-degree burns and skin grafts, and blowing kisses through his tears.

“It’s just a blessing that he’s here,” said Sonja Armstrong, Beau’s 32-year-old mother.

Here, as in alive, and now here, as in home in Redding, for Thanksgiving dinner with his family, after spending 51⁄2 weeks at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento.

Beau’s ordeal started Oct. 12 when he was about to settle in for a nap with his father’s grandparents, Kay and Kenny Armstrong. The Fortuna couple had driven their new travel trailer to Redding to visit Sonja and her husband, Brad, for the weekend.

With Beau at her side in the new trailer, Kay Armstrong lit the stove’s pilot light, which caused an explosion that blew out the left side of the trailer.

“I heard it,” Sonja Armstrong said. “I heard her screaming and I saw her (holding Beau) and he was limp.”

Sonja said she snatched a garden hose, doused Kay and Beau and dialed 911. But Beau, still wilted in his great-grandmother’s arms, didn’t move. Sonja thought he was dead.

Then Sonja heard what mothers usually try to soothe: Her son was sobbing. But the painful wails were good news. They meant he was alive.

Both Kay and Beau were rushed to Mercy Medical Center in Redding. From there, Kay was taken to University of California at Davis Medical Center in Sacramento and Beau to Shriners. Both underwent skin grafts on their hands and feet. And both were sent home Friday.

Dr. David Greenhalgh was part of Beau’s medical team at Shriners, a privately funded children’s hospital that treats burns and spinal cord injuries free of charge.

Beau was burned on 23 percent of his body, Greenhalgh said. His burns were so severe that his capillaries leaked. The pooled fluids caused his tiny body to swell. And that complicated things for doctors, who had to relieve the pressure with surgery.

“Kids with this kind of burn can get really sick,” Greenhalgh said.

Beau was in a drug-induced coma for two weeks while he recovered from the skin grafts and surgeries, his mother said. Doctors feared that his face, swollen beyond definition, would also require skin grafts. But two weeks later, the swelling suddenly subsided and bright pink skin emerged where it had been a pasty color, his mother said.

Sonja, who worked as a day care provider, has been at Beau’s bedside the entire time. Her husband, Brad Armstrong, has cared for the kids, worked at his full-time lumber mill job and traveled to the hospitals while Sonja stayed at Beau’s side.

Friends raised $5,200 for the family from a car wash, bake sale and a benefit dinner.

“The only reason I cry right now is because of other people’s kindness,” Sonja Armstrong said.

All of it allowed her to focus on Beau and his recovery, something that will occupy her full time for the next year. She snapped photos to document her son’s progress.

Sonja pointed to a favorite photo. In it, Beau is wrapped like a mummy. She’s holding the toddler, who was still groggy from the coma.

“All I wanted to do was kiss his little lips, and I couldn’t because he was so out of it,” Sonja said.

But Sonja is kissing and holding her son now. Hours before his release from the hospital on Friday, she kissed and hugged Beau while an occupational therapist fitted him for a hand splint where he’d had a skin graft weeks before. The splint will help him keep mobility in his hand, doctors say.

Beau wailed and clutched his mother as occupational therapists worked to fit his bandaged hand, which his mother had wrapped earlier that morning.

“Not much longer, bud. Not much longer. We’ve got to make it fit,” Sonja told her son.

“Papa!” Beau cried as his mother tried to comfort him.

It took several tries and more tears to get the splint just right. But once it was over, Rose Stella Ahmed, an occupational therapy intern, blew Beau a kiss.

Beau sniffled. Then blew one back.

“I’m just so glad to have him,” Sonja Armstrong said. “I’ve got my baby. It’s the only thing that matters. I’ve got my baby.”

Reporter Christy Lochrie can be reached at clochrie@redding.com. Read her blog at blogs.redding.com.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007


Have a Happy Thanksgiving Everyone

Thursday, November 15, 2007

With Great Sadness in my Heart

May The Blessing of Heaven Be With Our Departed Brothers and Sister Who Have Joined The Great Architect of the Universe.

LORAINE McNAUGHT - Wife of Dennis McNaught, passed away of a
unexpected massive heart attack the evening of
of November 9, 2007. (Watch Almalaikah.com for further
details.) Dennis is an Outer Guard, Shrine Club
Director, Secretary of Amateur Radio Shrine
Club, and has served on several Shrine Committees
Loraine will surely be missed.

TONY PARISIAN, P.P. 1987 - one of the most popular and hard working
Potentates in Al Malaiakah history
passed away the morning of November 05, after a long illness.
There will be no funeral, but a Memorial is planned for sometime in January 2008
Watch almalaikah.com for further details.
Anthony Erwin Darcy Parisian, Born Oct.30 1925 in Cornwell, Ontario Canada. he was a US.Navy Veteran of WWII he served from 1943-46.
Tony was Master of Van Nuys Masonic Lodge #450 in 1975. Potentete 1987. A member of Royal Order of Jesters Court#84, member of the Navy League of USA, Hollwoor & Los Angeles Council.
He is survived by his loving wife of 60 years Gretchen. His Daughter Roxanne Gosztola(John, Son Gregg and grandchildren Stephannie,Gregory,Brianna & Brittany. His Brother Alvin Parisian and sister Carol LaDue

FRANK FERRIS - a member of the Royal Order of Jesters for thirty
years paseed away. Their was a memorial service on
Saturday, November 3rd.

from the Almalaikah.com

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

New Host for Shriners PGA Tournament


JACKSONVILLE, Fla., -- Justin Timberlake, former Mickey Mouse Club and 'N Sync member, is going to be the host for a PGA tournament in Las Vegas in 2008.

Joining the ranks of entertainers such as Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope and Diana Shore, the former boy band performer will see his name go up as the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open. Is it to be played Oct. 13-19 at TPC Summerlin in Las Vegas.

"His star power is going to make an already fantastic tournament even better," Katie Walker, 18, a former Shriners patient and an ambassador for the tournament, said in a release, "and I know that can only help the Shriners impact more lives like mine."

Justin Timberlake will become only the 14th celebrity to host an official tournament for the Professional Golf Association.

An avid golfer, as part of his involvement, the pop star will will play in a celebrity pro-am event in Las Vegas,and host a concert during tournament week which will benefit Shriners Hospital for Children.

Timberlake's challenge will be named the Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.

He says, "I couldn't be more excited. ... Raising money to better children's lives while playing golf? I can't think of a better way to pass the time."

Friday, November 9, 2007

Read This Carefully



Executive Vice President Mike Andrews has asked that we forward this information to you, in order to make you aware of what is apparently a nationwide scam involving checks drawn on the Boston Shriners Hospital account, which was discovered Tuesday, Nov. 6. The checks carry the hospital’s address, logo and other identifying information; have been sent to individuals throughout North America, along with a letter from INCAS FINANCIAL INC., 2900 Kingsway Avenue, Edmonton, AB Canada.

The letter states that the recipient has won a $50,000 prize and that an assistance check of $3,187.60, (or some similar amount) is enclosed to help pay for the tax and administration expenses (International Clearance fees), involved with the individual’s winnings. The recipient of the letter and check is instructed to call a phone number, and the individual who answers instructs the recipient to deposit the check and then call back for further instructions.

The legal department at Shriners International Headquarters is reporting this scam to the appropriate U.S. government agencies and officials. If you receive any calls or inquiries regarding this situation, please forward them to Attorney Bradley Buethe at 813-281-8152. In the event that Bradley is unavailable or out of the office, please direct the calls to John McCabe (813) 281-7113.

Sincerely,

Alicia Argiz-Lyons

Corporate Director of Public Relations

Shriners of North America and Shriners Hospitals for Children

Saturday, November 3, 2007

Masons to donate cash to Redding family hit by fire

By Ryan Sabalow
Saturday, November 3, 2007

The All-You-Can-Stand Community Breakfast will be held at Western Star  Masonic Lodge No. 2, 15344 Highway 299 West in Shasta from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday.
The fixings

The menu features pancakes, eggs and sausage; or biscuits and gravy with coffee or juice. Cost is $6 for adults and $3 for children.


Proceeds from a local service organization’s monthly breakfast next Saturday will go toward helping a family who nearly died in an apartment fire.

John Bell, a member of the Western Star Masonic Lodge No. 2 in Shasta, said the proceeds from next Saturday’s “All-You-Can-Stand-Breakfast” will be donated to Jennifer Shaw, 33, and her daughter, Hanna Sheffield, 8.

On the morning of Sept. 24, the mother and daughter awoke to find their Eureka Way apartment on fire. They both suffered second- and third-degree burns and were rushed to Sacramento area hospitals.

Both since have been released from the hospital and are recovering. But they’re struggling to find a new place to live and replace all that was lost in the fire.

Bell said the Masons thought the victims’ story was compelling and wanted to help, and since Hanna was treated at the Shriners Hospital for Children, it was particularly appealing for the Masons, many of whom also are Shriners.

Bell said a similar fundraiser last year netted nearly $1,700. The proceeds went to buy prepaid phone cards for soldiers fighting overseas.

Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at rsabalow@redding.com.

Friday, November 2, 2007

November 24th! Sacramento

The Capital Shrine Bowl benefits the transportation funds of the five Shrine Temples in the area. The other part of the event helps raise public awareness about the Shrine, our respective Temples and, of course, our Shrine Hospital.

As for the event itself, there are two football games, the California Junior College playoff and an All Star Youth players of California and Nevada. It starts at 10 am. Tickets are being delivered to members via mail.

New logo!

Watch for the new logo on Billboards, TV and print advertisements, including People Magazine!


The New Logo for the Shriners Hospital for Children has been in the upper right hand corner of this blog and no one has asked about it.
This is the new Logo that all the Shriners Hospitals will now use to help bring the system together as a unit. Each of the hospital have had been using their own logo some were using the Walking Tall or silent messenger some were not. The Walking Tall is not going away, he will now be facing you and will be used with the new logo in the hospital displays.


You will notice that the new Brand Logo includes a forward facing silent messenger which depicts the future of our Hospitals, and that the logo is in the shape of a heart, showing that we care. Also notice how prominent that the Fez is in the center of the logo! More materials will be made available shortly for everyone to help promote our Hospital System including PowerPoint presentations and videos.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Full Sunday Dec. 2nd



The Al Malaikah Shrine Motor patrol is having a Toy Ride Dec.2nd leaving from the Van Nuys Masonic Lodge. The Ride is open to all even if you drive your car. They are collecting Toy and Clothing for the Midnight Mission and will need some one to help haul the Items to the Mission.

After the Toy Ride everyone gets a dinner break and than off to the Shrine Aud. for the Holliday Concert by the Los Angeles Police Band. with their special guest singer. Doors open at 6:30pm