Masons' First Sunday Breakfast starts again this weekend

Mount Shasta, Calif. —

Siskiyou Masonic Lodge  #297 Master Dan Parkin called the First Sunday Breakfast “one of the county’s best kept secrets.”

After taking a break for the winter, the Masons’ all you can eat, buffet-style breakfast will start up again this weekend on Sunday, March 4.

When the Masons first began the monthly event in 1992, each meal was cooked to order and served at the table, said Dick Hughes, a past Master who helped start the tradition.

However, the meal gained such popularity it became too difficult and the buffet style emerged, Hughes said.

“One year on a 4th of July weekend we served over 700 people,” Hughes said. “We kept running out of food and had to run to the store for more.”

The menu hasn’t changed much over the past 20 years, Parkin said. Guests have many choices, including muffins, french toast, pancakes, fruit fritters, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, eggs, waffles, sausage, ham and even fried chicken livers.

Mason’s member Alan Elliot has been cooking eggs for the breakfast since day one.
“Not much has changed over the years except it’s getting busier,” Elliot said.

The Lodge invites local high school groups to bus the tables for tips as a fundraiser for their activities, Elliot added. “The really big thing is what we do for the kids,” he said.

Parkin explained the Grand Lodge of Freemasons of California encourages all lodges to devote one month a year ot education. In Mount Shasta, they support education every  month by providing this opportunity, he said.

“You might see cheerleaders in the spring and football players in the fall with volleyball players in between,” Parkin said. “Locals enjoy supporting our kids and it adds to the fellowship and good food with your neighbors.”

The price is $8 for adults, $3.50 for kids and children under age six eat free, Parkin said. The breakfast opens at 8 a.m. and runs until noon, which is “plenty of time to sleep in or drop in after church,” Parkin said.

The First Sunday Breakfast is held on the first Sunday of each month at the Mount Shasta Community Building, 629 Alder Street on the corner of Alder and Ivy.

The March 4 breakfast will feature the Dunsmuir High School baseball team.

Historic Masonic lodge for sale in Oregon City

707 Main St., Oregon City BY: Lee Fehrenbacher 

(Photo courtesy of Emerick Architects)

A piece of Oregon’s history is up for sale, but it may not be for much longer.

Multnomah Lodge No. 1 in Oregon City was built in 1907 to accommodate a Masonic lodge that was formed in 1848, when wagon trail blazer Joel Palmer – the namesake of Mount Hood’s Palmer Glacier – brought the organization’s charter from Missouri.

Bill Anton, chairman of the trustees for the lodge, said it was the first Masonic lodge west of the Missouri River.

“It has seen a tremendous amount of changes,” Anton said. “It’s seen the birth and growth of the state.”

The 29,700-square-foot, four-story, commercially zoned building at 707 Main St. in downtown Oregon City is listed at $875,000.Scott Elliott of Macadam Forbes, who is brokering the property, said one offer was received; however, backup offers are being sought.

“I just think it is a landmark opportunity in that neighborhood,” Elliott said. “It’s the tallest, most well recognized building in that neighborhood and will really set the tone for future development in that area.”

The building has housed a city library, a telephone switchboard, a Western Union office and a morgue. Anton said it was the Masonic lodge’s third building; the previous two burned down in the late 1800s. Its facade is unique for its early use of concrete as the original finish material.

The Masonic lodge is selling the building, Anton said, because it lacks resources for upkeep. He said the organization is hoping to stay in the building as a tenant.

“Selling it is very emotional as well as a historical event because it’s never happened before,” Anton said. “(But) the maintenance and upkeep of the building was preventing us from doing the things that masons dedicate themselves to, which is working with the community and working with youth education.”

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

El Zaribah Shrine & Military Family Support Group

Sunday March 11, 2012 Military Family Support Group (MFSG) will once again host  23 to 25 wounded Marines from Balboa Medical Center and Camp Pendleton  in San Diego who are visiting the Valley for some much-needed rest and relaxation. These Marine’s will return to their rehab when they return to San Diego. All of these Marine Hero’s have been wounded in combat either in Iraq or Afghanistan.

 Although still recovering from injuries, the Marines are able to travel and will enjoy a respite from the military medical center environment. They are being brought here by "Strikeouts for Troops," a non-profit organization founded by San Francisco Giants Pitcher Barry Zito, whose team trains in Scottsdale. The Marines will be treated to several Spring Training games as part of their time in the Valley.

 MFSG is hosting the dinner at the El Zaribah Shriners Lodge located at 552 N. 40th st, Phoenix, AZ 85008. This is off the 202 Freeway and 40th st. or 40th st and Van Buren. The dinner and program will commence at 6PM. The dinner and venue is sponsored by the El Zaribah Shriners Lodge. Many thanks and appreciation to the Shriner’s for their willingness to sponsor this event and dinner.

We will have great guest speakers, as well as other awesome things going on that you won’t want to miss. The evening will be one to remember.

There will be a $10.00 donation at the door for all in attendance. You can get tickets for this in advance by contacting me atjsbphx@gmail.com . This donation excludes our guest speakers and others involved with the program.

"Strikeouts for Troops," which is celebrating its sixth anniversary this year, provides the comforts of home and lifts the spirits and morale of wounded troops during treatment at military hospitals nationwide. Since its inception, "Strikeouts for Troops" has raised nearly $2 million dollars through contributions from more than 60 professional baseball players, fundraising events, fan donations and corporate partnerships.  More information on the group can be found at www.strikeoutsfortroops.org.

 More information on the Military Family Support Group, a Valley based organization, can be found at www.militaryfamilysupportgroup.org.

 I hope you will all plan on attending and supporting these American Heroes. Please feel free to pass this onto anyone who might be interested in attending.

 Semper Fi,

Viana Bruce, Military Family Support Group- President

www.militaryfamilysupportgroup.org

11-year-old burn victim joins firefighters’ familiar chorus: Don’t play with fire

LEILA NAVIDI

Bishop Smith, 11, of North Las Vegas, who was badly burned in an accident in 2008, is still recovering from his injuries but can now walk on his hands again.

By Jackie Valley (contact)

Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012 | 2 a.m.

Burn Awareness Week

Launch slideshow »

As 11-year-old Bishop Smith stands on his hands, his impressive balancing act draws more stares than the scars revealed by his gravity-pulled T-shirt.

Nearly 10 seconds later, Bishop brings his feet back to earth, smiling sheepishly at what he just accomplished. Three years ago, the odds were stacked against Bishop to live a normal life, much less perform lengthy handstands.

He was in University Medical Center’s burn unit, his body 25 percent covered with third-degree burns on his arms and chest. The pain was intense, almost indescribable.

“It kind of hurt a lot,” Bishop said, understating the healing process for wounds he said resembled raw meat.

At night, two people held his arms in a stainless steel shower room as other nurses scraped off dead tissue and slough, exposing open nerve cells.

“He’s been a soldier,” said his father, Jason Smith.

It’s stories like Bishop’s that make fire officials preach the importance of fire safety: Keep matches and lighters away from children. Store flammable liquids outside. Stop careless smoking. And if a fire does start, evacuate first and then call 9-1-1.

About 45,000 people nationwide were hospitalized for burn injuries in 2011, according to the American Burn Association. An estimated 3,500 people died from smoke inhalation or burn wounds last year, with 75 percent of those deaths occurring on scene or during medical transport, the organization reported.

“The bottom line is you never, ever want to get burned,” said Tim Szymanski, Las Vegas Fire and Rescue’spublic education and information officer. “It is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to you. I’d rather be hit by a truck than have to suffer burns because they stay with you the rest of your life.”

That’s why Szymanski treats each day as if it were part of Burn Awareness Week, which runs through Saturday. He regularly meets with community members, fields calls from concerned parents and sees burn victims at fire scenes.

Cooking fires are the most common in Las Vegas and the nation, but Szymanski said the department responds each year to roughly 25 fires started by children and another dozen started by medical oxygen users who decide to smoke — a decision with potentially deadly results because oxygen acts as a fire accelerant.

“If you have medical oxygen, the rule should be no smoking, period,” he said.

A similar principle should be applied to fire and children, Szymanski said.

“You wouldn’t believe how many requests we get from people who say, ‘Come and yell at my kids and scare them,’” he said.

In late January, a child playing with matches accidentally started an apartment fire in the northeast valley that caused $10,000 in damage. No one was injured in that incident.

As with that case, Szymanski said most children play with fire out of curiosity, which is why telling children not to touch matches or lighters fails.

“A match or a lighter is as deadly as a gun in the hands of a child,” he said. “They should be treated exactly the same.”

It was a lighter that changed Bishop’s life on a windy morning, Dec. 2, 2008.

Then 8 years old, he was walking to D.L. Dickens Elementary School in North Las Vegas with a friend who lived a few blocks away. It was a morning ritual for the two boys.

That day, however, his friend had swiped his mother’s lighter before they left the house, and Bishop proceeded to flick it on and off. The wind swept the flame onto his shirt, immediately igniting it from the bottom up.

A neighbor heard Bishop’s screams and helped hose him down with water. He remembers paramedics sticking him with needles — morphine to dull the pain — and then waking up in a hospital.

He spent two months at UMC, followed by three months of physical therapy and then six weeks as a sponsored patient at a Shriners Hospital for Children in Sacramento, Calif., which paid for his medical expenses. He’s one of more than 400 local patients treated at Shriners Hospitals in neighboring states.

Shriners Hospitals for Children

The Shriners Hospital for Children assisted Bishop Smith on the road to recovery. The Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospitals for Children Open at TPC Summerlin, Oct. 1-7 this year, is an annual fundraiser for the charity.

“It was basically the difference,” his father said of Shriners, where Bishop enjoyed the company of other injured children. “It pretty much gave him a second chance.”

In all, Bishop endured nearly a dozen surgeries by spring 2009, and he had another surgery in August 2011 to improve mobility in skin graft locations affected by growth.

A single father to Bishop and a 15-year-old son, Smith said the first year after the accident was “the biggest test” of his life.

“I couldn’t give him a hug for a long time,” Smith said. “Everything hurt.”

For Bishop, that also meant not bending his arms for long periods of time and, as a result, not being able to pet his dog, Scrappy.

Bishop faces occasional surgeries as he continues growing, but he’s back to his old pursuits: playing basketball, walking Scrappy, doing handstands and chasing lizards.

“He’s like a pistol,” Smith said. “Even before he got hurt, he was always in the middle of stuff and cracking jokes.”

Even so, Smith said his son’s experience should serve as a reminder to other parents about how quickly fire-related accidents can happen.

“Let (children) know the things that could happen,” he said. “I guess I got lucky because I did some pretty dangerous, stupid stuff when I was a kid.”

His son’s advice is even simpler: “If you do play with fire, don’t do it.”

If Bishop’s dream to become a professional basketball player doesn’t work out, he said he has another career path in mind — firefighter.

Shriners offer free health screenings in Redding

As part of the Shrine's continuing effort to do outreach in the communities of Northern California, the Shrine will be holding a free Screening Clinic from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on March 3 at the Shasta Community Health Center, 1035 Placer St., in Redding. 

The purpose of the clinic is to identify children who can benefit from expert orthopaedic, spinal cord, burn care including plastic surgery for nonburn related scarring, birthmarks, abnormal skin growths, congenital ear deformities and cleft lip and palate repair.

The local Shrine Club will be conducting the free walk-in screening clinic to identify children, through the age of 17, provided by Shriners Hospitals for Children. No appointment necessary.

Although the emphasis is on spinal cord and burn care, the hospital also offers other services, including plastic surgery for non-burn related scarring, birthmarks, abnormal skin growths, congenital ear deformities and cleft lip and palate repair.

For questions regarding the Screening Clinic or the hospital call Monte Fitchett, Redding Shrine Screening Clinic chairman, at 246-4940 or visit www.shrinershq.org/hospitals. 

El Zaribah Whirl wind

15th Annual Shriners Golf Classic  EL ZARIBAH SHRINE
             WHIRLWIND GOLF CLUb   DEVILS CLAW
                OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
 5692 West North Loop Road   Chandler, AZ 85226-5268
             REGISTRATION:
              www.shrinergolf.org
1:30PM FRIDAY, MAY 18TH, 2012
GOLF FORMAT: SHOTGUN START  FOUR PERSON  SCRAMBLE    LADIES WELCOME
$125.00 PER PERSON

Masons list Oregon City lodge for $875K

Portland Business Journal

Date: Thursday, February 2, 2012, 12:30pm PST

The membership of the Oregon City Masons has elected to sell its lodge, reportedly the oldest Masonic Lodge west of the Missouri River.

Scott Elliott and Todd Collins of Macadam Forbes  http://www.bizjournals.com/  listed Multnomah Lodge #1, 707 Main St., at $875,000.

The 29,700-square-foot lodge is visible from Highway 99 East. While its future use is unclear, one thing isn't: The building will require substantial renovations over a century after it was first constructed.

Masons constructed the cast-in-place concrete structure in 1907. It has served as a city library, morgue and telephone switchboard, among other municipal activities.

Oregonians have a proud tradition of recycling distinctive Masonic structures. ThePortland Art Museum  http://www.bizjournals.com/  acquired the Portland Masonic Temple in 1991 and completed a $40 million remodel more than a decade later. The ex-temple, once moated and closed off from downtown, now boasts galleries, gathering places and offices.

The national Masonic organization chartered Multnomah Lodge #1 in 1848 to serve the Western U.S. between the Pacific Ocean and Rocky Mountains

‘We just take care of our kids’ says local Shriners 

Written by  Guy Dawson

Healthcare Partners of Nevada donated the space for the Shriners Jan. 21 outreach clinic held at 1397 Galleria Drive in Henderson. The event brought in 98 area children, many without insurance, with various health needs.

Clowns diligently work the room, searching for the occasional tearful outburst. Surprisingly, there are few. The waiting rooms are packed with children, some with severe maladies. But it is the unlikely, almost festive energy that strikes you. Painted smiles aren't necessary. Nearly all the volunteers are wearing real ones … and the patients, too.

"The courage of the children is what really gets you," said Joe Alvarado, a noble with the Zelzah Shrine Center and chairman of the quarterly Outreach Clinic. "It's amazing."

Healthcare Partners of Nevada, which has nine locations in the Henderson area, donated the space for the Jan. 21 clinic, at which 98 area children were treated for a variety of health needs.

"We have many patients from Henderson. Our doctors and nurses come from Los Angeles," added Alvarado. "We all do it out of our pockets. It's what we love to do. We just take care of our kids. We're very privileged."

According to Mary Morris, who helps run the operation, said many of the children that come to the outreach clinics do not have insurance coverage, and some are illegal immigrants.

"The Shriners don't turn anybody away," Morris said.

Because many of the kids and parents do not speak English or do not know the language well, the clinics always have an interpreter on hand.

"Out here, we need them (translators)," added Alvarado. "In the rooms we need them, because not all the doctors are bilingual. We have to be able to explain to the parents what's going on. That's part of the service."

The program treats more than 25 types of conditions, from neuromuscular disorders to scoliosis and wound care.

"It gets pretty crazy sometimes," said Myron Calvin, a pedorthist with the Prosthetic Center for Excellence in Las Vegas, about the number of children who come for care. "(If not for these outreach clinics), I really don't know where they could go (for medical care)."

Shriners hospitals have been historically noted for the care of children with burn injuries.

"Boston hospital first developed the way to grow skin for burn victims, which of course has been implemented all over the country," Morris said. "It's a marvelous thing (the burn specialist) do. I've seen burn patients that would just blow you away."

Henderson mayor, Andy Hafen, who commonly visits the Outreach Clinic, was unable to attend this clinic, because he was at the funeral of former Henderson Mayor Lorna Kesterson.

The Shriners volunteers transport area children several times a week to and from the nearest Shriners Hospital located in Los Angeles, which is more than 300 miles roundtrip.

"We take them and bring them back," said Alvarado, "two or three times each week, or more. Whatever is needed."

All Shriners' hospitals provide on-site accommodations free of charge for patients' family members. According to Alvarado, it takes $165 million daily to run all the facilities.

Funding comes largely from investments of privately donated money, and recent shrinking returns have put a strain on the Shriners to continue all services.

"We've had to cancel some things here and there," said Shriner volunteer Ron Rueckheim, "but we just keep going."