Thursday, December 3, 2015

Be Different Spotlight: Elizabethtown Chapter

The following post is part of a series entitled the “Be Different Spotlight.” This post will display a chapter’s effort to grasp the concept of the theme for this year. Each chapter was challenged by the State Master Councilor, Adam Pritchard, to “Be Different.” 

Challenge Accepted!  This is the story of how Elizabethtown Chapter embraced that challenge...

Our Chapter proudly accepted the challenge and decided to do something different for our Frank S. Land Memorial Obligatory Day by doing something we have never done before. With the cooperation of family and friends of our members, with some kind and courteous Masonic Village Residents helping, we collected nearly 400 gently used books and presented them to the Children’s Dyslexia Center of Lancaster. We presented the books in support of the center's book give away which was held as a part of the Extraordinary Give in Lancaster County on Friday, Nov. 20th.  This one day, 24-hours of online giving raised over 6.1 million dollars for over 350 charitable organizations.  The Children’s Dyslexia Center had over $7,000 donated to it in just 24 hours.  The books that were collected and donated were available for pickup by anyone who stopped by the Dyslexia Center on Nov. 20th. 

In addition to donating the books, 8 members of our Chapter willingly donated a total of $225 for the purchase of any other books in support of the book drive that brought donors into the center.  Over the past 15 years Elizabethtown Chapter has raised and have been honored to donate nearly $35,000.00 to the center through various fundraisers, which includes our annual chicken pot pie dinners.  Our Chapter Advisor, Dad Jesse Spence, makes a very good chicken pot pie, and if you haven't had one yet I highly recommend it to you! Our next chicken pot pie dinner and special auction of gifts and passes will be held on Saturday, April 16, 2016. 100% of our profits are donated to the center, our state charity that helps kids get the help they need to overcome dyslexia and succeed in school.

Along with presenting the books, 5 of our chapter members helped prepare and serve a luncheon for the Lancaster Lodge of Perfection. The Lancaster Lodge of Perfection, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Masons of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, is the main sponsoring agency of the Children's Dyslexia Center of Lancaster. We thought that supporting the Scottish Rite in this way was especially appropriate since the founder of DeMolay, Frank S. Land, was an employee of the Scottish Rite Valley located in Kansas City. The officers of Elizabethtown DeMolay were happy with the success of the luncheon and donation of the books, and appreciated the support of family members, friends, residents of the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, and our advisors, as without them this would not have been possible. 

From the Officers, Members, and Families of Elizabethtown Chapter, Order of DeMolay we want to wish you a Happy and Safe Holiday Season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 


This blog post was written by current Senior Councilor of Elizabethtown Chapter, Blake Anderson. Thank you Brother Blake for your contribution.

Elizabethtown Chapter has completed the challenge to “Be Different.” What has your chapter done in order to change things up a bit? Send in program details or write a post for your chapter and send it to me at JAPullin@pademolay.net.

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