Brethren,

Tidings from the east. How wonderful it was to see the great turnout for our meal and stated communication on Monday night, August 13^th. As is the usual case, our chef’s crew provided a really delicious meal, rivaled only by the fellowship we enjoyed.

There are several news items that I need to address this month and some information I wish to impart, which I hope you find interesting.

I know everyone has heard the old story wherein all the barnyard animals formed a committee assigned to plan a breakfast one morning. The committee asked the hen to supply the eggs, and the hog to supply the ham. Both agreed to do so. Now the hen was generous, but the hog was really dedicated. Brethren, as I write this, we are just 31 days away from our fundraiser, the auction and raffle. There has been a lot of hard work dedicated to this project already, but it is time we all got dedicated, or at least generous, and support this great effort to raise money for the Masonic charities of North Carolina.

Please just DO what you can. Practically everyone can DO something. Not all the brothers have a lot of extra time they can donate, but perhaps they can sell or otherwise take care of a number of raffle tickets. Perhaps there are members of our Lodge who own businesses that could sponsor a table for the advertising it would bring. Maybe there are Masons in our Lodge who do not have the extra money to donate, but could spend a few hours on Saturday morning selling tickets at the farmer’s market. Let us not be guilty of saying we will do what we can and then do nothing. Please contact any of the Lodge officers if you can help. And please remember why we are trying to raise this money.

If you have not visited our website (www.garnerlodge701.org), please do so. It looks great, and we can all be very proud of it. A very special thanks goes to our Webmaster, Ken Hartman, for all his work. After the first of next year, the website will probably be our primary means of distributing this newsletter. We will still gladly mail printed copies of the newsletter just to those persons who request them. Obviously, this will save us a good deal of printing and postage expense.

I am very sorry to report the death of one of our out of town members. Brother Charles Langley passed away during the first week of August. We also lost two of our widows early in August. All who were fortunate enough to know them will surely miss Vida Latham and Opal Pegram. Three of our brothers are still somewhat under the weather; Worshipful Brother Harry Pitts, Brothers Frank Golden and Larry Whitehurst, have all had recent health problems. Please contact them and let them know that they are in our thoughts and prayers. We are certainly looking forward to seeing them back in the Lodge. We would also like to mention that Worshipful Brother Alfred Wood of Charles B. Newcombe Lodge is recovering from a recent hip replacement.

We have a brother I want to specially commend for demonstrating the true spirit of Masonry. Several weeks ago Worshipful Brother Harry Pitts suffered a stroke. Brother Charlie Jones is Brother Harry’s next-door neighbor and soon learned that Brother Harry needed handrails at his backdoor. Brother Charlie, who is one of our more “seasoned” Masons soon built and installed the needed rails at his neighbor’s house. Brother Charlie saw a brother in need and took care of it. That, I think is masonry in a nutshell.

Brethren, I am somewhat reluctant to bring up this subject, but I feel it is necessary to do so. Several years ago Garner 701 voted to require Masons attending our communications to wear long pants rather than shorts, even in the summer. Now, we have one member who suffers from a medical condition that makes wearing long pants extremely uncomfortable, and of course he is exempted from the rule. I also am aware that we have some members whose occupation requires them to work outside and they wear shorts. At times they come directly to Lodge from work; a rare, occasional exception might also be made in those cases. Otherwise let us abide by the rules established by our Lodge.

Worshipful Brother Hobie Wright needs some help at a Cub Scout outing on 22 September 2001 at Garner’s Lake Benson Park. If you can help him and Worshipful Brother Jim Setzer operate a “climbing wall,” for a few hours, please contact Brother Jim. This is a good opportunity put our Masonry to work, and assist an organization that embraces many of the same principles we do.

Finally, MARK YOUR CALENDAR, we will conduct a First Degree on Monday night 10 September 2001 at our Lodge on Main Street, There will be a meal at 6:30 p.m., and the Lodge will open at 7:30. Let’s have a really big crowd for this extremely important event. Please make every effort to be there, it’s just not the same without YOU!

Fraternally,

Jimmy Stevens, Master

If you have any news, important or otherwise, that you would like to place in our newsletter please contact:

Jimmy Stevens - 772-8788

jstevens@mindspring.com

Lee Phillips - 851-2517

leedotphil@aol.com

Next Newsletter Deadline

September 15, 2001