The year is going by so quickly! There’s just not enough room to list all we’ve been doing – so I’ve had to skip some punctuation!

January was the installation and a great FC degree. We also had a great kickoff to the year when more than twenty brothers, wives and others showed up for a Saturday breakfast at the lodge. In February we raised three brothers, Joe, Don and Stano. This degree was especially meaningful. Don’s father was Nick Leavy – a well loved brother of this lodge who passed recently. Joe is my son, and Mike, my father and a Virginia Mason, was able to sit as Jr. Steward and assist me Joe’s raising. My dad and I also did the 1st section lecture – what a thrill!

In March, we held an awards night where our newest brothers received their dues cards, bible and aprons, and where our recent Past Masters received their certificates and Past Master aprons. Several of the brothers spoke about “What Masonry means to me.”

We also had an EA degree where we initiated Don’s father-in-law. This was brother Jeff’s first time in the East and he did a fabulous job.

In April, we held a Masonic education night where we reviewed several DVDs from the Grand Lodge and one from the Grand Lodge of Boston. We also took a peek as some of the quasi-Masonic references in the recent "Sherlock Holmes" movie. We also had a great FC degree with RW Bro. Bill Deickler sitting in the east for the first time in a number of years. It was nice to see he’s still got it! At the end of April, we had a wonderful dinner at the Rt. 7 Bar and Grill with wives, kids and others. A good time was had by all! We also hosted the Blue Lodge Council.

This summer, we are going to put together a couple of weekends to spruce up the lodge. We plan to repaint the ante-room and perhaps build a new bookcase. We’re going to spruce up some of the wall art and dust all the corners. We also plan to get the kitchen back in ‘cooking’ order, so we can have a few ‘lodge cooked’ meals in the fall. We also have a new program from the Grand Lodge that will let us notify the brothers of events by phone in addition to email. You’ll hear more about this later!

Drop in on a meeting – we’d love to see you!

Fraternally,

Steven M. Hudson

Worshipful Master