WOn’t yOu be
My neiGhbOr?
GettinG to know —
and findinG ways to help —
the people next door
by Cason Lane and Laura Normand
Once upon a time, Freemasons met in secrecy
and kept fraternal business inside lodge walls.
Not anymore. Today the Masons of
California Facebook page has more than 7,000
fans. The Shrine Hospitals and Scottish Rite
Childrens Medical Centers are known worldwide. The 2009 novel “The Lost Symbol” made
Freemasonry a pop culture phenomenon.
On the whole, Masonry today is very visible.
And these California lodges are finding ways to
get out of the hall and into the neighborhood.
Besides spreading goodwill and increasing
awareness of Masonry, they’re coming up with
new ways to apply relief.
Home Lodge No. 721
CUSTOM CARE DELIVERIES
Master Steven Eberhardt’s wife, Lisa, was seeking an enrichment program for the other wives
during the stated meeting at Home Lodge No.
721 in Van Nuys. She decided to organize a
Want more ideas for getting to know your neighbors?
Read this how-to article from The Leader.
community outreach group that assembled goodies for those in
need – from local shelters to overseas troops.
The group is known as the “Hunny-Do’s,” named after Winnie
the Pooh’s “hunny pot” full of something sweet, and in the past year
the group has grown to include the lodge’s Fellow Crafts, Entered
Apprentices, and widows. During the stated meetings, the Hunny-Do’s prepare the care packages, and after the meetings, the brethren
join in to help distribute them.
Eberhardt said this applied relief has meaningful results both
inside and outside the lodge.
“All too often, and to our detriment, when we internalize our
efforts, we do not use to the best of our ability the tenets that we
embrace: brotherly love, relief, and truth,” he says. “When we
externalize these efforts through applied relief, we build up not
only ourselves but our lodge family and the communities in which
we live.”
SENDING A SMILE TO OVERSEAS MILITARY
One of the first Hunny-Do projects was sending supplies to U.S.
troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. After identifying three military
units with ties to the local community, the group wrote 175 letters
to the troops and assembled requested items such as magazines,
books, granola bars, DVDs, and toiletries. And with each box sent,
Eberhardt included a note inviting the soldiers to stop by the lodge
for dinner when they got home.
He recently received an e-mail from one of the recipients, a sergeant. “He sent me a picture of the platoon and thanked us for the
DVDs and all the sundries … and said you just don’t realize how
much of a blessing these things are until they’re all taken away,”
Eberhardt says.
SAYING THANKS TO FIRST RESPONDERS
During another stated meeting, the Hunny-Do’s focused their
efforts closer to home – on the local police, firefighters, and emergency room workers who keep the community safe and healthy.
The group prepared eight two-foot-wide trays of snacks and
home-baked goods, along with notes thanking first responders
