Masonic Life Network

Grand Master Frank Loui has named April Public schools month. As a part of this month long celebration on Monday, April 17, 2012 Chino Masonic Lodge presented the first annual “Excellent Reader Awards.” To the Students of Edwin Rhodes Elementary School in Chino.

In Attendance was AGL for Division 8, Worshipful Frank Lee. From Chino Masonic Lodge: Worshipful Manny Blanco, Worshipful John Cover Spear and Brother Jim Duran.

28 Awards were presented to students from grades Kindergarten through sixth for their efforts in improving their reading skills. In addition, “Most Excellent Reader Awards” where presented to seven students, one from each grade, who over all improved their skills the most.

AGL W. Frank Lee was on hand and personally presented the “Most Excellent Reader Awards” and a book that was hand selected and donated by Barnes and Nobel of Chino Hills. W. Frank Lee enthusiasticly addressed the audience saying:  “I’m very excited to be here! Out of all the ceremonies like this that I have attended, and I have attended a lot, this is the most exciting! I am very proud of each and every student here!”

Dean of Students Mrs. Lewis said, “Wow, What a wonderful thing you guys are doing. We are so happy to have you here.”

Chino Lodge has come a long way having to over come many obstacles. W. Manny Blanco, Master of Chino Lodge said “We are striving to move forward. Here is an opportunity to recognize some students who otherwise may not have received any kind of recognition, here is an opportunity to say “look how hard I’m working to improve myself! This is truly a worthwhile cause for our lodge to be a part of.”

Submitted by James Duran, Lodge Ambassador. Chino Masonic Lodge. No. 427

The Blood Drive held at Evergreen Lodge was a success. Those who came filled out a questionnaire, answered a series of health questions to see if they were eligible to give blood, and endured a small prick for a moment to provide the life-giving fluids that are so desperately needed. Some were able to go through the process of having the platelets filtered from their blood to be used.  It was reported that the process made you feel cooler since the blood was not kept, it was sent back to you. Brother Richard Scott organized the event and he and his wife provided cupcakes as snacks for those who gave blood. I found out that I shouldn’t have coffee before giving as they had a tough time finding a vein they could use.

John Channon
Inspector, Division 8

The Inland Empire Public Schools Advisory Council (IEPSAC) in Division 8, presented a program to kickoff Public Schools Month in California, at San Jacinto Elementary School, in San Jacinto, California. The members of the IEPSAC are:  Manny Blanco, Chair from Evergreen Lodge #259, Eric Bordner, San Bernardino Lodge #178, Dennis Brandt, Temescal Palms Lodge #314, Randy Freeman, San Diego Lodge #35, Jim Ridley, San Jacinto Lodge #338, Mike Sekera, Temecula Catalina Island Lodge No. 524 and Lee Whelan, Riverside Lodge #635.

Many school officials, students, parents and members of our Masonic family were in attendance. Some of those that represented our Division were, Frank Lee AGL of Division 8, Russ Baldauf Inspector of District #826, John Channon Inspector of District #822, Aaron Faibanks Master of Hemet Lodge #615, Luther Woods Master of Palm Springs Lodge #693 and the IEPSAC committee members. Candler Gibson, from the Grand Lodge Philanthropy office and Russell E. Charvonia, Junior Grand Warden who spoke on behalf of the Grand Lodge of California.  Jessica Leon, Past Worthy Advisor from Foothills of Heaven Assembly, International Order of the Rainbow for Girls was in attendance from our youth groups.

Many of the visitors that were present were treated to tours of the school’s new library and the campus, which were lead by pairs of 5^th grade students.  During the program Russ Charvonia introduced three students from our Division, that will be receiving Investment in Success Scholarship, that are four year scholarships that are for $7,000.00 each.  Students that received the scholarships were Jamie Back, San Jacinto High School, Celeste De Los Santos, Perris High School and Kristoffer LaMantain, La Sierra High School.   He also presented the principal with a larger than life check, in the amount of $66,000.00, which represented the monetary commitment Grand Lodge has for the Inland Empire in scholarships and funding “Raising A Reader” in fifteen classrooms.

Congratulations to the scholarship recipients and the IEPSAC committee for a tremendous experience at the school.  The Division sends its sincere thanks Candler Gibson and Russ Charvonia for representing Grand Lodge at this important event. This was a fantastic start of our partnership for “Raising A Reader” this year.

A partnership between the Masons of California and San Jacinto Unified School District is bringing a family-based reading program to San Jacinto Elementary kindergarteners next school year.

It is part of the fraternal organization’s more than $750,000 public education commitment statewide announced on Thursday to targeted programs, like Raise A Reader in San Jacinto, and high school scholarships. The event also celebrated Public Schools Month.

On a school level, it shows parents another commitment to helping even the youngest child to learn to read. Jasmin Verduzco, a mother of five who has three children at the school, said the new program contributes “to start to bring the culture of reading to kindergarten” and brings quality time to parents and their children.

“This is going to bring families much closer together,” said Patricia Chun, who has two children, including a second-grader at the San Jacinto Elementary.

What is this a snippet of? I will tell you…The Press Enterprise has published an article about the recent Raising a Reader activities in the Inland Empire!

You can view the entire article by clicking here

The Inland Empire Public Schools Advisory Council presented their Public Schools Month Kickoff on April 12, 2012 at San Jacinto Elementary School (SJE), in San Jacinto, CA.  The Masonic visitors were treated to tours around the school by students in the 5^th grade.  This included the schools new library, that was just dedicated in March of this year and a new computer lab that is used by the 1^st to 5^th graders on a weekly basis.  The program began with the Pledge of Allegiance being led by a Kindergarten student and “America the Beautiful” being sung by a 5^th grader.  Many school officials were present, including the principal of the school, Wendy Brown, the president of the board of education, John Norman, the school board superintendent Dr. Shari Fox and 3 other board members.

The Junior Grand Warden, Russell Charvonia, was on hand to make the presentations on behalf of the Grand Lodge of California.  The Grand Lodge presented three “Investment in Success Scholarships” to three local high school students.  These scholarships are renewable 4 year scholarships, with grants of $1,000.00 for the first two years and $2,500.00 for the third and fourth years.  He also explained the “Raising A Reader” program that will begin in September as SJE and showed the “Raising A Reader” red and blue bags, the DVD and some of the books that will be given to the children.  The last presentation was a larger than life check, for $66,000.00 to the San Jacinto Unified School District, which represents the Grand Lodge commitment to the schools in this district for the next year.

All of those in attendance, which also include many parents, members of Lodges in the Division and members of the youth groups, were treated to performances by the SJE kindergarten students. The morning concluded with refreshments on the library’s new outdoor reading patio.

Frank Lee – AGL Division 8