January 2011 Message

CALENDAR

January 10: Stated Meeting 7:30 PM
January 17: Luncheon Grand Chapter Board; Dinner for Grand Family
January 18 (Tuesday): Reception for Grand officer, Grand committee, Worthy Grand Matron's secretary, and McSweyn/Forgo Grand family.
Opening at 4 PM
Registration 5:00 PM
Dinner 6:00 PM
GEOX- 7:30 PM
February 7: Pampered Chef party 7:00 PM
February 14: Stated Meeting 7:30 PM
February 21: Rehearsal
February 28:  Initiation

MESSAGE

God didn't promise days without pain,
Laughter without sorrow, sun without rain
But, He did promise strength for the day,
Comfort for the tears,
And light for the way.

Dear Sisters and Brothers,

We hope you had a beautiful and joyous holiday season.

No one person can't run a chapter. It takes dedicated sisters and brothers, who step up to assist in making our projects a success.

Thank you to everyone who worked donated crafts and bake goods to our Bazaar. A special thank you to Ellen Fisher, chairman for bake goods and her committee. Jackie Boettcher, who step forward and obtain renters for extra tables for the Bazaar. Also helped with bake goods, candy making and crafts.

January will be a busy month. We are planning a luncheon for grand chapter board on January 17th. We also will have a dinner for the grand family that same day. We will need help.

January 18th we will have a reception for Clara Brown, Grand Ruth, Cindy Jones, grand worthy matron's secretary, Mary Ann Clark. Loony Sales- Chairman and William Kehrer, Publicity. Dinner will be $15.00. We also will be honor by a visit from McSweyn and Forgo Grand family. We have 2 candidates. Following dinner we will have a GEOX. Please come out and support your officers and grand family.

Mark your calendars on February 7th Pamper Chef Party at 7:00 PM. Please bring a friend.

Carol and Bill

SICKNESS and Distress

Mary Ann Clark broke her arm. Please report sickness and distress to Charlotte Campbell- Sunshine

Christmas Bazaar

The Christmas Bazaar is coming up on December 4th, which is tomorrow.  I hope everyone who can come out, will.

Also, don't forget that we are helping to set up the dining room for the Bazaar on Friday, December 3rd from 3 to 7 PM. The ladies may bring whatever they have for the Bazaar to the Temple on that day and we will hold it in safe-keeping until the event. If you want a specific price on something, please mark it or have a sheet with prices.

We will need people to work on the Bazaar.  If you can come out, please do! We'd love to see you. It's a great way to see everyone and see what we have for sale.

Chapter Update

We had a very busy meeting on Monday night, and covered a lot of important things.

The Bazaar is going to be on December 4th from 9 am to 3 pm, and the setup will be December 3rd from 3 to 7 pm.

Worthy Grand Matron Bernie has passed out the elephant banks for the abuse shelters.  His name is Waldo, and she wants us to fill him up as many times as we can with our change.

Our School of Instruction is going to be November 22nd, and it will be done by Bernie.  There will be a practice on the 21st at 2:30 pm for anyone who wants to work on their part.  The canned food drive will continue for this month and food will be accepted through the School.

On December 1st, the McSweyn-Forgo Grand Family will be making their annual Christmas visit to Masonic Pathways.  Feel free to go out and support everyone there.

The Alaskan cruise (GWM and GWP trip) slated for July is open to to the public and forms are available to anyone who wants to go.  Please contact the Secretary for more information.

Worthy Matron Carol gave her report for Grand Chapter.  The most interesting parts were related to the money given in philanthropy, the Legislation, and our members who won their proficiency exams.

$10,000 was given to the Autism project.

$18,000 was given to the General Grand Chapter Service Dogs Project.

$2,000 was given to the Abuse Shelter project.

An undisclosed amount was given to the Shriners Children’s Hospitals.

Congratulations to Marge Lindszhun for taking second place in her proficiency exam for Adah.  Also, congratulations to Becky Meeker for taking first in her proficiency exam for Electa.  Both of these ladies work very hard on their parts, and to go up in front of Grand Chapter to do their part must have been nerve-wracking.  Good job, ladies!  Our ritual work is beautiful, and everyone should strive to do their best!

If anyone has questions about the Legislation, please contact the Secretary or the Worthy Matron.

Questions about anything?  Contact me (rpgirl1981 at gmail dot com).  I’ll try to answer any questions you have!

Important Dates to Remember

Please keep these dates in your calendars for the months of November and December!

November 1:  Rehearsal 7:30 PM
November 5:  Installation Sharon Chapter 7:00 PM
November 6:  Grand Matron and Grand Patron Reception
November 8:  Stated meeting 7:30 PM
November 22:  School of Instruction 7:00 PM
December 3:  Bazaar Setup
December 4:  Bazaar 9 AM -3 PM
December 13:  Stated meeting 7:30 PM

November Message

Bill and I would like to thank the chapter for their confidence in electing us as your Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron for the ensuing year. We will try to do our best and with help of the members of Martha Washington we will have a good year. It will be a busy year.

Our Sister Bernie was installed as Worthy Grand Matron and Andy Forgo installed as Worthy Grand Patron in Battle Creek. Other officers and committees installed Grand Ruth, Clara Brown; Grand Committee- Publicity- William Kehrer; Grand Matron's secretary-Cindy Jones; and Sales Committee- Mary Ann Clark. We had approximately 20 chapter members that attended Grand Chapter.

We wish for them a successful year and safe travel.

We will be collecting food, canned goods, and money for a needy family for a Thanksgiving dinner during our November meetings.

ILLNESS

We have had a lot of falls in our chapter this last month. Sister Helen McGlone- fracture her shoulder, sister
Patty Goodrich- fracture arm, and sister Jackie Boettcher was not feeling well. Please call Charlotte Campbell at 249-0008 with any sickness, distress, or special occasions.

Sincerely,
Carol and Bill

Installation Dates to Remember

Mark these dates on your calendar if you want to go to installations for Heart of the Mitten.  Sorry I missed the ones earlier in the month.

October 27- White Clover- 84- Gladwin 7:30 PM

October 28 Coleman-281 7:30 PM

October 29- Millington 7 PM

November 5- Sharon -20- Midland- 7 PM

Installation

Attention everyone!

Our installation is tomorrow night, at 7:30 PM.  Officers being retired and installed should be there at 7:00 PM.  Officers are to wear their white formals (ladies)/black suits (men).

There will be food afterwards.

Please come out and support our chapter.

Jewelry Open House

Daughters of the Nile is having a jewelry open house and sale on Thursday, October 21st, from 1 to 7 PM at:

Swan Valley Condominiums

205 Kennely, Unit A-1

Overlooking the Swan Valley Golf Course

There will be necklace and earring sets, separate earring sets, and ankle bracelets.  Everything is made from genuine gems including turquoise, tiger eye, picture jasper, coral, jade, lapis, and pearls.

For more information, please call 989-781-6266.

The proceeds are to benefit the Daughters of the Nile Handchime Unit.

Annual Meeting 2010

Wow, we had a busy meeting last night.

We had all our year-end reports, and plenty of announcements.

Harvest Dinner:

We served 188 people and made a tidy profit.

Dates to remember:

October 10th-14th: Grand Chapter, Battle Creek

October 18th: Harrison Officers Installation

October 19th: Perry-Laingsberg friend's night, 7:30 PM; Halloween fun night

October 22nd: RSVP due for Bernie and Andy's reception

October 24th: January Reception Committee meeting 1:30 PM, Rehearsal for Installation, 3:30 PM

October 25th: Martha Washington Officers Installation, 7:30 PM

October 27th: White Clover Officers Installation, Gladwin, 7:30 PM

October 28th: Coleman Officers Installation, 7:30 PM

November 6th: Bernie and Andy's reception at the Bay City Consistory

More dates to remember will be coming. If you have questions, feel free to email me or our secretary (addresses in the sidebar).

We are planning to sell the Koeze Nuts again this year for a fundraiser. Please see Becky Meeker for more information.

Our incoming Worthy Matron is taking a food collection for November for a needy family.

There will be more information coming about the different events.

Do not forget to make your reservation for Bernie and Andy's reception. It is due October 22nd. There will be NO RESERVATIONS taken after that date, and no refunds given after that date. NO EXCEPTIONS.

September Meeting

Our first meeting back from summer is going to be Monday, 9/13/10.

We'll be covering all the things that went on in June as well as over the summer.  I encourage everyone to come and enjoy the meeting.

We will be having our annual memorial; this means the officers will have to wear their white dress.

The Harvest Dinner will be on September 27th.

More information will be forthcoming after the meeting.

Burrito Dinner

The second to last Burrito Dinner is tomorrow!

It is going to be at the St. Charles Masonic Lodge from 11 am to 6 pm.  Come on out and enjoy a burrito and a piece of cake.  The cost is $7 and the proceeds go to Bernie's Grand East Fund for her year as Worthy Grand Matron of Michigan.

May Message

Warm weather is upon us again.  It's time for spring yard work and planting seeds for vegetables and flowers.  Many in our neighborhood have flowers that we are enjoying right now.  We look forward to the new ones that will be blooming throughout the spring and summer.

May is the month that we honor mothers.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers.

We have our regular meeting on May 10th at 7:30 PM.  I hope to see all the members that can come out. 

The Burrito Dinner is happening on May 14th from 11 AM to 6 PM.  Please come out to the St. Charles Masonic Lodge and enjoy a burrito and a piece of cake.  This is the SECOND TO LAST dinner.  Ever.  Cost is $7.  We have raised lots of money for Bernice McSweyn for her year as Worthy Grand Matron and we hope to see you come out and get some delicious food and support Bernie in her endeavor.

There is also an Officers Rehearsal on May 24th.

Illness:

Helen Robinson is doing much better!  She would appreciate cards; please send them to her house.

Helen and Lawrence

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Past Matrons and Patrons and Life Members Dinner

Next week Monday, Martha Washington is having a dinner to honor the Past Matrons, Patrons and Life Members of Martha and all the other chapters that make up Martha.  Note that the guests are free, but members may attend at a cost of $5 per person.

The past leaders and life members of our order do lots of good work, and without them, we would not be where we are right now.

Please come out and support them.

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Burrito Dinner

The Burrito Dinner is this Friday (March 12th) from 11 AM to 6 PM.

Please come out and buy a burrito and support Bernie McSweyn and her trip to the East of Grand Chapter of Michigan.

Each burrito costs $7 and includes cake for dessert.

We deliver to local businesses around St. Charles.

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Breakfast to Benefit the Grand East Fund for 2011 and 2012

There is a All You Can Eat breakfast at the Mt. Morris Masonic Temple for Brother Lenzy Lewis's Grand East Fund.  He's the Grand Sentinel this year.

Info:

All You can Eat Country Breakfast
February 27th 2010
8 AM to 11 AM
$7.00 per person

Where:

Mt. Morris Masonic Temple
810 North Street
Mt. Morris MI 48458

I hope many of you can come out to this fund raiser.

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February Message

Martha Washington had our first initiation on January 25th.  We welcome Jacqueline Jordan and Chris McGinnis, and hope they will become active with our chapter.  The officers did a wonderful job, with a couple of pro-tems.  Everyone did their job well, and I and your chapter thanks you for filling in!

The chapter will be honoring PM Clara Brown, Grand Courtesy Committee with a dinner and a Grand program on February 15th.  Note: RESERVATIONS ARE CLOSED. DO NOT call the secretary for a reservation; you will not be able to get one.

The first week of March brings our Cabin Fever indoor yard sale.  The date and time is March 6th from 9 am to 3 pm.  We will be accepting donations on Friday night.  Once I get the times from our meeting, I will post an update.

We will look forward to greeting everyone at the yard sale and hope it is a warm spring day.

Helen and Lawrence

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Practice and Initiation

On January 18th, we have a practice for the Initiation that is on January 25th.

The practice is at 7 PM.  There is no special dress.  Please bring your ritual.  It would behoove the officers if they would come and practice.  Memory work is your own, but it is useful to have people to work with when you're trying to memorize the floor-work.

The initiation is January 25th at 7:30 PM.  White for officers is required, as this is the initiatory work.  Let's make this a great introduction to the new members we are initiating!

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Blog Maintenance

Notice:

There's been some blog maintenance going on.  Somehow the calendar application I was using got discontinued from Google, so I had to grab the HTML off of the Google calendar and embed it in the sidebar.

Sorry for anyone who's been trying to access the calendar from the blog and can't because of this issue.  I'm not sure when it started happening, so I don't know how long it was this way.

Again, I apologize.

If anyone sees something amiss with the widgets on the blog, feel free to contact me directly at the email listed in the About section.

Thank you for your patience.

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January Message

Happy New Year to one and all!  We can hope and pray for many things to happen and problems to be solved.  We all know only about 1% will be resolved but we should be thankful for any small amount.

We look to the future.  It is cold; the driving is bad; it snows a lot; it is windy and you might catch a cold or the flu.  Take care.  Good luck to the Shrine Circus.  Many of our good workers are helping the Nile prepare and serve food for the Shriners who work the circus.  They work for a good cause too.

We have lost two members: Helen Bledsdoe, who was soloist for Martha for many years; and Shirley Rigg, a 64-year member.  A memorial service was held for sister Shirley just before the funeral service.  Our sympathy goes out to the families.

Best Wishes for the New Year!

Helen and Lawrence

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