Husband, wife team up

for community kids through CAP

There are hundreds of Masons and Eastern Star members across the state who work diligently to make the Masonic Home of Missouri’s Creating-A-Partnership program work for kids in their communities, and for two of them in central Missouri, it’s a family affair.

Tha and Raylene Kribbs are a married couple who have taken on the responsibility of doing the legwork for the CAP program at their Lodge, Cairo Lodge #486, and Chapter, Cairo Chapter #180, as a team. Tha manages the program for the Lodge, and Raylene manages the program for the Chapter, which both are members of. “We can’t do it without each other, and we can’t do it without the members,” Tha said, noting that while they manage the program, it is a wide, group effort to raise funds and find needs in their community.

This past year, the couple, along with their Lodge and Chapter, provided funding for things like backpack programs and school supplies to five rural schools in their community. This means kids in rural central Missouri won’t miss meals, have the supplies they need to be successful, have warm clothes this winter, and more.

“Being a rural area, the resources are a little bit more limited, so that is why we are stepping up,” Raylene said.

The CAP program allows their Lodge and Chapter to leverage funds raised in their community for their community with matching funds from the Masonic Home of Missouri, up to $10,000 per year per Lodge or Chapter.

Being new to the program,Tha said he thinks it can be intimidating at first, but found that it was very manageable.

“People think it’s a lot of paperwork,” he said. “That’s always the drawback, but it turns out it’s pretty simple, and Tish(a) makes it easy to get everything done.”

Tisha Woodard is the Masonic Home of Missouri’s Partnership Program Coordinator. She works with Masons and Eastern Star members across the state to help them bring money into their communities through the organization’s two partnership programs – CAP and Partnering to Honor, which helps veterans go on Honor Flights to see their monuments in Washington D.C. She helps Lodges and Chapters find projects in their communities that are eligible for CAP funds and assists with any questions about paperwork. Woodard said the Kribbs have been great to work with on her end as she values the communication she gets from them.

“They are fairly new to working the CAP program, but they always call to ask any questions they have about the program to make sure they are doing it correctly,” Woodard said.

Both of the Kribbs said they find that managing the program provides them with personal satisfaction in knowing they are doing good for children in their community.

“It’s one of the reasons I joined,” Tha said.

CAP provides matching funds for Lodges and Chapters to help children in need within their communities. Each Lodge or Chapter in Missouri may receive up to $10,000 in matching funds each year. In Fiscal Year 2020, the Masonic Home and participating Lodges and Chapters provided $291,924 in assistance to help 14,834 children statewide.

If your Lodge or Chapter is interested in using the CAP program to fund a project for children in need in your community, contact Tisha Woodard at twoodard@ mohome.org or by calling 800-434-9804.