MEMBERSHIP
Masons Help Others During COVID-19 Pandemic Brother Biill Burns
“My wife is doing the stitching and I’m doing the cutting,” Bill said. “We are mostly giving them to Brother Craig Shaffer, D.D.G.M.-5, to give out to first responders. The plan is to keep making the masks. It feels good that it’s going to a good cause.” Bill, a U.S. Army veteran, has been involved with Freemasonry since 2017, and currently serves as the Senior Deacon of his lodge. “It [Freemasonry] has always interested me because I was very interested in history growing up,” Bill said. “Ben Franklin is my favorite person, and he was a Mason. In the Army, I knew a few people who were Masons, and they pushed me along. Eventually, I decided to join.” Brother Doug Robinson, Southampton Radiant Star Lodge No. 806, Warminster, and his wife, Helen, are part of a church
Pennsylvania Masons and their families have stepped up to help their communities during the coronavirus crisis, whether it be making face masks, delivering food, or donating money to community food banks. Read on about Masons and their “good deeds.”
group making masks for first responders and others in need. “Helen came upon a website of this group that was making masks, so we decided to participate and received a starter set of fabric and started making masks,” Doug said. “When you finish your first bag of masks, you deliver them to Days for Girls, a worldwide charitable organization that makes sanitary products for girls in
Brother John Habel, Tri County Lodge No. 252, Donora, and his wife, Ruth, have been delivering meals to individuals in
Africa,” he said. “Their local focus has shifted to making masks for police departments and hospitals in Pennsylvania during COVID-19.” As of May, the group had produced 9,573 masks for distribution.
need in southwestern Pennsylvania through Meals on Wheels four to six times a month, for the past five years. Their service is especially vital during the pandemic. “For some of these people, we might be the only person they see on a regular basis,” John said. “We make sure that they are doing OK. We know several people on our route that do not have relatives in the area. We give them our card and tell them if they
“We’ve been doing this for about a month and a half and plan to continue,” Doug said. When he’s not making masks, Doug donates items to his church’s food and supplies pantry. “That’s what Masons do, we help,” he said. Doug has been a Mason since 1975. “What Masons do, the world should do. It would make it a much better place to live.”
need anything, to call us.” John has been a Mason for 50 years and enjoys the camaraderie, friendship and meeting new people. “There are a lot of people I wouldn’t know if it weren’t for Freemasonry,” he said. Brother William “Bill” W. Burns, Christiana Lodge No. 417, and his wife, Brittney, have been sewing face masks to distribute to first responders. To date, they have produced more than 150 masks.
12
In just four hours on May 2, lodges in Mercer and Venango counties conducted a special socially-distanced drop-off event that raised over $7,000 in cash and food items to benefit the Community Food Warehouse in Mercer County. Brother Richard Yeager, D.D.G.M.-53, said Masonic lodges in West Middlesex, Hermitage, Sharpsville, Mercer and Sandy Lake raised over $4,000. Lodges in Franklin and Oil City raised
Online Edition www.pagrandlodge.org/magazine
Pennsylvania Freemason
