APRIL 2014 NEWSLETTER

Alvin Masonic Lodge No. 762 A.F. & A.M.

Paul Pool - Worshipful Master. Glenn Starkey - Lodge Secretary & Newsletter Editor. !

April? Where did February and March go?

Somewhere in the blur of secretarial duties I lost two months. Petitions are flowing in, plural memberships are on the rise, lodge improvements are being made, awards have been given and more activities are forthcoming. Atop all of that, our new Masonic year planning is in motion. We are a busy lodgewith growing membership. No complaints with the growth, but the lodge would love to see more of its Master Masons return even if only for a Stated Meeting once a month. The past few weeks Mother Nature has continually painted my red truck with a sheen of yellow pollen and stirred everyones allergies. If you havent had a cold or the flu in the last few months then count yourself among the lucky few. Eventually the bad weather will pass and we may safely return to the outdoors. Its similar to our daily lives with personal storms that roll over us. During the peak of a storm, whether its job related, financial stress, ill health, or relationship problems, we feel the darkest hours are upon us with no relief in sight. Every storm lasts varying degrees sometimes only hours, sometimes days. Keep faith though, storms do pass. When Mother Nature throws a violent storm upon us, we seek physical shelter until it ends. Do the same when a personal storm overtakes youseek mental shelter by talking to a friend, a loved one, or spiritual shelter in prayer with God. Dont be foolish enough to think you can stand alone against the tempest. More people are deeply affected by depression than is realized. Depression leads to ill logic and irrational acts to the extent of suicide. Seek shelter when a storm is upon you and remember that it doesnt last forever. Remember the lodge sign that is in the front lawn by the flag pole? Yes, the same one that once was nicely painted but now is a faded, weather-beaten sheet of plywood with a large chunk missing in an upper corner as if a squirrel on steroids took a bite
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Gladly I can now say the old sign is going away courtesy of several generous lodge brothers. At our Community Builder Award and Family Night on April 10th, Past Master Al Pool and Brother Joel Fulcher Jr. unveiled the new Alvin Lodge sign soon to be displayed in front of our building. The brothers that donated the sign freely included the emblems of our John Wayne Chapter and OES to show our support of them. In a few weeks, stop by and check it out! The memorial brick wall along our entryway sidewalk is going to receive a facelift. Worshipful Master Paul Pool is addressing this so we can renew our efforts to expand the wall even more. Memorial bricks are now being ordered and should soon be installed. The bricks are a great way to honor your DeMolay, OES and Masonic legacy as well as show respect and devotion to loved ones. The bricks are $100 a piece with a variety of artwork that can be placed with the name. Brother Robin Winslett is Chairman of this project. If you are interested or have questions about purchasing a brick, either contact him or the lodge at AlvinLodge762@gmail.com. <= 2014 Alvin Lodge Community Builder Award recipient, Mr. Bo Overeem, Manager of the Alvin Walmart At our lodge Family Night on April 10th, Worshipful Master Paul Pool presented Mr. Bo Overeem with the lodges 2014 Community Builder Award in recognition of distinguished service and personal contribution to the community of Alvin, Texas. As manager of Alvins local Walmart, Mr. Overeem has assisted numerous charitable organizations with their fundraising activities. His assistance has proved valuable many times to our lodge, OES, school organizations and others throughout the community. Thank you, Mr. Overeem, for your dedication to helping others succeed. IMPORTANT: When you need information about lodge activity on a particular date, go to our Internet website and view the calendar: http://www.alvinlodge.org/calendar.html. As information is given to me, I place it there. By using the websites calendar as the single source of activity, you are viewing correct information. 1. Lodge Stated Meetings First and third Thursdays of each month. Meal are generally between 6:15 pm and 6:30 pm with meetings at 7:00 pm. Monday nights are for C School practice or degrees.
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2. MWSA Meetings Every second Wednesday of the month. 3. Family Nights -- (Masons, OES, DeMolay) Every second Thursday of the month. 4. Life Program Every fourth Thursday. Contact Bro. Terry Turner for information. This is open to all brothers and lodges in the area! 5. DeMolay Meetings Every first and fourth Wednesday of the month. 6. OES Stated Meetings Second and fourth Tuesday of the month. John Wayne Chapter # 3667, Mark Peebler, Advisor The Alvin Masonic Lodge extends its CONGRATULATIONS once more to the members and advisors of the John Wayne Chapter # 3667 for their fantastic efforts and hard work these last months. Keeping up with their achievements and awards is almost a fulltime job! Have you seen the Frank Marshall banners we proudly display within our lodge? At the pace the Chapter is going we will need to extend our building to hold their awards! Excellent work, gentlemen. Ive included a variety of photographs from their numerous events. Congratulations to Earl DeShazer for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout. He was honored by Mayor Appelt and the Alvin City Council. Mr. DeShazer is also the Senior Steward of John Wayne Chapter. Also, the City of Alvin issued a Proclamation for March 2014 to be DeMolay Month. The Championship Level 4th Section Champions are pictured together holding their Frank Marshal banners in the bottom left photo. The Open Level Mag 7 champions are seen in the bottom right.

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The gentleman pictured here is Mr. Jae Fulcher. Hes holding his first Frank Marshall Medal! A worthy accomplishment indeed. I understand it took four days before he could stop smiling! When you believe our youth have lost their way, pause a moment and reflect upon all that these great young people do!

WORDS TO PONDER
Volunteered in your community or at the lodge lately?
When we help others without asking anything in return, we are making the world a better place for our children and our childrens children.

Always remember, one person CAN make a difference in this world. Just read about Alexander The Great.

FROM THE SECRETARYS DESK

I never know each day what surprises await me in our lodge email. I do receive some of interest aside from the Nigerian emails stating we won several million dollars in a lottery or the emails wanting to know if our lodge wishes to increase its nightly clients/occupants through advertising. Recently, Brother Dan Smith, PM, Historian of Mitchell Lodge # 563, A.F. & A.M., sent me emails concerning Alvin Lodges FIRST WORSHIPFUL MASTER, Dr. N. J. Phenix (or Phoenix in their records), 1894-1895. Ive paraphrased his communication to share with you: Dear Brother, While reading the history of Alvin Lodge 762 in the publication "The Small Town Texas Masons E-magazine" of www.oldcorky.com, I discovered the first Worshipful Master of Alvin Lodge in 1893 was listed as Doctor N J Phenix. His name interested me because we, Mitchell Lodge 563 in Colorado City, Texas, (noted as well in the E-magazine histories) also had a Doctor N J Phoenix. He was a very prominent doctor here and started the first hospital in Mitchell County on August 15, 1916 that was known as The Phoenix Sanitarium. Our records show he first affiliated February 7, 1891, served as Senior Warden 1892, demitted July 15, 1893 and affiliated again on May 6,

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1899. Im at home and do not have access to the archives, but the records presently available to me indicate he was an active member here at Mitchell at least through 1916-17. Im sure he was also a member of Chapter and Council during this time as most members were, but those records are now in archives at Stamford Lodge. An additional fact about Doctor and Brother Phoenix is that he was shot to death by a jealous husband on the main street of Colorado City. The shooters wife was one of Dr. Phoenix's nurses. I can find that date with further research in the archives. The shooter was not a member of the lodge. Presently, that's about all the information I can provide. Brother Phoenix never served as Master of our Lodge but was a regular attendee. Our GL Returns of 1914 list four Phoenix members, N J, D S, Bruce and Carl. Individual personnel records are on file in the archives. Once Im able to travel outside of the house, I will go to our lodge and perform more research on the Phoenix family. Our local hospital, Mitchell County Hospital, has photographs hanging in their main hallway of leading doctors in their history. N J Phoenix's picture is one of those displayed. Thought this may be of interest to the Alvin Lodge as he was your First Worshipful Master. Fraternally yours, Dan Smith, PM Historian Mitchell Lodge No. 563 AF & AM Chartered December 16, 1882 Curious as to where Brother Smith obtained his information about our lodge, I reviewed www.OldCorky.com and discovered the Alvin Lodge history was authored by our Bro. Elmer C. Kimmons, May 1965, and is posted on our website, www.AlvinLodge.org. Adding to the nostalgia, Im including a document of multiple scanned lodge papers dating from 1909. I found these in an old box while cleaning the lodge vault and want to share them before time destroys them. Theres nothing special about each except for being a peek into our historical past. In the future I hope to scan more for the benefit of the lodge and posterity. ***** Our building is continuously used for meetings by the lodge masons and organizations such as OES, DeMolay, MWSA, and various special social functions. It speaks well of us to be such an active lodge and that it is a comfortable environment for activities but we need everyone who uses our lodge to help keep it clean. We no longer have a cleaning service and it is imperative we all contribute to keeping it in good order. Please ensure the lodge is properly secured when you leave.

May you live upon the level and part upon the square.
So Mote It Be

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Dont forget about the Alvin Lodge Golf Tournament on April 28th at the Alvin Country Club. Your lodge team could take home a great trophy for a year and have bragging rights too. Everyone from Pros to Hacks is welcome to join us, enjoy the fellowship, and chase that little golf ball all over the area. Closest to the Hole Contest is $100 Cash Prize and a Hole-In-One means you win a Harley! And after the tournament, I will be
sending out a Special Edition Newsletter with photos strictly about the tournament. See the flyer attached with this newsletter for more tournament information. And CONGRATULATIONS to Cody Haley, the winner of the Alvin Lodge Raffle of a AR-15 made by Texas Custom guns of Alvin, Texas. The following links are to help you find lodge information in the swiftest manner! Alvin Lodge Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alvin-Lodge-762Ancient-Free-and-Accepted-Masons/ Alvin Lodge Website: http://www.alvinlodge.org/ Alvin Lodge Calendar of Events: http://www.alvinlodge.org/calendar.html Alvin Lodge Email: AlvinLodge762@gmail.com John Wayne Chapter # 3667, Order of DeMolay Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/John-

Wayne-Chapter-3667-Order-of-DeMolay-Alvin-Texas/483169650391
Every newsletter I ask for your news to share. I want everyone to know about our Masonic family accomplishments. Please send it to me at our lodge email address, and send me your feedback on the newsletter as well. Something in particular you would like me to add to it?

Sincerely and fraternally, Glenn

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