Your Ohio Masonic Home Day
The 29th annual Ohio Masonic Home Day is fast approaching. It will be held on Sunday, June 9 at the Springfield Campus.This event is a wonderful mix of a day at the fair and a large family reunion, which makes sense as this is your Ohio Masonic Home.
For more information visit: http://ohiomasonichomeday.org/
Special Olympics Summer Games
The largest sporting event for the Ohio Special Olympics is right around the corner - The Summer Games. Opening ceremonies will be held on Friday, June 28 at the Jesse Owens Sports Complex of The Ohio State University. Grand Master James F. Easterling, Jr. and the Ohio Freemasons have again been invited to lead the Parade of Athletes onto the track. Plan to gather by 6 pm at the far end of the track. The proper dress for the day will be dark slacks, white shirt and Masonic apron.
Refreshments will again be supplied and prepared by the Ohio Grotto Association in the family hospitality tent after the opening ceremonies.
House Bill 59 is now in Senate Committee
This is a call to action. If you support this effort to provide relief, please send a letter of support for this provision to your Ohio Senator. You can find your Senator by visiting http://www.ohiosenate.gov/members/contacting-your-senator
- Your support of this section of HB 59
- The amount of your property taxes versus the lodge’s annual income (you lodge secretary can supply these amounts
- The charitable work your lodge does and the community’s use of the building, i.e. blood drives, voting, community meeting space for boy & girl scouts, youth groups, and clubs, benefit dinners, food drives, etc.
- That statewide, Ohio Masons contribute about $15 million in charity and pay approximately $3 million in property taxes. The elimination of that property tax burden will have little effect on local and state coffers but will enable Ohio Freemasons to continue their charitable efforts in rural and urban areas.
A Masonic July 4th Celebration at Put-In-Bay
Grand Master James F. Easterling, Jr. invites all Masons and their families to join him for an historical 4th of July celebration at Put-In-Bay.
The day's events will include the reenactment of the Masonic cornerstone ceremony for the Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial on July 4, 2013. Please make plans now to join the “procession to the stone” on South Bass Island. Attendees should use the Miller Ferry Service or the Jet Express to arrive in Put-In-Bay by 11:00 am that day.
Those planning to attend should bring plenty of water and an apron. Registration will begin at high twelve on the back porch of the Perry Memorial Visitors Center. Masonic ball caps commemorating this event will be on sale at registration.
At 1:30, the Masons will join the Grand Master in a short Parade through the business district ending at the Memorial Plaza for the reenactment. Masons and their families will be able to sit in chairs during the ceremony. Veterans of the United States Armed Forces will be recognized and honored for their service. A special Fly-over by historic WW II planes of the ‘Yankee Air Force’ will add to the pageantry of the event. The finale will be a performance of the 1812 Overture performed by the 122nd Army National Guard Band - complete with canon fire.
In 1913, 5000 Masons, from nine states and Canada, formed a procession and marched to the site of Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial to witness the laying of the cornerstone by then Grand Master Edward S. Griffiths and the Grand Lodge officers. The Grand Lodge proceedings indicate that the ceremony was held at “High 12,” and that an emergent communication was open by Grand Master aboard the ship, the City of Buffalo, as it sat in the Put-in-Bay harbor.
Become part of Masonic history and join members of the Craft in this historic procession to the stone. For more information call Jim Adkins at 330.858.2045 or email him at rsmb@neo.rr.com. This will be a fun day for the whole family. For a detailed description of the day’s events, click here.
