Lucasville Lodge #465 is a perfect example of how Ohio Lodge’s are improving their communities through charitable events. We recently interviewed Brother Jason Throckmorton from Lucasville Lodge to discuss their many community activities, what makes the lodge stand out, and why he was initially drawn to Lucasville. Read our full conversation below!
Tell us about Lucasville Lodge. What makes it unique? What is it known for?
Lucasville Lodge is a vital part of the community of Lucasville. It’s a place where men from all walks of life and backgrounds come together and use the Lodge’s resources. They also use each other’s resources and skills to assist the community. For example, we are currently assisting our local high school with building and repairing props for a musical performance. We have members with the skills needed and the high school needs the help, so we jumped right in and helped.
If I had to pick one thing that we’re known for it’s our pancake breakfasts. We are always ready and willing to assist local groups or causes with fundraising by hosting and cooking pancake breakfasts either at our facility or theirs.
What is the community of Lucasville like? What is your Lodge’s interaction in the community?
Lucasville is a small-town. Like many small-towns it’s a tight-knit community where most everyone knows your name or knows who you are. Lucasville has recently begun to really open up with more community events such as the 200th anniversary celebration of its founding and many events at Christmas time. The Lodge participates in many of these events in many different ways. We open our facility for use, enter our float into parades, and make monetary donations to support the events.
We are aware your Lodge hosts a variety of community and charity events like blood drives, Veterans appreciation dinners, and pancake breakfasts. Tell us about these, and other, charity and community events your Lodge holds.
We are an extremely active Lodge. We take every opportunity to interact with the community. It’s the easiest and best way to advertise ourselves. I already mentioned a little bit about our pancake breakfasts. We also host a pancake breakfast with Santa in December which has become a generational event. We also host two blood drives a year which have become very successful.
Around Veterans Day we host an appreciation dinner for the community’s veterans. Speaking of veterans, we collect wheelchairs and donate them to the Honor Flight program that recognizes veterans with special flights to honor their service and have participated in the ODOT Adopt a Highway program for 30 years.
During Halloween we host a few events for the local elementary school and in the spring, we hold a cruise-in at the local high school which is our primary fundraiser and generator of charitable funds. Finally, we provide a free meal to the community at Thanksgiving time. These are just the highlights of our community involvement year in and year out.
What is the relationship between Brothers in the lodge? How do they interact with each other and engage in Lodge events?
The Brothers of the Lodge consider themselves just that, “Brothers.” We are Brothers not just in the Lodge but outside of the Lodge as well. We love to socialize. We usually gather an hour or more before Lodge meetings and stay for an hour or two afterward just to enjoy each other’s company. It’s like a family reunion every time. We get together and carpool to inspections where we spend the time in the car getting to know each other. We take every chance we can to connect. Members will also get together and help their Brothers in need. Recently, one of our Brothers needed a handicap ramp and some handlebars were installed, so some of the Brothers went ahead and built the ramp and installed the bars. We go to sporting events together such as local baseball and hockey games. There are many more to tell about but this is a blog not a book!
Does your Lodge have any upcoming events you’d like to share?
Our next major upcoming event is our annual cruise-in. Cruise-ins are a great opportunity to show off your car and connect with members of the community. For those who aren’t familiar with what a cruise-in is, we invite everyone from the community and around the state to bring their car to a predetermined location to meet new people, talk about cars, and show off your vehicle. Sometimes there are vendors who sell food, and families come from all over to look at all the cars. This has become one of the premier cruise-ins in southern Ohio. We average nearly 100 vehicles each year.
It will be held on Saturday, May 27th, 2023 at Valley High School located at 1821 St. Rt. 728 in Lucasville. Registration opens at 9am and closes at 12pm. The cruise-in will end at 2pm. Any and all vehicles are welcome.
What about this Lodge made you want to be part of it? What type of Mason does it attract?
I wanted to do more with my life and that’s why I chose Lucasville Lodge. Lucasville Lodge attracts all types of Masons. Yes, we primarily attract active and social Masons, but you can also be more of an introvert if you wish. Ultimately, we are trying to attract good men in hopes of making them better men through the teachings of Freemasonry and the actions of the Brethren.
Want to read about other Lodge’s doing inspiring work in Ohio? Read our features on York Lodge #563 and Argus Lodge #545!