Letter of the month: December 2004

From: Suzanne Hnilo <suzanne.hnilo@lpfch.org>
To: <masonry-ask@mit.edu>
Subject: Masonry Question
Date: Mon, 26 Jul 2004 12:03:28 -0700
Message-ID: <E122E54FF327724185DA263D3C0978391078BE@lpfch-exch.LPFCH.org>

My stepfather, Robert Davis, was a 50-year Mason. I would like to know how I can donate to the Masons' work for sick children in his honor. Please advise. Thanks.

Suzanne Hnilo
Associate Director, Auxiliaries Relations
Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health
770 Welch Road, Suite 150
Palo Alto, CA 94304
suzanne.hnilo@lpfch.org
Visit our website:  www.lpfch.org

Message-Id: <200412250335.iBP3ZcFa021815@grumpy-fuzzball.mit.edu>
To: "Hnilo, Suzanne" <Suzanne.Hnilo@LPFCH.ORG>
Subject: Re: Masonry Question
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Mon, 26 Jul 2004 12:03:28 PDT."
             <E122E54FF327724185DA263D3C0978391078BE@lpfch-exch.LPFCH.org> 
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:35:38 -0500

Dear Ms Hnilo,

First of all, let me apologize for this late reply. I have only recently discovered a misplaced email folder on my computer. I am sorry to be so tardy in reply.

Next, I think you might look into the Shriners' Hospitals. The "Shrine" (full name, "Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine") is a social and charitable society within Freemasonry. That is, being a Mason is a requirement for becoming a Shriner.

The Shriners support a network of 22 children's hospitals around the country. Some are dedicated to orthopaedic care and others to severe burns treatment. Remarkably, *all* treatment is always absolutely free, no charge, to the patients and their families.

There is a Shriners Burns Hospital here in Boston and I would like to tell you about their work. Besides providing amazing miraculous treatment to severely burned children, the burns hospitals also perform and support world-class research in burn care, research that has led to improved burns treatment, survival, reconstruction, and recovery for burns victims around the world. The burns hospitals also provide educational and psychological support for their young patients, as well as for their families, friends, and schoolmates, in order to ease the terrible trauma of severe burn injury and the long road to recovery for all concerned.

You can read more about them at http://www.shrinershq.org/hospitals/geninfo.html and about some patient "success stories" at http://www.shrinershq.org/patients/

Masonic lodges all over the USA make regular donations to the network of Shrine Hospitals, and those hospitals make us proud to play that vital supporting role.

Could this be the charity you're looking for to honor your stepfather's memory? I hope so. Please let me know what you think.

sincerely,

+---------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Gary L. Dryfoos <dryfoo@mit.edu>| Ocean Lodge AF&AM, Saugus, MA (PM)    
| P.O.Box 425400, Camb, MA 02142  | Mt. Scopus Lodge AF&AM, Malden, MA (PM) 
|                                 | Richard C. Maclaurin Lodge, MIT, MA   
|  "A Page About Freemasonry"     | Internet Lodge #9659, E. Lancs UGLE   
|  http://mit.edu/dryfoo/Masonry/ | 32nd; MPS; B'hood o/t Blue Forget-Me-Not 
|                                 | RWG Rep.GL Russia near GL Massachusetts 
| "...one sacred band, or society of Friends and Brothers, among
|  whom no contention should ever exist, save that noble contention,
|  or rather emulation, of who best can work and best agree."
+===========================================================================

P.S. I wish I could give you an e-mail address to contact them, but there doesn't seem to be one anywhere on their website. There are some addresses and phone numbers though.