Acacia Lodge No 163 F&AM

From the Desk of the Worshipful Master:

Greeting Brethren,

It seems like April has flown by. The month started with the initiation of three new Entered Apprentices. I want everyone to welcome Brothers Arther Wielga, Timothy Ross and Jared Eversmyer. The degree team did a great job. I would like to thank them for putting in the effort to learn the work. Over the course of several days, I had the honor and pleasure to deliver scholarships to the well deserving highschool students of Martin County. I want to thank Brothers Steve Karr and Tim Van Den Heuvel for their hard work in all that together. We will be honoring the students at our second meeting in May (5/21) during our annual Law Enforcement/Scholarship night. Please come out and meet them. We also had our annual Shrimp Boil. It was well attended. I counted over 50 in attendance. The food was great and a big thank you to Brother Eric Schlossberg, his family and all the Brothers that helped set up, cook and cleanup. Brother Gary Gooldy and his band Cypress Creek gave a great performance and had several up and dancing. I also want to that the Eastern Star for providing the baskets to raffle off. Although Sister Vivian won the basket I really wanted, it was still a lot of fun. (insert my big smile) Also, between the first and second sections of the EA Degree we had RW Bobby Lickliter share with us his vision as he is running for the Grand South this year.

May and June are going to be big months also. Coming up at our first meeting we will be reviewing the proposed legislation changes that will be voted on at the Grand Lodge session this year. Please come out to hear these as your input to our three voting officers is important. If you do not know what is proposed and provide your thoughts on them to the voting officers, they will not have the information they need when casting the ballots. I would like to think that we as Masons will do a better job than many of those in DC when it comes to voting for the will of the brethren. I myself want to know how you feel on these things. This is just as much your fraternity as it is mine. I want to know your thoughts. I want to know I am doing the will of the craft and my Brothers. You can rest assured with me, that I will not just vote for what I want, but rather what the craft wants. I feel it is my duty and you have my word on it.

Also in May, as I mentioned before, we will have our Law Enforcement/Scholarship Night on the 21st. Dinner will be served at 6:30 and the meeting will begin at 7:30. This is an open meeting so please bring your family and enjoy the good fellowship. I do not have a full list yet, but there will be some other awards and presentations given out also. I am super excited for the honor to do this for both my community and my Brothers. We also have Grand Lodge May 25-27. Some of us will be up there much earlier for Grand Lodge business, but the primary times are the 25th -27th. Please see any of the officers if you need more info. And if all that is not enough, mark your calendar for May 30th at 9am as we will be

having a Master Mason Degree and raise Brother Joseph Ortega to the sublime degree of a Master Mason. Lunch will be served after the degree. I sure hope you can make it out and support Brother Joe. For June we are working on putting together a fun family night. IF we can get it scheduled, we are planning on an evening of axe throwing. I cannot yet provide the details as they are still in work. So, I ask that you check your emails and the website for updates. They should be posted soon.

Lastly my Brothers, remember this is the month that the Sprig begins being sent out on the odd numbered months. Please, please watch your emails and check in on the website for updates, additions or deletions. We are working very hard to get you the info you need in a timely manner and to provide many opportunities for fellowship and family fun. Thank you Brother Mark Porter for working hard to make sure the website is updated and informative.

Dear Brothers,

We are having our Stated Communication this coming Thursday night. We will be serving Spiral Ham, Hash Brown Casserole, Southern Green Beans, salad and dessert, dinner to be served at 6:30. Please come, bring your wife, girlfriend, a family member, or a friend to dinner and enjoy the fellowship with your Brothers.

Please mark your calendars for the upcoming event.

Saturday, May 16th, Pancake Breakfast 8:00-10:00
Thursday, May 21st Law Enforcement & Scholarship Night

Fraternally and Sincerely,

Julio Sanchez, PM
Secretary
Acacia Lodge No. 163 F&AM

From the Desk of the Worshipful Master

Greetings Brethren,

Welcome to April. First, looking back on March, what a month. Our first meeting we passed to the Degree of Fellow Craft, Brother Joseph Ortega. The degree team did a great job and I believe everyone had a wonderful evening. During our second meeting we approved two petitions for the 3 degrees in Masonry. Which leads me to April. Our first meeting we will be doing an EA degree for those 2 new candidates. Please come out and welcome them to the craft.

I want to take just a moment and thank everyone for the prayers and well wishes for me with the surgery I had to have back on March 4th. The support of the craft was great. I know it was very last minute, but when the VA gives you a date you take it. If you don’t it could be weeks or months before you get another. I had to jump on it. I am healing up well. I just must remember that even though I feel much better, there is still healing going on and I MUST take it easy. That and my wife watches me closely to make sure I don’t misbehave. A special thankyou to our Sr Warden, Steve Sumners, for his understanding and stepping in to run things while I recovered.

What else is going on you ask? Probably by the time you get this it will have passed, but there is a lodge picnic on March 28th at Flagler Park. I hope you were able to attend. If you did not get the emails about this, please let our Secretary Worshipful Brother Julio know so he can make sure you are on the email list. As mentioned there will be the EA degree on April 2nd. Easter is on April 5th. The monthly pancake breakfast will be on April 18th from 8 – 10am. For $8 it is a great value. Please come out and enjoy the fellowship. Our annual Shrimp Boil will be on April 25th from 4 – 7PM. The cost is $20 per person. You need to buy tickets in advance. This year you can buy them online. I will add the QR code you can scan with your phone at the end of my message. Brother Garry Gooldy’s band, Cypress Creek, will be playing. I hope to see you there! Also, on the 25th is Maters and Wardens with open books. It will be at the Ft Pierce Lodge and is open for Master Masons. Breakfast begins at 8am with the meeting starting at 9am. Open books is a great place to come and study and check on your ritual work.

Lastly, I would like to announce that starting in May our Sprig will begin coming out every other month. The look will be changing just a bit. I hope you find it still being informative and helpful. It will just show up on the odd numbered months instead of every month. The cost associated has been growing every year and in trying to be a good steward of your money, we thought it would be best to make this change.

As promised, this is the LINK for the Shrimp Boil Tickets.

https://buy.stripe.com/7sYbJ0em0aPn9PK4Qg1Nu04

May the Great Architect of the Universe watch over and keep you.

Fraternally yours,

Joseph Schoonover - Worshipful Master