For submission information, please click here.
Added: July 12, 2006
Children’s Interactive Fitness Show to be Held at the House of the Temple
FREE Children’s Interactive Fitness Show Saturday August 5, 2006 at 10:3 0am, featuring “Peanut Butter.” Peanut Butter will lead your child through exercise by dancing, bending, twisting and just having fun. He will talk about eating healthy and being the best you can possibly be. For ages 2-7. Located at the Supreme Council, 1733 16th Street, NW. Washington, DC. For more information contact Joan at (202) 777-3139 or jsansbury@srmason-sj.org. Hope to see you soon!
Added: May 30, 2006
JROTC Award Presented in Wiesbaden, Germany
The JROTC award was presented to Cadet Harris by Tom Tilghman,
Col., USAF (Ret) on behalf of the Scottish Rite.
Cadet Brittany Harris, a graduating senior at H.H. Arnold High School in Wiesbaden, Germany, is very active in school activities and JROTC. She is also a strong athlete in multiple varsity sports, in the top 25% of her class, a model young citizen, and possibly considering a military career after high school.
Added: May 30, 2006
House of the Temple in Washington, D.C., Rocks on with “Oh Susannah”
On Saturday, March 4th, the House of the Temple offered a free children’s interactive concert. “Oh Susannah,” (singer/songwriter Susan McNeils), a popular children’s entertainer from Silver Spring, Maryland, performed music for over 100 children and their families. She sang family favorites such as “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” Her concert lasted 45 minutes and afterwards she met with the children and even let them play her guitar.
This event was part of a very exciting program started this year at the House of the Temple which involves children and their families. Currently, we are offering 4 interactive shows a year. The shows range style from Puppet Shows, Children’s Concerts, Children’s Fitness Shows and Magic Shows and are held in the George Washington Memorial Banquet Hall at the House of the Temple.
Other children’s shows for this year are scheduled for Saturday, June 3, 2006, at 10:30 a.m., featuring the “Banjo Man,” and Saturday, October 7, 2006, at 10:30 a.m., with a repeat performance by “Oh Susannah.” For more information on the shows, please call Joan Sansbury at 202-777-3139 or visit our web site at www.srmason-sj.org. This is a great opportunity to visit this historic and beautiful building which is open to the public.
Added: April 26, 2006
A Dream Becomes a Reality
Children’s Care Rehab & Development Center, Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City’s Mayor Jim Shaw 32°; Bob Morrow 33°; Stacey Schaefer, VP; Jim Fernen, 33°; Kris Kirchgasler, Director; Brian Bonde, 32°, Chief Development Officer, Children’s Care Foundation; Don Huxford, 32°, KCCH Elect; Jack Welker, 33° Elect; Jim Mirehouse 32°, Building Campaign Co-Chair.
For the past 20 years, Children’ s Care and Rehab Development Center in Rapid City has provided independent evaluations and physical, occupational, and speech therapists, as well as psychological, special educational, and orthotic/prosthetic services. Approximately 1,200 children a year from birth to age 21 are touched by the Center’s care. The staff has grown from 5 to 22 in the last twenty years, with the area’s largest concentration of pediatric therapeutic specialists.
Housed in rented space, the current 5,383 sq. ft. facility long ago became inadequate to provide efficient services to the growing number of children and families the center serves. Groundbreaking on a new 14,000 sq. ft. facility, occurred on October 20, 2005. It will include several therapy treatment rooms, a gymnasium for therapy, an assistive technology center, and separate areas for orthotic and prosthetic and seating evaluations. It would also house a family resource center, a lending library for adaptive toys and equipment, comfortable waiting areas for families, and other improvements.
For additional information on the center, contact 605-342-4412 or see www.cchs.org.
Added: April 26, 2006 (Updated May 30, 2006)
Special Book Signing at the House of the Temple
 Everyone has heard about the Freemasons – or, more formally, the Free and Accepted Masons – a fraternal society with about four million members, mainly in the U.S. and the English speaking world. American Freemasonry is older than this country, and many of the Founding Fathers, including Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, Paul Revere, and George Washington were Masons.
In The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Freemasonry, expert author, S. Brent Morris, reveals the truth and dispels the myths that have surrounded the Freemasons for hundreds of years.
The Scottish Rite of Freemasonry will host a special book signing and discussion with the author on Saturday, June 10, 2006 at 12 noon.
The House of the Temple, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry is located between R and S Streets at 1733 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC, 20009. Metro stops Dupont and U Street are the closest. Limited free parking will be available behind the building.
The event will be followed with an optional building tour of one of DC’s most magnificent and historic buildings, the House of the Temple.
The event is free and open to the public. Books will be available for sale at $19.00. Call Heather at 202-777-3108 or email hcalloway@srmason-sj.org for additional details.
Added: April 26, 2006
Scottish Rite of Santa Fe, New Mexico Hosts Nobel Peace Prize Winner Lech Walsea
 Photo: Deputy Tom Payne, 33°, and his wife Kay with Lech Walsea at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Time Magazine’s 1982 Man of the Year, Lech Walsea, spoke to an audience of 1,000 people at the Scottish Rite Masonic Center of Santa Fe. Lech earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983. He was elected President of Poland in 1990 and served until 1995. Walsea spoke for about a half an hour and took questions from the audience at the end, insisting that he would only answer “tough” questions. He repeatedly made jokes throughout the evening. Walsea’s leadership of Poland’s Solidarity movement helped set off the social revolution which helped lead to the end of the former Soviet Union’s domination of Eastern Europe.
Added: April 26, 2006
Scottish Rite Center Gives Voice to Children
Published: Wednesday, March 15, 2006, Tribune-Times, Greenville, South Carolina
By L.C. Leach III, TRIBUNE-TIMES WRITER
 Photo: Speech pathologist Donna Ware works with Jordan Vaughan at the Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders in Greenville. (GWINN DAVIS/Staff)
Simpsonville's Julie Vaughan was at her wits' end. Her 2-year-old son, Jordan, had been trying for some time to talk to her and dad Steve, but he couldn't. Every time he tried to speak, the words would not come, as if they were being held back by an invisible dam.
"And he would get frustrated and lash out at us and at his sister and we had no idea what was wrong," Julie Vaughan said. "And we also had no idea what to do about it."
A trip to their pediatrician revealed no hearing or other visible problems. But it did reveal something psychological: a delay in language articulation. Jordan was missing certain letter sounds when trying to speak, therefore appearing as though he couldn't speak at all. His condition was not covered under the Vaughans' medical insurance and it did not qualify for financial aid through speech centers.
Out-of-pocket costs to correct the problem would run about $180 a month, money the Vaughans didn't have. The other option was to hope that it would be a "developmental thing he would grow out of."
So the pediatrician suggested she try the Scottish Rite Center for Childhood Language Disorders on Cleveland Street in Greenville. Having never heard of it before, Vaughan called the center to find out more. She learned that the school was one of three such facilities in South Carolina, the other two being in Columbia and Charleston, offering free help to children such as Jordan.
Jordan couldn't enter right away because the school was full, but he could be put on a waiting list. But once accepted into the center, all children are given a complete evaluation to assess their problem. Once Jordan would be accepted, a pathologist would develop a treatment plan and go over it with his parents. Then work would begin on sound pronunciation, speaking those sounds in words, putting words together to make sentences, correcting stuttering, if necessary, and increasing vocabulary to encourage talking.
As far as cost to qualified families, however, there was none. Money to pay for the staff, Vaughan found, was raised primarily through donations and fundraisers. And the center had been funded by the John I. Smith Foundation, begun in the late 1990s and named for a Scottish Rite Mason in the Upstate. Through Smith's efforts, the foundation provided a $500,000 matching grant for the school, if the Scottish Rite masons in the Upstate could raise an equal portion in 12 months.
The money was raised and the center opened in 2001. About 54 children per week attend the center. But the demand outweighs available space. "Right now, we have about 15 children on a waiting list," McDade said. "We do two evaluations each week, and we either add them to the waiting list or to the therapy group."
"He's doing fantastic and is set to graduate in the next six months to a year," she said. "He has almost all his sounds and his articulation is much better, and it's rare now that we don't understand him."
But despite the need and the ever-present waiting list, Scottish Rite Mason Bob Brannon said it is also comparatively rare that to find many people who know about "the best kept secret in the Upstate."
"In the past, our efforts of making people in the Upstate aware of the clinic have been less than sterling," Brannon said. "And that's what we're trying to change because we want to grow the school." The school is one of 168 Rite Care Centers throughout the country and Puerto Rico. Since the inception of the Scottish Rite Temples in the 1950s, tens of thousands of youngsters, such as Jordan, have been helped through their centers.
Now, as her son approaches his fourth birthday this month, Vaughan said each visit for speech therapy brings him and her a little more peace. "The center is a wonderful thing," Vaughan said. "And I'm glad it's there for parents like us."
Added: March 27, 2006
Supreme Council Database Training held at the House of the Temple
 Sentinel is a database management system designed by Scott Martin of Patriot Software Solutions, Inc. of Indianapolis, Indiana. Sentinel provides the Valleys with the tools they need to manage membership, dues, events, officers and committees, and other Valley-related tasks. It uses the Internet and existing Web technology to allow Valleys to communicate electronically with the Supreme Council Computer Services and to access the Supreme Council’s database.
The Second Annual Sentinel Users’ Conference took place on February 10 and 11, 2006. It offered both new and experienced Sentinel users the opportunity to come together to learn about Sentinel and to exchange information and ideas. Presentations and classroom instruction were provided by Tammy Fannin, Scott Martin, Chad Smith, and Martha Bennett. Two computer labs were setup for hands on learning.
Fifty Valley staff members representing 35 Scottish Rite Valleys from Florida to Washington State were in attendance. A dinner was provided at a local restaurant, compliments of Scott Martin and Patriot Software Solutions, Inc. And a good time was had by all!
Submitted by Tammy Fannin, Supervisor
Supreme Council Computer Services
South Dakota Holds Open Table Lodge
An open Table Lodge conducted by South Dakota’s Grand Master William Coffield 33rd. The event was held on June 2006 prior to South Dakota’s Grand Lodge held in Rapid City on the 17 & 18th of June.
Submitted by Bro. Don Huxford, 32°
Added: March 27, 2006
First 2006 Scottish Rite Leadership Conference Held in Houston, Texas
The first Scottish Rite Leadership Conference of 2006 was held in Houston, Texas on March 17-18, 2006. Over 200 Scottish Rite Masons and their ladies were in attendance to learn about the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction’s Strategic Plan. The strategic plan includes five main objectives including: education, leadership, public relations, finance and philanthropy. The Valley of Houston worked diligently as a wonderful host and session attendees enjoyed a Houston style Tex-Mex buffet.
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