Lodge #28 Community Involvement

(1) In the past years the Masonic Lodge #28 raises money so that we can present 1 scholarship to local Juniors, one each selected from the 4 schools served by this lodge.

In the fall, in co-operation with one of our members who owns a plant nursery, we plant bulbs & in the spring sell these flowering pots with the profits going toward scholarships of $250 each to worthy Juniors of 4 local schools who have achieved well in community involvement. We also do an annual plant sale mid summer with the profits also going to this worthwhile project. We do other fundraisers to add to this scholarship fund.

These schools being Adna, Chehalis, Napavine & PeEll. This scholarship is given to the school to hold for the winners to be presented at their senior graduation.

At the 2007 awards night, the local Juniors nominees who participated with supportive family members attending (over 70 total), were introduced by the school councilors & our master of ceremonies made the presentations. A Pizza feed was enjoyed by all in the dining room afterwards.

Below are photos taken at our 2008 Junior Achievement awards ceremony. Our Senior Warden Steve Carmick was the speaker with a topic of setting goals for your life.

Speech on Goal Setting 2008	2008 Adna winner Jen Green & parents	2008 Napavine nominees & councilor

Chehalis #28 plant sale 2004	Our Bulb Pots in bloom	One of our members helping during our plant sale

(2) Our lodge is instrumental in carrying the ball in setting up in the community, the Masonic CHIP program. This stands for Children Identification Program. CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION

This is a volunteer run program that we have merged with, have support & volunteers from the Lewis County Sheriffs Dept., Centralia Police Department, Chehalis Police Department, & most all of the neighboring lodges. There is no fee charged, however donations would be accepted.

What it does is that we offer a child identification kit that is designed to help find & or identify a missing child. This can also be utilized for some senior citizens who may suffer from memory loss problems.

In use, we tape record a child answering common questions as to name, address, who their friends are, do they ride a bicycle, if so what color is it, if they use a computer & frequent a chat room, what their online name is, etc. We then also record finger prints, a saliva DNA sample, & a tooth bite impression. This information is stored on a small DVD & a packet that is given to the parent in case the child becomes missing. If more than one child is processed from the same family, they are all placed on the same DVD. With this, the parents can then contact law enforcement to start an Amber Alert of the child becomes missing. In no way do we keep any records, as all is given to the parents or guardians. All we keep is the parent/guardians signed permission form.

We are extremely grateful for the donations from the private sector & our local community businesses for help in the purchase the cameras, discs & other supplies to support this worthy cause .

Lewis County Masons, family & Sheriffs' Volunteers doing the CHIP program at the 2006 SW Wash fair

A busy time at SWW fair 2008	Finger-printing SWW Fair 2008	Tooth bite SWW Fair 2008

Overview of operations SWW Fair 2008	I'm on TV review of DVD SWW Fair 2008	This is what I want you to do, SWW Fair 2008

	They come in all sizes

Our lodge & other local masons & with the help of the local law enforcement volunteers, initiated this program in August of 2006 at the SW Washington Fair & by the end of the year had processed very close to 1000 persons.