Bikes for Books - 2012

The Bikes for Books program has been a long time in coming.  We have worked hard at raising funds and now it has come to fruition.  Here is a picture of all 32 bikes while still in the box.  SFE Manufacturing of Caribou was kind enough to allow us to use their facility to assemble the bikes and store them there until they can be delivered.

So the next step is to get the bikes out of the boxes and put them together.  I was very happy to have  

Duane Walton & Paul Harmon

 ten brethren show up on a Wednesday evening to help with the assembly.  It took us two hours and I think we all had a good time.

 Duane and Paul, two true bike enthusiasts worked very hard on the 20 inch bikes.  We had to keep Paul on task because he seemed to want to make some alterations like on American Choppers.

There were some surprises to the evening, we hadn't considered that the larger bikes would have

Ralph Conroy and John Deveau

gears that would have to be adjusted.  Fortunately in a former place of employment, W. Ralph Conroy had worked on fixing and assembling bikes so he and John Deveau tackled the larger more challenging bikes and left the smaller bikes to the rest of us.   I think Ralph and John took pity on the rest of us and wanted to get done before Midnight.


Having not put a bike together in a while we all had to do some remembering and a little trial and

Jerry Drake , Joe Cheney, and Greg Anderson

 error.  I think Greg had a part left over and it looks like he is really giving it some consideration,

The evening ended with around 8:30 pm and I sincerely want to thank all of the guys for their help.  Not pictured here were Mack Haines, Wendell Spooner and David Spooner.  Afterwards a few of the guys went to Tim Hortons for a cup of coffee.  The night was a complete success.

We began awarding the bikes on Friday the 25th of May in New Sweden, then Hilltop Elementary in Caribou on the 29th, Woodland on the 30th and concluded at Teague Park in Caribou on May 31st. 

Teague Park Students in Caribou

 Attending one or more of the awarding ceremonies of the bikes were Erich Margeson, Wendell Spooner, Duane Walton, Greg Anderson, Jody Smith, and David Spooner.

The kids were all great sports cheering for all of the winners no matter who won.  One young lady in Woodland read 41 books to increase her chances of winning one of these bikes.  In every case the kids were most appreciative to us for their new bikes.  I think this is an absolutely great program for any lodge to participate in and hope that Caribou Lodge continues with in for years to come.

We also received some good media coverage in the Aroostook Republican, WAGM TV, and on Channel X Radio as you can here by clicking below.


https://docs.google.com/file/d/0Bx5iKLPeGpXcdktkSkRXaUp3Y0E/edit


The businesses that donated with the program were:

Felch & Company, The Caribou Trading Post, The Bank of Maine, Car Quest, Sports Inn & Bowladrom, Wardwell's Service Inc., Eric J & Mary Ann Scott, Aroostook County Electric, Jim's Auto Care, Pines Health Services, Solman & Hunter P.A., NorState Federal Credit Union, County Federal Credit Union, Clukey's Parts & Equipment, Powers Roofing, Gallagher Ins. Agency, Alphies Barbershop, Ken Hensler, Channel X Radio, Paradis Shop & Save, Robert Irving, Jepson Financial Advisors, Cary Medical Center, Aroostook County Federal Savings & Loan, Northern Maine Ins. Services, Paterson Manter Properties, Barresi Financial Inc, Key Bank, ReEnergy, C.S. Management, Albear Resturant, Russetto's, Plourde & Plourde Inc., Family Chiropractic, Caribou Inn & Convention Center, Presque Isle Inn & Convention Center, and Sleepers.

We will be putting a thank you in the paper, however if you get the chance to thank and support these businesses please do so.

Here are just a few of the thirty two kids who won bikes this year as a result of our Bikes for Books program.  I think you can see the joy and pride in their faces.

Here is a response from just one of the Principals from the four schools we worked with.

Good Afternoon,

I just want to say thank you again for providing the bikes for our kids.   The children are so very excited, as are their parents.  What a great incentive to get children to READ!! :-)  Thank you for supporting the education of the students at Teague Park School.

Tanya

 Tanya Belanger, Principal

Teague Park School

59 Glenn St.

Caribou, ME 04736

Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Maine

The Officers and Members of Caribou Lodge No. 170  are pleased and proud to present :

Right Worshipful Brother 

John T. Irovando
  Senior Grand Warden
of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Maine 

R.W. Brother John T. Irovando was raised in Jupiter Light Lodge# 340, Jupiter, Florida on August 10, 1999.  He progressed through the chairs until such time as his retirement when he and his wife, Jackie, moved back to the State of Maine.  He affiliated with Caribou Lodge# 170 serving with honor as its Worshipful Master, and presently is Lodge Secretary.  He also affiliated with Limestone Lodge #214 serving first as Historian where he was recognized by the Grand Historian for his Lodge Histories on two different occasions and then Lodge Secretary which is his current position.  He also is a Past President of the Aroostook County Master and Wardens Association, and Past Mason of the Year for Limestone Lodge # 214.  During his service in the State of Florida he served  as an Educational Instructor earning Grand Lodge F.& A.M. Certificates of Qualification in several areas.
Bro. Irovando was appointed Assistant Grand Chaplain of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Maine by M.W. Robert R. Landry serving until being appointed Grand Marshal of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Maine by M.W. W. Louis Greenier II . 

Bro. Irovando is presently a member of both the Scottish Rite and the York Rite bodies.  He is a Chartered Member of the Valley of Aroostook, Polaris Lodge of Perfection;  a member of the Valley of Bangor, Eastern Star Lodge of Perfection, Palestine Council, Princes of Jerusalem, and Bangor Chapter of Rose Croix, all in Bangor, Maine; and a member of the Maine Consistory in Portland, Maine.  He is presently a member of Garfield Chapter No. 48 Royal Arch Masons in Caribou, Maine,  and past member of Palm Beach Chapter No. 24 R.A.M,  Zabud Council No. 17 R. & S.M.,  and Palm Beach Commandery No. 18 K.T. in West Palm Beach, Florida.  He is also a member of Anah Shrine in Bangor, Maine, and a Life Member of the Aroostook County Shrine Club in Presque Isle, Maine.
Bro. Irovando is a 1966 graduate of Scotch Plains High School in New Jersey and has attended Trenton State College, and Union Collage, in New Jersey and Palm Beach College in Florida. He graduated the New Jersey State Police Academy and served with distinction  in Law
Enforcement  in both New Jersey and Florida for a total 34 continuous  years where he received numerous commendations and awards retiring from service in 2003.
Bro. Irovando resides in Limestone, Maine with his wife Jackie (Harvey). They have five grown children and  ten grandchildren.

Masonic Ring Saves Captain and Crew.

Searsport sea captain hero not forgotten, thanks to town historian

By Tom Groening, BDN Staff

Posted May 09, 2012, at 6:06 p.m

SEARSPORT, Maine — History is best told through people, Charlene Farris believes. And the story of one of Searsport’s legendary sea captains, one she knew when she was a child, relates a part of history in dramatic, heroic terms.

Named official historian at town meeting in 2010, Farris has a way of making those people come to life in simple, vivid terms. That skill may have come from 35 years teaching fifth grade at Searsport Elementary School, a job from which she retired last year.

Her passion for local history is well-known but her approach has changed. Instead of trying to tell Searsport’s story in chronological form, Farris now immerses herself in the town’s interesting characters and relates their stories, usually at her annual talks before the Searsport Historical Society.

 One of the more compelling stories is that of Edwin Earle Greenlaw, which includes bravery, leadership and a ring that may have saved lives.

Farris knew Greenlaw as the father of neighbor children with whom she played as a child, growing up on Steamboat Avenue. She remembers the captain speaking to her sixth-grade class.

“I can’t remember a thing he said, but I remember he was handsome,” dressed in his captain’s uniform, Farris recalled.

So last summer, as she was considering the subject of her next historical biography, she was reminded of him.

“I walked down Steamboat Avenue right by Capt. Greenlaw’s house,” she recalled, and her task was clear.

Born in Rockport in 1901, Greenlaw learned the ways of the sea sailing Friendship sloops. As a man, he began working on coal and oil ships, and during a stop in Searsport, a local man, Harrison “Bunny” Jackson invited Greenlaw home to meet the family.

Jackson’s sister, Hazel, was a beauty, Farris said. A victim of polio, she couldn’t walk, yet refused to use crutches, relying on canes and sheer determination. Greenlaw and she married and began living near where Mosman Park is today.

Greenlaw didn’t like staying ashore, though, and began working for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company.

When World War II began, the U.S. government took control of merchant ships. Late in 1943, Greenlaw was captain of the S.S. Alaskan, a 5,369-ton vessel hauling a cargo of 800 tons of chrome ore from South Africa to Dutch Guiana in South America. The ship did not have a military escort, but did have deck guns.

At 4:30 a.m. on Nov. 28, during a pouring rainstorm, a look-out saw the wakes of two torpedoes approaching the ship. One missed, but the other struck the middle of the ship, destroying the engine and two lifeboats, the work of a German submarine.

“The deck buckled, it listed to port, but didn’t sink,” Farris said. The German U-boat surfaced and its officers ordered the men to abandon the ship. More than 50 crew members, officers and armed guards jumped into lifeboats.

The sub then shelled the ship until it sank at 8:10 a.m.

One of the lifeboats swamped, drowning four men. Another, with 29 men, eventually landed in Angola, in Africa. Thirteen more men climbed aboard a raft, and later were picked up by a Spanish vessel and taken to the Canary Islands.

As captain, Greenlaw was the last to leave the vessel, taking time to destroy documents he deemed security threats. After Greenlaw boarded a raft with eight other survivors, the U-boat captain brought the sub alongside and ordered Greenlaw to board the sub. The sub captain questioned Greenlaw, who gave only basic information. He was then returned to the raft.

Later, Greenlaw would tell his sons he noticed the U-boat captain wore a ring signifying his membership in the Masons, a fraternal organization. Greenlaw wore a similar ring. That link saved his life, Greenlaw believed.

The German captain told Greenlaw he was sorry the sub sank his ship, “but this is war. Why don’t you tell America to get out of the war?”

Four hundred miles from land in a leaking raft, Greenlaw summoned his leadership and maritime skills, Farris said. He ordered the men to keep a lookout for one of the unoccupied lifeboats. Three days later, they found it and raised and bailed it out. The men fashioned a sail and mast, using their only tool, Greenlaw’s pocket knife.

The lifeboat had emergency supplies including 53 tins of pemmican, which Farris said “were molded cakes of fat, flavored with meat and berries.” There also were 106 bottles of malted milk tablets, 65 chocolate bars and 15 gallons of water.

Greenlaw ordered the armed guard commander to ration the food and water.

After being becalmed in the equatorial waters, the trade winds picked up, rains came replenishing drinking water, and the men were able to catch fish and snare birds to eat — raw.

Thirty-nine days after being torpedoed, the men sighted land and went ashore on French Guiana on Jan. 5, 1944. The locals thought they were prisoners escaped from Devil’s Island, but the men were able to convince them otherwise.

 Farris said Greenlaw kept the men focused, disciplined and hopeful, which helped them survive. His twin sons, Edwin — known as Bing who lives in Thorndike — and Eugene — known as Biff who lives in Stockton Springs — remember their father as a kind man who loved to laugh. That demeanor probably helped him keep spirits up during those 39 days of deprivation.

Greenlaw worked another 18 years for the American-Hawaiian Steamship Company. Sadly, he decided in 1962 to take one more voyage as captain before retiring, picking up oil in Iran. While there, he contracted hepatitis and lingered in a hospital for weeks before dying in early 1963. He is buried in the town’s Gordon Cemetery.

Residents should be proud of Greenlaw, Farris said: “He was handsome, charming, professional and kind. In short, Hollywood’s version of the perfect sea captain.”

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/09/news/midcoast/searsport-sea-captain-hero-not-forgotten-thanks-to-town-historian/ 

Masonic admin offices relocate to East Holden from Portland

More than 50 people, including Masons and their friends and relatives, gathered in East Holden on Saturday, April 21 to dedicate the new location for the Grand Lodge of Maine administrative offices, library, and museum.

Since the early 1900s, those facilities occupied rented space at 415 Congress St., Portland, said Grand Secretary Gerald Leighton. “We had to move out because of the administrative costs of staying in that building.”

“The building was built in 1910. We had to use an elevator to reach the third floor where our offices were,” said Grand Master W. Louis Greenier II. “There’s no parking there in Portland.”

A site-selection committee studied locations in Maine, including a former branch bank at the intersection of Routes 1A and 46 in East Holden. Approximately 3,000 square feet in size with a similarly dimensioned basement, the building was constructed 19 years ago.

Masons attending a Grand Lodge meeting held Dec. 10, 2011 in Bangor “accepted the proposal to purchase the building and move to Holden,” Leighton said. The sale to the Maine Masonic Charitable Foundation took place on Dec. 30, 2011.

“It fit our requirements and needs quite nicely,” he said. “In today’s world with electronic messaging and faxes, it didn’t matter where we were.”

The Grand Lodge of Maine had been headquartered in southern Maine for almost two centuries, according to Greenier. “When the Grand Lodge of Maine formed in 1820, we got our charter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts,” he said. “Back then, everything was in the southern part of” Maine.

As Maine’s population expanded north and east, so did Masonic membership. Today the Grand Lodge of Maine has some 20,000 members spread across 24 districts and 185 lodges. According to Greenier, relocating the administrative offices to Holden made sense “masonically wise,” because “there are more [members] in the central part of the state than in the southern part of the state.

“I have a deputy who lives 15 minutes from [the] Grand Lodge [offices in Portland] and has never been there,” Greenier said.

After acquiring the Holden building, the Grand Lodge undertook some renovations. “We had to remove the teller cages, and we put ceramic tile throughout the building,” Greenier said. “We painted it. The cost was nothing as significant as it would cost us if we had to build a new building.

“They did a nice job inside, renovating it,” he said. “It’s very pleasant to work there.”

According to Leighton, three people will work full time at the administrative offices. He described the facility as “a multi-use building” that “also houses the Grand Lodge museum and library.” The administrative offices “will support the local lodges” throughout Maine, Leighton indicated.

The site has 22 authorized parking spaces, and the existing drive-through lanes could be enclosed to add another 800 square feet to the building. The Grand Lodge of Maine wants to expand its library; “we have a lot of members who have libraries [of Masonic material] who want to donate them,” Greenier said. “You wouldn’t believe the Masonic material that is available: thousands and thousands of books.”

The April 21 dedication featured a Masonic “cornerstone laying” ceremony and a brief welcoming speech by Holden Town Council Chairman Robert Harvey. Interviewed after the dedication, he said that “I welcome the Grand Lodge of Maine and their library and museum to the Town of Holden.

“I’m pleased to have the building occupied,” he said. “It’ll bring people in … from all over the state to view the library and museum.”

“It’s a beautiful building,” Greenier said. “It’s a nice location, and it’s pretty convenient to Bangor, the interstate, the coast. We couldn’t have found anything any better.

“We’re excited,” he said. “We’ve found [that] we’ve had more people in the [Holden] administrative offices in the last few weeks than we did in our last six months in Portland.

“We’ve got a lot more possibilities in Holden than we had in Portland,” Greenier said.

http://bangordailynews.com/2012/05/02/the-weekly/masonic-admin-offices-relocate-to-east-holden-from-portland/

Membership in Masonry