Gulf Beach Masonic Lodge, located at 14020 Marguerite Dr. in Madeira Beach, continues its support of the Masonic Service Association’s Hospital Visitation Program at Bay Pines VA Hospital. The members of Gulf Beach Lodge collected items for the program and donated $150.00 to the cause. The Masonic Service
Association of the United States was created in 1919 by the Grand Lodges of the United States for the purpose of performing a number of services under one central organization. Some of those services have changed over the years, but MSA remains an organization dedicated to serving Freemasonry, our country, and the world.
The initial reason for MSA’s formation was so U.S. Freemasonry could provide aid to our military servicemen near the end of World War I. The War Department (now Defense Department) refused to work with 49 (at that time) different Grand Lodges, but the government department agreed to work with just one agency.
So Grand Masters gathered in Cedar Rapids in 1918 to discuss and formulate the concept of MSA, and again in 1919 to formally give birth to the new organization.
MSA’s goal from the start was to provide services to the Grand Lodges that they could not perform as easily individually. MSA was given the charge to provide services to our military, create informational and educational materials, and to issue disaster relief appeals and distribute funds collected for that purpose. In the years after its creation MSA established service centers in numerous cities in the United States and a few overseas. During the World War II years, with the formation of Veterans Administration Hospitals, MSA’s role changed to provide services at the VA Medical Centers.
Now called the MSA Hospital Visitation Program, this duty continues today, with MSA volunteers at some 150 VA sites, providing more than 100,000 hours of volunteer service annually.
The Masonic Hospital Visitation Program is, without a doubt, the finest public relations program ever undertaken by the Masonic fraternity. The Masonic Service Association of North America deems this program their major relief work. It is much more than merely “visitations” to the disabled and lonely patients in V.A. Hospitals, State Veterans Homes and Extended Care Facilities.
It is the rendering of personal services to all our sons and brothers, Masons and Non-Masons alike, who now need someone to turn to for encouragement and to make life a little more pleasant. Little things mean a lot. A friendly smile, a warm handclasp, an embrace and a kind word can do wonders for those who are lonely and depressed in a hospital or a nursing home.
Gulf Beach Masonic Lodge No. 291 was chartered in 1950 and has been an active force on the Gulf Beaches for over 68 years.
Its members have included bankers, contractors, teachers, Congressmen, soldiers, pharmacists, police, firefighters, and a myriad of men from all walks of life. Freemasonry is open to men ages 21 and above and offers an opportunity to be proactive in the community as well as to be a part of a fraternity that dates back three hundred years. Some notable Freemasons were George Washington (and 15 other US Presidents), Ben Franklin, Henry Ford, Red Skelton, and General Douglas MacArthur. Those interested in more information about Freemasonry can visit the Lodge website at www.gulfbeachlodge.org