Team Freedom

2007 Ill. Walter E. Webber Class Masonic Leadership Institute

On the weekend of September 7-9th 2007 the Ill. Walter Ernest Webber class of the Masonic Leadership Institute met for their second weekend of instruction.  This weekend was  full of enthusiasm, hard work and Brotherly Love. The Saturday evening banquet had a last minute change. The planned guest speaker was unable to make the commitment and left that evening?s function without any source of entertainment.  Team Advisor, Brother Cailte Kelley saved the evening by bringing his equipment which included a keyboard.  He gave a truly entertaining, impromptu performance that we all enjoyed.  During this performance several Brothers walked to the stage and tipped Brother Kelley. This comical gesture of appreciation continued with other Brothers. Soon the basket overflowed and a second one was started.  Brother Kelley in true Masonic fashion graciously thanked the Brethren present for their generosity and suggested that the funds should be donated.  This led to Team Freedom becoming the lucky recipient. 

This truly warm, Masonic and generous evening rendered a total contribution to Team Freedom?s Masonic Troop Support Program of $1,050.00. 

At the Masonic Ambassador Training on July 26th in Lexinton and August 2nd in Charlton, Team Freedom was asked to make a presentation regarding the Masonic Troop Support Program.  A Power Point presentation was designed by Team Freedom member Paul Andrews and was also presented by him and Jack Sutton.  It is the goal of Grand Lodge that this program be further developed at the Lodge level and overseen by the Lodge Ambassadors.  The hopes are that Masonic Military personnel or personnel with a Masonic connection within that Lodge will be recognized and supported with care packages and family communication and support.  If the Lodge has no connection or a very minimal number, then the Ambassador should look outside of his Lodge to his local community for any Military personnel that could be recognized and supported equally and take the opportunity to introduce them to Freemasonry.

Paul Andrews with Presentation at the Masonic Overlook in Charlton.

Team Freedom members in attendance: L-R Bro. Paul Andrews, Wor. Jack Sutton, Wor. Ed Parsons, Bro. Greg Kolandjian, and Wor. Paul Cannan (MLI Advisor).

More packages were sent out on Saturday June 23, 2007 incuding one to Afghanistan.  Thanks to the matching funds from the Grand Lodge of MA, we are now able to begin purchasing phone cards for select donation levels to add to the packages.  We thank the Grand Lodge for their support.

Bro. Paul Andrews with a package sponsored by Marine Lodge of Falmouth, MA.

L-R Bro. Greg Kolandijian, Bro. Ed Viera and Wor. Jack Sutton

It's only appropriate that our first package would be sent out on Memorial Day Weekend.  Thanks to the support of many Brothers and Lodges we have achieved our first goal.  A generous donation by Brother Olsson from Old Colony Lodge in Hingham, MA allowed us to also apply our first 'Sponsored By:" labels.  Donations are starting to come in and our address list is slowly starting to grow.  Our web site is getting a lot of buzz locally and internationally and we thank all who have posted kind words.  Check back often.

Left to Right: Brother Mike Faria, Wor. Jack Sutton and Wor. Paul Cannan.

Wor. Ed Parsons affixing our "Sponsor" labels.

We plan on being very busy in the coming months.

On May 12 we finalized package contents and price including shipping.  We also set up our bank account and PO Box.  Bro. Ed Parsons presented some very attractive lapel pins that we plan to sell on our web site.  We will be looking into more items that may be of interest that we can sell on our web site.  We have sent letters out to all the DDGM requesting information from their respected districts regarding Masons deployed overseas.  We expect some contact information in the next two weeks.  We have scheduled our next meeting on May 26 when we will be "stuffing boxes" for shipment.  We will have our tax ID this week and our Donation Information page will be active so contributions can be made securely online.  In the coming weeks we will launch the MTSP Store which will allow you to purchase items online.  A tier system for donations with different features for certain levels of contributions is in the works.  The idea was presented and accepted that with larger donations we will offer a label with the sponsors name so the Brother can see who donated the package.  Other items of appreciation are being discussed.