From the East
Welcome to the month of June my Brothers and friends,
I'd like to start by offering a congratulations to Brother Gabriel Zabroski, who was passed to the degree of Fellowcraft on 30May after delivering an excellent Entered Apprentice proficiency a few weeks prior. Brother Zabroski, we look forward to hearing your Fellowcraft proficiency when you are ready.
For this month, all is quiet on the horizon with only our Stated Meeting on 10Jun, and of course the weekend coffees on 8Jun and 22Jun.
Additionally, this month the federal holiday of Juneteenth is observed. For those that are not aware of what this holiday celebrates, the Juneteenth celebration which has been observed unofficially since 1865 and commemorates the emancipation of slaves in the United States on the anniversary of the date on which emancipation was announced in Galveston, Texas.
Fraternally, Chase Murray - Worshipful Master
From the West
Dear Masonic family and friends.
It's hard for me to believe but this Masonic year for Santa Maria Lodge is half over. It seems that we still have a lot to accomplish, and such a short time left. I read a passage in the Bible just a bit ago that I would like to share my thoughts with you on the verse. It is in the book of Psalms:
"Among all the gods (small g) there is none like you, Oh Lord; no deeds can compare to yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, O Lord; they will bring glory to your name. For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God." (Psalm 86: 8-10)
Which other gods (small g) is King David talking about? My theory is that there are many material gods (money, sex, drugs, alcohol......) I believe that if we love any material thing more than we love God then we are in league with the devil.
Yours in Christ.
Don Ruch, PM, Senior Warden
From the South
To all the Brothers, Ladies, family and Friends,
Please join us for our Stated meeting on June 10th. Ranch catering will be providing the following;
Stuffed pork chops, Oven fried chicken, Anna Potatoes, buttered corn, Rolls and butter. For Dessert we will have carrot cake.
Restrooms are fully functional and complete. We appreciate everyone’s patience during the time the bathrooms were closed.
I had the pleasure of presenting our Scholarships at Ramona High school on May 23rd. For those that don’t know, the Lodge has been presenting scholarships to high school seniors since 1996. This started the year after the 2 Firefighting planes collided in Ramona and 3 crew members were killed. The following year, Worshipful Jack Story and others from the lodge and community started a pancake breakfast at the airport to help raise funds. I am sure most brothers that were involved in the lodge back then remember this. Since then, the lodge has continued to donate scholarships to those students that are pursuing a Carrer as first responders, in the medical field, or in the trades. This year we received 22 applicants and through great effort from Rex McCray and the scholarship community, the lodge chose to give out (4) $500 scholarships. If you haven’t been to this event, it is very awesome to see these amazing kids receive these scholarships and to see the great work they are doing. This year there were over $118,000 in scholarships given out by the community as a whole. It is great that our lodge can be apart of that. Thank you to the brothers who started this, and for the brothers that continue to carry on this tradition.
A few weeks ago, Worshipful Brother Chase Murray and I went the the Masters and Wardens retreat. As always when you go to these retreats you hope to walk away with a lot of great ideas to bring back to the lodge. This year, we really focused on how to get brothers to come back to the lodge. This is an ongoing problem with most lodges in California and frankly all over the world, and especially with our lodge. With the hope that I will be voted by my brothers in a few years to become the Master of the lodge, I want to start my journey towards the East sooner and not wait unit I am actually sitting in the East (if elected). I would like to encourage all brothers currently coming to the lodge, but especially those that are not coming to the lodge to start reaching out to me personally and share your journey in Masonry with me and to start finding ways we can change, improve, or enhance the lodge experience to get all those brothers back that have gone away for one reason or another. I encourage the brothers to call me at 858-943-1079 or email me at pjjohnson04@gmail.com. Please share with me what we can start doing to get you back into the lodge. We are not looking to fill officers’ chairs (although in full disclosure, that is a concern), we are looking to get our brothers back into the lodge and build back what this Lodge once was. We have a lot of younger members that really would thrive by hearing the masonic journey from brothers that have been here for a long time. I will continue to push this every month and will start reaching out to those I don’t hear from. We need to get the Santa Maria Lodge back to the brotherhood we all came here to join and put the past in the past and build towards the future of this lodge, for the younger members and for members who have yet to join. Let’s be proud of our fraternity again and especially the fraternity that has been here in Ramona for over 100 years. I love you my brothers and would love to see you all come back!!
John 6:35 “and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.”
May God Bless you all and keep you safe and healthy!!
Pete Johnson - Junior Warden
Secretary’s Corner
June has arrived and Happy Father’s Day to all of our Fathers and the Father’s in the Lodge! Public Schools Night was a great success, and the students and family were happy and proud to be selected for this honor. Congratulations to Brother Gabriel Zabrosky for being passed to the Degree of Fellowcraft. We had a couple of visitors with some outstanding work being done by Worshipful Brother Jeff Powell and a fantastic singing rendition of the perambulation by our Inspector, Worshipful Tom Colgan. It was all around a fantastic degree and evening. You really missed out if you were not here.
We continue to meet at 0800 on the 2 nd and 4th Saturday’s of the month at the Lodge for coffee and then breakfast. Our candidates and prospects are often there to meet the Brothers. Come join us and get to know these fine men that are looking to join our Fraternity.
Please go to member.freemason.org and check your information. If you have not yet created your account, PLEASE get with me and I will walk you through creating the account and entering your information.
After voting and suspending our 3 year Delinquent Brothers, there are still 23 Brothers that are in arrears for the 2024 dues. Remember, you have an obligation to pay your dues. If you have not made your payment, you are overdue. The dues for 2024 are $126.00. Per our By-Laws, the calculation is $60.00 + per capita rounded up to the nearest dollar. Per capita is $65.25 this year, which gives us our total of $126.00
If you are in arrears for your dues, you need to pay all that is owed to be brought back in to good standing. As an example, if you pay for 2024 only, and owe for 2023, I cannot send you your 2024 dues card. You are still in arrears and will need to bring your dues up to date first.
If you are financially unable to pay your dues, please contact the Master to discuss. You can mail your dues to:
Santa Maria Lodge No. 580,
PO Box 68, Ramona, CA 92065
You can also go to our website, http://www.santamaria580.org, and pay online. If you have paid and have not received your card in a reasonable amount of time, please contact me at 951-970-4294 or secretary@santamaria580.org and I will take care of it.
S/F
Bill Graham, PM - Secretary
Reminder!!
Have you moved? Changed your phone number? Changed your e-mail address? Have you notified the Lodge if you have done any of these things?? In an ongoing effort to ensure that all member get due and timely notice of all Lodge information, it is important that you keep your information updated with us.
I would greatly appreciate it if all of you would log in to member.freemason.org, go to the My Profile section and ensure that all of your address/phone number/e-mail is up to date. This will automatically update the i-member section that I use as the Secretary to for your mailings and other contacts.
Calendar of Events
Lodge Officer Directory
Master - Chase Murray
Senior Warden - Don Ruch, PM (Vicki)
Junior Warden - Pete Johnson
Treasurer - Bob Weldon, PM (Brenda)
Secretary - Bill Graham, PM (Teri)
Chaplain - Elijah Descoteaux
Marshal - Bruce Smith, PM (Beverly)
Senior Deacon - Ken Bychak II, PM (Laura)
Junior Deacon - Rex McCray
Senior Steward - Mark Lantz (Kim)
Junior Steward - Dave Murray, PM (Catheren)
Tiler - Wade Hendry (Marianne)
(619) 607-2935
(619) 787-3858
(858) 943-1079
(760) 807-2883
(951) 970-4294
(619) 987-1004
(760) 788-9475
(707) 328-9617
(760) 788-4957
(858) 231-4646
(619) 302-1223
(760) 535-3176
Santa Maria Masonic Building
Association (SMMBA) Directory
President - Don Ruch, PM
Vice President - Chase Murray
Treasurer/Secretary - Dave Murray, PM
Member - Ken Bychak II, PM
Member - Bob Weldon, PM
Member - Wade Hendry
Member - Bruce Smith, PM
Member - Pete Johnson
(619) 787-3858
(619) 607-2935
(619) 302-1223
(707) 328-9617
(760) 807-2883
(760) 535-3176
(760) 788-9475
(858) 943-1079