November/December/January 2005-2006


Letters:

‘You and the Moose Were The Only Ones Who Acknowledged My Need’

Helping a Florida member get her niece, nephew out of Biloxi

Editor’s note: Mooseheart and Moose International officials were glad to help a Chapter member in Florida immediately following Hurricane Katrina’s ravaging of southern Louisiana and Mississippi. The correspondence began late on Aug. 30 with this e-mail to Scott Hart, Executive Director of Mooseheart Child City & School:

> We are members of the Moose and I am writing you in hope that you or a member can help provide us with much needed information.

My niece and great-nephew are stuck in Biloxi, MS. My sister and her husband (also with the Moose) want to go pick them up. We need to know if there is access on Route 10 and 110 into Biloxi--or, any way to get the children out so they can be picked up. We are in southeast Florida and can leave immediately to meet up with them. They are stranded; without transportation or money. We have no way of getting funds to them, but want to bring them home.

Send correspondence to LETTERS, Moose Magazine, Mooseheart, IL 60539-1174, or to kwehrmeister @mooseintl. org. Letters must be signed, and may be edited for brevity and clarity.
Hart forwarded the note the next morning, Aug. 31, to General Governor David Chambers, who immediately responded to the member and asked Regional Manager Ron Trygstad to follow up. That same morning, this e-mail back from Florida:

David, thank you and the membership. My brother-in-law John O’Meara is enroute now from Pompano Beach to Biloxi. His cell number is (---) if anyone has any information. he expects to be in range around 7 p.m. tonight. Main information needed is whether Route 10 is open and access to Biloxi via 110. My heartfelt thanks to everyone.
Chambers responded with phone numbers for Regional Manager Trygstad so that either the member or her husband could contact him directly, and added, “We hope everything works out for the best.” Less than 24 hours later, on Thursday morning, Sept. 1, she wrote back one last time with happy news:

I cannot extend my thanks enough for your help.
I contacted all of the membership groups that I belong to, looking for help.

You and the Moose were the only ones who even acknowledged my need.

I want you to know we have the children and they are headed home. The devastation in Biloxi is horrible . . . Again, thank you!

Carol Brown
Pompano Beach, FL

Drive for Defibrillators

> My son, age 18, died last year of cardiac arrest while running track at school. He was diagnosed with a heart condition in middle school; we were blessed to have him until he reached 12th grade.

Since then, my father and I (both Moose, as well as my husband) have become huge advocates of automated electronic defibrillators (AEDs). My father took it upon himself to raise money, school by school, while we lobbied with senators, congressmen and the governor. Finally, I’m proud to say, we got a bill passed here in Virginia and AEDs were installed in all of the state’s high schools by June.

As of May this year, our Moose Lodge donated funds to put the AED in William Byrd Middle School. I have taken it a step further here in Chesterfield, VA, outside of Richmond; I’ve been meeting with the American Heart Association, and we are starting a fundraising campaign to get AEDs installed in all middle and elementary schools in the Richmond area.

The reason I’m writing this long letter is that my father (Robert Patton, Administrator of Vinton, VA Lodge 1121) has devoted his life to the Moose my whole life; I need to show him the respect and love I feel for him --but most of all to make more people aware of the danger and hopefully save more lives.

Marchetta Patton Tench
Midlothian, VA

Editor’s note: Three Automated Electronic Defibrillators (AEDs) were installed in 2002 at strategic locations on the Mooseheart campus.


HQ Leaves Smoking Up to Us; That’s As It Should Be

> I’ve been a member since 2002--last year I obtained my life membership--and I am a smoker. I’ve been very active since we joined.

Numerous occasions, a nonsmoking member has complained to me about the smoke. My kind and considerate reply is, “Please come to a Lodge or Chapter meeting and make your concerns known. We need you to get involved; your voice counts, but only in the meetings.” Not once, ever, have any of these people shown up for a meeting.

I truly appreciate that Moose International leaves it up to the individual Lodges to make the decision about smoking. The local Moose facility is not a bar, nor a restaurant. It is not run to meet the “consumer mentality.” It is a fraternity of volunteers whose ultimate goal is to provide for Mooseheart and Moosehaven.

Please get involved at the local level; make your voice heard by your actions in coming to meetings, voting, and spending your time in support of the Lodge and Chapter activities that ultimately support our overall goals of Mooseheart and Moosehaven.

Martha Jane Webster
Phoenix, AZ


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