Presidents Message

As your new 2021-2022 President I, like all of you, are hoping the Covid thing is behind us and we can go back to life as close to normal as possible. The Ladder of Smiles did better than expected this last year because Units knew even in bad times the Children are our main reason for being Shriners. I have a modest good of 45,000 for my year and know it only takes a hundred dollar a member to reach that goal.

What we need back in the shrine and the OB is fun. Somewhere along the line some of us got old, now I am not saying everyone but you know who you are and should step up and be proud we have lived this long. A number of our good friends haven’t been so lucky. What we need to try to do is look back when we were more active and try to get that feeling back. People go where they can have a good time and many is the time I and most of you have been sitting around talking the ole times and the fun we had back then. We can’t party like we did in our 20’s for sure but for an hour or two we should be almost as good as we were.

In order for the sweetest music this side of heaven to continue we need of course new members. Look around you again with fresh eyes and see who might make a good bandsman. Check in with your son and your grandson and see if a legacy member is right for you. Call that member who hasn’t been around in a few years and see if you can get him back.

I like the Jamboree format and have enjoyed going these last few years. Let me say this next years will be different. You will be playing music pretty much every day. You will be playing to a large group of people besides our wives and girlfriends. Come to Wichita KS in May and have something to talk about again.

If you have any suggestion on how to make it better my personal email is avenger@cox.net. I am proud to be a Shriner and do the work we do.

Bill Bailey