January 2008

Now that the holidays have passed and the New Year has just begun, I want to take a moment to reflect upon one event from last year; as you may recall, last June we sustained significant water damage to the state office building when more than five inches of rain fell in less than an hour, overwhelming our storm drains as well as those in the street. The water entered our building after bending a steel basement door and its frame, pouring in with such force that it dented the oil tank, damaged the heating and alarm systems and completely destroyed the driver training classroom, as well as all the other property in the basement. There was so much rainwater that our basement, which has a ten foot ceiling, was completely flooded and the water level reached over a foot high on the first floor.

At the time, I reported that the offer by our insurance company was not even close to the final costs for the cleanup and repairs. It would be an understatement to say that the future looked bleak and it seemed that the only way to recover was to request support from our members and friends. What followed was a raffle sponsored by the State Board with one prize of $10,000. In addition to requesting participation by other lodges at the biennial conference in Louisville, KY last summer, tickets were sent to each member and lodge.

I am pleased to report that once enough money was received to secure the prize, we were able to continue the restoration of the state headquarters. At this point, except for rebuilding the walls in the basement, that is now complete.

There are no words that adequately express my gratitude to the other State Lodges, our own subordinate lodges and each member whose financial support was essential during this project. The drawing was held at our State Trustees meeting on December 19, 2007 and the winning ticket number was 35482. It was also my pleasure to inform the winner of the raffle, a member of lodge #38, who at first couldn’t believe that he won, but then asked me to sincerely thank everyone on his behalf.