The North Carolina Mason

November/December 2018 The North Carolina Mason Page 7 ■ see BOOK, page 15 Annual reports show how our Masonic charities are doing Lodges should keep a share eye on the mail – there is some interesting news on the way! All three Masonic charities have released their annual reports and have either arrived at your lodge or are on their way. It takes many hours and lots of person-power to produce a report on how your charities have fared in the past year and what their plans are for the year to come. All brothers are more than welcome to take a look at the original when it hits your lodge or settle in for a good read by linking to each report online. In this year's report from the Masonic Home for Children, read about the strategic plan developed early last year and how it has been implemented to make the home stronger and keep kids safe and sound. e WhiteStone report features a profile on new Administrator Mark Lewis and a loving remembrance of a brother who this year left the largest gift WhiteStone has ever received. e NCMF report looks at new programs that have given lodges a way to invest their money to endow long-term gifts to our charities, the creation of a new legacy gift program, the successful campaign to help MHCO raise funds to build a new pool and special plans to recognize St. John's Day next year. Your feedback on these reports – and your great ideas – are welcome. Contact information is available in each report. Here are the links: Masonic Home for Children at Oxford https://mhc-oxford.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/AR-2017.pdf North Carolina Masonic Foundation https://mfnc.org/storage/components/annual2018-online.pdf WhiteStone: A Masonic and Eastern Star Community https://www.liveatwhitestone.org/app/uploads/annual-achievement-report-2016-2017. pdf New and noteworty ideas from lodges across the state Lion and Pillar inspires lodge's coin box project ELKIN – Small change inspired a big idea for Louis Jeroslow, worshipful Master at Elkin #454. Inspired by Lion and Pillar goals, he bought 50 coin banks at the beginning of the year, applied Masonic square-and-compass decals and created an initiative he calls Spare Change Can Change Lives. He asked brothers to take one, fill it with pocket change at the end of each day and bring it back to lodge when it was full. To date, about $400 has been collected from the 30 banks that were handed out, and more is expected by the end of the year. Proceeds will go to the North Carolina Masonic Foundation, which helps fund our charities – e Masonic Home for Children at Oxford and WhiteStone: A Masonic and Eastern Star Commu- nity. But they also decided to branch out a bit beyond the lodge room. Coin boxes have also have been placed at shops around town, creating new opportunities to share the news about our charities and what they do. Jeroslow says he has been "very inspired by the Lion and Pillar program to guide Elkin Lodge to aspire and achieve a higher level of success and the expectation for the next brothers in line to continue this work. e program has been a wonderful road map to guide me and I am very grateful." NCMF releases book honoring our historic lodges Sometimes, a great idea is more than just a great idea. After a year of work, the North Carolina Masonic Foundation is proud to release a coffee table book designed to honor our Craft and recognize the historic beauty of the lodges that we call home. Sacred Retreats: A Tour of Historic Lodges of North Carolina Freema- sonry was released at this year's Annual Communication and is now on sale online. e book, photographed and designed by Melody McBride of Flashbacks by Red and edited by Beth Grace, NCMF's communications director, is a loving look at some of our most

• Cover