The North Carolina Mason

July/August 2020 The North Carolina Mason Page 7 NCMF Lodge letter program heading to a lodge near YOU As the old saying goes, the best laid plans of mice and men soon go awry. The plans we all had for 2020 have gone by the wayside as we fight the coronavirus, while huddling in isolation and waiting for an "all clear" signal. As hard as this year has been on everyone, it has been arguably harder on our charities, which have made heroic efforts to protect our children in Oxford and our senior brothers and sisters in Greensboro. Both organizations have had to restructure how they do business, how they serve their residents, how they fight an invisible enemy and how they maintain some semblance of a budget. Meanwhile, fund- raisers our lodges traditionally hold on their behalf all year have been cancelled; many not to be rescheduled. So, in consultation with lodge Masters and others, NCMF in August will bring back a tradition designed to help lodges that opt in get the word out about giving in hard times. For each lodge that accepts, NCMF offers to produce, print and mail a letter signed by the Master to brothers of that lodge asking them to consider a gift to our charities to help make up for the loss of fundraisers. It's a turnkey program that takes but a minute to accept. We'll be emailing details to each District Deputy Grand Master, who will contact masters of lodges in their district. We do the rest – and our charities benefit! Brethren, co-workers will miss working with Cornelia ere may not be a lodge officer in North Carolina who has not found himself on the phone with Cornelia Doherty at some point or another. And when he did, he found a friend and a colleague who would move mountains to help. Cornelia retired from the Grand Lodge staff in July, where she has worked for almost 40 years. ere's very little Cornelia doesn't know about the administrative workings of Free- masonry in the Tar Heel state. e Rocky Mount native was hired in 1981 by then-Grand Secretary Pete Dudley. She never really had a formal title, but Grand Secretary Walt Clapp calls her the ultimate administrative assistant. Her early role was to handle reports and events from lodges and record them by hand on 3x5 index cards – in duplicate. As time went on, she became indispensable. She took on handling petitions and applications, out-of-state correspondence and the lion's share of details for Annual Communication. Hotels, rooms, reser- vations, food service – you name it, she handled the arrangements. She's a whiz at numbers, so her institutional knowledge of lodge numbers was forever in play. She also got to know staff in Grand Lodges all over the country, which opened lines of communication and knowledge from other jurisdictions, said Jonathan Underwood, assistant to the Grand Secretary. Her personality made her a favorite among callers. She loved to talk with brothers about their families, their pets and especially loved stories about their grandchildren. Clapp says he will miss his friend. "You work together for so long, you know everything there is to know. Even when you have spats at work, you end up friends," he said. "It will be hard to fill her shoes as far as work, but the friendship goes on." Any brethren interested in sending a card or best wishes, can write to Cornelia in care of the Grand Lodge, 2921 Glenwood Ave., Raleigh NC, 27608. Tick tock … Whether you're a "watch guy" like our Grand Master or not, the limited-edition Masonic watch he has designed with a High Point watchmaker to help raise funds for our charities will catch your eye. ere is still time to order your own hand- assembled watch, which features the square and compasses on the front face, and the words "Grand Lodge of North Carolina AF & AM" above the 6 o'clock mark. Net proceeds from the sale of each watch, priced at $350, go to the North Carolina Masonic Foundation in support of the Masonic Home for Children and WhiteStone: A Masonic and Eastern Star community. e watch is NC-made and has a Miyota 8215 auto- matic movement, sapphire crystal, and all stainless steel construction. e case back has the 2020 Grand Master's pin design etched into it. Production was limited to only 100 watches and each watch will have its number shown on the case back. Here's where to order: https://my-site-106242-103188. square.site/ Watch what can happen when you order one of these

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