Masonic youth organization gives $1,600 to other youths
A few more than a half-dozen pre-teen members of the William C. Graham Manor Squires not only organized a community spaghetti dinner, but they also helped get the ingredients, cook them into meals and serve people at the fundraiser in October.
The chapter’s master Squire, 11-year-old Jameson Curran, explained this whole process to staffers of Butler County Children & Youth Services on Wednesday, Dec. 6, when the Squires donated the proceeds from that spaghetti dinner to the youth agency. In total, the dinner raised just over $1,600 for CYS.
Jameson said it was the first time most of the members of the Masonic youth organization had participated in such a large-scale community event. But as he explained, the children were dedicated to doing much of the work so CYS could get the most benefit.
“We wanted to lower costs as much as possible to donate as much as possible to CYS,” Jameson said. “It was a long, busy day, but we were happy to do it.”
Joyce Rauschenberger, William C. Graham Manor Adviser, said she helped guide the members of the Squires in hosting the dinner, but the children did a lot of the work.
“Everybody else took turns taking people to their tables, getting them their beverages, asking them what kind of sauce or salad dressing they wanted,” Rauschenberger said. “Everyone had all the jobs.”
The Squires donated money to CYS last year as well, when there were only two members of the group. Charlie Johns, administrator of Butler County Children & Youth Services, said Wednesday that the money will be used first to supply Christmas gifts to children in foster programs.
“This will go to kids in our county — it’s a great time of year for this,” Johns said. “Laura (Gellner) works on our Christmas program to make sure the foster kids and families who need gifts for Christmastime get them, and we need all the help we can get for this.”
Johns said the children in the Squires were eager last year to learn about Children & Youth Services, and he has been happy to keep them in the loop about how their donations help the organization.
“I plan on doing that this time too because they were so caring about knowing what their efforts could buy,” Johns said. “It was just so touching for me to be able to reach back out and say, ‘This is what we actually did.’”
Philip Melnick, 10, a recent addition to the Squires, said everyone in the organization was happy to put in the work for people helped by CYS programs.
“We just felt really good about it,” Philip said. “We know it’s going to help a lot of lives.”
