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A Short History of Shriners Hospitals for Children and the Shriners of North America
The Evolution of the “World’s Greatest Fraternity”
The Evolution of the “World’s Greatest Philanthropy”
Shriners Hospitals for
Children
Shriners International Exhibit
Shriners International Headquarters
Shriners of North America – How the Organisation Works
What is a Shriner? What kind of organisation attracts physicians,
lawyers, truck drivers, dentists, contractors, heads of state, movie
stars, generals, constabulary, clergymen and accountants?
Someone might answer: “Oh yeah, Shriners are those guys who always have
those parades with the wild costumes and funny little cars.” Another
might think of circuses and clowns. The fellow next to him might
interject, “No, Shriners are the guys who wear those funny hats – like
flowerpots – and have those big conventions.”
“I don’t know about that,” a passerby might add. “But I do know my
little girl was born with clubfeet and now they are straight, and she
can walk like anyone else, thanks to
Shriners Hospitals for Children.”
“She can walk?” questions still another. “I thought the Shriners ran
those fantastic burn hospitals. I’ve read stories about them saving kids
with burns on ninety per-cent of their bodies.”
All those people are right. Each has experienced an aspect of
Shrinedom.
What they cannot experience, unless they are Shriners, are the
camaraderie, deep friendships, good fellowship and great times shared by
all Shriners. What they may not know is that all Shriners share a
Masonic heritage: Each is a Master Mason in the Freemasonry fraternity.
Historically, Masons had to become members of the
York Rite or
Scottish Rite
bodies before becoming a Shriner. However, at the Imperial Council
session in July 2000, an amendment to Shrine law changed that
requirement, allowing Master Masons to become Shriners directly.
There are more than 411,000 Shriners now. They gather in ‘temples’, or
chapters, throughout the United States, Canada, México and Panamá.
There are twenty-two Shriners Hospitals for Children providing care
for orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, and cleft lip
and palate. These hospitals have helped more than 800,000 children – at
no cost to parent or child – since the first Shriners Hospital opened in
1922. How did it all start? How does it work?
The Evolution of the “World’s Greatest Fraternity”
The Freemasons who gathered at this table were noted for their good humor
and wit. They often discussed the idea of a new fraternity for Freemasons,
in which fun and fellowship
would be stressed more than ritual. Two of the table regulars,
Walter M.
Fleming, M.D., and
William J. Conlin, an actor and playwright better known by his nom de
théàtre, William J. “Billy” Florence, took the idea
seriously enough to do something about it.
Billy Florence was a star. After becoming the toast of the New York
stage, he toured London, Europe and Middle Eastern countries, always
playing to capacity audiences. While on tour in Marseilles, France,
Florence was invited to a party given by an Arabian diplomat. Florence,
recalling conversations at the Knickerbocker Cottage, realized that this
Near East (Arabian) theme might well be the vehicle for
the new fraternity, given its great appeal at the time. In the mid-late
19th Century, the Near East was a popular theme, particularly following
the explorations by Captain Sir Richard F. Burton, KCMG, FRGS. This
was the era of the popularization of the Book of 1001 Arabian Nights
and its stories of Sinbad, Aladdin’s genie-infested lamp, Ali Baba & the
Forty Thieves, and flying carpets; a time of
Zouave uniforms on regiments in the armies of the United States, Confederate
States, France and other countries.
Fleming took the ideas supplied by Florence and converted them into what
would become the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
(A.A.O.N.M.S.).
With the help of other Knickerbocker Cottage regulars, Fleming drafted
the ritual, designed the emblem and costumes, formulated a
salutation,
and declared that members would wear a
red fez.
The initiation rites, or ceremonials, were drafted by Fleming with the
help of three Brother Masons: Charles T. McClenachan, a lawyer and expert
on Masonic ritual; William Sleigh Paterson, a printer, linguist and
ritualist; and Albert L. Rawson, a prominent scholar and Freemason who
provided much of the Arabic background.
Nobles Florence and Fleming received The Order of the Mystic Shrine
on 13 August 1870; the next eleven nobles on 16 June 1871. This was in
keeping with the practice of the Knickerbocker Cottage Freemasons who
celebrated the lucky number 13 by meeting in groups of thirteen, dining
promptly at 12:13 p.m., organising games in which the number 13 was
prominent, inter alia.
The crescent was adopted
as the jewel of the order. Although any materials can be used in forming
the crescent, the most valuable
are the claws of a
royal Bengal tiger, united at their base in a gold
setting. In the centre is the head of a sphinx, and on the back are a
pyramid, an urn and a star. The Jewel bears the motto “Robur et Furor,”
Latin for “Strength and Fury.” Today, the emblem includes a scimitar
from which the crescent hangs, and a five-pointed star beneath the head
of the sphinx.
Noble Dr. Fleming and his comrades also formulated a salutation used today
by Shriners:
السلام عليكم [transliterated into Roman characters as either “As-Salāmu `Alaykum” or “Es Selamu Aleikum!”] which means, “Peace be upon you!” In
returning the salutation, the gracious wish is
وا عليكم السلا [transliterated into
Roman characters as either "wa `Alaykum As-Salām” or “Aleikum Es Selamu”],
meaning “And upon you be peace.”
The red fez with a black tassel, Shriners’ official headgear, has been
handed down through the ages since Ancient Greece. It derives its name from the place where
Western Europeans first discovered it: the city of Fez, Morocco.
The fez bears the Shrine fraternal emblem under the name of the temple
to which the wearer belongs, written in large, elaborate style. Below
the emblem, the wearer may display in simple block letters his office or
the name of a unit, club or committee to which he belongs within that
temple. The only other adornments permitted are one or two tassel holder
pins.
On 26 September 1872, in the New York City Masonic Hall, the first
Shrine
temple was organized. Brothers McClenachan and
Fleming had completed the ritual and proposed that the
first temple
be named Mecca. The original thirteen Freemasons of the Knickerbocker Cottage
lunch group were named charter members of
Mecca Temple [now Mecca
Shriners]. Noble Florence read a letter outlining the “history” of the
order and giving advice on the conduct of meetings. The officers elected
were Walter M. Fleming, Potentate; Charles T. McClenachan, Chief Rabban;
John A. Moore, Assistant Rabban; Edward Eddy, High Priest and Prophet;
George W. Millar, Oriental Guide; James S. Chappel, Treasurer; William
S. Paterson, Recorder; and Oswald M. d’Aubigne, Captain of the Guard.
The organization was not an instant success, even though
a second temple,
Damascus Shriners, was chartered in Rochester in 1875 [later
removing to Webster]. Four years after Shriners’
beginnings, there were only forty-three nobles, all but six of whom were from
New York. Two of those other six were Chicagoans Dr. Vincent Lumbard
Hurlbut and his brother-in-law Major Edgar P. Tobey.
At a meeting of Mecca Shriners on 6 June 1876, in the New York Masonic
Hall, a new body was created to help spur the growth of the young
fraternity. This governing body was called “The Imperial Grand Council
of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for the
United States of America.” Fleming became the first Imperial Grand
Potentate, and the new body established rules for membership and the
formation of new temples. The initiation ritual was embellished, as was
the mythology about the fraternity. An extensive publicity and
recruiting campaign was initiated.
It worked. Just two years later, in 1878, there were 425 Shriners in 13
temples. Five of these temples were in New York, two were in Ohio and
the others were in Vermont, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Iowa, Michigan
and Massachusetts.
While the organisation was still primarily social, instances of
philanthropic work became more frequent. During an
1888 yellow fever
epidemic in Jacksonville, Florida, members of the new
Morocco Shriners and
Masonic Knights Templar worked long hours to relieve the suffering
populace. Shriners likewise came to the aid of the
1889 Johnstown Flood
victims. In 1898, there were 50,000 Shriners, and seventy-one of the
seventy-nine temples
were engaged in some sort of philanthropic work.
At the 1900 Imperial Council session, representatives from eighty-two temples marched in
a Washington, D.C., parade, joined by a section of the U.S. Marine Band
outfitted in Arabian kit for the occasion, and reviewed by
President William McKinley.
Membership was well over 55,000.
Evolution of the “World’s Greatest Philanthropy”
During the same period, there was growing member support for establishing an official charity. Most temples had individual philanthropies, and
sometimes Shriners as an organisation gave aid. After the 1906
earthquake in San Francisco, Shriners sent US$25,000 to help the stricken city; and in 1915, Shriners contributed US$10,000 for the relief of
victims of the Great War then underway in Europe. But neither the individual
projects nor the special one-time contributions satisfied the membership, who wanted to do more.
In 1919, Noble Freeland Kendrick (Lu Lu Shriners, Philadelphia [now in Plymouth
Meeting]) was the Imperial Potentate-elect for the 363,744 Shriners. He had long been searching for a cause for the thriving group to support. In a
visit to the then-new Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Atlanta [which has since merged with Egleston Children’s Hospital to become
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite], he became aware of the
overwhelming orthopaedic needs of children in North America. As Imperial Potentate in 1919 and 1920, he travelled more than 150,000 miles, visiting
a majority of the 146 temples and campaigning for an official philanthropy.
The climax came at the June 1920 Imperial Session in Portland, Oregon.
Kendrick proposed establishing the Shriners’ Hospital for
Crippled Children [now known as the Shriners Hospitals
for Children in recognition of our expansion into paediatric burns care], to be supported by a US$2.00 [now $5] yearly tithing assessed from each Shriner.
Despite the generally supportive attitude among the assembled Shriners, many held reservations about creating a permanent,
open-ended financial commitment. The de facto voice of the dissenters was Past Imperial Potentate, William Bromwell Melish
(Syrian Shrine, Cincinnati), who had piloted
the Imperial Counsel out of insolvency in the early 1890s. Imperial Sir
Melish spent fifteen minutes detailing his objections to the proposal,
and seemed to turn the tide against the plan.
Prospects for approval were dimming when Noble Forrest Adair (Yaarab Shrine, Atlanta) rose
from his seat near the front of the audience and put an end to the nobles’ reluctance with his now-famous “Bubbles” speech.
Five years earlier, Noble Adair, as as Commander in Chief of the Scottish Rite’s Atlanta Consistory,
had been the virtual founder of the Scottish Rite Hospital.
“I was lying in bed yesterday morning, about four o’clock … and some
poor fellow who had strayed from the rest of the band … stood down
there under the window for twenty-five minutes playing “I am
only blowing bubbles.” [sic] He said that when he awoke later, “I thought of the wandering minstrel,
and I wondered
if there were not a deep significance in the tune that he was playing
for Shriners, “I am only blowing bubbles.” [sic] He noted, “While we have spent money for songs and spent money for
bands, it’s time for the Shrine to spend money for humanity. I want to
see this thing started. Let’s get rid of all the technical objections.
And if there is a Shriner in North America,” he continued, “who objects
to having paid the two dollars after he has seen the first crippled
child helped, I will give him a check back for it myself.”
When he was through, Noble Adair sat down to thunderous applause. The
whole tone of the session had changed. There were other speakers, but
the decision had already been reached. Even Past Imperial Potentate
Melish endorsed the plan, and the resolution was passed
unanimously. [Please click here to read the
entirety of Noble Adair’s brief but vital speech.]
A committee was chosen to determine the site and personnel for the
Shriners Hospital.
After months of work, research and debate, the committee concluded that
there should be not just one hospital but
a network of hospitals
throughout North America. It was an idea that appealed to Shriners, who
liked to do things in a big and colourful way. When the committee
brought the proposal to the 1921 Imperial Session in Des Moines, Iowa,
it too was passed.
Before the June 1922 Imperial Session, the cornerstone was in place for the
first Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in Shreveport, Louisiana. The
rules were simple: To be admitted, a child must be from a family unable
to pay for the orthopaedic treatment he or she would receive [this is no
longer a requirement], be under 14 years of age [later increased to 18],
and be, in the opinion of the chief of staff, someone whose condition
could be helped.
The Shriners Hospitals network is supervised by the
members of the Board of
Trustees, who are elected at the annual meeting of the hospital
corporation. Each hospital operates under the supervision of a local
Board of Governors, a chief of staff and an administrator. Members of
the boards are Shriners, who serve without pay.
The network of orthopaedic hospitals grew as follows:
16 September 1922
2 January 1923
Twin Cities (Minneapolis), Minnesota
12 March 1923
16 June 1923 [relocated
to Sacramento in 1997; the old building is now a pensioners’ assisted
living facility]
15 January 1924
8 April
1924
15 November 1924
22 January
1925
18 February
1925
21 February 1925
20
March 1926
24
June 1926
1 November
1926
1 September 1927
10 March 1945
1 February 1952
25
February 1952
Winnipeg, Manitoba
16
March 1952
1
April 1967
16 October 1985
Northern California (Sacramento), California
14 April 1997
The first patient to be admitted in 1922 was a little girl with a
clubfoot, who had learned to walk on the top of her foot rather than the
sole. The first child to be admitted in Minneapolis was a boy with
polio. Since that time,
more than 835,000 children have been treated at
the twenty-two Shriners Hospitals for Children. Surgical techniques developed in Shriners
Hospitals have become standard in the orthopaedic world. Thousands of
children have been fitted with arm and leg braces and artificial limbs,
most of them made at the hospitals
by our in-house expert technicians.
One result was the collating of the medical records of patients of
Shriners Hospitals. By placing the records of each patient and treatment
on computer and microfilm, valuable
information was made available to all Shriners surgeons and the medical
world as a whole. This process, begun in 1959, also made it easier to
initiate
clinical research in Shriners orthopaedic hospitals.
Shriners Hospitals had always engaged in
clinical research, and in the
early 1960s, Shriners aggressively entered the structured research field
and began earmarking funds for
research projects. By 1967, Shriners were
spending US$20,000 on orthopaedic research.
Today, the annual research
budget totals more than US$37,000,000. Researchers are working on a
wide variety of projects, including studies of bone and joint diseases,
such as osteogenesis imperfecta and
juvenile rheumatoid arthritis; increasing basic knowledge of the
structure and function of connective tissue; and refining functional
electrical stimulation, which is enabling some children with spinal cord
injuries to regain some use of their arms and legs.
A special committee was established
to explore areas of need and found that burn treatment was a field of
service that was being bypassed. In the early ’60s, the only burn
treatment centre in the United States was part of a military
complex. The committee was ready with a resolution for the 1962 Imperial
Session in Toronto. The resolution, dated July 4, 1962, was adopted by
unanimous vote.
On 1 November 1963, Shriners
opened a seven-bed wing in the John Sealy Hospital at the
University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston as an interim center for
the care of severely burned children. On 1 February 1964, Shriners
opened a seven-bed unit in the Cincinnati General Hospital on the campus
of the University of Cincinnati. A third interim operation, a five-bed
unit, was opened 13 March 1964, in the Massachusetts
General Hospital (Boston) under the direction of Harvard Medical School.
While children were being treated in these units, separate buildings
were constructed
near each interim location. These buildings, three 30-bed paediatric
burn hospitals,
were designed to meet the special needs of burned children. At each, the
staffs remain affiliated with their neighboring universities so they
may better carry out their
three-fold programme of treatment, research and
teaching.
The new Shriners Hospital in Galveston,
Texas was completed in 1992,
replacing the original facility, which opened 20 March 1966.
The new Shriners Hospital in Cincinnati,
Ohio, was completed in 1992.
The original facility opened 19 February 1968.
The new Shriners Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, completed in
1999, replaced the original facility, which opened 2 November 1968.
Northern California (Sacramento), California
14 April 1997
The hospital in Galveston opened
20 March 1966;
the hospital in
Cincinnati opened 19 February 1968; and
the Boston hospital opened
2 November 1968. New facilities would be constructed for all three burn
hospitals in the 1990s. The new
Cincinnati and
Galveston hospitals were
completed in 1992, and
the new Boston hospital was completed in 1999.
A new burn treatment center opened in 1997, in
the new Shriners Hospital
in Sacramento,
California.
This Shriners Hospital provides orthopaedic, burn and spinal cord
injury care, and serves as the primary burn treatment centre in the
western United States. The Sacramento hospital also conducts research in
all three disciplines.
Most importantly, perhaps, the establishment of the burn
Shriners
Hospitals alerted the medical world to this special need, which has led
to the establishment of non-Shriners burn centers.
At Shriners Hospitals the work goes on,
continually searching for new
ways to heal severe burns and reduce or, as much as possible, eliminate
the disabling and scarring effects of those burns. Because of the
special nature of the burn hospitals, they will surely always be on the
frontier of burn care.
Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation:
In 1980, Shriners Hospitals for Children opened a
spinal cord injury
(“SCI”) rehabilitation unit at the
Philadelphia hospital. This was the
first spinal cord injury unit in the United States designed specifically
for children and teenagers who suffer from these injuries. By 1984, two
additional spinal cord injury units were operating in the Shriners
Hospitals in Chicago and San Francisco. In 1997, the San Francisco
hospital, including the spinal cord injury unit, was relocated to
Sacramento,
California.
At the
spinal cord injury units, children receive long-term rehabilitative care and
physical and occupational therapy to help them relearn the basic skills
of everyday life. Counselling sessions help patients learn to cope with
the emotional aspects of their injury and help them lead fulfilling
lives by emphasizing the abilities they still have. Patients may enter
an SCI unit apprehensive about the future, but after months of
encouragement and support, they often leave with a sense of hope and
optimism.
In 2005, the Joint Boards of Directors of
Shriners Hospitals for Children
and
Shriners of North America added treatment of
cleft lip and palate to the hospital network’s treatment
disciplines. About five thousand children are born each year with
deformities of the upper lip and mouth, and comprehensive care for these
conditions is often difficult to obtain. The
nationally recognised programme already in place at the Chicago Shriners
Hospital will serve as the expansion model.
Shriners Hospitals will offer the same state-of-the-art, complete,
high-quality care in this effort as it does in its established programs
for orthopaedic conditions,
severe burns and spinal cord injury rehabilitation.
Rebuilding and Renovation Programme:
Another important undertaking
that began during the 1980s was an aggressive rebuilding
and renovation program, involving the construction of new facilities and
extensive renovations. In 1981, representatives at the 107th Imperial
Council session approved a major expansion and reconstruction program,
which included the construction of a new orthopaedic hospital in Tampa,
Florida. The opening of the
Tampa hospital in 1985 – the first new hospital
added to the system since the 1960s – brought the Shriners Hospitals
system back to twenty-two hospitals. Since 1981, twenty-one
Shriners Hospitals have
either been rebuilt or totally renovated. In 1998, the Joint Boards
decided to build a new facility for the
México City hospital, which
underwent extensive renovations in 1989. The new facility opened in May
of 2006.
Also during the 1980s, because of the high number of patients with
myelodysplasia (spina bifida), many of the Shriners Hospitals developed
special programmes to provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary care to
these patients.
Previously, Shriners Hospitals had provided the orthopaedic care these
children needed, but in 1986, the Joint Boards of Directors and Trustees
approved a policy permitting the hospitals to address the multiple needs
of these children by providing their medical, neurosurgical and
urological
requirements, as well as their psychosocial, nutritional and
recreational needs.
During the 1980s, the Shriners Hospitals in
Los Angeles,
California, and
Springfield,
Massachusetts expanded their prosthetic services with regional prosthetic
research programs. Both programs conduct research into ways to improve
or create new prosthetics and help rehabilitate limb-deficient children.
These two programmes, in addition to various other
research programmes
throughout the twenty-two hospitals, join the prosthetic and orthotic labs
throughout the system in ensuring that Shriners Hospitals for Children remains a leader in the field
of children’s orthotics and prosthetics.
The burn hospitals also took steps to ensure that burn patients continue
to receive the most advanced burn treatment available.
The Cincinnati
hospital initiated a burns air ambulance, the first
air ambulance in the
country devoted exclusively to transporting
burn victims. The burn hospitals also developed a re-entry program, to
assist burn patients in their return home after being discharged from
hospital. During 1992, new replacement facilities for the Cincinnati
and Galveston hospitals were dedicated, and groundbreaking ceremonies
were held for a new facility for the Boston hospital. All the burn
hospitals are continuing to
conduct research in their ongoing efforts to
improve care for burned patients.
Shriners Hospitals for Children:
In 1996, representatives took another significant step when they voted
to officially change the name of our philanthropy to
Shriners
Hospitals for Children. In a move that permanently eliminated the word
“crippled” from the organisation’s corporate name, representatives
made the change in an effort to have the name better reflect the mission
of Shriners Hospitals and the expansion of services over the years,
including the opening of the burn hospitals and the addition of
programmes
of comprehensive care for children with myelodysplasia and cleft lip and
palate. The new name is intended to reflect the philosophy of Shriners
Hospitals, which provide medical
care for children at no charge, based only on what’s best for the child.
The new name, likewise, does not label children in any way, but simply
recognizes them for what they are: children.
One way in which
Shriners Hospitals for Children improves lives is through outcomes research. This type of research looks for opportunities to
improve hospital practices,
both clinical and operational, to help bring better care and quality of
life to patients. The outcomes studies utilize more than one Shriners
Hospital, and the projects, studies and performance improvement
initiatives directly impact changes in operations and patient care
practices at all twenty-two Shriners Hospitals.
To ensure Shriners Hospitals for Children is constantly on the
cutting
edge of research, Shriners enlists the help of advisory boards, which
are made up of eminent surgeons, clinicians and scientists who review
grants and offer expertise on project funding. The Medical Advisory
Board, Research Advisory Board and Clinical Outcomes Studies Advisory
Board also provide review, guidance and subjective assessment to many
areas of Shriners Hospitals.
Shriners Hospitals for Children was born out of the
Shriners’ love for
children, but depends today on the generosity of individual donors. To
recognize the importance of these benefactors, our charity offers a
unique
Donor Recognition Programme.
The Philanthropic Society honours major living
donors and deceased
benefactors
who give contributions and/or bequests in excess of US$250,000, featuring
charitable plateaus of bronze, silver, gold and spectrum gold. A
Philanthropic Society awards centre is prominently situated at each
Shriners Hospital
for Children and at Shriners Imperial Headquarters. Each
donation or bequest is honoured by a separate wood plaque permanently
affixed to the awards center, with a laser-engraved personalized
inscription and a large bronze, silver, gold or black medallion.
Mini-medallions are added to indicate additional gifts. Donors or the
families of deceased benefactors may also receive a plaque.
As the hospital network grew, the fraternity continued in its grand
tradition. In 1923, there was a Shriner in the White House, and
Noble President William G. Harding viewed the Shriners parade at the
1923 Imperial Council session in Washington, D.C.
The East-West Shrine College All-Star Football Game
was established in 1925, in San Francisco with the motto “Strong Legs Run So
Weak Legs May Walk.” It is the premier college all-star
game in America, and has a long history of distinguished players and
coaches, including future Chicago Bears
Dick Butkus (1964),
Gale Sayers (1965) &
Walter Payton (1975);
future U.S. President & Shriner
Gerald R. Ford (1935); and
future Saint Louis Cardinal & U.S. Army Ranger
Sergeant Pat Tillman
(1998). But that’s not what makes it "Football’s Finest Hour." What
makes the Shrine Game so special is its true purpose: helping to
support
Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Every year since its inception, the Shrine Game has been played to raise money
and to help make the public aware of the expert orthopaedic and burn care
available, at no cost, at all 22
Shriners Hospitals for Children. In this, as in other Shriners’ football games, the young
players visit patients at a Shriners Hospital, so the players themselves
know the real purpose of the game.
As Noble Gerald Ford (Saladin Shriners of Kentwood, Michigan) said at a 1976 speech to
Mohammed Shriners of Peoria, Illinois: “It was a tremendous experience for us on the Eastern football team to go to that hospital and see what is done to help unfortunate people, especially young people,” Ford said. “And I learned … what great people like all of you do, on a day-to-day basis, to help those less fortunate than yourself.”
Located in Exhibition Place, on
Toronto’s lakeshore just west of downtown, the Shrine Peace Memorial faces southerly,
toward the Niagara River and the
United States. The statue was designed
by noted sculptor, Noble Charles Keck of Kismet Shriners in
Brooklyn (now New Hyde Park), New
York; and depicts a winged angel holding aloft a laurel crown and standing upon a globe held aloft by female sphinxes. The inscription around
the base reads “Peace be on you,” and its response, “On you be the peace,” the English translation of
the Islamic greeting used by Shriners.
The Right Honourable Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of
Canada, was not present at the 1930 dedication, but stated via radio: “I should like to add the thanks of the
Canadian people as a whole for the inspiring
monument which your Order has erected on the shores of Lake Erie and which you are now
about to dedicate in the cause of peace. It is indeed a worthy addition to the art treasures of the
province of which Toronto is the
capital city. It will be cherished by Canada as a
national possession and by our continent as an abiding symbol of international good will.”
An second re-dedication ceremony is being planned for the Memorial’s 80th anniversary during the
2010 Imperial Council session in Toronto. More details will be posted when published.
Please click here for more information and
images of the Shrine Peace Memorial.
Great Depression & the War Years:
The struggle to keep the hospitals and the fraternity going during these
years was enormous. It was necessary to dip into the endowment fund
capital to cover operating costs of the hospitals. To ensure the
financial distinction between the hospitals and the fraternity, a
corporation for each was established in 1937.
Shriners and the hospitals somehow survived the
Great Depression. In the
1940s, like the rest of North America, Shriners adjusted to
wartime
existence. Imperial Council sessions
were limited to business and were attended only by official
representatives. Parade units stayed home and marched in local patriotic
parades. During the four years of war, more than US$1 billion was invested
in government war bonds by and through Shriners. The hospital
corporation also invested all of its available funds in government
securities. During World War II, the economy improved, and men found
renewed interest in fraternalism. By 1942, membership was once more
increasing.
The newly renovated
Shriners International Exhibit is part of the George
Washington Masonic National Memorial located in Alexandria, Virginia. The
exhibit went from three rooms filled with Shriners’ memorabilia, to a
visual Shriners and Shriners Hospitals adventure, complete with a
life-size replica of the “Silent Messenger” statue of Noble Albert Hortman carrying little Bobbi Jo Wright
and her crutches, a wall-sized collection of fezzes from all Shrine
temples, and a room devoted entirely to
Shriners Hospitals for
Children.
The original exhibit was the dream of Past Imperial Potentate Alfred G.
Arvold, who initiated the design of the rooms in 1945.
Shriners International Headquarters:
Until 1928, our national offices were in Richmond, Virginia. With the growth of
the fraternity, there were increasing pressures to locate headquarters
to a city that would be more convenient to all temples. Thus, in 1958,
the
three-story building at 323 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago, was purchased.
Twenty years later, at a special session held 10 April 1978, in
Tampa, Florida, representatives voted to relocate headquarters from Chicago
to
2900 Rocky Point Drive, Tampa,
where it has remained ever since. The Tampa headquarters houses the
administrative personnel
for both the Iowa (Shriners of North America) and Colorado (Shriners
Hospitals for Children) corporations, fraternal and hospital records,
the attorneys who monitor the
many estates involved in Shriners Hospitals for Children, and various
other departments that support day-to-day operations of the fraternity
and the philanthropy.
An expansion project began in 1987 to meet ever-increasing needs of the
fraternity and Shriners Hospitals. A third wing, or pod, was added to
the rear of the existing building,
and the boardroom and executive offices for the fraternity and hospital
system were relocated to the new area, allowing several departments to
expand their offices in the original sections. The new, enlarged
boardroom provides space for meetings of the Joint Boards and their
committees, and for conferences.
The polished marble plaza features a semi-circular wall engraved with
the names of every Imperial Potentate (chief executive officer) and his
year served. In addition, below the statue is a cylindrical base
engraved with names of the
twenty-two Shriners Hospitals. All of this is surrounded by a
fountain. Around the fountain are large inlaid marble squares bearing
the engraved names of each of the 191 temples, each temple’s city and
state, year of incorporation and a scimitar. To
the rear of the Commemorative
Plaza and in front of the headquarters building are four flag poles with
flags of flags of
the United States,
Canada,
México, and
Panamá, representing the
countries in which temples are located.
In early 1999, a major construction and renovation effort began that
would add 3,250 square metres (35,000 square feet) to the existing facility, bringing the
total office area to about 11,150 square metres (120,000 square feet). This effort was
initiated to accommodate the health care initiatives and trends taking
place in the industry in the late 1990s. The exterior work came to an
end in December 2001, with the installation of a three-dimensional
3.35×2.75 metre (11×9-foot) scimitar on the front of the building. The new windows on
the building have a bluish-green tint, giving the building a different
appearance than the gold tinted windows which served as a landmark to
identify the headquarters for two decades. On February 24, 2002, the newly
renovated Shriners International Headquarters was rededicated.
Heads of State and Government:
Hundreds of entertainers, professional athletes, diplomats, astronauts,
captains of industry, military leaders, civic leaders, state governors,
provincial premiers, and ordinary men have been Shriners. These include
the rulers of many lands, including
the last King of Hawai‘i,
four Presidents of
the United States America, four Presidents of los Estados Unidos Méxicanos,
a Prime Minister of Canada,
and
the Supreme Commander, Allied Powers (international occupation viceroy & proconsul) of 日本国 (the Empire of Japan), all of whom have been
Nobles of the
Mystic Shrine.
Shriners of North America – How the Organization Works
Temples are located throughout the United States
of America, Canada, México and the
Republic of Panamá, with clubs around the world. There is, therefore, a
special Shriners Pledge of Allegiance: “I pledge allegiance to my flag,
and to the country for which it stands, one nation under G-d,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Wherever Shriners
gather, the national flags of
The United States of America,
Canada,
Los Estados Unidos Méxicanos, and
La República de Panamá are flown.
Today, there are approximately 400,000 Shriners who belong to
191 temples, or
chapters, from
Al Aska Shriners in Anchorage, Alaska, to
Abou Saad
Shriners in Panamá, and from
Aloha Shriners in Honolulu to
Philae
Shriners in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The temples, their units and affiliated clubs embody the true spirit of
fraternalism, and wherever a Shriner goes, he can be certain there are
nobles who will extend their hand in greeting.
To better understand how all this works, an observer can start at a
local temple. Each temple
is run by an elected divan (officers), headed
by the potentate and the chief rabban. A recorder, or record
keeper/administrator, usually maintains an office at the
shrine centre. One
member is elected or appointed to the “lowest rung” each January and
under traditional practice moves up one “rung” each year. Thus, by the
time he becomes potentate of his temple, a Shriner usually has at least
four years of experience in temple leadership.
Stated meetings of the temple membership as a whole must be held at
least four times a year. In addition, each temple holds one or more
ceremonials every year for the induction of new members. There are also
many temple, unit and club social events each year.
Units are smaller groups organised within a temple for a specific
purpose. Many of these are the uniformed units so familiar to parade
watchers: Oriental bands, brass bands,
genies, horse troupes,
motor patrols,
bagpipers, clowns, drum corps, chanters, and
military
veterans. Additionally, a temple will have any number of
Shrine Clubs, organised either
geographically like the
West
Suburban Shrine Club, or around special interests like a
classic car
club. Other
temple units and committees can include hospital hosts or docents, and
transportation units which work closely with their
local Shriners
Hospital – either with the children and parents at the hospital or
transporting patients
to and from the hospital.
Each temple has a clearly defined territory from which it can obtain new
members. Since these jurisdictions are often quite large, smaller
geographical
units may be organised
for fellowship purposes. These are the aforementioned
geographically-based clubs, under the control of their
mother temple.
In addition, any number of temples may form an association for social
conventions, if the Imperial Council issues an appropriate charter.
There are currently twenty regional associations and nineteen unit associations,
including the Great Lakes Shrine Association.
The 191 temples are governed by the
Imperial Council, which is composed
of representatives. Representatives of the Imperial Council include all
past and present Imperial Officers, Emeritus Representatives (who have
served fifteen years or longer) and representatives elected from each temple. A
temple may have two representatives if its membership exceeds 300, three
if more than 600, and four if more than 1,000. These representatives
meet once a year – usually in July at the Imperial Council Session – to
make policy decisions and legislation regarding both the
fraternity and
the hospitals. With nearly 900 representatives, the Imperial Council
constitutes one of the largest legislative bodies in the world. The
representatives also elect the Imperial Officers. The president of the
Colorado corporation and members of the
Board of Trustees for Shriners
Hospitals for Children are elected by members of the Colorado corporation.
The Imperial Divan, Shriners’ international governing body, consists of
thirteen officers plus an Imperial Chaplain. The Imperial Treasurer and the
Imperial Recorder may be elected for several consecutive years, and are
the only officers receiving any type of compensation. As with temple divans, an officer (with the exceptions of
treasurer and recorder) is
elected to the bottom of the divan and, barring unforeseen
circumstances, moves up one position each year. These officers, elected
from among the representatives,
The chief executive officer of Shriners of North America is the
Imperial
Potentate, who is elected for one year. He visits many of the
temples
and hospitals and generally supervises both fraternal and hospital policy.
To help him with these tasks, the Imperial Potentate appoints committees
to implement
various programmes. One of the most important of these committees is the
donor relations committee, which coordinates and supervises
contributions and bequests given to
Shriners Hospitals for Children.
The day-to-day operations – keeping the records and accounts of the
fraternity and hospitals, supervising the
estates left to Shriners
Hospitals and producing printed materials for the entire organisation –
are carried out at Shriners International Headquarters
in Tampa. These offices are supervised by an executive vice president of
the Imperial Council, an executive vice president of
Shriners Hospitals,
and a legal department,
which is under the supervision of a managing attorney.
However complex the organisation may seem, its essence is the fraternal
fellowship for which it was originally founded. It has been said that
there are no strangers in Shrinedom. This is evident in the great times
and laughter wherever Shriners get together, whether in a local club
meeting, a temple’s Shrine Ceremonial, an association
gathering
or an Imperial Session. All Shriners share not just a
Masonic background
but a zest for living.
Though this quality remains consistent – from the original thirteen members to
the hundreds of thousands of Shriners today – the fraternity has adapted
to many changes.
Many more temple and convention activities include the families of
Shriners. Today, many Shriners are deeply involved in
Shriners Hospital
work in addition to their fraternal
activities.
Most temples sponsor fundraising events to provide funds for
Shriners
Hospitals. In one calendar year there can be nearly 500 of these events,
which range from the East-West Shrine Game and other football
games to horse shows, hospital paper sales, and miscellaneous sports and
social events.
During the 1980s,
Shriners
Hospitals experienced the greatest expansion in our history, with
major building programmes, increasing
numbers of patients receiving care, and expansion
of services. As the new millennium approached,
all
twenty-two Shriners Hospitals
maintained their position at the forefront of specialized
paediatric orthopaedic and burn care. The Joint Boards plan to continue
updating their facilities, expanding their
research programmes and
increasing their ability to meet the needs of thousands of children in
need of expert medical care. In this way,
Shriners Hospitals will
continue to meet a special need for children.
Thus, whatever changes occur within the
fraternal organisation or within
the Shriners
Hospitals system, Shriners of North America will remain the “World’s
Greatest Fraternity,” operating and maintaining the “World’s Greatest
Philanthropy.”
السلام عليكم As-Salāmu `Alaykum!
[1]
Contrary to a previously published error which has been copied innumerable times on the Internet
when writing of Noble Dr. Fleming, the 13th New York Infantry was a regiment, not a
brigade. Also known as the Rochester Regiment, the 13th was organised on 8 May 1861, mustered into service six days later, and discharged on 14 May
1863. See
“13th NY Infantry Regiment during the Civil War,” Unit History Project, New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center. Nevertheless, Fred van Deventer’s seminal 1959 tome, Parade to Glory: The Story of the Shriners and Their Hospitals for Crippled Children, states that a review of the records showed Fleming to have been in the 1st Cavalry Regiment and 19th Regiment (NYS). See page 11.
The views expressed on this web site do not reflect those of any body or member of Freemasonry, apart from the Sweetwater Shrine Club and/or its Webmaster.
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In 1870, several thousand of the 900,000 residents of Manhattan were Freemasons. Many of these Masons made it a point to lunch at the
Knickerbocker Cottage, a restaurant then located at
Dr. Walter Fleming was a prominent physician and surgeon. Born in
PortlandMaine, on 13 June 1838,
he obtained a degree in medicine in Albany, New York, in 1862. During the
American Civil War, he was appointed a surgeon in the New York National
Guard, first in the
The number of Shriners continued to grow in the 1880s. By the time of
the 1888 Annual Session (convention) in Toronto, there were 7,210
members in forty-eight temples throughout the United States and one in Canada.
This expansion of orthopaedic
work was not enough for Shriners. They had enough funds to further
expand their philanthropy.
Since Shriners opened burn hospitals in the 1960s, a burned child’s
chance of survival
has more than doubled. They have saved children burned over ninety
per-cent
of their bodies. The techniques they have pioneered to prevent the
disabling effects of severe burns have made a typical life possible for
thousands of burn victims.%20-%20small.jpg)
On 12 June 1930, this Peace Memorial was presented to the
