Lodge Fundraiser
Wine Tasting and Silent Auction

by Redeem Sumicad
(Jackson, WY, USA)

We wanted to hold an event that will allow us to do the following: raise funds for our lodge building, get community exposure and have a venue where we can answer questions about Freemasonry and get interest in joining our lodge.

We were able to do this by doing our first Lodge Fundraiser wine tasting and silent auction. We held it during the Jackson Hole Winterfest on Feb 10-20, 2012.

Our event kicked off the first day of the festival and we held it at the Center for the Arts lobby.

We formed a Masonic Club of Jackson Hole, since the funds were for the lodge building fund and not for one of our regular charities. We got over 20 wineries to participate; my restaurant donated all the hors d'ouvres; we got over 100 silent auction items from community members and local businesses.

Needless to say, this will be an annual event. I was very optimistic and ordered wine glasses that said "Annual Wine-Tasting" on them!

We accomplished all three goals: we raised funds for our building- around 5K, we got our name out in the community and lots of souvenir wine glasses in many homes with our symbol, 9 print ads, Facebook, and in the Center for the Arts website and list serves, AND we were able to answer questions from many men about Freemasonry and netted 3 petitions. We got a lot of "my grandfather was a Mason" inquiries....

The end of the Winterfest is the Shrine Cutter Races - this year was our 41st run! Chariots pulled by 2 horses, running down a quarter mile snow track! We raised over 30k for the Salt Lake Shriner's Hospital!

We are so proud to help our towns Winterfest to be a success. We are also so proud to start the event and end the event with 2 outstanding Masonic activities!

For more information, please feel free to contact us or our sites by searching: Jackson Hole Masons and Jackson Hole Shrine Club.

Fraternally
Redeem Sumicad, WM

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Simon's Reply:

Wow! How exciting! Great job, Redeem! Congratulations to you and all your brother lodge members. You should all be very proud of yourselves. Thanks for sharing.

Sidebar: As an explanation for non-Masons who may be reading this, the "WM" after Redeem's name stands for Worshipful Master. Redeem is the Master of his lodge this year.

Simon