Published: Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009 / Updated: Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009 02:15 PM
Shriners reaching out, seeking new members
The guys in the funny red hats at the York County Crescent Shrine Club have been around for years, though in the coming years residents all over the county are likely to see a lot more of them.
Incoming club Vice-president for 2010 Daniel Moses is spearheading the drive to round up new members and get them more involved and visible in the community.
“We haven't been doing a lot lately because the participation had gotten down,” Moses said. “But we've got a bunch of young guys in it now.
“Growing up our daddies and granddaddies were out on the corners selling stuff.”
The Shriners, originally an outgrowth of Freemasonry in the 1870s, have been collecting money for the Shriner Hospitals for Children, which serve burned and crippled children, for decades. Some of the club's most popular activities are candy and pecan log sales.
With a fresh crop of young Shriners as reinforcements to long-time members, Moses, himself a scant 24 years old, plans to marshal his forces to allow for at least one fundraiser each month. The most recent pecan log sale raised $561 in Clover on Saturday, Nov. 21.
The group ran out of candy (275 pecan logs to be exact) in about two and a half hours after setting up at the stoplight at Main and Bethany streets at 7 that morning. The Shriners that made the sale possible were Moses, Pressley Robinson, David Wallace, Hugh Robinson, Steve Armstrong, all of Clover and Robert Collins from York.
Following the success of the Clover fundraiser, Moses said Shriners will be popping up all over the county now. Each month he plans to set up a candy sale or other type of fundraiser in a different part of the county.
“This is just the first of many sales to come,” he wrote in an e-mail to the Enquirer-Herald. “The Shriners plan to be in York in January and then to hit Fort Mill, Rock Hill and Lake Wyle in the coming months.”
There are approximately 200 members of the York County Club, which is part of the Hejaz Shriners organization that covers all of Upstate South Carolina.
“You have to be a Mason before you can be a Shriner,” Moses said. “But anyone can help, if you see us, give us some change.”
Joining the Masons isn't difficult either though, Moses said. Despite the conspiracy theories, people don't have to be born into the club, or become a master bricklayer to join anymore, Moses said.
“For Masons, to be one, ask one,” he said.
And keep an eye out for the guys in the funny red hats.
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