Dale Chapman DeMolay 2024

Our chapter is active in our district and visits any lodge or independent body that invites us. We are willing and happy to serve our community and have answered the call to clean yards and help individual Masons/Eastern Star and community organizations with their projects.

Our members and advisors work throughout the year to pay for our charities and other program activities. Each year, our major service project/charity is donating a holiday dinner (Thanksgiving or Christmas) and a week’s worth of food to several needy families. Over the last couple of years, we have been blessed by growing support from our local lodges and chapters, and we have grown this effort.

We attend two state conferences each year. Conclave is our summer conference. It is a ‘working’ conference with classes, competitions, ceremonies, and meetings relating to the future of DeMolay in Florida. Our winter conference is popularly referred to as Escape to Florida. There, our members interact with youth from more than 25 US jurisdictions and other countries. The only formal activity of the winter conference is an Initiation. The rest of the time is spent on team building and other fun interactive activities.

Meatball Madness Spaghetti Dinner

Our Meatball Madness Spaghetti Dinner was a great success! Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket, donated food and supplies, and/or came out and enjoyed a relaxing meal with our DeMolay. Our Advisors cooked dinner from scratch (homemade -meatballs and sauce, even homemade desserts).

We had a lot of fun and made some money.

Our goal with this dinner was to help offset the cost of our Chapter’s attendance at Escape to Florida in January. Our members work hard to raise the money to attend events. We look forward to working with the various lodges in our district to serve dinner at their Installations and participate in other activities with the lodge throughout the coming year.

We are still working on paying our way to Escape in January – Please help us out by donating through Zeffy

Bingo and Raffle was a hit

Thank you to all of our friends and family who helped to make our fall DeMolay Bingo and Raffle a hit.

We held Bingo at Landmark Lodge this time, and several of the Brothers and their families came out to participate. We sold ham or pulled pork sliders, veggie snack bags, apple slices, and chips in our snack bar (plus chocolate chip cookies, pumpkin cheesecake and pecan pie brownies)

We auctioned off several cakes (thank you everyone for participating) and had some wonderful prizes (including restaurant gift cards)

Pictured here are just a few of the many prizes that were won.

Our Raffle prize winner will receive his prize at the Landmark Lodge December meeting.

Thank you again everyone who worked to make this a success, and everyone who came out to have fun with us.

Day of Comfort 2023

Day of Comfort 2023

This summer our members voted to raise money and collect donations to give Thanksgiving dinner and nearly a week’s worth of groceries to six families for needy Middle School Families. We have done this as our “Day of Comfort” Charity each year for the last several years.

This year several local Masonic Lodges and Eastern Star Chapters donated money to help our members meet their goals. We also received several individual donations of food.

Our members spent last Wednesday, Nov. 15th finalizing our service project.

We started by divvying up the donated food and pre-purchased turkeys onto 6 tables

Then we went to Walmart and spent an additional $500 on food and laundry baskets for six families,

Our members picked a menu for Thanksgiving Dinner (Turkey and Ham, Green bean casserole ingredients, cranberry sauce, boxed mashed potatoes, stuffing, and a pie.)

They then added a 5 lb bag of potatoes, and bags of onions, apples, and oranges. Also peanut butter and jelly, cereal, more canned vegetables, macaroni and cheese, beans and rice.

Jace, Jacob, Kayden, Ryon, Airon and Zander with six laundry baskets full of food we donated to families through a Deltona Middle School.

A massive thank you how’s out to everyone who helped make this a success.

Don Needham, a 70-year Senior DeMolay recognized.

Don Needham, a 70-year Senior DeMolay recognized.

Last night 4 of our brothers and 3 of our advisors attended dinner and the public portion of the opening ceremony of New Smyrna Beach Lodge #149 to present a 70-year pin in recognition of Don Needham.

Don Tucker, a 60-year Senior DeMolay, presented Don Needham, a 70-year Senior DeMolay, with his certificate and pin. Active members Airon K, Kayden B, Ryon K, and Jacob M, and John Bidoli, Senior DeMolay and Chairman of our Advisory Board assisted.

We would like to thank the officers and members of New Smyrna Beach Lodge for the privilege of attending the opening of their meeting to make the presentation,. We also thank the sisters of New Smyrna Beach Chapter, OES, for their hospitality and for serving us a delicious dinner.

Afterward, we went to Dairy Queen and enjoyed a frozen beverage before returning home.

Visit to Bahia Chapter at Eola Lodge

This week seven of our officers and two of our advisors visited Bahia Chapter. While we were there we assisted with their meeting and met the State Master Councilor from Connecticut. We also worked with their officers to come up with a plan for our Installation of Officers on Sept. 10 at 7:30 pm (Dinner at 6:30 pm).

It was approximately a 1 hour drive from our homes to Eola Lodge, during the drive we talked about what we want to do during the next 6 months and where we want to go on our fun nights. On the way home the conversation continued. We left Deland at about 6pm and everyone was home before 9:45 pm. Our officers are looking forward to visiting more Chapters in the future. Check our calendar for future events.

Visit with Bahia chapter
March 2023 Officers

Spring 2023 Officers

Twice yearly, our members elect and appoint a new corp of officers. These officers work together to plan everything the Chapter accomplishes each year. These are our spring 2023 officers:

Master Councilor Airon K.
Senior Councilor Ethan V.
Junior Councilor Anthony M.
Senior Deacon Zander T.
Junior Deacon Toby S.
Chaplain Ryon K.

Marshal Kayden B.
Senior Steward Clinton V.
Junior Steward Sion K.
Standard Bearer Jacob M.
Sentinel Cole W.
Orator Presley M.

March 2023 Officers

Our adult Advisors are Parents, Masons, and Senior DeMolay, who volunteer with our Chapter, mentor our members, and chaperone our events. We work with the members of our Chapter as they plan fun events, charitable projects, and fundraisers. Advisors are appointed for one year at a time.
Contact the entire advisory board at <advisor@dalechapmandemolay.com>.

Chairman Dad John Bidoli
Chapter Advisor Mom Sandy King <momsandy@dalechapmandemolay.com>
Fundraising Mom Noelle Tingler <knottycakes@gmail.com>
Dad Len Morreale
Dad Harvey King
Dad Carlos Crispin
Dad Jason Miller
Mom Tiffany Machusak
Mom Stacey Van De Wiele

2021 Day of Comfort Food Drive.

What a difference two years has made!

In Sept. 2020, Sion K. installed his brother Airon during our meeting with only five members present. This Sept., we installed eleven members, and we’ve since initiated two more.

In the last two years, we have initiated seven members, and another two joined by affiliation or demit. We have had some hiccups along the way. There are growing pains as we work together and learn new ways of doing things and find new things to do.

Our members are active in our community. We volunteer as a group, helping some of our local Masonic senior citizens with yard work and otherwise as needed. We also go out in our community and help our neighbors on our own.

We continue to run a food drive in the fall for our Day of Comfort observance. We started with one food box and a turkey donated through Heritage Middle School to help those in need. Last year we donated 6 laundry baskets with food along with six turkey dinners.

We try to raise most or all of the money for our trips, fun events, and charitable projects through fund-raisers and donations rather than go to our parents with our hands out. Several of our families have two or more young men in our Chapter and also provide Advisors. With the help and support of our community, we have been able to pay for at least half of each of our adventures through chapter funds.

In Florida, we are invited to two large state-wide events each year and two district-wide events as well. Our Chapter spends approximately $600 per person to attend these events. Through our fundraising efforts, we have managed to charge our families only $225 per person. We are thankful for all we have accomplished with your help; however, even with all our fundraising and donations, there are always children who can not afford to attend these events. That said, we appreciate your continuing generous support through your donations and attendance at our fundraisers.

We are currently running a raffle and are planning for our December 9th Dinner and Bingo. Please consider donating, and also come out to have fun with our members and support our efforts.

For more information about Dec. 9th’s events, please check out our event page at https://dalechapmandemolay.com/events/dinner-bingo-raffles/

October came and went with a Bang!

September ended with Hurricane Ian; Volusia County had a lot of flooding both near the St. Johns River and also in neighborhoods. Thankfully none of our families suffered major losses in the storm.

Oct. 1 After Hurricane Ian – We had a blast on our fun night. We played cards and frisbee, ate Mac and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, and Chilli, and had a basket out for donations to our Day of Comfort Food Drive.

Dad Sapp was deployed to the Ft. Meyers area to help with the recovery efforts. Several of our members were out in their neighborhoods and around town, helping with clean-up efforts. We had multiple advisors out for part of the month recovering from scheduled surgeries.

We had 1 meeting in person and another on Zoom.

On Oct. 22nd, we held our District 3 Conclave and Halloween Party. The day started at 1 pm with an Initiation at St. John’s Lodge. (We brought in 2 new members YAY!) We then moved over to Mom Redding’s house for a Halloween pool party and barbecue. It was a wonderful mellow afternoon and evening with games on the patio and in the yard.

On Oct. 27th, Deland Rainbow Girls and our members helped Landmark Lodge serve and clean up after their Hundred Mason Kilt night.

The month ended with us gearing up for another major Storm. Tropical Storm Nicole hit the coast, and the repeated storm surge caused major damage. Thankfully none of our members nor advisors were hit hard.

District Conclave 2022

3 New members

At our District Conclave on October 22, we initiated 2 new members into our Chapter at St. Johns Lodge #37. Almost all of our officers who could attend that day participated in the initiation.

After the Initiation, we played games and had a pool party at Mom Redding’s home nearby. Members from across the district and around the state met and discussed various topics related to membership, fundraising, and having fun with their DeMolay brothers.

We also have a member who is affiliated with our Chapter from another chapter.