Shriners Serve the Greater Good

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In addition to fun, frivolity, and camaraderie through their many fun social gatherings, The Shrine Club of S.E. Mass also has a very serious purpose to their organization, they support the Shriners Hospitals for Children. Moreover,  they  also have many projects other projects dedicated to the well being of society.

Free Screening Clinics

The Shrine Club of Southeastern Massachusetts sponsors screening clinics  at various times throughout the year for examination and application of new patients to the Shriners Hospitals for Children. Please check our upcoming events page for further details. There is no charge for an examination or application to Shriners Hospitals & the Shriners Hospitals provide free care for children in the areas of orthopedics burn care, spinal cord injury and cleft lip and palette conditions regardless of financial need or relationship to a member of the Shriner’s Fraternity.  Children from all over the world are treated at the Shriner’s hospitals for Children and patients and their families are provided free transportation (if needed). If a screening clinic is not currently scheduled persons knowing  children with a problem in the fields mentioned above should contact us so we can schedule a special clinic.

Providing Free Transportation

For many years the members of the Shrine Club of Southeastern Mass has provided  transportation to children and their parents from Southeastern Mass and Rhode Island the to Shriners Hospitals located in Boston and Springfield to be screened for application and to receive free orthopedic and burn care free of charge. To refer a child for free care please click here.

Raising Awareness

The Shrine Club of Southeastern Mass participates in several public events each year to raise awareness of the Shriners Hospitals (and the Shriners fraternity) so no children are left untreated.

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Paper Drive

The first and largest is there series of paper drives that they conduct at area stores and other events in which members distribute pamphlets containing information about the Shriners Hospitals to the public and answer questions that they might have. This usually occurs over several weekends starting in May and lasting until October. The Shrine club is always looking for new ways to spread the word about the hospitals, if you would like to have the Shrine Club perform a paper drive at your establishment or event, please contact us.

Guest Speakers

Moreover the Shrine Club has several members who are able to speak publicly at events to groups of various sizes and ages to raise awareness of the Shriners Hospitals for Children. If you would like to have a member of the Shrine Club speak at your meeting or event please contact us at least one month in advance and provide as many details as possible. The Shrine Club of Southeastern Mass provides this service free of charge and on a first come first serve basis, donations are not required but will not be turned away. If you would like to have the Shrine Club speak  at your organization or event, please contact us.

Parades

Finally, the Shrine  Club of Southeastern Mass recently started doing parades in southeastern mass to raise awareness of the Shriners Hospitals.  This service is provided  free of charge and on a first come first serve basis, donations are not required but will not be turned away. If you would like to have the Shrine Club participate in your parade, please contact us.

Raising funds to provide Free Transportation

The Shrine Club of  Southeastern Mass is dedicated to providing free transportation to the Shriners Hospitals from anywhere in the world so that distance and financial need do not affect a patients ability to recieve care at the Shriners Hospitals for Children. In following this initiative the Shrine Club of Southeastern Mass raises money for the Aleppo Shriner’s Patient Transportation Fund(click on the link for more info about this.) and has raised several tens of thousands of dollars to provide free transportation to The Shriner’s Hospitals for patients and their families for the well being of children with no personal gain to anybody.

Shrine Day at Umass Dartmouth

For the past 10 years the Shrine Club of Southeastern Mass has teamed up with the Athletic Department at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, and the King Phillip Shrine Club  to produce the Umass Dartmouth Cross Country Invitational and Shrine Football Game.  This event has the longest running cross country race of its kind in New England, and over 1,000 of the top NCAA Division III male and female cross country runners and teams from colleges throughout the country ascend on Umass Dartmouth today for a day of athletic competition. Moreover the football games features Umass Dartmouth pitted against another division III college team in what makes an exciting and exhilarating day at Umass Dartmouth.  The day’s activities are an opportunity for the members of the Shrine Club of Southeastern Massachusetts to raise public awareness for its work as “the world’s greatest philanthropy” the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children.

Pull-Tab Recycling

Another project that the Shrine Club has undertaken is collecting and recycling aluminum pull-tabs from beverage cans. to support the Shriner’s Hospitals and the patient transportation fund. The Shriner’s collect the pull-tabs for 4 reasons, first, it allows others to help without additional cost to them.  It also allows the public to help while keeping the can, which they can still turn in.  Third, by recycling the aluminum the Shriner’s are being environmentally friendly, this is because it requires approximately 15% of the energy to recycle the already refined aluminum rather than mine new aluminum.  Most importantly, it also is another way to help kids receive Care free of charge at the Shriner’s Hospitals for Children.

This is an ongoing project and in addition to the various places currently collecting tabs which you can drop off your pull-tab’s (Click here to go to our pull-tab page) we are always looking for new locations, please contact us if you would like to add your establishment to our list of collection sites.

Collecting (Acrylic) Yarn

The members collect acrylic yarn and local citizens have knitted 2,408 sets of bonnets and booties and 954 additional baby bonnets that are given to the three Southcoast hospitals. several of our  ”special” friends  have made 960 wheel chair size afghans which are given to the people in nursing homes. They  have also crocheted and knitted 687 dolls to give to less fortunate children.If you would like to donate yarn to support this please contact us.

Spreading holiday cheer at the Schwartz Center for Children

For many years members of the Shrine Club have acquired a number of goodies and assemble holiday over 100 stockings which are distributed free of charge to the clients of the Schwartz Center in Dartmouth. If you would like to make a cash or in-kind donation of goods to support this please contact us.

Collecting eyeglasses for the needy

The Shrine Club of Southeastern Mass is dedicated to ensuring individuals who  have disabilities are not restricted from living normal lives because of financial difficulties and because of that they teamed up with the Lions Club of Fairhaven and have collcted 7,800 pairs of eyeglasses to donate to the Fairhaven Lions Club.  If you would like to donate eyeglasses to support this please contact us.