Look out for some awesome state activities coming your way !!

• March 4 - Tri-Youth Initiation and Grotto Dance (Cleveland)
• March 11 - State 3 on 3 Basketball (Mogadore)
• March 25 - Tadmore Dance (Canton)
• March 31 - April 2 -Heartland Ritual Tournament, (Chicago, IL)

March 11, 2006

Ohio DeMolay has brought back the tradition!

Located at Field High School, 2900 St Rt. 43, Mogadore, OH 44260

The registration is from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. Mandatory participants meeting – 9:00 a.m. Games begin 9:15 a.m.

Teams consist of three DeMolays and may consist of DeMolays from different chapters. Feel free to mix it up from chapters all over the state. Cost is $33 per team.

Registration, team fee, and medical release forms are all due to Dad Hampton or bring with them you

There will be two age divisions:

• 15 and Under division
• Open division

The games will be refereed by Ohio High School Athletic Association Referees using modified NBA Hoop it Up 3 on 3 Rules and Regulations.

All participants must have numbers on their jerseys or shirts.

If You don’t have a team come, and we will try to help you get one !

FACT: We are officially about 17% of the way through 2006.

That means that we only have about 42% of the DeMolay year left.

I hope everyone had a great time at the State Mock Trial this month. I would like to thank everyone that participated and everyone that came. It was a great turnout for the first time that we have ever done a state event like this.

On the 11th of March, everyone will be trying (and failing) to beat my team at State 3 On 3 Basketball at Field High School in Mogadore. The cost per team is $33 and registration is at the door. Everyone that is playing MUST BE THERE AT 9 AM for the reading of the rules.

Also, everyone that is playing MUST HAVE A PARENTAL PERMISSION SLIP SIGNED. NO EXCEPTIONS. Please call or email me with any questions if you have them.

Also, keep April 22 open for the Northwest Regional Dodgeball Tournament and May 21 open for State Devotional Day.

I am proud to say that we are still leading the nation in the number of new initiates. Congratulations to all of you on achieving this.

I had no doubt in my mind that we could get back on top and show everyone else how things are done. I am proud to be your State Master Councilor

In DeMolay Service,

Edward A. Jones

2005-2006 State Master Councilor

March is here and with it NCAA March Madness. What does every sports fan want when they watch a basketball game? Pizza!

An easy way to make some money is to sell a Pizza Card. A Pizza Card is a basic plastic card that normally has 20 stickers on it that work as coupons that are good for one free pizza with the purchase of another.

The cards are available from the Buy for Charity Company at a very low cost of three dollars per card. Considering these things sell for Ten dollars each you can make some cash fast. This is an extremely easy fundraiser, simply get online and go to http://www.buyforcharity.com/pizzacard.asp and you will find all the information about this amazing opportunity.

The best thing is that if you order 100 or more cards the company starts to throw in extra cards for free, bringing your overall cost down and allowing you to make more money.

Let’s look at some numbers; if you purchase 100 cards then the company will throw in 20 cards for free which you can then sell for 100% profit. Overall if you sell all 120 cards you net an easy and profitable $900 So give this company a chance and make some money for your chapter.

You could even give some incentive to you members by offering Free Conclave if they sell a certain number of cards.

So get out there and support both your chapter and your members!

Spring is right around the corner so it's time to think about some warmer weather membership ideas.

Try having a prospect party in a local park. Start out with some games, ultimate frizbee, flag football, basketball and the like. Once the game is over or at halftime serve up a picnic with hot dogs burgers and such, all provided by the chapter or have a potluck. While eating, have the member serve the prospective brothers and their parents if they are in attendance. Have a brief informational session about DeMolay with a focus on brotherhood and having fun.

After the meal go back to your game, but leave a few of the older brothers behind to answer any questions the parents may have and to emhapsize the amount of good DeMolay has done for young men over the years.

Please take time to read the “News and Views” link off the web site on a frequent basis. You'll find out details about many interesting things happening throughout Ohio.

1. As of today, Ohio DeMolay is in 1st place in the nation with 28 new members. We are off to a great start but unfortunately most of the activity has come from one district, the second! I do see activity in all districts and expect that soon the rest of the state will be challenging the second. In the first district, alone we have one new chapter working on getting the paperwork together to get their letters temporary (Van Wert) and several others working hard to get either an existing chapter revitalized or a new one started.

2. Don’t tell me that advertising does not work! Yesterday, I received a request for information from a father in Perrysburg, Ohio who saw an article in the local newspaper about DeMolay and wanted his son to join.

3. February 4th, from a weather perspective was to be a terrible day. It, however, was a great day for the Masonic Youth Groups in Ohio. I must commend everyone for the effort put forth on the Mock Trial Event in Columbus. We had 75 in attendance and the weather for that day was terrible (and they were calling for the conditions to get worse as the day progressed). I think everyone involved had a great time and learned a lot about our legal system.

4. The Youth Groups of Ohio are working together more and more as time goes on and we need to make sure that we are supporting each other. Cleveland is holding a Tri-Youth initiation on March 4th with a dance afterwards, Tadmor Shrine has planned a Youth dance for March 25th, JOBS has their Rose Prom on March 25th in Cincinnati, Toledo is holding a Youth dance on April 8th, Rainbow is holding a Grand Reception on March 11th in Columbus, and the JOBS Pageant will be April 29th in Canton.

In DeMolay Service,

Dad Shaw

Last Month's Question: Who and in what year was the first person in our country's history to be appointed as Post Master General?

Hint: He's probably not related to Eddie Jones.

Answer: 1775, Benjamin Franklin

According to the National Postal Museum, Benjamin Franklin was named postmaster of Philadelphia by the British Crown in 1737. The colonial post still carried mostly official and commercial correspondence, and most communications were transatlantic. Few residents of one colony needed to contact residents of another. But over the next three decades, a sense of common destiny began to unite the colonies in opposition to British rule.

Benjamin Franklin brought form to the disorganized British colonial post. In 1753 Franklin became the Crown's joint postmaster general for the American colonies. He moved quickly to improve the fledgling service. After a 1,600-mile inspection of post offices, he organized a weekly mail wagon between Philadelphia and Boston. Franklin's postal riders traveled day and night by horseback in relays, using lanterns to light their way. The service cut mail delivery time between the cities in half, making the colonial post both efficient for colonists and profitable for the Crown.

In 1774, the Crown dismissed Franklin from his position as joint Postmaster General because of his revolutionary activities. The next year, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin postmaster general of the United Colonies. -National Postal Museum

Congratulations to our 2 winners!

Ed Taylor, Vincent D'Ettorre.

Here's your new question!

Which DeMolay Hall of Famer is hailed as the last Olympic medal winner for the United States in Modern Pentathlon and the only person to win three gold medals in the two different sports of Modern Pentathlon and Fencing in the Pan American Games?

Hint: You might want to see him for a toothache.

Good Luck!

The First 3 DeMolays to Email me with the correct answer will win a prize!

Do you know what the answer is?

Find out next month right here in Ohio DeMolay's digital newsletter!

This article was passed on to us by Dad Keith K. Klein the Grand Senior Councilor of DeMolay International

-January 30, 2006

One of the most reliable predictors of whether a boy will succeed or fail in high school rests on a single question: does he have a man in his life to look up to? Too often, the answer is no. High rates of divorce and single motherhood have created a generation of fatherless boys. In every kind of neighborhood, rich or poor, an increasing number of boys—now a startling 40 percent—are being raised without their biological dads.

Psychologists say that grandfathers and uncles can help, but emphasize that an adolescent boy without a father figure is like an explorer without a map. And that is especially true for poor boys and boys who are struggling in school. Older males, says Gurian, model self-restraint and solid work habits for younger ones. And whether they're breathing down their necks about grades or admonishing them to show up for school on time, "an older man reminds a boy in a million different ways that school is crucial to their mission in life."

In the past, boys had many opportunities to learn from older men. They might have been paired with a tutor, apprenticed to a master or put to work in the family store. High schools offered boys a rich array of roles in which to exercise leadership skills—class officer, yearbook editor or a place on the debate team. These days, with the exception of sports, more girls than boys are involved in those activities.

In neighborhoods where fathers are most scarce, the high-school dropout rates are shocking: more than half of African-American boys who start high school don't finish. David Banks, principal of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, one of four all-boy public high schools in the New York City system, wants each of his 180 students not only to graduate from high school but to enroll in college. And he's leaving nothing to chance. Almost every Eagle Academy boy has a male mentor—a lawyer, a police officer or an entrepreneur from the school's South Bronx neighborhood. The impact of the mentoring program, says Banks, has been "beyond profound." Tenth grader Rafael Mendez is unequivocal: his mentor "is the best thing that ever happened to me." Before Rafael came to Eagle Academy, he dreamed about playing pro baseball, but his mentor, Bronx Assistant District Attorney Rafael Curbelo, has shown him another way to succeed: Mendez is thinking about attending college in order to study forensic science.

Newsweek, January 30, 2006 issue.

Dad Keith K. Klein, the Grand Senior Councilor of DeMolay International shares his thoughts on this issue below:

Yes, the article speaks to issue of education - but you cannot escape the presence of the word mentor.

For my purposes and for DeMolay, read the word mentor as - Advisor.

I have been spending a great deal of time of late thinking about change and what we (DeMolay) and the rest of the Masonic Family can do to embrace the times in which we now find ourselves.

For DeMolay I would say - stay strong...grow and welcome as many young men as possible. In DeMolay's key active member and initiate age demographics there is a definite parallel with a crucial time in a young man's life. A time when, as is noted in the complete Newsweek article - young men (boys) need to be with other young men (boys) of a similar age. What better argument could there be for the need for, and a purpose for, DeMolay - TODAY.

For the Masonic family which has numerous wonderful causes - what better purpose could the Adult members of the Masonic Family have then to assure the highest quality possible next generation and the one after that and the one after that.

We need Advisors. Young men (boys) need role models. If we truly believe in what the organizations in the Masonic Family are about - then there could be no higher calling or purpose than to make a difference in the life of a young man. I strongly urge you all to read the entire Newsweek article and think DeMolay as you do. I'm willing to bet a light will come on when you do that. It smacked me in the head and maybe that is what we need - a jolt of reality and a new purpose to an old mission.

Upper Sandusky Chapter (pictured above) loves state events almost as much as they like to eat pizza!

State 3v3 Iron Man Basketball Tournament 2006

The ball tipps off this Saturday, March 11th 2006 so hurry up and get all the details in the article above!

Region 4 Dodgeball Tournament 2006

The balls fly and the dodgers dodge on Saturday, April 22nd for the first ever state-hosted Dodgeball Tournament!

• Where: Rossford High School Fieldhouse
• Who: All DeMolay, Rainbow, Jobies and Prospects
• Cost:: $10.00 per person to play ages 12-21
• Time: Doors open at 11:00am - Registration - Noon until 1:00pm

State Devotional Day and Tri-Youth Volleyball Extravaganza 2006

Sunday, May 21 get your tie, kiss-the-cook apron and your lucky volleyball shorts ready for an afternoon of fun!

• What: 10 a.m. Service, followed by a Cookout, and Volleyball
• Where: Springfield Masonic Home
• Who: All DeMolay, Rainbow, Jobies and Prospects
• Cost: Cookout is free to attendees and $2.00 for others