NEWS & VIEWS from the Valley of Utica Published by Yahnundahsis Bodies, A.A.S.R. October December, 2014 Volume 48 Issue 2 2014-2016 Meritorious Service Awards D.B. John J. Seiselmyer, 32, MSA Distinguished Brother John James Seiselmyer was born September 26th in Utica and resides in Deerfield with his wife Sandy. They are the parents of two sons, John J. Junior and William Basile. He graduated from SUNY Fredonia and is a retired from Wholesale Electrical Sales. Brother Seiselmyer is a member and Secretary of Sauquoit Lodge #150 in Sauquoit, NY and Chaplain of Moriah Lodge # 958 in Utica. John became a Scottish Rite Mason in 2005. He is Past Sovereign Prince of the Council Princes of Jerusalem and is an active Degree Cast Member for the degrees presented by his Valley. He is currently the 1st Lieutenant Commander for the Valley of Utica. Brother Seiselmyer and his family are active members of the Mohawk Reform Church where he serves as an Elder and his family supports the New Hope Children s Ministry in South America to aid the abandoned children they care for. He works to support the Children s Dyslexia Center, Central New York, American Heart Association, Food for the Poor and the local Alzheimer s Association. He is active in other Concordant Bodies of Masonry. The members of the Council of Deliberation AASR, NY congratulate Brother Seiselmyer upon receipt of the New York Council of Deliberation Meritorious Service Award in the class of 2014. The Valley of Utica thanks him for his dedication and service to the Scottish Rite. D.B. Sherman Stein, 32, MSA Distinguished Brother Sherman Stein was born July 4th in Buffalo and resides in Marcy with his wife Anne. They are the parents of one son, Richard and two daughters, Sharon and Sandra. He is a retired from Singer and then later from Smith Packing. Brother Stein is a member of Alliance Lodge #1097 in Oriskany Falls, NY and Utica #47 in Utica, NY. Sherman became a Scottish Rite Mason in 2004. He is Past Sovereign Prince of the Council Princes of Jerusalem and Past Most Wise Master of Chapter of Rose Croix. is an active Degree Cast Member for the degrees presented by his Valley. He is currently the Senior Warden of the Yahnundahsis Lodge of Perfection. Brother Stein and his family are active members of the Lady of the Rosary Church in New Hartford and Saint Leos/Saint Ann s in Holland Patent. He is a lifetime member of I.O.O.B., driver for transportation of children to the Shriner s Hospitals and is active in other Concordant Bodies of Masonry. The members of the Council of Deliberation AASR, NY congratulate Brother Stein upon anticipation of receipt of the New York Council of Deliberation Meritorious Service Award in the class of 2016. The Valley of Utica thanks him for his dedication and service to the Scottish Rite.
2 NEWS & VIEWS News and Views published in Utica, New York by YAHNUNDAHSIS BODIES, A.A.S.R. 251 Genesee Street, Utica, NY 13501 Tel. 315-724-9561 Fax. 315-798-8733 E-mail:AASRUCANY@Verizon.net www.aasruticany.com ALLEGIANCE The bodies of Scottish Rite, sitting in the Valley of Utica, State of New York acknowledge and yield allegiance to the Supreme Council, 33, Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the United States of America, whose Grand East is in Lexington, Massachusetts and whose officers are: Sovereign Grand Commander Ill John William McNaughton, 33º Grand Lieutenant Commander Ill Peter J. Samiec, 33º Grand Minister of State Ill Robert F. Ogg, Jr., 33 Deputy for the State of New York Ill David P. Spencer, 33 ACTIVE MEMBERS FOR NEW YORK Ill Peter J. Samiec, 33º Past Deputy of New York Ill Stephen R. Whittaker, 33 (2009) Ill P. Michael Nielsen, 33 (2010) Ill G. Michael Morris, 33 (2010) ACTIVE EMERITI MEMBERS Ill James F. Niehoff, 33 (1991) Ill Bruce Widger, 33 Past Deputy for NY (2000) Ill Richard H. Welkley, 33 (2003) Ill Gary Henningsen, 33 (2004) Ill Frederick D. Greene, 33 (2010) Ill Edward R. Trosin, 33 (2010) Ill Harold L. Aldrich, 33 Past Deputy for NY (1992) DEPUTY S REPRESENTATIVE Ill Stephen C. Park, 33 OFFICERS OF SCOTTISH RITE * Keith A. Pope, 32 MSA -Commander-in-Chief *Mark Alvarado, 32 Most Wise Master *Michael T. Dunn, 32 Sovereign Prince *Carl J. Klossner, 32 Thrice Potent Master Ill Daniel L. Clark, 33 - Secretary Philip Schaeffer, 32, DSA - Treasurer William R. Williams, 32 MSA Hospitaler SCOTTISH RITE TRUSTEES Wayne L. Allen, 32 DSA Ill Stephen C. Park, 33 Ill William C. Brunet, Sr., 33 Ill Rodney St. Clair, 33 Ill Timothy J. DiMare, 33 *Also four presiding officers INCORPORATING TRUSTEE Ill Vaughn A. Combs, 33 OCT-DEC, 2014 FROM THE SECRETARY S DESK Hi Brothers Happy Fall to you! There are some fun events over the next few months. Make sure you read the News and Views to get all the details of each event. Dues is the next major project for the Valley. I should be able to get the bills by the middle of the month. Please give advise of any health or other things that may be a challenge for you. Contact us at 315-724-9561 with any questions. Fraternally, Ill Daniel L. Clark, 33 Secretary AASR SHRINE ALL MASONIC VALENTINE PARTY DATE: SAT FEB. 14, 2015 AQUA VINO RESTAURANT UTICA, NY MUSIC & ENTERTAINMENT BY: DJ LINDA RAE WATCH FOR MORE DETAILS ON OUR WEBSITE www.aasruticany.com VE SA E TH E T DA
OCT DEC 2014 NEWS & VIEWS 3 FROM THE EAST To My Scottish Rite Brothers: I hope this message finds you all well and full of enthusiasm for our fall programs. We start out with our Awards Night. We will be presenting Past Presiding Officers Jewels to Past Commander-In-Chief Wayne L. Allen 32 MSA, Past Most Wise Master Zachary P. Miller 32, Past Sovereign Prince Phillip J. Miller 32, Thrice Potent Master Frank S. Rice 32 DSA. Thank You Gentlemen for your Dedication and Service. The Meritorious Service Awards Red Hats will be presented to D.B. John J. Seiselmyer, 32 MSA and D.B. Sherman Stein, 32 MSA. The Dedicated Service Awards Blue Hats will be presented to Donald G. Pope 32 DSA and Vaughn T. Combs 32 DSA. Please join me in Congratulating these Brother for their Dedication to our Valley. Please make plans to join us Sunday November 09, 2014, at 2:30 p.m. at Daniel s at Valley View Golf Club to Honor our Veterans. We will be having a Candidates Night again this at Francesca s in Ilion, Friday November 21, 2014 at 6:30 p.m... We had a great a great meal and time last year. Please bring your perspective candidates along with you. We need new enthusiastic Brothers who will enrich our Scottish Rite Family. Our dues will be due very soon. Please take care of them as soon as you receive them so you don t forget them. Also consider making an additional donation to the Scholarship Fund and the Children s Dyslexia Center. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Remember our Brothers in need of our Aide and Sympathy. Brethren, Friends, All: I bring you greetings from the Yahnundasis Chapter of Rose Croix. By now, those with kids have experienced the Back to School season and like the B2S season we, too, are headed into another season or set of degrees. We have had many dinners, parties, honored our deserving Brethren and had excellent friendly conversations by this time. Congratulations to those that have been honored for your time and dedication to Scottish Rite. As we move into our degree season, NOW is the time to look at those Brothers that you are sitting with in Lodge. Not only look at them but getting to know them and they you. Why not ask them to accompany you to a Scottish Rite function? While at this function, ask him to join you in the Scottish Rite vision of caring for each other. All of our degrees are allegories portraying Masonic values and lessons. All that needs to happen is one needs to go out there and communicate. Then when he has joined, we need to keep him happy. Simple plan! Have you checked out our Scottish Rite 2014 Membership Video on Vimeo? Copy and paste this address into your browser, http://scottishritenmj.org/becomea-mason/videos, and look at the 2014 Membership Video. It is a well-crafted and great resource that should be shown to any Mason. Take a look! I did and learned quite a bit from it. How can we show our Lodge Brothers? Let s get back to our basics! I look forward to seeing you at our functions in the near future! Respectfully submitted, Mark Alvarado, 32 Most Wise Master Fraternally, Keith A. Pope, 32, MSA Commander in Chief
4 NEWS & VIEWS OCT-DEC, 2014 Brethren, As the summer comes to an end it is time to begin our Masonic Responsibilities again. The fall brings us back to getting ready for our next set of new Scottish Rite Brothers. There are a number of changes in the degrees that we will be presenting. Several of the changes have been updated for presentation this year. These changes have been implemented to bring more of the original meaning of Scottish Rite to light for our new brothers. We have several important dates coming up this fall! The first is the Awards Banquet which will be held at Alee's Restaurant on Elizabeth Street in Utica. This will be on October 4 th. Please mark your calendars and plan to attend. The Lodge of Perfection will be hosting this event. We also have our annual Brother Bring a Brother night coming up on October 17 th. This is a time for us to bring our Blue Lodge Brothers to find out more about Scottish Rite Masonry. Following this event there will be a Membership Night on November 21 st. The time and location can be found in this newsletter under the calendar of events. These two events should remind us that we need to be looking for brothers that are interested in more light in masonry. We would love to have a large class to go through our degrees this year. Please be looking at your brothers in our home lodges to see who would make a good candidate for the Scottish Rite. Finally I'd like to congratulate the Valley of Utica on a job well done this past summer in hosting the Council of Deliberation Conference in Syracuse. I attended both days and found it to be a wonderful experience. There were many compliments given to the Valley of Utica for making this a memorable weekend event. This was truly a feather in our Valley's Cap! Congratulations Commander in Chief! More next Month! Fraternally, Carl J. Klossner, 32 DSA Thrice Potent Master CONGRATULATIONS TO BRO. VAUGHN T. COMBS & BRO. DON POPE 2014 DSA RECIPIENT S The Valley of Utica awarded Vaughn T. Combs and Donald G. Pope with the Distinguished Service Award Blue Hat at it s recent Awards Banquet that was held at Alee s Restaurant. This was a total surprise to both recipients. Vaughn and Don have proven to be dedicated members of the Valley. Both men are most deserving of this honor. Pictured above with his wife, Connie: Don has been a dedicated member for several years, currently serving as Class Marshal, and taking part in several of our degrees. Pictured above with his wife, Joan: Vaughn is a current Officer and was instrumental in the establishment of our website.
OCT-DEC, 2014 NEWS & VIEWS 5 Notes from Children s Dyslexia Center ~ CNY Welcome to my world When you read this we will have completed our 2013-2014 year at the Center and will be making final plans to begin our 10 th year starting in September. How exciting is that? Sometimes it seems hard to believe that it has been that long since we opened our doors in Spring of 2005 (we tutored our first two children at the OES Home for several months before moving into the Center.) As we complete this year we can tell you that since our inception we have accepted 150 children and have had 105 go through the program. Ten of those children will continue in the program next year and we will bring ten new children into the program as well. Nathaniel is one of the children who will return in the fall and he has taken advantage of the summer program as well. He met his new tutor during the summer and they seem to be a very good match. It will be fun to watch his progress in the fall. We have trained 37 tutors at the Center and 33 have continued the training to receive Certification. Five of those have gone on to receive Advanced Tutor Certification and we have three more in training for that level. We have a class of 5 new scholars who have begun training for their initial certification. As you can see we continue to be a very busy place. The Board has been busy planning fund raisers to help keep us going (sadly some other Centers are planning to close their doors due to financial difficulties) and I know you will do what you have done in the past to support us at our summer Golf Tournament, and fall Walk-a-Thon and Book Fair at Barnes and Noble on Nov. 1 ss As always, I thank you for all you do to make us who we are! ~Linda L. Martin, Director Email- lmartin@cnyclc.org Phone- (315) 736-0574 Mail- Children s Dyslexia Center- CNY PO Box 638 VALLEY OF UTICA - AASR VETERANS DINNER Sunday November 9, 2014 DANIELE S RESTAURANT 620 Memorial Parkway - Utica, NY - 2:30 p.m. $20.00 per person for non Veteran and their guest $5 Per person for non AASR Veteran and $10 for their guest FREE for AASR Veteran and their guest Reservation Deadline November 3rd Valley of Utica AASR Please fill out and return to the Valley Of Utica 251 Genesee St., Utica, NY 13501 Please reserve dinners. My check in the amount of payable to Valley of Utica, A.A.S.R., is enclosed. Name Phone VETERANS INFORMATION Branch/Years Served: Highest Military Rank:
6 NEWS & VIEWS OCT-DEC, 2014 AASR CANDIDATE NIGHT 2014 Friday, November 21, 2014 Francesca s - 144 E. Main Street, Ilion, NY BRING YOUR CANDIDATES AND THEIR LADIES TO LEARN MORE ABOUT AASR MEMBERSHIP 6:00 p.m. Social Hour (cash bar) 6:30 p.m. Francesca s Deluxe Buffet with Dessert 7:30 p.m Membership Program. NO CHARGE FOR CANDIDATES AND THEIR LADIES $15.00 pp - AASR MEMBER SPONSORING NEW CANDIDATE $22.00 pp - OTHER AASR MEMBERS AND GUESTS Please call the AASR Office at 724 9561 with reservations by November 14, 2014 Our Degree Season will begin on January 16, 2014 with the 4th and 8th Degrees LET S HAVE A LARGE CLASS IN HONOR OF OUR DISTINGUISHED CLASS SPONSOR: Donald G. Pope, 32, DSA For more details, visit our website at: www.aasructicany.com Valley of Utica AASR & Ziyara Shriners Holiday Reception HARTS HILL INN - FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2014 6:00 P.M. Cocktails and Hors d oeuvres 7:00 P.M. Carving Stations - Prime Rib, Turkey, Pasta and Salad Stations Dessert station CASH BAR Music and Entertainment by New Horizons Barbershop Chorus $ 27.00 per person DRESS: Business Suit/Holiday Attire Come join us for an evening of fine Scottish Rite/Shrine Fellowship RESERVATION DEADLINE: December 12th, 2014
OCT DEC, 2014 NEWS & VIEWS 7 BUSINESSES AND SERVICES DIRECTORY Promises kept......since 1893 600 French Road, New Hartford, NY 13413-0874 735-9201 James B. Turnbull, IV Mark A. Turnbull www.mccny.com (315) 798-4703 OVER A CENTURY OF CREATING MEMORIES TO MONUMENTS Burdick - Enea Memorials 56 Utica St. P.O. Box 383 Clinton, NY 13323 853-5444 DeRegis - Walser Monuments 1152 Grant Blvd Syracuse, NY 13203 479-6111 Cemetery Lettering Complete Monument Service Your Ad Here ~~~SICKNESS & DISTRESS~~~ Proudly Serving the Mohawk Valley ENEA FAMILY FUNERAL HOME 24 West Monroe St., Little Falls, NY 13365 220 N. Washington St., Herkimer, NY 13350 4309 Acme Road, Town of Frankfort, Ilion, NY 13357 9 Center St., St. Johnsville, NY 13452 ROBERTS & ENEA FAMILY FUNERAL HOME 3 E. Faville Ave., Dolgeville, NY 13329 APPLEGATE-DAY & ENEA FAMILY FUNERAL HOME 4309 Acme Road, Town of Frankfort, Ilion, NY 13357 1-877-581-3632 Bro. James Robotham, 147 Carlson Road, Dolgeville, NY, 13329-2722, was undergoing treatments. Ill Bro. Vaughn Combs, 3499 Brown Road E., Taberg, NY, 13440, underwent knee surgery and is now at home. Bro. Preston Amerman, 376 Barnes Road, P.O. Box 206, Salisbury Center, NY, was hospitalized and is now home. ~~~IN MEMORIAM~~~ Bro. Donald Galarneau 07/25/2014 Bro. Robert Jones 08/26/2014 Bro. J. Bradford Millet 08/30/2014
YAHNUNDAHSIS BODIES A.A.S.R. Utica Masonic Hall 251 Genesee Street Utica, NY 13501-3464 NON-PROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 288 UTICA NY Valley of Utica AASR UPCOMING EVENTS October 04 Awards Banquet Alee s 6:00 p.m. 08 Executive Committee Meeting 7:00 p.m. November 09 Veterans Dinner Daniele s 2:30 p.m. 12 Executive Committee Meeting 7:00 p.m. 21 Candidate Night Francesca s 6:30 p.m. December 10 Executive Committee Meeting 7:00 p.m. 19 AASR/Shrine Holiday Reception 6:00 p.m. - Harts Hill Inn Please be aware that sometimes it is difficult to keep track of each member and their health status. We sincerely appreciate your help in keeping us informed and updated. If you know of any changes in location as well as sickness/distress, please do not hesitate to contact the Scottish Rite Office at: 315-724-9561 or AASRUCANY@verizon.net