Samoor Grotto Fun Campers Unit
by Wagon Master John "Smokey" McLean <jamsjm@juno.com>
March 2004The Fun Camper's are a fun unit in the Grotto open to all Mason's and Friends of Mason's.
We have a loose kinda unit and hope to get the message out to all potential Mason's, and have fun at the same time.
From this we should get some potential Grotto and Shrine Candidates. We have recently gotten three new Grotto member's and another one going through the degrees in Braidentown Lodge and he will be joining the Grotto as soon as he is able by Blue Lodge rules.
We do have some Shriner's from Tampa and Sahib in the group. What better way to get the message out. We had one Mason who joined the Camper's, got re-instated in his Lodge in New York and then joined the Grotto from this group, so you see it works. He also stepped in to line as an officer in the Grotto.
Our rules are simple, There are no dues and no initiation fee's. To Join, You just have to come at the invitation of a Mason or a friend of a Mason which most of us are. and Have some Camping gear.
Each Month one of the Camper's volunteer's to be a Host Wagon Master who pick's a Campground and makes arrangements with the Campground for a group. The Camper's make their own reservation as soon as a Campground is selected. They just inform the Campground that they are with the Fun Camper's and they try to keep us together as a group.
The campground selected must allow family's pet's, pop-up trailer's and try to keep us in a group. You would be surprised at how many campgrounds do not allow children and pets, and this is supposed to be a family thing. The Host Wagon Master also plans a meal iheme for a Saturday evening meal, they usually provide the main meat or whatever, does not have to be meat, and the rest of the camper's provide the fixin's potluck style to go with it. And we have had some awesome meals. In fact, we have never had a bad meal. We usually have about 12 to 14 rig's at a weekend. Not all can make every weekend. But everybody in our group looks forward to our weekend of camping, they are all a super group. We have had as many as 52 people for a meal.
We have three officer's in the group: Wagon Master "Smokey" (myself ) and spouse Sandy who started this group in 1999 with nine rigs (I'm also a member of Sahib Shrine Center.) Hospitality Chairman Hank Bollton and his wife Betty and they are the best at this (they are also a members of Sahib Shrine Center.) Our Secretary Lynne Light, Asst. Secretary is Kathy Johnson (when Lynne is playin' hookey, her husband Gary a also a member of Sahib.)
And of course the Host Wagon Master's each month who make this all work. We do have a meeting on Saturday morning to discuss the month's ahead and what is going on with the unit.
This is what our group is in a nutshell, it is still a Work in Progress and can be formed into anything that we desire. If you have any Sahib Shriner's with camper's feel free to invite them to join our unit. Let me have their names, addresses, phone number's and their email address if they have one, and I will see that they get the info on our Campout's.
Come and join the fun. and talk up the Shrine. And have Fun. Friday and Saturday is usually the group sitting around a campfire and solving all the world's most pressing problem's and a lot of Good Fellowship.