Giving Back

Our Brothers have been hard at work in the Masonic quarries. Brother Chad Oxford has complet-ed his Fellowcraft proficiency and is on his way to being a Master Mason. It has been a long journey for our Brother Oxford due to his schedule and many of our Brothers are excited and are looking for-ward to having him in Lodge and attending our meetings. A huge thank you goes out to Brother Na-ples and Williamson for coaching him and staying with it, your hard work has been noted. Brother Rog-er McCullum will not be to far be-hind as well.

Punta Gorda Lodge No.115

Chartered January 21, 1890

Newsletter Date : June 2018 Volume 128, Issue 6

Trestleboard

• Special points of interest:

• Let there Be Light

• June Birthday’s

• Special Announcement's

Inside this issue:

From the East 2

From the West 2

From the South 2

Secretary's

Desk

3

Chaplin’s

Corner

3

Let there be

Light

4

Surrounding

Area Lodges

5

Worshipful Master Steve Rizza had the privilege of pre-

senting Brother Charlie Mooney with a Trowel Certifi-

cate for his continued support and contribution to the

Child ID program. With the efforts of Brother Charlie

and many of our members, they were able to have 70+

children take part in this program. He was also instru-

mental in our Child ID Festival that was held at our

Lodge this year. Brother Charlie continues to show and

express his passion towards contributing to the commu-

nity. We are very fortunate to have Brother Charlie as

an active member and Brother. Thank you.

Brothers at Work

H ello Brothers,

I hope every-

one is enjoy-

ing their sum-

mer! Even though we

have switched to only one

Stated Communication

per month, there are still

several events planned for

the third Thursdays of

each month. We will be

having a Stated Commu-

nication on Thursday June

7th so I hope to see many

of you Brothers at the

Lodge. On Thursday

June 21st we will be pass-

ing Brother Roger

McCullom to the degree

of Fellowcraft and would

love your support with

your attendance. Past

Master Brother Paul

Heavener will be con-

ducting Brother Roger up

the winding staircase and

will do a fantastic job as

he always does with

Brother Sean Williamson

sitting in the East. On

June 25th we are traveling

to Venice Lodge to initi-

ate Mr. David Holloway

into the great society of

Freemasonry. Our Broth-

ers at the Venice Lodge

are hoping that we bring

many Brothers from our

Lodge to help them fill

their Lodge room. Please

help me and the Officers

represent Punta Gorda

Lodge by attending this

degree with us as well as

supporting our new candi-

date. Brothers as you al-

ready know, the Officers

and I just returned from

the annual Grand Lodge

convention in Orlando.

Roger McCullum let’s show our support in pass-ing this Brother. We will also be traveling to Ven-ice Lodge for an EA de-gree on June 25th for our candidates D. Zakikian and D. Holloway. We are in the works of attempting to have a family night once a month at the Lodge we are asking if anyone has foldable

G reetings Broth-ers, As summer kicks in we

will be only having one stated meeting a month, however that does not mean we will not stay active. We have a FC degree coming up on June 21st for Brother

From the South

chairs and/or bean bags that can be used at Lodge. One final reminder that we are looking to sell the remainder of the tickets for the fundraiser gun raffle so please support

this effort .

Junior Warden

Sean Williamson

From the East

From the West

postponed and we can discuss that at the next meeting or during dinner as I’m sure Worshipful Rizza has a busy night in store. I am in the process of preparing a six month financial report to keep everyone up to date with the lodges finances. We have several degrees up-coming and hope to see many of you there in at-tendance to support the

brothers and officers par-ticipating.

Sincerely,

Senior Warden David Summers

G reetings breth-ren, As you know, we are at the halfway

mark of 2018 and we are excited to be back from Grand Lodge with a lot of information for the lodge. Worshipful Rizza, myself and JW Williamson are looking forward to share what we have learned for the benefit in all. At this time the picnic has been

Page 2 Trestleboard

“Be the master of

your own spiritual

temple within.”

Continued on page 8

G reetings Broth-ers, I think we can all agree that summer is

upon us and with it the heat and humidity is defi-nitely here. The Officers of the Lodge are working hard to keep the Lodge running smooth. We are at presently working on the Fellow Craft De-gree for Bro. Roger McCullum. We also have several Candidates who wish to receive the Three Degrees. At this time, I want to give a special thank you to P.M. Seda and our present W.M. Steve Rizza who took it upon themselves to help me in a great way by tak-

ing charge of the new candidates from the E.A. Degree until they are raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Ma-son. This has allowed me to concentrate on other areas of my job as Secre-tary. Hopefully by this time next year I will be able to take back those duties as I get more profi-cient in my role as Secre-tary. Brother's, I hate to keep reminding those of you who have yet to pay your 2018 dues, but it becomes necessary for me to do this per the Grand Lodge. I must send out late dues notices by June 30th. Thirty days later I'm required to mail out final

notices. And if the dues are still not paid by then, I must start putting Brothers on (N.P.D.) suspension for non-payment of dues. This is one part of my job that I hate to do, but it's required of me by the Grand Lodge. So, Brothers if you would PLEASE try and get your dues to me as soon as possible it would be greatly appreciated. In closing I hope this finds you and all your loved ones in good health.

Respectfully

Secretary Ron George

Entered Apprentice on July 25th at the Venice Lodge. Sam Heavener will be in our Lodge for an Eagle Scout presentation July 19th. This is also the time of year that our residents slip off on summer vaca-tion to other parts of our great country or other parts of the world. If you don’t have a Masonic passport remember to pick one up for your travels. Nothing is quite so gratifying as at-tending another Lodge and being warmly welcomed as a Brother. Last but not least, please remember to keep our distressed Broth-ers in your prayers as they

F lorida Summer is here. That means it’s hot muggy and the snow-

birds are gone. It is more important now than ever that our resident Brothers attend Lodge, especially for special events. Noth-ing is more special than welcoming a new Brother or watching a Brother receive his next degree. Please come out and wel-come our new Brothers. Rodger McCullom will be passed to the Fellowcraft Degree on June 21st at our Lodge. David Za-kiklan and David Hol-loway will be initiated to

work to recover their health. Peace and Good Health Brothers. David Naples Chaplin

Secretary’s Desk

Chaplin’s Corner

Page 3 Volume 128, Issue 6

The Saint’s – John the Bap-tist and John the Evangelist, ap-pear to Freema-sons in several places in our cat-echisms.

Their proximity and use in our rituals have been ques-tioned for many years as to their use and place-ment. Looked at together, Saint John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist serve to represent the bal-ance in Masonry between zeal for the fraternity and learned equilibrium. The Saints John, stand in per-fect parallel harmony rep-resenting that balance.

From a historical ap-proach, The Saint John’s festival is said to be a widely celebrated Mason-ic holiday.

Traditionally, June 24th (or the summer Solstice) is taken to be John the Baptist’s day, which is celebrated in many cul-

tures around the world. According to McCoy’s Masonic Dic-tionary, the Festival of St. John in summer is a duty of every Mason to partici-pate in and should serve to be a renewal and strengthening of fraternal ties and a celebration of Masonry from “olden-times”. It functions as a connection between the past and the future. The festival, to non-Masons, has been called the “Setting of the Watch”, where ceremonial bon-fires were lit after sunset. Tradition says that men, women, and children would jump through the fires for luck. Across Eu-rope, this holiday is cele-

brated in many ways. With oak wreath crowns, wild flowers and birch branches. Families would feast and cel-ebrate in union. The meanings of these ancient traditions are lost today on our society, but the link was made at some point to John the Baptist. The On-line Catholic Encyclope-dia points to the birth of John the

Baptist as 6 months be-fore Christ, placing him on the summer solstice. It is thought that these festi-vals have been linked in character and content with the birth of John the Baptist.

From the Masonic per-spective we are given the balanced dualism of John the Baptist on one side and John the Evangelist on the other. Represented together this way repre-sent the balance of pas-sionate zeal with and learned knowledge of faith forming a space to reflect on to and channel our passion as well as our education/knowledge. Individually strong, to-gether they stand as a har-nessed focus of zeal and knowledge. This counter-point is not just necessary to Freemasonry but can be applied to all areas of life. Taken as an abstract compilation of symbols, together they represent a well-balanced path to-wards enlightenment.

The two dualistic figures as one, the Holy Saints John, balance each other in the Masonic year, but also in other areas too.

Let There Be Light– The Holy Saints John– Duality in the Construction of One

Page 4 Trestleboard

One unique aspect that I found is in the applica-tion of the Alchemical symbols of fire and wa-ter. Alchemy has long been thought of as an early component of Freemasonry and using the alchemical symbols here may help the repre-sentations of the Saint John’s look more famil-iar. Saint John the Bap-tist, represented as the inverted pyramid, the Alchemical sign for water, representing the spiritual and emotional love. St. John the Evan-gelist, represented as the pyramid pointing up symbolizing fire that is the drive and will of action. When placed together, they symbol-ize the perfect balance of darkness and light, life and death, passion and constraint, will and emotion, winter and summer. Together both represent the inter-locked star of Solomon, or the Square and Com-pass. This is an entirely open analysis, and made for the purposes of comparison, but it does offer a unique analysis of the juxtaposition of

Continued on page 6

Traveling Brothers

Page 5 Volume 128, Issue 6

Cape Coral No. 367 244 Santa Barbara Blvd, Cape Coral, FL 33991 2nd and 4th Thursdays 7:30 Englewood No. 360 265 Pine Street Englewood, FL 34223 1st and 3rd Tuesdays 7:30 Lehigh Acres No. 344 1110 Ashlar Ave Lehigh Acres, FL 33936 2nd and 4th Mondays 7:30 Liberty Lodge No. 412 (Daylight) 402 15th Street East Bradenton, Florida 34208

2nd Saturday at 9:00 am at Manatee Masonic Lodge No. 31

Labelle No. 379 180 Jaycee/Lions Dr. Labelle, FL 33935 2nd and 4th Tuesdays 7:30

Manatee No. 31 402 15th Street East Bradenton, Florida 34208

1st & 3rd Monday 7:30 Moore Haven No. 61 2nd Str. Moore Haven, FL 33471 2nd and 4th Thursdays 7:30 Noah No. 357 41 Willis Road North Ft. Myers, FL 33917 2nd and 4th Mondays 7:30 Peace River No. 66 909 North Oak Arcadia, FL 34266 2nd and 4th Tuesdays 7:30 Phoenix No. 346

240 S. Tuttle Ave. Sarasota, Florida 34237 1st & 3rd Tuesdays 7:30

Sarasota Lodge No. 147

2160 Main Street Sarasota, FL

34237

2nd and 4th Tuesday 7:30

Sugarland No. 281 524 E. Sugarland Hwy Clewis-ton, FL 33440 1st and 3rd Thursdays 7:30 Tropical No. 56 10868 Metro Pkwy Ft. Myers, FL 33966 1st and 3rd Tuesdays 7:30 Venice No. 301 118 East Venice Ave, Venice, FL 34284 1st and 3rd Mondays 7:30 West Coast Masonic Lodge No. 409 520 30th Avenue West Bradenton, Florida 34205 2nd & 4th Mondays 7:30

Special announcements for June & July

June, July, August will only be one stated meeting, the First Thursday of each month

June 7th EA give back proficiency

June 21st Fellowcraft Degree

June 25th Entered Apprentice Degree at Venice Lodge at 6:30

July 19th Called Communication (Sam Heavener Eagle Scout Presentation)

June Birthday’s

Page 6 Trestleboard

Punta Gorda 115 wishes our

Brothers A HAPPY Birthday

Important Dates

Lodge Practice June 3rd 7:00

Stated Meeting June 7th 7:30

Lodge Practice June 11th 7:00

Called Meeting (EA) June 25th 6:30

ion celebrations such as this one help us to reaffirm

DID YOU PURCHASE YOUR WINNING TICKET YET?

GRAND

PRIZE

WIN BOTH

Escort 12 gauge nickel

plated

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See Brother Rick O’Donnell

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the Holy Saints John.

In looking toward the future, St. John the Baptist Day is an ap-propriate celebratory day for Freemasons, as it is a good day to come together and reflect in out past and in our future. It stands to remind us, not just of our past, but also of a re-commitment of our circum-scribed passions. In all of our time they’re as a fraternity, un-

Continued from page 4

our ties that bind. Whether those ties be the bindings of fraternity or the familiarity of institution, we should remember the Holy Saints John’s, not just in our sacred Jerusalem’s but together in brotherhood

By Br. Gregory Stewart Los Angeles, California, USA ” A Traveler in Freemasonry”

Patrick J Ammon

Randall N Brodersen

Chris M DePass

Joseph S Giulivo

Ronald E Hewlette Sr

Alexander J Lukasek

James H Propps

Danny J Quick

Ryan C Rupert

Adam M Udelson-Saucier

George C Werner

Proud Supporters of our Lodge

Page 7 Volume 128, Issue 6

Proudly Supporting Punta Gorda 115

Ray & Pat Rubin

We thank you for your support

Los Dos Cristianos Coffee Shop

941 661 1782

1120 Plantation Blvd, North Port, Florida 34289

Los Dos Cristianos is a new

company based in North Port,

Florida.

We formed with one mission in mind, to help feed/vaccinate the

children & families of the Cof-fee producing world by supply-

ing top quality coffee. Our idea - "to sell the fantastic

Honduran Coffee and donate

proceeds back to the children

and families of Honduras/

Latin America that live in such

impoverished environments".

Fresh Roasted in house, we have a

great selection of Hot Brew, Cold/

Iced Brew, Italian Espressos, Cu-

ban Coffee.

Abbes donuts – Muffins from

Manatee Beans & Brews – Pas-

tries from Zoet.

Masons and families get a 10% discount on Coffee items. Just

show the Square and compass.

The bee hive is an emblem of industry, and recommends

the practices of that virtue to all created beings…..It

teaches us that as we came into this world rational and

intelligent beings, so we should ever be industrious

ones, never being content while our fellow beings are in

want…..

“Coffee by Masons for Masons”.

PLACE YOUR BUSINESS

AD HERE

Do you have a business?

Would you like to increase your business

with brothers and friends?

Would you like to help support our

Lodge?

If YES, please reach out to us for ad

space details.

puntagorda115@gmail.com

Help support Punta Gorda 115

Your Name Here See our Worshipful Master for details on

reserving ad space

Proud Supporters of our Lodge

Page 8 Volume 128, Issue 6

1940 Tamiami Trail S. Venice, Florida 34293

941-493-3200

www.good-n-green.com

941-203-7219

PLACE YOUR BUSINESS

AD HERE

Do you have a business?

Would you like to increase your business

with brothers and friends?

Would you like to help support our

Lodge?

If YES, please reach out to us for ad

space details.

puntagorda115@gmail.com

3036 Tamiami Trail, Suite C

Port Charlotte, FL 33952

941.235.4466

Legislation was very

interesting this year

and there has been

some adopted legisla-

tion which can defi-

nitely be in our favor.

On July 5th we are hav-

ing our Official Dis-

trict Deputy Grand

Master visit by Right

Worshipful Doug

Dobbs. Your attend-

ance at this meeting

would be greatly ap-

preciated as he will be

bringing a message

from our new Grand

Master. Please keep

our distressed Broth-

ers in your hearts and

prayers and like al-

ways, please approach

me with any ques-

tions, concerns or ide-

as you have.

Worshipful Master

Steve Rizza

Continued from the East

Brothers if you have any

interest in participating in

any of the committees as

a chair person please in-

form the chairman of your

desired interest.

Committee’s and Chairmen

Sickness & Distress

Trestleboard Page 9

Board of Relief Chairman: W. Steve Rizza Charity Chairman: Bro. Rick O’ Donnell Child ID Chairman: Bro. Charlie Mooney Dining & Refreshment Chairman: Bro. Sean Wil-liamson Finance Chairman: Bro. Da-vid Summers Funeral Chairman: P.M. Ernie Rose

Investigation Chairman: Bro. Micky Helbig Lodge Coach: Bro. David Naples Lodge Mentor: Bro. Sean Williamson Masonic Education Chair-man: W. Steve Rizza Petitions Chairman: P.M. Jonas Seda Property/Maintenance Chairman: Bro. Seam Wil-liamson

Sickness/Distress Chairman: Bro. David Naples

Vigilance Chairman: Bro.

Sean Williamson

Brother Jerry Gordin

Sends his greeting to all the Brother and prayers

R∴W∴ Richard Bayly (his sister and wife) Brother John Tryba John has asked to extended his gratitude for all the Brothers that have supported him and his family during the challenging time

Past Master John Bittner Send a huge thank you for the sup-port and visits from all the Broth-ers.

Masonic Appended Bodies

https://flgyr.org/

https://scottishritefortmyers.com/

https://flscottishrite.org/

http://www.floridaoes.org/

http://sahibshrine.org/index.html

http://fldemolay.org/

https://jobsdaughtersinternational.org/

florida-3/

Punta Gorda No.115 F. & A.M.

P.O. Box 511303

25349 Airport Rd.

Email:

puntagorda115@gmail.com

Website:

www.puntagorda115.webs.com

Stated Meetings:

Every 1st and 3rd Thursday

at 7:30 PM

Dinner Served at 6:30 PM

Punta Gorda Lodge No.115

1884-1885 George Anderson 1889-1892 M.S. Lee 1893 JR Hector 1896 Albert W. Gilchrist 1897-1902 J.M. Samuel 1903 J. Johnson 1904 TJ Purdue 1905 J. Mezell 1906 R. I. Earnest 1907-1908 F.M. Cooper 1909 D.M. McQueen 1910 Arthur C. Jordan 1911-1913 C.W. Shaw 1914 S.E. Johnson 1915-1916 CW Shaw 1917-1918 R.W. Roundtree 1919 T.A. Stevens 1920-1921 J.M. Lipscomb 1922 L.E. Robinson 1923 Albert Hatch 1924 R. Deloach 1925 L.E. Mizey 1926 W.E. Guthrie 1927 Charles Curry 1928-1929 Cleaveland 1930 Henry Payne 1931 Arthur S. Taylor 1932 TJ Briggs 1933 D. F. Gibbons 1934 C. F. Cerny 1935 RJ Hyatt 1936 Arthur B Johnson 1937 W.L. Rose 1938 T. I. Kennedy 1939 M. E. Ingraham 1940 EJ McCann 1941 RB Shepard

Lodge Officers Contact

Punta Gorda Past Masters Page 10

1942 M. C. Giesey 1943Lamson A. Welherley 1944 Leo Wotitzky 1945 F.T. Gardener 1946 Albert S. Cleaveland 1947 C.W. White 1948 Joseph T. Manning 1949 John T. Rose 1950 Harry B. Curran 1951 E.W. Blanton 1952 Joyce L. Hindman 1953 Gerald D. Fetch 1954 JT Lawthorne 1955 A. Smith Sr 1956 George L. Minx 1957 Howard L. Mills 1958 EL Gorson 1959 Hugh C McGibbson 1960 C. T. Daniels 1961 George Bryant Jr 1962 James C. Bailey 1963 Fobian F. Johnson 1964 J.A. Jetson 1965 Emery M Collins 1966 Louis Quinlen 1967 David G. Howie 1968 Walter Monson 1969 John M. Mattews 1970 M. Lee Oldham 1971 Robert Norton 1972 Ray Gugui 1973 Donald P. Baer 1974 Melvin W. Byers 1975 William C. Monson 1976 Oscar P. Sisk 1977 Carl Peden 1978 M. Rich Cunningham

1979 Robert H Russel 1980 Willie Hofer 1981 Charles Lewis Sr 1985 Michael Youseff 1986 Donald R. Allen 1986 Carl Powell 1988 Duane Galbraith 1988 Chris Keuker 1989 Paul Heavener 1989 Wayne Engbrecht 1990 Bernard J. Haines 1991 Raymond Evans 1992 Arthur Shepard 1993 Douglas Jewell 1994 Joseph Lezark 1995 Robert Newell 1996 Donal Sutter 1997 Michael Schneider 1998 John Bittner Jr. 1999 Trent Lewis 2000 Reic McKee 2001 Mike Cullen 2002 Edward Stepp 2003 Thomas Yonts 2004 John Brake 2005 Mackinley Mayes 2006 Ernie Rose 2007 Duncan MacDougall 2008 John Degnan 2009-2010 Richard Bayly 2011 Ernie Rose 2012 Raymond Rubin 2013 Christopher DePass 2014 Glen Purdy 2015 Raymond Rubin 2016 Stefan Antochi 2017 Jonas Seda

Thank you for your

years of service to

the Craft

Worshipful Master: Steve Rizza 941-204-9634

Senior Warden: David Summers 941-457-3536

Junior Warden: Sean Williamson 407-402-4290

Treasurer: P. M. Paul Heavener 941-255-9435

Secretary: Ronald George 941-286-2646

Senior Deacon: Rick Aiken 941-565-5177

Junior Deacon: Robert West 941-661-4222

Chaplin: David Naples 586-530-5862

Senior Stewart: Alex Lukasek 941-769-1069

Marshall: P.M. Jonas Seda 941-373-5950

Richard Bayly P.D.D.G.M. Hank Beaudoin P.D.D.G.M. John Bittner P.M. John Brake P.M. Phillip Burgess Stefan Antochi P.M. Michael Cullen P.M. Jerry Gordin Ronald Hewlette

Willi Hoffer Thomas Howell Hamdy Ibrahim Walter Jones Charles Lewis Jr. P.M. Michael Tirpak Scott Mathias McKinley Mayes P.M. Julio Miranda

Tommy Yonts P.M. Carl Powell P.M. Richard Purington Raymond Rubin P.M. Donald Sutter P.M. Charlie Williford P.D.I. Sean Wilson P.D.D.G.M. Ed Lanham P.D.D.G.M.

Our Perpetual Members

Masonic Websites

http://trowel.com/flamason/

puntagorda115/

http://trowel.com/flamason/

index.html

http://grandlodgefl.com/

https://glfl.circumscribe.net/

http://www.freemasonnetwork.org

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