Masons reward students who stay out of trouble
Students should be recognized for academic success and rewarded
for good behavior; this is a philosophy that the Masons have
believed in since they helped to initiate the public school
system.
Masons reward students who stay out of trouble
Students should be recognized for academic success and rewarded for good behavior; this is a philosophy that the Masons have believed in since they helped to initiate the public school system.
Following this philosophy, the San Benito County Masonic Lodge has been giving out bicycles for the last six years as part of their commitment to recognize hard-working students.
“We’ve always had a thrust in the public school system and we wanted something that we could do for students,” said Francis Bishop, Jr.
The idea actually came to Bishop and the Masons from a Central Valley city. A friend had worked on a project where they gave bikes to good kids.
“So we set it up so that the criteria was that the students had to have at least a ‘C’ average,” Bishop said. “On top of that they couldn’t get into any trouble. We wanted the kids that didn’t have bikes to get them.”
At the beginning of each school year, the Masons send out a letter to all the elementary schools in the district asking if they’d like bicycles on behalf of the Masonic lodge.
Gabi Vallejo, the vice principal at Sunnyslope School – one of the schools where students were presented with bikes this year – was very impressed with the project.
“[The Masons] were very generous,” Vallejo said. “They contacted us at the start of the year and expressed an interest in donating bicycles to deserving kids. We were one of a couple of schools they contacted. They wanted good academic performers who were a little disadvantaged. I sent out notices to our fourth and fifth grade teachers and they put a few students names into a hat and drew from that. I think it’s a great service.”
When they started the event in 2000, they only had a few bikes to give out, but every year the group has purchased more bicycles. All of the money that is used to purchase the bicycles is raised through the members, not collected from the community.
Last year the group gave out 12 bicycles and this year the number is up to 17.
“There are an awful lot of good kids out there and we’re amazed at how well they do,” said Mason Bob Wilson. “It’s satisfying to us as members who take great pride in the event. We’ve been here for a long time and love this community.”
