GREENFIELD — Eighteen hours and hundreds of miles of farmland later, four members of Greenfield Lodge No. 997 Loyal Order of Moose arrived by train in Mooseheart, Ill.
The purpose of their trip? To visit a residential facility for children and teens in need, from infancy through high school, supported by the Loyal Order of Moose. There, children who may have lost parents or are unable to be taken care of by their guardians live in houses of six to 12 with adult house parents, and every house is sponsored by a Moose lodge or association.
“We were interested in seeing where all of our money goes for the Moose,” said Isaac Mass, who visited Mooseheart for the first time along with fellow members Al Irish, Kenny Kurtyka and Phil Stevens. “The thing that was most eye opening to me, this facility is huge and it’s gorgeous. It’s like going to a private school for kids that have nothing and there really are not as many kids there as they can take care of.”
While they were there, the men met with directors and visited the New England house, which is home to nine boys and sponsored by the Northeast Moose Association. Stevens said he even brought lobsters and maple syrup with him as a gift to several of the leaders at Mooseheart, as the system is really a give-and-take.
“When this lodge had problems in the past, (they) had been there to help out the Greenfield lodge and made sure we could financially make it through,” Mass said.
Although special guest events are often held at Mooseheart, the men said they visited when normal, day-to-day activities were happening.
“We wanted to go out and see it when it wasn’t all dressed up, and I thought that was great,” Mass said. “We were able to see a lot of what it looks like normally.”
They also visited several local Moose lodges as well as Camp Ross, where many of the children go to summer camp.
The men said their biggest take-away from the trip was not only that Mooseheart is a great alternative to placing children from broken homes in the custody of the Department of Children and Families, but also the fact that the facility is able to serve more children than are currently living there. They said they plan to actively look for more children to sponsor and will raise money to buy the boys in the New England house an Xbox One gaming system and the NBA 2K16 video game, which they said is at the top of their wish list.
“A lot of kids come from very troubled homes and get them to a place where a lot of them are going off to college,” Mass said. “It makes me feel better about being a Moose.”
You can reach Aviva Luttrell at: aluttrell@recorder.com
or 413-772-0261, ext. 268
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