Knocking on Wood – Brothers Aid Brothers in Need
On Sept. 5, 2024, a few members from King Solomon’s Lodge No. 346, Connellsville, made phone calls and sent text messages about a service project on behalf of a fellow brother in need.
About 10 days later, early in the morning, 42 brothers from the lodge showed up at the home of Brother James “Jimmy” Mayes, 33°, P.M., in Norvelt, Pennsylvania, a small town in Westmoreland County. They split and stocked his wood pile for the winter months.
In six hours, the brothers, alongside a handful of friends and neighbors, cut, split and stacked 12½ cords of wood, using five log splitters, 10 chainsaws and a backhoe. Jimmy and his girlfriend, Connie, watched the activity in awe. Jimmy was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer last June and was undergoing cancer treatment. He said the volunteer effort was over and above anything he could have imagined.
“I am a very fortunate guy to have as many great friends as I do in Masonry,” he said on the phone through tears. “One day, I got a phone call saying, ‘You’re not to touch that firewood behind the house. We are going to come split and stack it for you.’ There were people who came over that I hadn’t seen in years. It was pretty amazing.”
“It was a nice experience for everyone,” added Adam Heese, Grand Treasurer, King Solomon’s Lodge and Melita Lodge No. 295, Philadelphia.
“People take care of one another, Adam said. “It was our fraternity at its best.”
A Mason for 25 years, Jimmy most recently served as an aide to R.W. Past Grand Master Jeffrey Wonderling. He said he values the strong bonds he makes with his brethren.
“It’s pretty cool when you get to meet people from all walks of life, from judges and sheriffs to police officers to people who sell tires,” he said. “I do the mentoring at our lodge. That’s why I enjoy it, because I get to meet all the guys coming into the lodge and learn more about them.”
Brother Abe Hayes said he couldn’t imagine lending a helping hand to a better brother and closer friend.
“Jimmy has impacted a lot of the brothers as our main mentor for the past 25 years,” he said. “Ask anyone in our lodge or the 30th District, and they will all have a story about Jimmy. That’s just a testament to what kind of man and Mason he is.”
Sadly, Jimmy passed away on Nov. 27, 2024.
Members from St. John’s Lodge No. 435, Teutonia Lodge No. 367 and Reading Lodge No. 549, all of West Reading, also put their Masonic values into action when they gathered on three different occasions to cut, split and stack firewood for Brother David Krott, a member of St. John’s Lodge, who was being treated in the hospital for a heart condition. His left ventricle had ballooned, but once doctors found that he also had Stage 4 colon and liver cancer, he was no longer a candidate for a heart transplant.
Instead, surgeons installed an external chest pump, which helps David’s heart work better. Eight years ago, David was also successfully treated for bladder cancer.
“They gave me a couple months to a year to live,” he said. “It has been a year now, but I’ve been doing good with the treatments. The last couple of days is the best I’ve felt in a year. I caught a lung infection, and they gave me prednisone. It makes you feel like Superman. My wife loves that I’m getting some of the ‘honey do’ list items done.”
David lives with his wife, Dora, their three kids and their spouses and a stepson in a large house on a mountain with 13 acres in Temple, Pennsylvania. David has an outside furnace that takes wood, and in the winter, he typically needs to cut and split wood twice a day. He also needs wood during the summer for water.
“I have a contractor friend who is in the lumber business,” he said. “He drops off wood for me all the time. He just drops the logs. I used to cut and split it myself, but for the last year, the Masons have offered to help. I’m not the kind of guy that asks for help, but
it has been unbelievably helpful and a blessing.”
Lodge members used chainsaws to cut and stack a massive pile of wood to get David through the winter. The wood cutting effort was organized by Brother John Caltagirone, St. John’s Lodge No. 435. John also runs a program that delivers Masonic blankets to brethren who are elderly and sick, including David.
“I’m on the [lodge] visitation and charity committee,” John said. “The Secretary and Worshipful Master reached out to me about David. When I visit a brother, I take him a blanket to let him know we care about him and are happy to help. When I went to
see David at the hospital, he was worried about his house and not having enough firewood split for the winter. At the next lodge meeting, we organized as
many brothers as we could to go to his house.”
Brother Karl Wolter, Secretary of Teutonia Lodge, said he learned about David’s situation after one of the brothers placed a message on the 7th Masonic District Facebook page. Karl copied and pasted the information into an email to his lodge brothers, and two responded and wanted to help: Neil Gehringer and David Immendorf.
“This is what brotherhood is supposed to be,” John said. “It’s also helping our lodge thrive. Other lodges are asking about how we’re getting blankets. We order them online. As the fraternity grows, you don’t want to forget about any of your brothers. They may have gotten bad news, or we haven’t heard from them in a while. It shows them we’re thinking about them, and that’s important.”
