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SAHIB REPORTER
May 2017
SHRINE UNIT NEWS Clown Corner by Harold “Ding-a-Ling” Bell, scrappysarasota@comcast.net
A
s you know, May brings spring flowers and it also means that the snowbirds head north. Of course, this means that our Clown membership will shrink also. We hope that “Corny”, “Checkers”, and “Gabby” have a safe and happy summer and return soon. You can see all these Clowns in the picture as we all gathered before the Arcadia Rodeo Parade. The parade was short, but the Clowns had a great time amusing all the people along the parade route. It should be noted that our Shrine won the trophy for being the outstanding unit in the parade. We are sorry that we will not be able to perform at the Children’s Parade in Palmetto next month. Last month I talked about a review of the “Red Sneaker” located in the corner of the jewelry sales counter in our Main Hall. The original idea came from Noble Bob Andrews using a “plaster of shoe” to collect money to purchase canvas shoes for Boston’s Burn Hospital patients. The sneaker was presented to the NESCA membership and it was then accepted by the Shrine membership at the Imperial Session in Atlanta, Georgia in July 1973. Noble Abe Flacks went to Keds Corporation and sold their leaders and union on the idea of a giant red hightop sneaker. The union agreed to build twelve shoes initially, one for each Shrine region and, eventually, Keds donated over fifty shoes that are still being used by the Sneaker Fund for collection of monies. For many
years, this fund was used to purchase sneakers for the patients in need of sneakers at the many Shriners Hospitals for Children. The Sneaker Fund has continued over these many years by the International Shrine Clown Association (ISCA) to collect money for our Shriners Hospitals for Children even though patients no longer use a canvas shoe in the hospital. Through the “Red Sneaker” collection and hard work by the Shrine Clowns all over the world, several million dollars have been generated and donated to the Shrine Hospital funds. This is the story of the “Red Sneaker” and the Sahib Clown Unit appreciates your help in our “Red Sneaker” project. Next month our Clowns will be sending our collection to ISCA for distribution to our Shriners Hospitals for Children and once again, the Sahib Clowns say, “thank you” to the Sahib nobles and others for their help in filling our “Red Sneaker”. It should be noted that five of our Sahib Clowns are members of ISCA. Many of you have seen the Clown calliope in front of Sahib Shriners playing circus music for the patrons as they come and go from the King Pins’ famous Pancake Breakfast. In addition to the calliope, you will often see one of our Clowns at the breakfast entertaining the patrons. We thank “Checkers” Grant and “Corny” Cobb for their service. As I close another month of Clown news, just remember, “it is our Shrine children for whom we are working”.
Change is inevitable, Growth is optional!