August Ambassador Update
Dear Memorial Ambassadors,
I hope all of you had a wonderful summer. It has been awhile since we last spoke. Let’s get started with some of the updates from earlier this year. In February, we had our largest event in decades; the Rededication of the Memorial’s cornerstone. This event marked the centennial celebration of the laying of the cornerstone where we had about 2,000 guests from around the world with us including all the Grand Masters from around the country and many more from around the world.
Previous to this ceremony, the City of Alexandria held a parade honoring the Memorial and changed its typical parade route to be down King Street and allowed the Freemasons to process up to the Memorial! The parade had over 4,000 units marching down King Street which lasted over two hours! The parade typically brings between 30,000-80,000 people into the city annually to watch and enjoy the parade and participate in the various city events. Why so many people? The City of Alexandria has the honor of being George Washington’s adopted hometown, where he lived here from his twenties and remained here until his passing. The City has honored Washington for many years in some capacity going all the way back to 1780! The City proudly boasts that they have the largest George Washington Birthday Parade in the Country.
Needless to say, the events that day were a beacon to the country that Freemasonry is still around and active.
I mention this because a lot of the success is due to our Ambassadors who made the events well known in your own jurisdictions. We had every jurisdiction represented in one or more events and we appreciate your efforts in promoting the Memorial. With your efforts, you were able to spread the news about our historic event and get people interested in traveling around the country for the weekend, many for the first time. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.
While February is long behind us, our work does not end there. We need all of you more now than ever as following up with the Masonic Fraternity is crucially important to keeping the spirit of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial burning bright in our communities. Please go out and recommend the Memorial as a wonderful 501(c)(3) organization for their continuous support.
As for the last few months, the Memorial has been calm and is still open to the public. We are currently open five days a week, Thursday through Monday from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm. We are also giving more tours daily almost every hour.
As always, you are welcome to reach out and if you are ever in the area, please reach out to me and we will show.
Tyler Vanice
Director of Member Services
