August GWMS Update
Dear George Washington Memorial Society Member,
I hope all of you had a wonderful summer. We appreciate your support in being a member of the George Washington Memorial Society. We plan to have more consistent messaging with you so look forward to hearing from us more often!
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.
Many of you were in attendance over the week of celebrations we held. As a member of the Society, you were invited to the annual George Washington Birthday Gala. It was a wonderful event this year as guests from all over the world attended. We hope you will join us next year for this occasion again. If you have not attended one of our annual celebrations, I cannot urge you enough to make the trip to join us. It typically includes a symposium early in the day and afterwards, a private reception only for members of the Society followed by open reception and banquet with entertainment in between.
Needless to say, the events that over the week were a beacon to the country that Freemasonry is still around and active.
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.
Many of you received a dues reminder earlier this year. Please remember when you joined this Society you pledged to annually pay $250. We will be sending reminders more consistently for those who have not made their commitment.
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
