Milton Masons
Don’t Make Noise
while Supporting Worthy Causes

By Scott MacKeen
Milton Times Staff Writer
2/5/09

    Many charitable groups out there like to wave a big flag when they make donations. They want the world to know about it.  But there are other groups that give quietly, wanting no recognition in return.

    If you talk to a Milton Mason, chances are you won’t hear about praise and accolades. You won’t see a banner being waved announcing them as a charity group.  But what you’ll see is a group of men acting according to a belief that a community can exist among all people, no matter their race or creed, and that supporting said community is a duty rooted deep in history.

    “We won’t ask to be recognized for what we do. We’re not looking for our name in the paper,” says Dave Duncan, secretary to the Milton Lodge of Masons. “But charity is the most important job we do.”  Duncan, a Mason for over 40 years, was master of the Milton Lodge from 1975 to 1976. He said his attraction to the organization stems from its focus on brotherhood and the equality of its members.

Standing inside one of the large, marbled meeting halls of the Milton Lodge in Quincy, Duncan said, “There’s no talk of religious or political beliefs allowed within these walls … everyone is considered equally a brother.”  He says most Freemasons traditionally wear white gloves during meetings to conceal the skin. Whether your hands bear the battle scars of tough, grinding labor, the gloves conceal the profession and thereby unite everyone as social equals, he says.

“It’s not about the character of the person on the outside but on the inside,” says Duncan.  The Milton Lodge started in 1922 as a “daughter” of the Macedonian Lodge, which also met in town. Members used to meet at the old Milton Masonic Building on Adams Street in Lower Mills. It remained the Masons’ home until the 1980s when the building fell into disrepair and they moved to the Mattapan Baptist Church, at Eliot Street and Blue Hills Parkway. They also had a period where they met at the Braintree Masonic Building before moving to the Hancock Street lodge in Quincy.

Lodge Ambassador Bruce Fought says he hopes the Masons can eventually find their way back to town.  “Everyone drives by us here [in the Quincy lodge]. They don’t even realize it’s a Masonic hall,” he says. “So we started having open houses … inviting community groups into the lodge. As we become more and more Milton-centric … obviously, we hope we can have a home in Milton again.”  Fought, a Mason for over 20 years and Milton Lodge master from 2002 to 2003, calls the experience of being a Mason “something that will change your life.”

“A lot of young men out there are looking to find something where they can find personal growth … something with a structure,” he says. “They’re looking for somewhere they can give back. What you do when you come here is you meet people you end up calling your brothers.” 

Annually, the Milton Masons give around $5,000 to the town and recent donations have gone to the fire department, Boy Scouts, Milton Food Pantry, Milton Youth Hockey, Milton Players and Milton Little League, Duncan said.

Locally, the group also donates in Quincy to the First Baptist Church of Wollaston, Interfaith Social Services and Father Bill’s Place. They also work with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Toys for Tots and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.

 
But most of all, what put the Milton Lodge of Masons on the national map a decade ago was a cutting-edge way of giving back to the community. It was an idea brought forward by Dr. David Harte, Milton Lodge master from 1997 to 1998, which married age-old values and customs with the growing wealth of technology.

The result was a high-tech program for tracking missing children that has become a worldwide sensation.  As part of the Masonic Child ID Program (CHIP), Harte, a dentist in East Milton, developed a tooth-print program that allows parents to have dental records of their children in case they go missing.

The CHIP program, which has been recognized by the FBI as a standard of excellence in child identification, also includes fingerprint, video and DNA samples that are kept in a database that is used to track missing children.  Since its inception, CHIP has processed more than 200,000 children into their database.  Harte said he is proud to have contributed a small part to the program.  “There was a tremendous need for it,” he said. “So many kids go missing. There was tremendous interest … [the program] was an international sensation overnight.”

As for the Milton Lodge, Harte called it a “great place.”  “It’s a wonderful benefit to the community,” he said. “The work we do with the food pantry alone.”