Mission & Values

I've lived in this area where now in O'Fallon I've lived in O'Fallon probably for the last close to thirty years today I'm a financial planner and before that I was a probation officer I'm blessed to have a family that allows me to indulge any activities that I like like my drum and bugle corps career why is it fun for me I would have to say that because of my love of music it gives me an opportunity to continue to play I can't tell a fib I really love the fraternal part of it and the camaraderie that I get from being around a lot of the guys that I was in junior drum and bugle corps and we've continued to play and do it for over 40 years it's really a very strong bond and it's very noticeable you can see it when you look at them walking down the street

we're gather on weekends we do a lot of things together as a group and being a Brotherhood like that has been a just a very close-knit group of guys when we're out in the public and we perform and we do our antics if you will it's enjoyable we entertain it's a lot of Holi we wouldn't do it if it wasn't fun they're taking me on teaching me how to read music and teaching me the notes and hopefully in several months I'll be able to play some songs the only thing that would probably keep us from from playing as if we were bedridden so basically as long as we can sit up and take note we'll probably be playing our horns if they don't notice their fright away we play louder you know so we want people to notice us we want people to participate in what we're doing and want people to have fun and that's what makes it all worthwhile that's that's the fun that we have you

There is not a child in my classroom that does not know that I'm a Shriner what would this fraction right here be three tens if you love something that much you're gonna share it and I'm just fortunate enough I get to share it with 10 year olds every day I could tell you right now I have close to 2,000 men I could call right now and have them here if you need to that's a brotherhood and in my mind I saw firsthand the brotherly love and assistance that the shrine can offer probably about 10 minutes away from home and my sister-in-law called my wife and they were talking going on and she said your house is on fire

We got there about 30 minutes before everything was gone I mean we literally had what we had on is all we had to our name I'm sorry it's hard to put that in words um it's one of those things where there's numbness that was a real tragic point in our lives finally I looked down at my phone and I had almost a hundred either phone calls or text messages or emails on my phone looking at probably ninety ninety-five percent of them were from Shriners there are so many people and so many um groups of guys that that came and helped and it was more than anybody could ever ask for everyone within our jurisdiction of our brothers here and our felt Shriners reached out to Kurt and we made what was a very terrible situation there a lot just a little bit more comforting it wasn't expected but they took care of me because that's what we do

You want to be a trying to do what's your name John Road let me see people that we have up here that are my brothers and are all my fellow Nobles they're people that I do business with they're the people that I grew up with people that I know from within my community and the beauty of being a Shriner you can go anywhere in the world and you've always got a friend and you got a brother you you walk in and you know you have a family there it's something that you can do that you can experience true Brotherhood.

Everybody it's me Jim Cunningham your man on the street we're in Houston

Houston Texas the biggest city in the biggest state in the lower 48 named for Sam Houston patriot first president of the republic of Texas then governor of the great state of Texas a u.s. senator and wait for it yes a freemason interesting sidenote Houston the first words spoken from the moon Houston this is tranquility base the eagle has landed and speaking of landing the shriners have landed in Houston for a great week and it all kicked off with the walk for love.

Oh this is a great event to help us build awareness or trainers out those four children and and we built it up from last year where Evan we have a lot more participants this year and it just spills awareness.

Thank you for being here and walking today every step you take is a step forward for our kids thank you very much.

Just the warmest feeling about the kids that are being here do you notice even the ones that couldn't walk the ones that had to be pushed around the ones that were in pressure garments from having been burned so bad they all had a smile those kids are an inspiration to us it's a health walk a health activity that we want to get our patients and families and Shriners involved in you know having them be able to cross the finish line it's a really important thing to them and they may not have had that opportunity to do that before so we always want them to be having a day where they're welcome where they feel like they're home they're comfortable in their surroundings and we can raise some awareness for a Shriners Hospitals for children and some fun thank you for all your hard work and you do a good job.

Thanking all the Shriners and all the donors who donate to the Shriners to make this rehabilitation possible for his son well I just want to say thank you so much and everything that you guys do for all of us feeling it's a lot to me what happened to me change my life but thanks to you guys is has been for the better thank you I just want to thank you for what you've done you've changed my life in every single way I would never be the person that I am today I wouldn't have the confidence and I'd probably wouldn't even know how to tie my shoes we are gonna have a great week Shriners I'm chip cutting in i will see you on the street.

Now I wake up every day go to work go to the gym and then either do the civic service I do with the local town I'm home enjoy a little downtime my fiancee go to bed reset do it the next day.

I think I always knew at some point I would join the shrine and then when I turned 21 I joined the Masons and soon after joined the Shriners and knowing I'm a third generation Shriner it just means a lot to me to continue the tradition you know the Shriners are there for people that again may not have had the care if we weren't there the hospital system was not there first I tried it on today yeah the 22 hospitals the Shriners were able to support are helping more lives than we can ever be able to appreciate.

The meat director at the time called me out and he's actually an amazing and he said you know what do you think if we tried to do this charity competition in December I thought the idea was a little out there but you know if we're gonna try why not the shrine and we started to throw some feelers out there and when we started to advertise it I think people got excited about it prior to the meet I had my Fez on and I was able to explain a little bit of what the shrine does who they helped and where their money was going to help I think that everybody was eager to help them and it helped explain the shrine to a whole new demographic I think they left there thinking wow I did something good today and that's how I want people to feel every day he's very caring and always willing to help anybody he takes a lot of time out of his days and weekends whether it's for the town whether it's going to shrine events whether it's helping somebody move furniture whether it's you know volunteering his time at a meet you know just everything not just trying to related it goes down to the type of person he is and he's that's why I'm marrying him I can't explain in words but Friday I have him him he's become a young man with purpose and direction and if I had as much purpose in direction he had I'll be pretty good guy Jason is amazing when he puts his mind to anything he does it 24/7 he's thinking talking acting shrine.

I'd love to make this more regional event and potentially hold it at a shrine location so that it makes even more awareness for the Shriners more lifters means more contribution to the hospitals means more eyes seeing the shrine logo and meeting Shriners it's really just about awareness letting people know that Shriners are around we are affiliated with in the organization lifters within the organization of Shriners judges within the organization of Shriners and hopefully it's just spreading the awareness of the Shriners so people know you know these hospitals are out there and you know there are kids out there they would give anything to be on the platform lifting weights on behalf of revolution powerlifting syndicate and RPS New England I like to present to you this check for the amount of three thousand dollars to the Springfield Shriners Hospital hopefully we continue for many years and I think that there's only one way to go and that's just to build on a success and make it better every year because you know the proceeds that you're helping generate are going back to this philanthropy that is the Shriners Hospital.