Concordia Masonic Lodge answers call to buy school supplies for West Valley School District kids

When schools closed in March, there was a lot of confusion about how the process would work and how students would continue to learn. Everyone was figuring things out as they went, including the school districts.

Trevor Allen and his fellow members of the Concordia Masonic Lodge just wanted to know one thing: How could they help?

The lodge has made donations to the West Valley School District in the past, including buying $1,500 worth of school supplies for back-to-school last fall and giving $500 to Ness Elementary for the Bite2Go program that sends food home with low-income students on the weekends. With that question in mind, Allen called the school district and asked what the district needed as it tried to educate and feed students in a decidedly unique situation.

“Initially, we thought they might need help with food,” he said.

He called on Monday the week schools were shut down. Allen said he was told the district was still figuring things out and didn’t know what the needs were yet. A week later, he got an email. The district needed school supplies for its elementary students.

Allen, who is the Master of the Lodge, consulted with his fellow lodge officers and got quick approval to go shopping. Within hours, Allen ordered nearly $600 in school supplies to be shipped to the school district.

“I just started pricing around and found a deal online,” he said.

The lodge bought construction paper, pencils, paper, glue sticks, markers and crayons – enough for 24 students. West Valley School District spokeswoman Sue Shields said the supplies were distributed to students as they were picking up their homework packets. Shields said the district appreciated the donation.

“They are great partners,” she said of the lodge.

Allen said he wishes he could have delivered the supplies to the students himself.

“Normally, we would like to be there, but for safety reasons we just had them shipped directly to the school district office,” he said.

He said he was told the district made an effort to send school supplies home with students but quickly ran out.

“There’s clearly a need,” he said. “Our donation is just a small piece of the puzzle to help that.”

The Concordia Masonic Lodge, with around 80 members on the books but only two dozen or so active members, is relatively small. An endowment supports several scholarships for local high school students every year but Allen said lodge members have been making more of an effort recently to support community organizations like West Valley, the Hutton Settlement and the Spokane County Library District. The organizations fit with the lodge members’ desire to support childhood education.

But with the exception of the scholarship fund endowment, the lodge doesn’t have much money to give away.

“We don’t do a lot of real public, large-scale fundraising,” he said. “It’s mostly one-off donations from members and funds from the budget. It’s tough when you’re a small nonprofit.”

There have been discussions about doing fundraisers this summer to raise money for future donations to the school district and other groups. Allen hopes to move forward with that in some fashion even during the coronavirus pandemic.

“If we want to make an impact on the community, we have to make bold moves,” he said.