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posted
February 16, 2011
We are currently
updating our Facebook and Youtube pages with
content. We admit that we fell a little
behind with our updates and we apologize for
that. We are putting measures into place to
prevent that from happening again. We thank
you for your understanding. |
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posted
January 20, 2011
The Grand Lodge
of Ontario wishes to announce details of the
upcoming Annual Grand Lodge Sessions.
Please
click here to get more information. |
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posted
December 13, 2010
To: All Odd Fellows and
Rebekahs in the Grand Jurisdiction of
Ontario.
Grand
Master’s Christmas Message 2010.
A warm
Christmas Wish and a Happy New Year to all
Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, Patriarchs and
Matriarchs, Chevaliers and Ladies. As your
Grand Master, I hope All Brothers, Sisters
and their families have a safe and joyous
holiday season. As we sit back enjoying
ourselves with our families and friends,
take time out to examine Our Future as Odd
Fellows and Rebekahs.
This
Christmas Season, don’t forget to support
your local charities along with your Grand
Master’s projects. A little will go a long
way. We have OuR Island, Camp Trillium and
the IOOF Senior’s Homes Inc., in Barrie to e
very proud of and this should be used in
promoting Our Order.
In the coming
year lets ALL work Together
with better communication between all
branches of Our Order and ourselves to make
our Order Grow for Our Future Generations.
As we look forward to a prosperous 2011 in
health, welfare and in the GROWTH of our
Order, I know, that working Together,
we will be successful to Help Rebuild
our Order.
I remain yours, in
Friendship, Love and Truth,
Jim Edwards, Grand Master,
Grand Lodge of Ontario,
Independent Order of Odd
Fellows. |
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posted
September 7, 2010
The Grand Lodge
of Ontario welcomes back all of its members
from summer holidays. As lodges start up
from summer break, we want everyone to
remember we are here to answer your
questions. Please be patient with us because
we have alot of things happening currently. |
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posted July
1, 2010
The Grand Lodge
of Ontario wishes everybody a safe and
enjoyable summer and hope to see everybody
(as well as some new members) in September.
The Grand Lodge Office is open all summer,
so please if you have any issues, don't
hesitate to give us a call or drop us a
line. |
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posted May 30, 2010
The Independent Order of Odd Fellows have
decided to launch a new website with the
input of their members. We are still
currently testing and repairing every little
detail on the site. We are listening to our
members and giving them exactly what they
want. Our goal at the end of this process is
to have a website that our members can be
proud of and to give visitors to the site
the information they want. If you find
anything that you want the webmaster to look
at,
email him.
PLEASE NOTE: Not all pages on here have text
just yet. We will be adding more
and more. Please return to see the changes
we are making on a regular basis. |
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posted December 1, 2009
Grand Master's Christmas Message
To: All Odd Fellows and Rebekahs in the
Grand Jurisdiction of Ontario.
I wish for
all Odd Fellows and Rebekahs, and all
Patriarchs, Matriarchs, Chevaliers and
Ladies a joyous Christmas and a safe,
comfortable and peaceful holiday season. In
particular, I pray for all members of our
Order who are bereaved or in poor health,
that your strength and well-being will
return in the new year.
I also wish
for better harmony in all of our Lodges,
Encampments, LEA’s, Cantons and LAPM’s in
the new year. Let us all resolve to work
Together wherever we can. And let us
Reach Out in the new year, into our own
communities and across the jurisdiction, to
promote and strengthen our Order through our
projects and our good work. Remember, deeds
speak louder than words.
Over the
holiday season, let us all examine our
lodges and ourselves, and our service as Odd
Fellows to our Order and to society. We have
good purposes and projects; but I believe
the future health of Odd Fellowship requires
that we respond to changes in the world
around us. Are there changes we should make
to help our Order flourish again? I ask
every member to think about this over the
holiday season.
Yours
Friendship, Love and Truth,
Brother Don
Beach, Grand Master |
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posted December 1, 2009
Members Only Area - Update
As a few of our members have
found out, we are having a few issues with
the Members Only Area with regards to the
Forms you can download and use. We are
working on it and we are fixing form by
form, so as soon as we get a form fixed, it
will be posted. We thank you to all who
emailed us with the issues and we are trying
very hard to get them back up and running.
We thank you for your understanding on this
matter. |
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posted March
9, 2009
Attention
News Editors ---
For
Immediate Release
Camp Trillium Announces New Board
Members including a former Member of
Parliament and a Belleville native and
Grand Master of the Odd Fellows of
Ontario
Media
Advisory
Monday,
March 9, 2009
Hamilton,
Ontario – Camp Trillium, a provincial
childhood cancer charity on Saturday,
February 28, 2009 elected six new
members to its Board of Directors.
Business, Political, Volunteer and
Medical leaders from around the province
will be taking on the task of helping
Camp Trillium to grow it’s programs
province wide during a period of
economic downturn and weak charitable
giving.
In Eastern
Ontario four new members have joined the
board, Charles Benson, the Grand Master
of the Odd Fellows of Ontario and well
known Belleville Volunteer; Sheila Copps,
former Member of Parliament and Liberal
Party Member; Scott Whyte, Human
Resources and Management specialist from
Kingston and Deanna Lawson, Clinic Nurse
at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern
Ontario, Ottawa.
“Challenging
times require a Board of Directors who
are hard working and driven to help
raise funds and ensure that individual
donations are well managed and used to
provide the best camping and
recreational programs for children
living with cancer and their families. I
feel we have that board.” Marci
Shea-Perry, Executive Director
“Children
living with cancer have enough worries
without having to think about what tough
economic times could do to their oasis
from the disease, Camp Trillium. I am
dedicated to raise awareness of Camp
Trillium and it’s great work and help to
ensure all of their needs are met …and
that means picking up the phone and
sometimes picking up a hammer.” Charles
Benson, Board Member, Belleville
Camp
Trillium provides recreational and
camping programs for children living
with cancer and their families in the
province of Ontario. 54 programs
operate year round in 12 communities for
3,100 campers. Summer Camping programs
are run in Bloomfield, Ontario at Camp
Trillium Odd Fellow and Rebekah Island
and year round camping in Waterford,
Ontario at Camp Trillium Rainbow Lake
For more information contact:
Fiona Fisher
Communications and Development
(416)
413-0968 or 1-888-999-2267 ext. 24
fionaf@camptrillium.com
www.camptrillium.com |
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Our Biggest News Ever ...
MEDIA ADVISORY - For
Immediate Release Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Camp Trillium receives $1,000,000 gift from the Odd
Fellows and Rebekahs of Ontario to purchase Garratt’s Island
Camp Trillium is celebrating today with the purchase of Camp
Trillium Garratt’s Island. Camp Trillium has operated programs
and maintained the island for 18 years and now is the new owner
thanks to the landmark gift made to the charity by the Odd
Fellows and Rebekahs of Ontario. “This is an incredible gift.
Garratt’s Island has been home to Camp Trillium for 18 years and
now we know that we will be there forever. Our relationship with
the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs has grown over the years. From
their first donation 25 years ago they have always been there to
support Camp Trillium in their time of need.” Marci Shea-Perry,
Executive Director of Camp Trillium. Garratt’s Island will now
be known as Camp Trillium Odd Fellow and Rebekah Island in
honour of this gift. It will be shortened to OuR Island for
daily use. Camp Trillium is looking to raise another $700,000 to
upgrade the island. Starting this year Camp Trillium will be
extending programming on the island and making full use of it 9
months of the year. On Saturday, June 21st, 2008 Friends of Camp
Trillium and the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs are invited to
celebrate with former campers, staff and volunteers at OuR
Island. Celebrations begin at 10 a.m. and run to 2 p.m. A BBQ
and an opportunity to tour the camp highlight the day. Camp
Trillium is a not for profit organization that operates 54
programs year round. These programs are run at no cost to the
participant. For children with cancer Camp Trillium provides an
opportunity to enjoy the fun and friendship of camping through
day, residential and family camps and clinic programs. It is a
chance for children to get away from this terrible disease and
share their unique skills with friends who understand.
Trillium’s philosophy is to provide programs for all. Turning
children away is not an option. We grow with our population and
the challenge is always to meet the funding needs. Celebrating
the purchase of Garratt’s Island… Camp Trillium and the Odd
Fellows and Rebekahs of Ontario.
For more information on the purchase of the island, the
innovative programs of Camp Trillium and OuR Island Open House
please contact:
Fiona Fisher, Camp Trillium,
Communications (416) 416-413-0968
The Grand lodge of Ontario, Independent Order of Odd Fellows is
located at 157 Frederick Street, Stratford, Ontario and the
contact information is as follows:
John Nichols, Grand Secretary - 519
273-8088
Bob Schwalm, Grand Treasurer - 519 273-8088 |
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Odd Fellow Webmail is Coming
We are in the middle of adding a new feature
called 'Odd Fellow Webmail'. This is going
to be a link for people who have an email
address through the Odd Fellows (anybody
that has an - @ioof.net email
address). To help this pilot project be
successful, I am looking for 2 or 3 lodge
Secretary's or Noble Grand's to help me out
by getting an '@ioof.net' email address for
their home Lodge and test it out with myself
and I will have The Grand Lodge of Ontario
send you stuff to see if this is a feature
worth looking into. If you are interested,
let me know and I will give you more details
about it. -->
Email the Webmaster
To take part in the Pilot Project, you will need a few
items to use at your lodge's own expense.
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A computer
with an internet connection (High Speed
Recommended, but Dial-Up will work)
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The software
you will need is follows: Adobe Acrobat
Reader (free from the Internet), and
either Microsoft Word or WordPerfect
(both word processing programs may be
purchased through a computer or
electronics store) and Microsoft
FrontPage or any Website design software if you wish your Lodge to have
a free website through the Grand Lodge
of Ontario (Somebody in your Lodge must
have a basic understanding of FrontPage
or another type of Website Design
software
and how to upload your website - we can
help with this)
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A Printer to
print off emails, documents, etc that
you may receive through this project
-
MOST
IMPORTANT THING - Patience with this
project. You have to remember that you
are going to be one of the first groups
to be testing this project out and you
will be working with myself and the
Grand Secretary to find all bugs in the
system and correct them
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History in the making
We now have
had 5 lodges sign up for the Webmail Pilot Project. They now
have active email accounts and are in the middle of designing
their websites. As soon as they get the websites up and running,
we will post them here and ask everybody to look at them and
give them a big thanks for taking a step in the right direction.
If your lodge is still interested, please read the above post
and let me know. Eventually our goal is to have every lodge with
an active email and website. |
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Warriner Lodge #75 of
Port Perry, Ontario
We would like
to thank the members of Warriner Lodge #75 of Port Perry,
Ontario for taking the first step into the age of the Internet.
They are the first lodge under the Grand Lodge of Ontario to
have an active email address and there own website. Although
there website is still being designed and updated continually,
it is up. We would ask that you visit their site and give them
feedback about it. You can visit their site by clicking on this
link http://warrinerlodge75.ioof.net or send them an email
congratulating them on their accomplishment
warrinerlodge75@ioof.net. Once again a big thank you goes
out to them! |
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Odd Fellows have
invaded 'FACEBOOK'
As some of
you have now found out, the Grand Lodge of Ontario now has a
group on Facebook. The group is just starting out and currently
is small, but over time we are hoping that every member in the
Order will join it and make it a huge success. If you are on
Facebook - just search for the group 'Grand Lodge of Ontario'. If you have any
questions about this, please feel free to email me and I will
answer them for you.
Email the webmaster. |
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Odd Fellow Online Community
We have
created an 'Odd Fellow Online Community' for
our members and visitors. This is a new
feature and we are still working out the
bugs in it. The purpose of this 'Odd Fellow
Online Community' is a new tool for all Odd
Fellows to gather and share information,
stories and just about anything they want
to. If you or your lodge have something to
sell or advertise, there is a spot on there
for you to do so. If you have any questions
about this, please feel free to
email me or fill out a
'Help Desk
Ticket'. |
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Help Desk Ticket System
As more and
more of our members start to join us on the "Online World", we
are finding some of them are having a few issues and we would
like to help them in any way we can. The Grand Lodge of Ontario
has created something called 'Help Desk Ticket System' and you
will find a link to this at the top of every page in this
website. The purpose of this project is for our members or
visitors that are having issues to fill out a simple 'Issue
Ticket' and we will respond ASAP. When you fill out a ticket,
you will receive an email with a Tracking Number. When we
respond to the ticket, you will be notified by email and you can
login to see the solution. This 'Help Desk Ticket System' will
eventually replace emailing the webmaster because this way you
can track your issue from start to finish in a timely manner. If you encounter any
issues with this new system, please
email me with the issue and
I will try to resolve it as quickly as I can. We thank you for
your patience with this ongoing project. |
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