{"id":5194,"date":"2018-03-09T09:50:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-09T14:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=5194"},"modified":"2025-08-23T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T20:37:43","slug":"shriners-more-than-just-the-circus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2018\/03\/09\/shriners-more-than-just-the-circus\/","title":{"rendered":"Shriners: More Than Just the Circus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>If you have ever seen a parade you may have seen the Shriners.\u00a0 <\/span>They can be spotted driving around in their tiny cars.\u00a0 <\/span>Some might have bought a ticket to their circus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Shriners are a nation-wide group that helps children and young adults in local communities.\u00a0 <\/span>Its members run 22 hospitals across the United States.\u00a0 <\/span>The patients they care for are mostly children under the age of 18.\u00a0 <\/span>Dick Hallett of Mars Hill served as Potentate at the Presque Isle lodge in 2006.\u00a0 <\/span>A Potentate is like a CEO.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cOur main purpose as a Shriner is to just help children,\u201d Hallett said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Children at schools in places such as Mars Hill and Presque Isle are screened by their teachers for any bone defects.\u00a0 <\/span>Children who have defects, but can\u2019t pay for treatment, can have expenses covered by the Shriners.\u00a0 <\/span>Teachers will give a list of children who need treatment to the schools.\u00a0 <\/span>The schools then give it to the Shriners.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Helping children takes a lot of money.\u00a0 <\/span>The circus has been the Shiners biggest fundraiser.\u00a0 <\/span>Carol Hallett, Dick\u2019s wife, has supported the circus.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>\u201cWomen practically run the circus,\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>she said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Wives of Shriners would run concession stands and ticket booths.\u00a0 <\/span>In recent years, elephants are no longer part of the act. Since then audience numbers have gotten smaller, although the circus is still running all its other acts.\u00a0 <\/span>Smaller numbers mean less money for their causes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Shriners have found a way around smaller audience numbers.\u00a0 <\/span>Today Shriners see their biggest contributions come from the Festival of Trees.\u00a0 <\/span>The Festival of Trees is a charity event.\u00a0 <\/span>Different businesses will decorate a tree with their products.\u00a0 <\/span>Decorated trees get donated to the Shriners.\u00a0 <\/span>The Shriners will sell raffle tickets and the winner will take home the raffled tree.\u00a0 <\/span>All proceeds go toward different causes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>Recently Shriner membership has shrunk.\u00a0 <\/span>Members are all Master Masons in their Masonic lodges.\u00a0 <\/span>Their numbers have dropped from 500,000 to about 400,000.\u00a0 <\/span>Even with the drop, the number of hospitals have stayed the same.\u00a0 <\/span>To cover costs, Shriners can take third party payments from insurance companies.\u00a0 <\/span>Families do not need insurance, though.\u00a0 <\/span>Every expense will be paid for by these wonderful men in strange little cars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 If you have ever seen a parade you may have seen the Shriners.\u00a0 They can be spotted driving around in their tiny cars.\u00a0 Some might have bought a ticket to their circus. \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Shriners are a nation-wide group that helps children and young adults in local communities.\u00a0 Its members run 22 hospitals […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":254,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5194"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8711,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5194\/revisions\/8711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}