Forest Lodge 166 F&AM is back to holding its monthly Sunday Family Breakfast this weekend from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. This all-you-can-eat breakfast will consist of eggs made to order, pancakes or French Toast, sausages, fruit cocktail, juice, milk, coffee and tea.

Due to the unfortunate increase in costs that are impacting everything, adults and teenagers 13 and up will now be $10, children, 5-12, $6. Kids under 5 are still free. This breakfast is open to the public, and everyone is welcome and cordially invited to attend.

Forest Lodge was chartered in June 1816, and was the first Masonic Lodge in the county, in the hamlet that was then called Canadaway. The Lodge consisted of Masons who moved into the area during the first westward expansion, into areas acquired by the Holland Land Co., which brought many from Massachusetts and Connecticut to this area in search of new places with fertile lands to farm, timber to harvest, and opportunities to be had. Up until the formation of this Lodge, Masons traveled to Buffalo, through treacherous territories that were inhabited by hostile natives, and wild animals, once a month to attend Lodge there.

The members, and their many diverse backgrounds, made up a large portion of the leadership roles of the town. There were judges, doctors, teachers, and businessmen among many other trades in their ranks.

Men by the name of Barker, Johnson, Green, Risley, Sinclair, and Houghton, known well now by the streets named in their honor, were among the first members. They labored hard, and built the first hotel, the village hall, and the first school, which went on to become SUNY Fredonia. Those that were not active in the actual building of these edifices, donated money or materials such as buckets of nails, lumber, stone, and whiskey, to keep the work moving along.

Such was and still is the work of Masonry. Masons across the world donate approximately 2 million dollars a day to help not only each other, but also through the Shrine hospitals for children, the Scottish Rite Dyslexia Foundation, The Knights Templar Eye Foundation, and the world renowned Masonic Medical Research Institute right here in Utica New York on the campus of the Masonic Care Community.

Throughout this coming year Forest Lodge, and many of the other Lodges in the county, will be presenting public lectures of interest about who the Masons are, and what they really do, and more fun and exciting stories of a historical nature as well.

Please feel free to attend with any questions, which will be answered by friendly and knowledgeable speakers. Anyone with interests in, or has questions about Free Masonry may contact the Lodge Master, David Ludemann, at (716) 672-9464, or Richard Newton at (716) 673-5378, or just stop in to the breakfast and strike up a conversation.