Haircut Donation 2021

As DeMolays, ours is an order based on service. We recently saw this with Br. Brady Shrieves of Kempsville Chapter of Virginia DeMolay. Br. Brady saw a youth cancer patient with no hair. He decided to do something about it! He grew out his hair and donated his hair! Br. Brady has red hair and he was "was sure that there was some kid with red hair, that did not want a blonde or brunette wig". 

Over the past 18 months, he has recruited five other members to grow out their hair to donate.  These members include Junior Banks, Jessie Banks, Ayden Myers, Michael Shrieves, and even an advisor, Mom Cristina Shrieves.  Br. Sean Egan from the Northern Region is also growing out his hair.  Renaissance Salon & Spa of Virginia Beach, Virginia willing to donate their time to cut the young men's hair.  This was scheduled this past Sunday, September 19th, 2021 at 2pm. 

The owner, Itsa Welsh, when hearing about what the DeMolays were doing, said she would "cut and style" their hair at no charge.  She and 2 of her hair stylists, Virginia Dure and Amber, came in on their day off and cut, styled, and complimented these young men about their dedication. 

Check out the before and after pictures!

MATOC stands for Mid-Atlantic Tournament of Champions, a multi-state ritual competition for the champion in each category in every eligible state. It is held in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania every September. Kempsville always does well when we compete, we won DeMolay Degree after winning at Conclave in July, and also won in several individual competitions as well.

http://www.demolay-matoc.org

In addition to the competitions, we get to meet DeMolays from all over the country, and have a lot of fun while we are there. On Saturday this year, we were able to visit the Gettysburg National Cemetery which was only a few miles away from the hotel.

https://www.gettysburgfoundation.org/soldiers-national-cemetery

On our way home from MATOC, we stopped at the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland.  The boys had an opportunity to see the memorial, as well as the 9-11 memorial which is located there. We walked the brick Walk of Honor, which runs throughout the courtyard, and has a section for each state to honor their fallen firefighters by name.

From their website:

Constructed in 1981, the 7-foot stone monument features a sculpted Maltese Cross, the traditional symbol of the fire service. An engraved plaque on the monument bears a message from President Ronald W. Reagan. At the base of the monument an eternal flame symbolizes the spirit of all firefighters — past, present and future. Plaques encircling the monument list the names of the men and women of the fire service who have died in service to their communities since 1981. Whenever a firefighter dies in the line-of-duty, fire officials post a notice of the death at the monument and lower flags at the site to half-staff.