Helping hands

It’s often difficult to truly grasp what benefits a local service club provides unless the result is standing before you in living colour.
Such was the case here Saturday night when first a young family from International Falls, and then a mother of four from Galveston, Texas, stood up to share their stories of how the Shrine Club helped them out in their time of need.
In the first instance, it was how a two-year-old girl is receiving treatment for brittle bone disease. In the latter, a woman is alive today because of the treatment she received as a young girl horribly burned while playing with matches.
Young Fort Frances resident William Moody, who suffers from spina bifida, also has been helped by the local Border Shrine Club, among so many others, over the years.
While these success stories no doubt were gratifying to hear for local Shriners, it’s the rest of us who should be grateful for their efforts—whether to specific individuals or the community at large through the club’s financial commitment to the “Care Close to Home” campaign being spearheaded by the Riverside Foundation for Health Care.
At a time when some many service clubs are either folding or cutting back due to a lack of volunteers, it’s great that the Border Shrine Club continues to flourish after 75 years here. It also is a shining example, as we get set to formalize a “sister city” agreement with International Falls, of how we all can benefit from cross-border co-operation.
Fort Frances has been blessed with remarkable service clubs through the years, of which the Border Shrine Club is yet another example. Congratulations on your 75th anniversary, and best wishes for continued success here for many more years to come.