Four members of the community Jim Hogg, Jimmie Sanders, Wyatt Mays and David Patterson, met at the Clifton Forge Masonic Hall to talk about forming a club. An invitation was sent to members of the Divan of the Kazim Shriners of Roanoke to meet at the Old Forge restaurant in Iron Gate, VA. The Potentate, Bowman Harris gave these men permission to form the Clifton Forge Shrine Club. Founding Members, History, and Pictures of Our Club
Our mission is to combine friendship, family and fraternity with social activities and to provide support, both monetarily and by volunteer service to the “Worlds Greatest Philanthropy”, the 22 Shriners Hospitals for Children. The Shriners Hospitals for Children, in 2002 will expend over $1.63 million dollars every 24 hours to provide medical care for children. The amazing part – this expert orthopedic, burn and spinal cord care is given at absolutely no charge. For the entire year, the 22 Shriners Hospitals in the U.S., Canada and Mexico have a total budget of $597 million, $526 million of which makes up the operating budget that funds patient care, teaching, administrative office expenses, depreciation and the daily expenses of the entire Shriners Hospitals network. To put the 2002 budget in perspective, 20 years ago the total expenditures for Shriners Hospitals was just over $87 million. We presently treat approximately 193,000 patients (with approximately 27,000 admitted into our hospitals this last year and over 268,000 outpatient and and outreach clinic visits). Approximately 95% of the 2002 Shriners Hospitals operating budget will be used for patient care and research at the hospitals. All care provided at Shriners Hospitals is totally without charge to the patient and family. The funds for the totally debt free hospitals are obtained from gifts, bequests, income from the endowment fund, hospital fund-raising events, and the annual hospital assessment paid by every Shriner.
