Demolay Leaders, Justin Glass (State Master Councilor) and Kaiden Troy (District Representative) share a bit about DeMolay Minnesota
We are back at the Grand Lodge annual communication here in Lovely Wake Park, Minnesota, and I have the pleasure of sitting down with probably the two youngest guys here at, uh, at the event today. I'm here with Justin Glass and Caden Troy. Thank you fellas. with the D Molay. Yep. Tell me, Justin and Caden, what is it that you do here? I'm the state master counselor for Demo Land. So, and what does that mean? So I am kind of leading the body. You're the guy? Yep. I'm the top kid at the, uh, of the state. I'm coming for, what I'm doing here is I'm coming in and I'm just trying to get that representation out. okay. Making sure I'm talking to the, uh, masons who are here, um, building that community. and the rapport that we have with each other. Um, and just making sure that, uh, Know that we are here and we do want to be more involved with them. Wonderful. Wonderful. And how long have you been involved with Dalla? I, I've been involved since I was 10 years old. Okay. I joined when I was 12. Um, and what, what was it that brought you to Dal? Uh, it's a really funny story. Well, let's your end. Yeah. So my older brother got into Dalla a number of years ago. Okay. And, um, I. Started seeing him walk off, uh, every Sunday, going out and doing something. And I'm like, what are you doing man? Why are you, why are you leaving? He was like, oh, I got this youth group Um, so eventually I just started pestering him to let me come with and, um, there was a fundraiser we were doing, it was a spaghetti dinner. Okay. And we went there. and he eventually let us come with, went there, did it, and I was like, this is a lot of fun. Afterwards we went bowling, and the state master counselor at the time was there. Okay. and he had sat down and talked with me for a bit. Um, and just seeing him kind of interact with me the way that he did was really inspiring. So I. This is a lot of fun. I feel like I'm actually part of a community here. and that's what really got me interested and started to want to get more involved. Um, so are you a student Jason? Uh, no. So, uh, you've graduated from school, high school? Yes. Okay. Where'd you, where did you grow up? Uh, I grew up in Richfield, Minnesota. Okay. Yep. Richfield High School. Yep. Okay. Yep. So, and how old are you? I'm 19 years old, so 19. And, and you can stay in D Malay until you are 21. 21. Yep. Okay. I got about two more years left. Two more years left. Yeah. What, uh, what, what's your future look like? What do you, uh, future? Um, I know especially once I end my, um, SMC term over in August, uh, I'm planning on getting involved with Masonry as well. Okay. Um, is there a lodge that you're going to, uh, petition I have you that I'm looking at? I could go to the lodge that my, home chapter meets Atha Lodge. Oh, that's a good one. Or, uh, I've been involved a bit with, lake Harriet Lodge. Another good lodge. Great, great group of guys. Yep. So just in that area, let's pivot to Caden here. What brings you here? Caden, what's your job? so I'm the second guy in charge, uh, with Justin here. I'm a state district representative, is what we call it. Uh, so I'm here to do what Justin's doing, talking with Mason's. Okay. And just read the word about Dean ELA this weekend. And, and where do you live? Uh, currently I live up in Duluth, but I, uh, grew up down in Anoka, are you a student? Yeah, I'm a college student up in Duluth. Where do you go to school? Uh, lakes, pier College. Free Lake Pi? Yeah. Aviation Management. Oh, very cool. Cool. Very nice. How old are you? I'm 19. 19. is, masonry in your future? Yeah, so once I finish up with college, I plan on, uh, heading backed down home probably joining Anoka Lodge. That's a very good lodge. A fun lodge. So couple things in your time with de what have been kind of the most fun things that you guys have done? Yeah, For me, there have been a lot of fun things that I've done. I've traveled, uh, especially all over the Midwest, but I've gone out to other places in the country, doing ritual competitions or going to leadership events. and I would say probably the most fun I've ever had was, this big leadership, convention that they do every year down in Oklahoma called, leadership Convention dlc. They have it structured with like courses, um, all the way from basic to junior advisor. Okay. Um, and it teaches you everything in between, from right when you're starting to join to master counselor, uh, jurisdictional officer or, um, like state officer positions, um, all the way up to like getting ready for the adult leadership I really like it because it's, it's taught me a lot about what, I need to, learn and improve upon, okay? For when I'm preparing for these roles. Like before I came into the state, officer line, I went into the. Jurisdictional officer track that they had there. And it taught me a lot about term planning and that public speaking aspect that I would need to work on. Wonderful. For, this position. And it's helped me a lot and I think. It Besides the education aspect, it's also massive for like community building. Cause you're, we're getting people together from all over the country. Um, sometimes people are coming in from outside of the country too. Yeah. What a great way to meet people. Yeah. From all over the country. Mm-hmm. Very cool. It's so much fun. How about you Caden? What's been the highlight of your, uh, past year? I mean, other than this podcast? Great hearing. Uh, so I had the pleasure of planning our, uh, our annual winterfest event. We. Uh, it's usually our second biggest event of the year and I had a lot of fun planning it. We had guys from, uh, all over the country come there too. We had, uh, Wisconsin, Nebraska and Alabama show up. it was exciting. We did a lot of fun stuff in, Duluth, around the lake. Very cool. So I'm with Minnesota Masonic Charities. Yep. And I'd like to invite you two guys. In September to come to our, annual gala. Okay, perfect. I don't think we've ever had people from demo Malay there. How many members of Demo Malay are there? Um, so we have, uh, around 140 members on the books right now. Um, and we're working, uh, wonderful. Yeah, that number's up. Yeah. Yep. That's terrific. So, while I have you here we're gonna have a, an auction at the event. And, uh, I'm involved with a number of other nonprofits. Yeah. And this past year I was at an event for my son's high school baseball fundraiser. Yep. And they auctioned off the varsity baseball team for two hours. Of labor you know where I'm going with this. I think I can, I'm wondering if you guys could get together a group of people from De Molay. Mm-hmm. And we could auction off a team of demo Molay guys to do like leaf collection at someone's house. Yes. Yeah. Because here's what happened. Of all the things that was at this. Getting those varsity baseball players to come and I'm having them spread 15 yards of mulch. it went for so much money. You wouldn't believe it. Yeah. Because everybody looked and they're like, okay, here's these strapping young men. And I just think that there are guys out there that are supporters of Demo Malay. Yep. That will want to put your butts to work. Yeah. And I love the idea, so why don't you guys think about that? Yeah. But I would love to have you come and, the other trick is, is, uh, if I have you at the event and I put you up there like props mm-hmm. People are gonna feel bad if they don't bid it real high. So I am in the fundraising business. And I'm not too proud to take advantage of young people to raise more money for cancer research. Yep. Taking care of sick children. Mm-hmm. Scholarships, all of the above. Yeah. So I kind of manipulated you into this and I don't feel one bit bad about it. That's okay. Uh, I think that's, Definitely something we would be really interested in. Okay. Um, well another thing that we are into with Dean Light is getting that community service going. So if we can help out some people, we can help you with that. That'd be perfect. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well thank you very much guys. Enjoy Grand Lodge. You guys here until tomorrow? Yep. Yes. Oh, wonderful. Cool. Well, thank you. I shake your hand, but I'm sweating like a pig over here. Have a good day boys.