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Water Buffalo Degree

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Water Buffalo Degree

Everyone remembers the Flintstones. Young or old, you have seen or heard at least a reference or seen an episode of them. On Saturday, August 22nd at 8:00 am, we conferred the Water Buffalo degree on 92 candidates, representing six different states, at the first annual Aleppo Loyal Order of Water Buffalo degree. The degree was a blast for all of those in attendance. This is going to be a once-a-year event for Aleppo, and we are hoping to make it just as fun as this last time.

The degree was first used in Sioux City, IA at the 2016 mid-winter convention of the International Shrine Clown and later in Canada in March 2018. The degree was then spread to other Shrine Centers. There are fun things like Flinstone Bowling, everyone has a Water Buffalo name created just for them, and there is even a secret greeting that you learn once you have received the degree.

I would like to send a huge thank you to the following people and Nobles who, without their help, this would not have been made possible: Kristie DeCola, Steve Dalrymple, and others. We also can’t forget the degree team from Guiding Light Olympia Lodge #808 that put on the degree for us: Mike LaRocco, Berdj Agopain, Mike Corrado, Miles Maier, Tony Candreva, Ryan Ludde, and Mitch Goodkin. These brothers and Nobles are the reason we had so much fun and fellowship at the event.

We at Aleppo now have a Loyal Order of Water Buffalo Lodge and I pose to you all, “Are you a Water Buffalo?”

We will be planning to hold the degree again next summer, so please keep an eye out for further information.

Aleppo Smoker 2018 – Still Wicked Awesome!

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THANK you to everyone who attended the Aleppo Smoker 2018 and made it such a huge success. What a great night. We started out with everyone receiving roughly 20 cigars just for presenting their ticket.

Once inside the Auditorium, the scotch and bourbon tasting were ready to go. Riverwalk Brewery served up some of their newest beers and drained their kegs in short order. The guys from Big Rock Oyster were shucking oysters as fast as possible to keep up with the complementary Raw Bar. Our caterer, Sidekim Foods were able to serve well over 600 prime rib dinners all seemingly at the same time. After dinner there were a couple “short” speeches, donations from Columbian Lodge, Colette Vacations, Ancient York Lodge, and “Thank You” from our Illustrious Potentate, Harlan L. Woods, Jr.

The highlight of the evening came to the stage, Noble Jamie Jordan. For those of you not in attendance, you may not know that Noble Jordan was a patient at Shriner’s Hospitals for Children. Jamie ran up on stage and told us all his story and his need for help from the World’s Greatest Philanthropy – our Hospitals. He ended his heart-warming speech by letting us know that thanks to the Shriners Hospitals and events like the Aleppo Smoker, he was able to live a much better life with his wife and daughters. Jamie left the stage to a standing ovation.

Jamie was a tough act to follow, but comedian Mike McDonald was awesome. Mike kept everyone’s attention, and the crowd roared at some of his jokes. After Mike entertained us, he stayed on stage to help Steve DeOssie with our Auction. As I said, the night was great. If you were at the event, you know about all the fun and games that go on at the Smoker–the auctions, silent auctions, entertainment, prizes, games, etc. The whole night is great, whether you’re a cigar smoker or not. Believe it or not, quite a few nonsmokers show up every year just to enjoy the evening and help our worthy cause.

Thank you to Steve Strauss, owner of Pleasant Smoke our #1 Sponsor since we started. Thank you to all of our sponsors, vendors, and attendees who came out for the event, spent money on tickets, overbid on auction items, and made generous donations. What you did was to make this the biggest Aleppo Smoker on record, and you donated close to $70,000.00 to the Aleppo Shriners Children’s Transportation Fund. Yup, the Aleppo Smoker is Still Wicked Awesome!!