Congratulations to Phil Cary, Regional Coordinator team #5 … Named Regional Coordinator of the year 2010!!!!

Phil Cary is a member of many appendant bodies of Freemasonry and no stranger to hard work, however when he first started “helping out” at various MoCHIP Child ID events, he had no idea how welcome his passion for helping others, especially children, would be so greatly received. MoCHIP, the Missouri Masonic Child Identification and Protection Program, is solely sponsored by the Masonic Children’s Foundation of the Grand Lodge of Missouri Masons and deemed “one of the most comprehensive child recovery and identification programs in the nation,” by The National Center for Exploited and Missing Children (NCEMC). It wasn’t long before Phil Cary caught the attention of Nick Cichielo, State Coordinator for MoCHIP.

Eventually Cary was appointed Regional Coordinator to the program’s Northeast region of Missouri. This position would require Phil to give up many a Saturday coordinating and executing an assigned MoCHIP event. With the blessing of his ever-present sidekick and huge supporter, wife Christine Cary, he was up to the task and pledged his availability. There are currently seven MoCHIP regions and several coordinators in each region. Though with the program still expanding, MoCHIP had areas of the southeast region of the state that were not being fully serviced and as the program grew in popularity, the demand from area lodges intensified as well. Phil was asked to help out in this region and graciously accepted the task, traveling sometimes 3-4 hours each way to ID children. He became known to the lodges in this southern region and therefore requested for additional MoCHIP events. Cary didn’t disappoint and elaborated upon his original pledge to the program—he and Chris would devote 26 weekends a year to MoCHIP anywhere he was needed—and so his region expanded to include the southeastern counties and then some.

Is it any wonder why at the 189th Communication of the Grand Lodge of Missouri A.F.& A.M., September 28, 2010 in Columbia, Missouri that Phil Cary was named Regional Coordinator of the year? Didn’t think so.