Shriner U – A Family Affair Fireside Chat: Engaging the Children

[Title Card] SIEF Noble Academy logo, Shriners International Education Foundation presents: Shriner U – A Family Fireside Chat: Engaging the Children

[Title Card] Jordan Settle, PP, Jaffa Shriners

As we get kicked off in this, for me personally, I really noticed an emphasis on including the families when I became a Divan officer in 2016, and the people that were leading the charge in that were Matt and Mandy when I went to Oriole Guide School. And it was something that was extremely helpful for me as an early Divan officer, and it was something that it was noticeable, that there was a meaningful instruction to include your family in everything that we do with your temple. And one of the big things that I noticed from that school that I really took away from the beginning is we all know Shriners love their pins. And Matt and Mandy were one of the first ones that I ever noticed that started kids pins. They were designed by kids and they were only given to kids.

And Mandy, if you wouldn't mind, just what kind of led you guys to that point back in 2016? I know that this was stuff that you guys had implemented when you were on the Divan up there in North Dakota. So if you wouldn't mind, just how'd you get to that point?

[Title Card] Mandii Sturlaugson, Spouse, El Zagal Shriners

Absolutely. Well, [inaudible 00:01:18] is a third generation Shriner, which means his entire childhood and even into his formidable years, he has been exposed to the Shrine. So he has memories and he would love to share them. We would remember sitting around with his parents, his dad, learning and hearing about these fun events, these crazy shenanigans that would happen, and it would always bring such joy to my husband's face when he tells these stories. What we learned is when we got involved in the Shrine, again, we were a young family when this happened. When we started the Shrine, we had one baby. By the time my husband got on the Divan, we had two. And at the time we eventually... He was potentate, we had three babies and we're talking little kids. And what I was learning or what I was experiencing in our Shrine journey was a little bit different than what he had experienced.

And I wanted to enjoy those moments. I wanted to have that fun that he had talked about. And what I saw was just a difference in what and how we treated families or kids. And it wasn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't inclusive. And so if you talk about some of my early memories with our journey, it was I'm going to sit in the hotel room, I'm going to take the kids swimming, dad's going to go do all the Shrine stuff, and then I'll see a baby later that night, I might find a babysitter to go have dinner, and then we'll come right back because I got to get back to the kids. And so when my husband joined the Divan, it was really a family discussion. He included us, we included the kids, we included his mother because we were going to have to have some support in all of this.

And one of the stipulations is that... And it was with his support, that we make this a more family centric event. We wanted to give our kids the memories that he had, the fun memories that he had. And in order to do that, if it wasn't happening, we were going to be the catalyst for that change. So yeah, you talk about those kids' pins and I think all of us can remember, we as Shriners, we give those pins out to kids. The kids' eyeballs get excited. They enjoy seeing these things. Their are collections of them. So we wanted to be part of that excitement. So we did. We let our kids design the kids' pin. We had it produced. We enjoyed having that with our kiddos, and they gave them out. And the best part is you could only get them if you were a kid. Just making them feel a little bit special. And we hope that with that came the memories. So that's what was really our journey, is making sure that we could do this together as a family and instill that fun experience in our kids.