On Wednesday, March 14th, 2007, the brotherhood and officers of Trenton Cyrus Lodge #5 of F&AM, Pennington, New Jersey, celebrated the premier of what will become a yearly award ceremony honoring the lives of exceptional individuals in our community.

The George Washington Award for Human Development will hereon in be accorded to individuals who, despite significant personal hardship, have realized outstanding personal achievement, and provided exceptional volunteer service to their community.

The ceremony, which is meant to be a motivational and inspiring evening for the entire family, is open to the general public, both men and women of all ages, as well as fellow Masons from across our area. It is then followed by a reception in honor of that year's winner.

On its inaugural evening, we were pleased to see that the award indeed drew a broad cross-section of men, women, and children from our region. This year, the evening was in honor of our first recipient, Lawrence A. Mansier; whose accomplishments led a field of five exceptional candidates nominated by people from throughout the community.

The process of selection begins by our committee sending out letters requesting nominations (with instructions in what we're looking for in nominees) to a broad host of community leaders. Advertising for the event is performed through press releases, personal contacts, and community PR pieces for placement in various venues.

The letters requesting nominations stress that we are looking for individuals whose acts of selfless personal greatness daily benefit our community, but normally go unrecognized. These unheralded deeds represent lessons in human growth and development which can be a true gift of inspiration for Masons everywhere.

We ask the community leaders with whom we correspond to help us find individuals in our region who have made a great difference in all our lives; outstanding men or women who, through personal growth and selfless moral principles, especially despite adversity, have come to change both their own lives and the lives of others around them.

We ask that consideration be especially given to the following attributes: Personal growth despite adversity, honesty and integrity, charity, volunteerism, dedication (duty and obligation), reverence, and compassion.

However, our internal guidelines strictly note that the award cannot be given to a fellow Mason.

The reason for this is that we feel, as Masons, our altruism is not to be rewarded; given that it represents part of the very essence of how we define ourselves as Masons.

In other words, we strive through the rituals, history, and lessons of Masonry to become examples of altruism for our communities, our families, and ourselves; better men who need no reward or recognition for what we've chosen to become.

Our success in achieving the goals inherent in Masonry is already rewarded by our membership in our brotherhood, and needs no further reward than the honor of belonging to this, our extended family.

However, what our nominees have become they have achieved without the benefit of the rituals and lessons which have helped to make us Masons.

Our nominees represent the purest form of altruism, that which comes naturally from the heart and from the soul. They are cherished lives whose achievements and personal development are forged within the furnace of the human condition; often despite terrible odds, often despite turbulent lives, and always without the benefit of access to our Masonic resources.

As such, our nominees become object lessons for all us, mirrors which reflect our own desires for personal growth and achievement, drawn from within our midst... even though their inestimable lives may never have been known to us as the invaluable resources they are.

They represent lessons and examples against which we, as Masons, can measure ourselves as we strive to evolve our lives within our craft.

This year's honored winner is Lawrence A. Mansier.

Lawrence "Larry" Mansier, was born on June 9th, 1930, in New Brunswick, NJ. He was drafted into the Army in the Fall of 1952, and contracted paralytic Polio in the summer of 1953, while serving in Korea.

As a 23 year-old, Larry found himself fighting for his life not with bullets in a war zone, but in Army hospitals through the help of doctors and nurses, archaic iron lungs, dedicated VA physical therapists, and his indomitable spirit.

By 1955, Larry had completed his physical therapy, and prepared to face life in a wheelchair. However, from the start, Larry refused to see the limitations of his condition, only the possibilities around him.

For him, the glass was never half-empty, a wheelchair was only a means to an end, and his handicap only a bump on his road to success.

Starting out in the business world as a Copywriter in New York City, from 1955 to 1957, he later worked briefly as a free-lance writer. From 1959 to 1961 he attended Rutgers Graduate School, where he received a degree in English.

Mr. Mansier then proceeded to enjoy an exemplary and inspiring career as a High School English teacher from 1961 to 1995. Throughout his years in teaching he also served as a baseball coach, a particular passion of his, and instructed students in drama, film studies, and television production.

Larry has been a member of the Pennington Presbyterian Church for close to 30 Years. He has also found great joy and inspiration through his marriage to Madeleine W. Mansier, whom he freely credits with providing much of the support he's needed to succeed.

His community volunteer work is legion, but has included involvement with Boy Scout Troop 1776, board membership in the Hopewell Valley Historical Society, coaching with the Hopewell Valley Baseball Association, membership in the Hopewell Valley Lions organization, where he was also President for two years, and the Hopewell Valley Municipal Alliance.

Mr. Mansier has also been both a member and chairman of the Hopewell Valley Senior Center Committee, and the Hopewell Valley Senior Advisory Board. Prior to receiving the George Washington Award for Human Development, Larry has been honored as Hopewell Valley Volunteer of the Year, and Mercer County Volunteer of the Year.

Against this background, I would like to have you share in how his life and work was honored on the evening of March 14th, as the first recipient of the George Washington Award for Human development, by presenting, in closing, a copy of the keynote speech for that evening.

However, before doing so, we would be gravely remiss in not taking the time to mention the other exceptional nominees. The field was first narrowed to five, before Larry Mansier, who was nominated by JoAnne Meyer, was finally selected as the winner of this year's award.

The backgrounds of the remaining four nominees, however, provide a wonderful window into the quiet yet tremendous impact made on our community by the selfless labor of our friends and neighbors.

Mr. Johnathan Baker, nominated by Diane Logsdon, was recognized for his outreach work with our inner city youth. Over the years, Johnathan has implemented numerous programs and worked tirelessly to shepherd these young children into a world where their lives and dreams matter.

Through him, many such children now have hope where there was none. They can now dream of what they can become, rather than what they can't. Through him, they can now see past an enveloping darkness to a world where they can make a difference; a world which they can help shape into a better place for both themselves and all of us to live.

Dr. Lilian Frankel, nominated by Nancy Yeomans, has turned a visually impaired student's passion for chemistry into a personal quest for educational equality within the laboratory. She was recognized for a personal quest which ultimately led to the development and implementation of a new and novel form of hands-on learning for the visually impaired called 'Tactile Chemistry'.

To provide wide-scale access to this new learning strategy, Dr Frankel has presented her techniques at various teaching conventions, and established collaborations with various universities and the The National Science Foundation.

Mr. Richard Sheets, nominated by Tom Pointing and Ida Marie Chiaradia, has been a colleague, mentor and friend to many during his 30-plus year career within the Hopewell Valley school district. Dick's tenure has included teaching and serving as principal at both Toll Gate and Bear Tavern elementary schools, where he has made memorable contributions to the quality of life and learning for both children and adults in his community.

Now 'retired', Dick remains busier then ever, volunteering with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, The Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, Home Front, Meals on Wheels, and the St Lawrence Rehabilitation center.

Hopewell Township Police Chief George Meyer, nominated by Fire Captain Mat Martin, has served his community for the last 31 years as a police officer. While his focus is on community safety, George still finds time to reach out to those less fortunate and in need of comfort.

George volunteers as an ambulance driver and firefighter with the Union Fire Company in Titusville, is deeply involved in fund raising for the NJ Special Olympics, and is on the board of trustees for PEI (a non profit group who educates our youth on abuse prevention). Through these and many other efforts he continues to make a significant impact on his community.

Throughout the inspirational evening of the 14th, the audience, composed of men, women, and children from our region, heard of these and other selfless yet little-known acts of kindness, morality and brotherly love on the part of their neighbors.

They learned that in a world which overflows each day with innumerable acts of selfish violence, equally as many selfless though unheralded acts of kindness go on all around them; lending a balance to the kind of life we seek to create in our communities.

From one story to the next, neighbors and friends who may never have seen the heroism of each other lives learned that all around them are men and women of exceptional character who daily give of themselves for the benefit of others, without a thought for reward or recognition.

Their noble support to those who are less fortunate, their extension of a helping hand to those in need (often despite significant personal obstacles), represents indeed the purest form of altruism.

The George Washington Award for Human Development honors such exceptional individuals in our midst who have quietly overcome personal hardship to improve their lives and, in the process, have improved the lives of their neighbors and their community at large.

It recognizes little-known or unknown lives around us who nevertheless exemplify the purest form of Masonic principles; those not learned through encoded practice or ritualistic lessons, but simply those that come from all-too-human hearts and minds.

As Masons, we study and seek to practice the principles of Masonry because they are designed to make us good human beings... better men.

However, those wonderful people honored on March 14th have never studied our craft. The lessons inherent in their lives are lessons for all of us, young and old, men and women, through which to grow and achieve our full potential.

Their inherent goodness and their honored lives, as they strive to make our community and our world at large a better place to live, represent a wellspring of inspiration to Masons everywhere.