Published June 17, 2021
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — “I want to tell you a beautiful story. It didn’t start with me. It started with these three gentlemen right here,” began Bill McIntire, master of the North Reading Masonic Lodge, referring to fellow Masons Brian Cavanaugh, Sandy Woodmansee and Michael Morris of the Lynnfield lodge at a recent monthly dinner meeting. “They did what Masons do best: They answered the call.”
And what was that call? It was brotherhood and selflessness coming together to ask both fellow Masons and the community at large to assist a local veteran in need.
Earlier this spring, that decorated Vietnam veteran, Neal Rooney of North Reading, was recuperating at home following a bad traffic accident on Route 93 in Wilmington in which he had suffered multiple traumatic injuries.
While the worst of it is behind him, he has a lot farther to go and he was having difficulty being able to sleep comfortably in a regular bed due to those injuries. So his wife Cathy reached out to the Masons, which runs a medical equipment loan program nearby, hoping to borrow a hospital bed. Brian Cavanaugh, a Mason with the Lynnfield Zetland Lodge, organizes the program and when he learned that the Rooneys did not have anyone available to pick up the bed or set it up, he personally disassembled it, brought it their home, and re-assembled it.
“My van is small so I had to take this bed apart and bring it in and put it all together in the driveway and lug it into the house,” Brian recalled “And the whole time I was doing that this man was sound asleep,” he said, pointing to Rooney.
“While I was there I happened to notice the house was a little chilly. And I had asked Cathy what was going on and she told me the furnace had broken eight days prior. So immediately upon hearing that I put a message out on the Masonic referral network on Facebook, our social media site, that we had a veteran in need. Immediately, within five minutes, Sandy Woodmansee jumped to the occasion and ran over to take a look at this furnace,” Cavanaugh said.
Unfortunately, the furnace, which was original to the house, was beyond repair, Woodmansee told him.
“At that point I knew we had to do something for this veteran,” Cavanaugh said. So he called up Arthur Pickett, the son of a late fellow Mason, Arthur Pickett, of Royal Air Systems to evaluate it. He confirmed that the entire furnace had to be replaced. “The Royal Air team went in and they covered two-thirds of the cost,” Cavanaugh said.
The remaining one-third was paid for by anonymous Masons who responded to yet another request for financial assistance through the referral network.
“Within about six phone calls the rest of the money that was owed was taken care of. It was really amazing to see all the brothers come forward,” Cavanaugh said.
But the assistance of the Masons did not end there.
“So these three gentlemen, at separate times, reached out to me as this was a North Reading resident, to try to get us involved,” McIntire said.
It was then that they decided to host an impromptu BBQ on short notice at the lodge. Covid restrictions were still in place at time but with less than a week turn-around time, through networking and posting flyers around town and a notice in the Transcript, the community eagerly responded.
None of the advertising identified the person in need. The message was simple: A decorated Vietnam veteran was in need of assistance; please stop by, grab a burger or some pulled pork and donate whatever you can.
“We asked the community and this Lodge and any other brothers that could to show up,” McIntire said, recalling that their “little country lodge” typically raises about $300 to $500 at such events. But the response to this BBQ was different. Brothers showed up from all over, many on motorcycles, from all over New England and as far north as New Brunswick.
McIntire was very pleased to surprise Rooney with a check for $3,000 to help with his longer-term needs.
“Thank you for your service. We know you are a decorated veteran and it is our pleasure to help you and to remind you that people are good,” McIntire told Rooney who was simply shocked and overwhelmed by the gesture.
“Oh my God. I can’t thank you enough. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I never ask for nothing. And when you people came together it was like wow!” Rooney said. “I was raised as a Mason. I have been a Mason for 32 or 33 years and I’ve known Masons from North Reading all my life,” Woodmansee said. “And when I spoke to Brian and he said this guy doesn’t have heat in his house, there was no repairing the system and I learned he was a decorated veteran it reminded me that there are people amongst us that need help; that deserve our help. One of the proudest things I can tell you that I am is that I am a Mason. This all worked. This was a good thing that we did.”
