The Trustees of Wisconsin Scottish Rite have partnered with Northwestern Mutual to fund the Children’s Wisconsin: Milwaukee Hospital personal protective equipment (PPE) respirator project.
Wisconsin Scottish Rite will contribute $10,000 through its Schmidt Fund. The Northwestern Mutual Foundation will be contributing $100,000 to the project. Funds will be used to procure 10,000 lenses for Controlled Air Purifying Respirators (CAPR’s). The goal of the CAPR project is to ensure young patients and clinicians are afforded the best possible protection from COVID-19 during their experience at Children’s Wisconsin: Milwaukee Hospital.
The CAPR project continues a community partnership that dates back to the establishment of the Scottish Rite and Northwestern Mutual Life in Milwaukee back in the mid-1800’s both by the same leader, Henry L. Palmer. It didn’t end there, however. The Northwestern Mutual Foundation and Wisconsin Masonic Foundation provided matching funds to equip all the Milwaukee Public High Schools with AED defibrillator units in 2005. The Northwestern Mutual Foundation has also supported another Scottish Rite Charity, the Children’s Dyslexia Center of Milwaukee in past years.
Wisconsin Freemasons and the Wisconsin Masonic Foundation have long supported Children’s Wisconsin through donations of defibrillators through Children’s ‘Project Adam.’ Since the beginning of the program over $1,000,000 has been contributed for the purchase of school-based units and over 30 lives have been saved since inception.
Michael D. Kugler, Chairman of the Trustees of Wisconsin Scottish Rite stated, “We are making this gift in honor of the partnership that means so much to us because it protects our most valuable future asset, our children. The CAPR project holds special meaning because we do it in honor of our departed brother, the Illustrious Wayne A. Johnson, 33°, who served as the Director of Facilities Operations at Children’s Wisconsin for over a decade.”
Wisconsin Scottish Rite is a branch of Freemasonry that allows its members to expand their Masonic experience through an extended series of degrees and through service to communities through projects like this grant.