Members of the Oasis Shriners were back in Mount Airy for their Spring Ceremonial, a return visit after having hosted their event here last year as well.
Their Spring Ceremonial serves as a time for Shriners from the area to come together and conduct organizational business including induction of new members; thirty-eight were inducted over the weekend.
Keith Osborne of the Surry Shrine Club said last year that around 500 Shriners had attended the Spring Ceremonial weekend. He said the number in attendance for this year's event could have been even higher than it was last year.
The weekend was more than just an excuse to have a fun parade or show off their collection of mini-big rigs, dune buggies, go-karts, or jalopies as the group was welcomed to Cross Creek Country Club for a luncheon before the parade along with other events and even a service on Sunday before the Spring Ceremonial closed.
Fun was the operative word for the short parade, lasting just about half hour from the first steps to the final entry, with Shriner from across North Carolina but also some from Virginia and South Carolina as well like the Oasis KartAttacks who were up from Fort Mill, South Carolina and the Kazam Hillbillies who crossed in from the Grayson-Carroll County area of Virginia and had either long lost cousins or a standing fan club here in Mount Airy.
A long line of Shriners in blue go-carts raced up and down Main Street and pulled sharp turns and racing back the other way against the One-Way traffic sign. As one person stepped off the curb near the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History to get an action shot, the first go-kart swung an arc, comically, toward the person and then each of the drivers following the first followed suit, making a pronounced turn toward the young man as his camera tried to keep the drivers in frame.
The parade mixed some of the Shriners on foot with their VIPs who rode in front of the parade in cars while Shriner bands including bagpipes and drums of The Highlanders or the Oasis Oriental Band from Greensboro who had multi-tiered mobile stage towed behind a truck and were cajoling those on the street for donations as charity is a big part of The Shriners mission.
One of their best known charitable acts was the creation of a healthcare system comprised of twenty locations in North America, including Canada and Mexico, including a pediatric specialty center in Greenville, South Carolina which they said is home to the largest team of pediatric orthopedic surgeons in the Carolinas.
"Shriners Children’s offers care for a range of orthopedic issues, as well as care for burn injuries, spine care, spinal cord injuries, and more... Our experienced, innovative and dedicated teams work together to provide treatment to help each patient meet their goals and reach their full potential," the group said.
The Oasis Shriners are members of Shriners International which is the leadership group for Shriners across the world and were founded in the Charlotte. Department store owner William Henry Belk, of the Belk chain, was among the nine initial members of the shrine when it was granted permission to form the Oasis Shriners in 1894.
The group said on their website that Oasis, with some 5,500 members, "Still stands as the "Largest" of all the 193 temples in North America... with a combined membership of more than one quarter of a million."
According to the Shriner's, their group has operated as “a fraternity based on fun, fellowship and the Masonic principles of brotherly love and relief to others in need.”
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