Beginning in January 2010, Frank Preble, Past Potentate of the Kora Shrine Temple in Lewiston, will become the first-ever Mainer to chair the board of directors of the Shriners Hospital for Children, in Springfield, MA.

The Shrine — The Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine — was founded in New York City in 1872 on the twin principles of Fellowship and Fun, and the organization remains dedicated to wholesome family fun for its members and the communities in which it functions. From the very beginning, however, the Shrine has also been deeply committed to charitable works, and starting in 1922 the membership decided to support an official philanthropy which has since grown into a network of 22 specialty hospitals for children which provide care for children with orthopaedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lip and palate. There are no out-of-pocket charges to patients or their families, and since the inception of the hospital network, service has been provided to more than a half-million patients, with millions more who have been beneficiaries of innovative life-saving techniques developed in the hospital network.

Preble, a voting member of the board of the Springfield hospital since 2005 and an associate member prior to that, said, “It’s been a great honor to have been associated with the Shriners Hospitals, and I’m really looking forward to the challenge of the next few years.” While the hospital system has encountered some of the same financial stress that has impacted the rest of the economy in recent years, the hospitals will continue to provide care to any child who needs it, without regard to the patients’ or families’ financial circumstances; nor is any connection to the Shriners or Masons required.

“I keep hearing more and more details as I get deeper into this,” Preble admitted. “I didn’t know they had those meetings, too. It’s a long drive back and forth to Springfield. I hope I can help them consolidate some of their meetings.”

The Shriners Hospital in Boston specializes in the treatment of burn injuries, but Springfield is dedicated to orthopaedic treatments, surgeries and research. Last year alone, the hospital treated more than 20,000 kids and provides more out-patient orthopaedic care to kids than any hospital in the world except Mexico City. “We don’t set broken bones,” Preble explained. “We provide state-of-the art, specialized care that isn’t available anywhere else,” even, he asserts, at Children’s Hospital in Boston. “Children’s treats cancer, internal medicine issues, general surgery — no one else has the dedicated resources to focus on orthopaedic treatment that we do.”

The nearest Shriners orthopaedic hospitals are in Montreal and Philadelphia, so the area from which Springfield attracts patients is vast. “Plus,” Preble explained, “we are responsible for patients from Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Santo Domingo … places where there is an awful lot of need.”

While Maine has ex officio board membership at the hospitals in Boston, Montreal and Springfield, this is the first time in the 85-year history of the Springfield hospital that the board has been chaired by a Mainer. Preble continues to be active in the Kora Shrine, of course, and in various other Masonic organizations in Maine. “It’s possible,” he said, “to be involved in some Masonic activity every night of the week.” He is, and more than that.

Masonry is in large part about good works, and the Shriners have elevated that purpose, through their hospital network, to a specific and unique level of service. That such service continues to be supported through fun and fellowship fulfills the vision of the founders, back in post- Civil War New York.