Rajah News - August 2022

RAJAH SHRINERS
THE STORY OF A TRADITION, BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE
The History of Shriners Hospitals for Children
Ill. Sir
Greg Lewis, PP
Editor's Note: As reported in the June/July, 2022 Rajah News, the story of the “History of Rajah
Shrine” is being revised to include the following information: “The large Banquet Hall at the Rajah
Shrine Complex was built in 2005-2006 and was dedicated in August, 2006 by Illustrious Sir Jere Lesher.”
The year of 2022 is very significant in the history of Shriners International, Shriners Children’s Hospitals
and Rajah Shrine. This is the third article in a series to be published this year in an effort to bring you a
history of one of the greatest fraternal organizations that exists today.
In the first article we looked at the history of Shriners International, the second article was the history of
Rajah Shrine, and the third article, presented in 2 parts, is dedicated to the founding of the Shriners Hospitals
for Children. Part 1 appears in this edition of the Rajah News, with Part 2 to be included in the October/
November 2022 edition.
The start of the Shriners Hospitals for Children
The Shriners have a rich history of fellowship and philanthropy. Our organization consists of approximately 300,000 men,
belonging to 200 Shrine Temples, centers or chapters around the world.
First Shrine Hospital, Shreveport, LA,
Opened in 1922
Shriners are known
for their colorful parades,
circuses, and clowns. But
there is also a serious side to
this international fraternity.
A little more than 100
years ago in 1920, a Shriner
from Atlanta’s Yaarab
Temple, Noble Forrest
Adair, made a passionate
plea at the Annual Shriners
Imperial convention to
urge his fellow Shriners
into passing a resolution to
approve the establishment of
a Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children. Under development
for over two years, in 1922 the Shreveport Shriners Hospital
was ready to accept its first patient, and by 1927, 14 more
Shriners Hospitals were in operation scattered around the United States.
The rules for this hospital, and all of the other Shriners Hospitals which
would follow were simple: to be admitted, a child must be from a family unable
to pay for the orthopedic treatment they would receive, be under 14 years of
age (later increased to 18) and be, in the opinion of the Chief of Medical Staff,
someone whose condition could be helped by treatment at the Shriners Hospital
for Children.
At the Imperial Session meeting in Toronto in 1962, the establishment of
centers dedicated to the treatment of children afflicted with acutely dangerous
burns were established.
The first Shrine Hospitals for Burn treatment was opened in Galveston,
Texas on March 20, 1966; the hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio, was opened on
February 19, 1968, and the third facility was opened in Boston on November
2, 1968. As condition and treatment options were updated extensively over the
Noble Forrest Adair
One of the first patients at Shriners new
Burn Hospital in Galveston
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