TILTON — The New Hampshire Veterans Home is the recipient of awards and donations by the local Masons group and the New Hampshire Committee for of the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

The ESGR awarded the Patriot Award Brenda Mottram, a nursing supervisor at the home, for her support of a local soldier during his deployment overseas on active duty with the Air Force Reserve.

The Patriot Award recognizes employers who practice leadership and personnel policies that have been exceptionally supportive and accommodating to their employee(s) serving with the Guard and Reserve.

The organization also presented Barry Conway, commandant of the home, with a statement of support, commending him and the veterans home “for all that the veterans home does to support all of their employees involved in the reserves and National Guard, and for all the assistance (the home) provides to the military community and its veterans,” according to Woody Fogg of the Doric-Centre Masonic Lodge of Tilton, who was part of the ceremony.

Meanwhile, at a recent meeting of the New Hampshire Veterans Home Square and Compass Club, the Doric-Centre lodge presented two donations for the Ellis W. Howard Memorial Fund to Conway.

The fund was established by the Howard family in memory of Ellis Howard, who was a past grand master of New Hampshire Masons “and much beloved by his family and by any Mason who ever knew him,” Fogg said.

Howard was a resident of the home, and led the establishment of a Square and Compass Club, which is for veterans who are Masons. The fund will be used for the purchase and installation of a hydrotherapy pool used primarily for the rehabilitation of veterans with leg and foot injuries.

Such injuries are common for combat veterans, most particularly those from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, Fogg said.

The Masons made one donation to the fund in their name and another in memory of Doris Gibbs Smith, who was the widow of two Masons – Walter Gibbs, a past master of Doric Lodge; and Albion Smith, an honorary past master of Doric Lodge and a former Masonic Service Association Visitor to the home.

Her son, Wally Gibbs, is now a member of Doric-Centre Lodge. Smith was a past Worthy Matron of the Order of the Eastern Star, a mason award, Fogg said.

- - - - - - - -

Dan Seufert may be reached at dseufert@newstote.com.