The Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine for North America is an international fraternity of approximately 600,000 members who belong to 190 Shrine Temples throughout North America. The Shrine was founded in New York City in 1872 on the basis of the Masonic principles of brotherly love, relief and truth. The turn of the century brought a growing desire for an official Shrine philanthropy. Individual Temples had always supported various charitable causes, but now the Shrine was ready for its own philanthropic cause and in 1922 the first Shriners Hospital for Cripple Children was founded, dedicated to providing excellent medical care to children with orthopedic diseases. Today the Shrine Hospital System has expanded to 22 Hospitals and Burn Institutes.

The Owatonna Shrine Club is a local affiliation of this international fraternity. Interest in forming a local Shrine club first developed in the early 1950’s and continued into 1959 as an unaffiliated organization comprised of Owatonna Shriners who were members of both Osman and Zuhrah Temples. Several local Osman Shriners were affiliated with the Osman Temple in St. Paul and many of the local Zuhrah Shriners were affiliated with the Zuhrah Temple in Minneapolis. As a fledging new local community Shrine club in a new area of Minnesota they were pursued by both the St. Paul and Minneapolis parent organizations.

The first local meeting was organized late in 1954 when twenty eight members of various Shrine organizations residing in Owatonna met in the Masonic Hall for a dinner and an evening’s social activities. On March 6, 1955 this group met and voted to form an organization of Shriners in Owatonna. It was determined at that time that this newly formed organization would not become affiliated with any of the Temples and would operate as a rather loosely knit organization. Their stated purposes of this organization were to promote a few social functions, encourage attendance at the ceremonials in both St. Paul and Minneapolis and to let Owatonna know there is an organization of Shriners in our city by our activities, publicity, etc.

At the April 30, 1956 business meeting a set of by-laws was approved and adapted by a unanimous vote of the organization that had now grown to 67 members. A total of 89 eligible Nobles of the Zuhrah and Osman Temples were identified as now living in the immediate area. The formal name of Owatonna Area Shrine Club was adopted. In the summer and fall of 1956 the now officially new Owatonna Shrine Club became the object of contention between these two temples and our future relationship with either one of them or the other.

During the next three years from 1957 to 1959 there were several discussions and much correspondence all relating to the decision of whether Owatonna should join the Zuhrah or Osman Temple and whose jurisdiction Owatonna fell under. There was even discussion of Owatonna being part of the Cannon Falls Shrine Club. All of this dialogue finally resolved itself sometime in late 1959 when it was decided that Owatonna would be associated with the Zuhrah Temple of Minneapolis. With this decision the five years of operating as a local unaffiliated organization came to an end and in 1959 Owatonna became associated as a member of the national Shrine organization.

At a meeting at the lake home of Noble Reuben A. Kaplan on July 26, 1960, Zuhrah Potentate Ralph W. Robinson formally presented the Charter for the Owatonna Area Shrine Club to Past President Ave Kaplan. At that time the Charter members numbered 103 Nobles. The President of the Club was Carl C. Jolly and the Vice President was Steve J. Lange.

Currently the Owatonna Area Shrine Club includes 100 plus members. We are continuing the local tradition of service to our community and our dedication to the national Shriners Hospital for Cripple Children program of helping kids with medical difficulties in bones, mussels and joints. Our local proactive outreach program of promoting yearly Application Clinics within Owatonna has already resulted in many local kids being helped by the Shrine Hospital - all at no cost to the patient. Our local Owatonna Shrine Club over the last ten years has sponsored over 100 kids that have been involved in one step or another within the Shrine Hospital System. We are currently sponsoring 17 kids as part of this program.