Meets 3rd Sunday at 2:30pm in the Jaffa Greeters Room
Early in 1951, a committee met with Potentate Homer I. Smith relative to forming a unit for bringing new members into the Shrine. It was in December that year that the Committee received approval and held its first organizational meeting in the basement of the Jaffa Mosque.
During discussions on how to organize, it was recommended that the committee consist of one member from Altoona and two members each from other Shrine clubs. Because of the travel distance involved, cooperation from outside clubs could be improved with this structure.
C. Alvan Huffnagle was named first president in 1951, serving until 1959 when Glen Clouser succeeded him. At this time a new room committee was formed to meet with the trustees, Arthur E. Winter, Howard D. Coulter, and Charles W. Clugh, who gave approval April 23, 1959 for use of a storage room on the first floor of the Mosque to use as a meeting room. The Greeters assumed the cost of renovating the meeting room and a committee consisting of Ross Clapper, Glen Clouser, Roy Shiffler, William Hammer, William Swan, Irvin Vahey,
Carl Shaw, Thomas Puckey, Kenneth Mahaffie, Chester Douty and Walter Straw did the renovating.
Converting the storage room’s raw walls and large air vent kept the committee working hard until its completion November 30, 1959. The room, under the direction of Allan B. Harman, was beautifully redecorated in 1975.
At the December Ceremonial in 1962, Potentate Raymond A. Long officially made the Greeters a Jaffa Unit, removing the status of a committee.
The first banquet was held by the Greeters at the Juniata Pavilion, March 7, 1959, with 86 present, and a second banquet was held in the 58th Street Methodist Church with 125 present including Unit members, the Divan and their significant others. These banquets have been an annual affair since that time.
The Greeters are proud to have had six members serve as Potentates: Phillip Teah, 1956; Joseph P. Novak, 1961; Delbert V. Meadows, 1967; William P. Hammer, 1976; Keith D. Snyder, 1978; and Richard D. Gonsallus, 1988.