Aladdin Club

Blue inner circle with an illustration of a young girl on crutches watering a flower in a pot with blue text over head on a yellow background. There is blue text along the outer bottom edge.

The Aladdin Club of Shriners was founded in the late nineteenth century when members of the Cincinnati based club made a new Columbus based club. The new Aladdin Club had "the objective . . . [to] cultivate the social virtues of its members and their families and the prevention of the intrusion of any profane unless they shall possess the qualities of head and heart which stamp them as gentlemen." Shriners clubs were first formed by Freemasons who wanted new fraternities that could emphasize socialization and fun over rituals. The Shriners did not expand rapidly at first, but after establishing a governing body that created rules for membership, temple formation, etc. the fraternities began to grow. By 1878 there were thirteen temples with a membership of 425 Shriners. Five of the temples were in New York, the state where the fraternity had been formed, two were in Ohio and others were in Michigan, Connecticut, Vermont, among others. The Aladdin Club, in Columbus, was one of the two Ohio groups. Although all of the temples participated in philanthropy, they were searching for an official charity to support. Noble Freeland Kendrick, Imperial Potentate Elect, in 1919 visited the Scottish Rite Hospital for Crippled Children in Atlanta and saw all of the orthopedic needs of children in North America. This visit led to Kendrick’s national campaign to temples for this official philanthropy. The Shriners created a network of hospitals were children under the age of 14 (now 18) could be omitted if their condition could be helped. The first hospital opened in Shreveport, Louisiana September 16, 1922. Shriner hospitals continue to help children free of charge with the most advanced medical procedures.