ROCHELLE — The Rochelle Masonic Lodge enjoyed a busy Saturday during this past weekend’s Lincoln Highway Heritage Festival.
The organization not only served up root beer floats for the community outside the lodge building, but it also announced the winners of its successful gun raffle fundraiser.
“It was a good day for us,” said Mason Bud Norcross. “The weather ended up being very nice and we must have served close to 150 floats on Saturday.”

The drawing for the gun raffle was held at 2 p.m. on Saturday afternoon with two winners being announced, including first place winner Donna Page, of Ashton, and second place winner Jack Thompson, of Steward.
Page will have first choice of either a Sig Sauer P 238 Compact Pistol .380 ACP or a Glock 17 Gen 4 Postol 8 MM.
“The raffle really went well,” Norcross said. “We had great participation and sold out all of the available tickets.”
Norcross recognized Hickory Ridge Arms for providing the firearms, Hub Printing for donating the raffle tickets and the Rochelle News-Leader for advertising the event.
“We really had strong local support and by advertising in the News-Leader, the Rochelle Shopper and through the paper’s website and social media venues, we really reached a wide audience,” Norcross said. “I actually had many people see the advertising and call me up directly to buy tickets.”
A portion of the proceeds from the drawing will go toward community programs and services provided throughout the year by the Masonic Lodge members.