Our Chapter meets 2nd and 4th Thursdays at the Cedar Falls Masonic Temple at 216 1/2 Main St at 7:30 PM. Our second meeting of the month is often reserved for activities in other locales, however. Our Chapter Dad is and will probably always be Gary Shaulis. We have accomplished some good things in the last few years. In 1997, we tied for the state lead in initiates with 15, and currently, Blackhawk PMC David Swallow serves as State Marshal.

    Our Chapter traces its roots back to the Waterloo and Cedar Falls Chapters of the early twenties. Eventually, with the onset of World War II and its demands upon our nation's youth, both chapters went inactive. The coming of age of the baby boom generation made many things possible: the Beatles, JFK as president, and the revival of DeMolay in Waterloo/ Cedar Falls. In 1963, a new chapter, Blackhawk Chapter, was formed under the Waterloo Chapter charter, and the sponsorship was changed to El Mecca Shrine Club. This chapter was shared between the two communities, with meetings alternated between the Cedar Falls and Waterloo Masonic Temples. By the early seventies, due to the fact that most of the membership was from Cedar Falls, meetings were permanently switched there. In 1975, Gary Shaulis (twice Advisor of the Year) became Chapter Dad, and the rest is pretty much "chicken" from there. In 1986, Kirk Besh became Blackhawk's first ever State Master Councilor, and Eric Sullivan followed him in that capacity in 1989. Blackhawk has also had state officers in Lyle Piper (1984 State Junior Councilor), Jason Rinz (1988 State Senior Councilor),Ryan Besh (1989 State Senior Councilor), Aaron Brendel (1991 State Senior Councilor) and Mike Maury (1998 State Marshal). Our extremely quotable advisor, Bruce Besh, served as State Executive Officer in 1993-1997. Blackhawk Chapter has been very successful through the years in recruiting new members. Blackhawk Chapter, its members, and advisors are very proud of our history and look to continue DeMolay in the area as successfully into the 21st century as ever.

In the past few years BlackHawk chapter has died down a bit starting with Waverly Chapter spliting off, decline in new membership and the dramtic loss of Gary's chicken farm when he retired. A short memorail was held in honor of the last chicken that mysteriously died of neck injuries on that faithfull morning, since then the word of the day has been retired from being used as Chicken. But things are looking up, in the summer of 2000 David Swallow became State Marshal, and we initited 8 new memebers, almost tripling our active members from the previous year. And then in the summer of 2001 David Swallow went on to become State Chaplin. Although this year we started off low in membership, things are looking up with a list of 12 prospects in our hands we hope that we can unattach the stone of shame and attach the stone of triumph. At our installation on August 26th, we proved that we can get members in, by iniating 2 new members before and having 3 waiting to be iniated. Charles Jamieson was installed as Master Counciler, and is showing great things to come.