05/26/2022 Freemasons of the Sequin-Level Lodge No. 140, located in Newington, Connecticut, recognized ARRL with a presentation on Thursday, April 7, 2022. The special recognition was organized and led by the Lodge's Worshipful Master, Jon Faasen, AA1EZ. Faasen is also a member of the ARRL staff, serving as a Membership Services Representative in the Membership, Marketing, and Communications Department.

Faasen and his fellow Masons organized the event to recognize ARRL for its contribution to the Newington community, and its role in serving ARRL members and radio amateurs worldwide. Newington Mayor Beth DelBuono participated in the presentation, issuing an official town proclamation honoring ARRL.

The honors bestowed on ARRL were accepted by a representative group of HQ staff members that included Assistant Member Services Manager Kim McNeill, KM1IPA; Member Services Manager Yvette Vinci, KC1AIM; Director of Emergency Management Josh Johnston, KE5MHV; Director of Operations Bob Naumann, W5OV, and Director of Public Relations and Innovation Bob Inderbitzen, NQ1R. Inderbitzen thanked the Masons and Mayor DelBuono. Inderbitzen also shared some background about ARRL's presence as a Newington fixture since 1938.

While ARRL was established in Hartford in 1914, the association settled in Newington when construction started on a new headquarters station in 1937 on its current seven-acre site. Moving ARRL's station to Newington followed President Hiram P. Maxim's death in February 1936, and the Great Flood in New England that destroyed the station located in Hartford a month later. The new station opened in 1938, operating with Maxim's call sign, W1AW, which was granted to ARRL by the FCC as a permanent memorial to him. The station's little brick building and its antenna farm stood alone on the Main Street, Newington, property until 1962, when ARRL relocated its administrative headquarters into a newly constructed building on the same property.

Inderbitzen also highlighted the leading role that ARRL and its members have made to advancing amateur radio for more than a century. "For many radio amateurs around the world -- ARRL Headquarters in Newington might as well be the center of our universe," he said. "ARRL is devoted to the greatest hobby in the world."

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