Charity Steward (September 2007)

At the Provincial Grand Lodge meeting on Monday 22 October the Provincial Grand Master will, again, remind us of the Province’s commitment to the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys festival appeal. By his patronage and enthusiasm for the appeal, and the encouragement of lodge charity stewards, Brethren will be urged to continue their endeavours to keep the momentum of the appeal going for the ensuing three years.

This may seem a distance away, however in order to celebrate our achievements in the year 2010 we are reviewing now how best to mark that milestone. In September I held a seminar for charity stewards at Aylesbury and Beaconsfield, on this occasion inviting their respective ladies, for whom I thank the 23 charity stewards and 3 ladies who attended. A feature of the seminars was to gauge opinion and glean ideas on how best to conclude the 2010 appeal with a party. For this purpose ‘brain storming’ sessions were held to enable a range of ideas to be identified. The remit of these exercises was to identify an appropriate means of celebration and that it was important for family and friends to feature in the outcomes.

The exercise proved invaluable, with the input of both the Brethren and the ladies, who between them produced a wide range of events suitable for the occasion. At this time we were not looking to identify venues, discuss costs, plan dates, etc. Free-range thinking was all that was required, which produced the following:

• Carnival
• Fete
• Barn dance (evening entertainment)
• Picnic in the Park
• Musical Concert. Group during the day – orchestra for the evening with ‘Rule Britannia’ theme
• Themed event for children
• Sporting events
• Battle re-enactment (Sealed Knot)
• Boat Trip
• Theatre/Concert
• 3-day Cruise
• Henley Regatta Day
• Ascot (Ladies’ Day)
• Country Fair
• Legoland (private party)
• Milton Keynes Bowl (private party)

The logistics of arranging some of these events could well prove difficult, and in some cases impossible, but nevertheless the ideas were far-reaching and achieved the main principle of ensuring the events were family orientated. There will, of course, be an occasion prior to this large party when the total for the appeal is formerly announced; the format for this has yet to be discussed.

At the present time, though, all the above ideas will be reviewed and discussed by a strategy group and forwarded to the festival committee via the PGM. After all the hard work that will be placed on achieving our objective of raising £2m we deserve to party – and you will all be invited.

Bob Chevin
Provincial Grand Charity Steward