By Graham King - Provincial Charity Steward
" We are now in the final year of our Festival to be held in June 2009. We have now received in access of £2 million which is a great effort to date but as our Provincial Grand Master is hoping to achieve £3 million we still have a fair way to go.
However having been in contact with a number of our Lodges I know that there are significant funds that will be transferred to us in the course of the next 6 months so I am hopeful that we will be able to achieve our goal.
At 1 June 2008 we had 42 Lodges that had become Grand Patrons and 11 of those had contributed a figure in excess of £25,000.
There were 39 Lodges that were Patrons and 59 that were Vice Patrons. Furthermore there were a number of Lodges that will be achieving Vice Patron status in the near future.
Thus 140 of our Lodges have achieved Patron Status to date and I am confident that this figure will be increased significantly in the course of the next 12 months ".
See the patrons list for the most up to date figures. www.pglherts.org/patrons
In addition there are many lodges that have so nearly achieved vice patron status and I hope that by this time next year this will apply to the vast majority of the lodges in the province.
To become vice patrons a lodge has to have transferred to the Provincial Festival Account £5,000; if any of the charity stewards are uncertain of their lodge’s status they can contact W Bro Peter Trowell, the incoming Provincial Senior Grand Warden who is monitoring all the monies received. His e-mail address is: peter.g.trowell@btopenworld.com
A list of lodges which have achieved patronage status is on the provincial website.
I know that the charity stewards are keen to ensure that their lodge supports the Festival as much as the members are able to do, and I also know that many lodges are holding special fund-raising events and I would urge their members, and friends and guests to support them as much as they can.
I have been pleased to be at a number of lodges during the last year to present their Patronage Certificate and there are more in the pipeline. I am always delighted to do so and please do not hesitate to contact me if I am free to attend and I would be more than happy to do so.
I would urge all charity stewards to seek approval to transfer whatever funds are available to the Provincial Relief Chest. Any monies deposited continue to earn a considerable rate of interest based on the monies that have been so transferred and thus no lodge is losing out by holding monies in their account.
Finally if any charity steward is uncertain of their role and wants to find out more then the names of the Assistant Festival Co-ordinators who are based at each of the masonic centres is available on our website. Please do not hesitate to contact them if there are any matters upon which you need advice or guidance.
G G King