Joint fundraising effort brings a smile to the face of a local consultant

From left to right – From the Wilberforce Lodge Bro. Peter Nesbitt (Charity Steward), W.Bro. John Bridges (Almoner), W. Bro. Bill Glanville (Treasurer) and Mr. Matt Simms, Consultant Urologist, Castle Hill Hospital

Following the success of the Prostrate Cancer Awareness Campaign around the Province a number of Brethren from the Hull and Beverley area found themselves receiving treatment at the Castle Hill Hospital in Cottingham. Some came under the care of Mr. Matt Simms who has brought keyhole surgery for prostrate treatment to the hospital.

Matt was in need of a special camera to assist with this type of surgery and the Wilberforce Lodge took this on as a fund raising project. W. Bro. John Bridges visited a number of other lodges in the area and obtained pledges of money towards the cost and the Wilberforce Lodge started serious fundraising. Despite everyone’s efforts the fund was still short and the final figure was reached thanks to an application to the Provincial Charity Committee who donated the final £3,500.

Matt Simms was the guest of honour at the Wilberforce Lodge’s annual Wilberforce Dinner and entertained the other guests with an hysterically funny after dinner speech recounting his experiences in the medical profession.

St Cuthbert's Successful Barn Dance

Howden Freemasons recently arranged a successful Barn Dance which was held at the Vikings Hotel in Goole.

Thanks to their sterling efforts over £800 was raised for Macmillans Cancer Support.
More than 100 people attended the Barn Dance and were entertained by the ‘Jellybeans’ who all gave up their evenings to support the event.

Peter Thompson from St Cuthbert’s Lodge said ‘It was so nice to see so many people with smiles on their faces, all having a great time and helping to raise money for this worthwhile cause, especially as Macmillans are celebrating their centenary this year. The evening wouldn't have been a success without the help and support of the band and Steve and Bev from the Vikings who let us use their function room free of charge.’

The St Cuthbert’s Lodge (Howden) have raised £1780 so far this year for Macmillan Cancer Support.

FREEMASONS DONATE £14,807 TO HOSPICES IN YORKSHIRE NORTH & EAST RIDINGS

Local Hospices in the Province of Yorkshire North and East Ridings are to receive funding from the Freemasons’ Grand Charity amounting in total to £14,807. Adult and children’s Hospices across England and Wales are receiving a total of £600,000 from the charity. This is in addition to funds already donated by local Freemasons.

Freemasons have a long tradition of funding Hospices through the Freemasons’ Grand Charity and this year’s donations will bring the total to £9.3 million since 1984. All donations are raised by Freemasons and their families and aim to assist Hospices in their vital role in helping those affected by terminal or life threatening illness.

The Hospice grants awarded in this Province by Freemasons’ Grand Charity are:

So, Just How Good are the RMBI Homes?

High quality care provision is a key priority for the RMBI and as such the RMBI conducts annual satisfaction surveys at all of its care homes to assess and measure the satisfaction levels of people who use its services.

The surveys are sent to both residents and their relatives/friends in order to gain a full picture of the effectiveness of the service provision at RMBI Homes.

To ensure confidentiality and encourage open feedback, the RMBI works with an independent company called Laing & Buisson. The results are then benchmarked to the care sector in order to gain an understanding of how the RMBI compares within the industry.  Below is a summary of the results.

This year a total of 932 surveys were sent to RMBI residents with a response rate of 59% and 947 surveys were sent to relatives/friends of residents with an overall response rate of 49%. These response rates are high for a survey of this nature within the sector and a significant improvement to previous years surveys.

KEY OUTCOMES

Both residents and relatives were asked a series of questions on different aspects of service provision and life within the Home, and were required to indicate whether or not they agreed with certain statements in order to demonstrate their satisfaction levels and whether they felt the service quality met their requirements.

The Home
This section of the survey sought to ascertain how satisfied people living at the Homes were with their living accommodation. Overall, residents responded positively and a high proportion of people were able to agree completely with the statements given in the questionnaire, indicating high levels of satisfaction. 91% of residents stated that they liked their room and over 90% stated that their room was private and that they felt safe and secure in the Home. Similar responses were also evident in the relatives survey and over 70% of relatives stated that their relative or friend settled in well at their chosen Home.

Food and Drink
Residents were asked about their experience of the catering provision at the Home. The answers to the questions in this section indicated there was room for improvement in the catering, especially around issues of:-
• Enjoyment of the food.
• The choice offered by the menus.
• The quality of the food.
• The temperature at which the food is served.

Staff
Encouragingly in this section of the survey it was found that 93% of residents felt that staff were polite to them and were helpful, and that staff listened to them – 90% and 80% respectively. These results prove that the people living in RMBI Homes are treated with dignity and respect, an ethos that is core to the RMBI. 88% of relatives and friends also felt that the staff at the Homes had a positive attitude to the residents and that the Management team were easily accessible. 93% of relatives were very satisfied with the responsiveness of staff to matters that concerned them.

Activities
Activities play an important role in the Homes and the scores in this section were above average. A high proportion of residents (76%) said that they knew what activities were going on in the Home and 57% felt that there were things to do throughout the day. The results also highlighted that 49% preferred organised activities and entertainment, whilst 45% liked to do things on their own.

The residents’ answers to these questions revealed that more could be done to encourage stimulation and it is certainly an area the RMBI will seek to improve in the coming months.

Help and Support
People’s responses to the questions in this section were very positive, again indicating high levels of satisfaction. 81% felt that they could talk to someone about their concerns and 80% felt that the staff involved them in the way they are cared for.

The number of residents who felt that they were involved in the way they are cared for is a huge increase to a similar question which was asked in previous years where less than 50% of residents agreed with this statement. This excellent result can be attributed to the considerable work that has taken place on the care planning process at all RMBI Homes. The way in which the care plans are now completed is more person centred and is used to deliver care. Furthermore relatives and friends of residents also stated that they were involved in the planning and delivery of the care provided to their relative/friend (85%).

A very high 73% of relatives felt that their relative/friend had the opportunity to live life as fully as possible in the care Home environment and again 73% said that they were satisfied with the way their relative or friend was being cared for.

Recommending RMBI Homes
Very encouragingly the results found that 91% of residents and relatives said that they would recommend their RMBI Home to someone else.  This result clearly demonstrates that overall the people living in RMBI Homes and their relatives are very satisfied with the services provided.

Next steps
The satisfaction surveys are an important part of the RMBI’s quality assurance programme.  The results from the surveys have been helpful in capturing the lived experience of people who use RMBI services and that of their relatives. The RMBI will continue to evaluate the results from the satisfaction surveys and will work with the Home Management teams to make sure that were areas of improvement have been identified these are thoroughly addressed and robust improvement plans are developed and implemented

A resident at Cadogan Court, Exeter

Great Charity Works by the St. Cuthbert’s Lodge

The members of St Cuthbert’s Lodge Number 630 have had a busy few months raising money for good causes. In July they undertook a Sponsored walk in Ripon where they raised over £1,300 for the charity Candlelighters, this is a Yorkshire based charity which supports children suffering from Cancer. The 8.5 mile walk started at Ripon Cathedral and took in the sights of Studley Royal Deer Park.

The happy band of walkers at Studley Royal Deer Park with Peter Thompson, Charity Steward of the lodge (wearing the blue baseball cap) – Well done to everyone for their great charitable efforts over the year.

In August they held a very successful Coffee Morning where they raised £430 for Macmillan’s Cancer Support. At the Coffee Morning there was a Cake Stall, Second Hand Book Stall, Bric-a-Brac, Tombola and Raffle as well as a car wash so people could look round the stalls and have a cup of coffee while having their car washed.

Throughout the last few months the members of St Cuthbert's have also been raising money for Macmillan’s by filling empty Smartie tubes with 20 pence pieces, so far they have raised over £120 this way. Along with the money raised by holding raffles at 2 Sunday Lunches, St Cuthbert's has so far raised £900 for Macmillan's.

Festival 2018 Team Announced

The Provincial Grand Master used his opening address at the Province’s Charity Day held at Escrick to announce that  Assistant Provincial Grand Master, David Marsh, would chair the 2018 Festival in support of the Masonic Samaritan Fund.

David then introduced the team that will take the project forward and develop the plan for the Official Launch in 2013, giving brethren a 5 year period to raise funds for the Festival. 

Denis Stubley will be Vice-Chairman, Sam Judah, Treasurer and the key role of Festival Secretary will be carried out by Tony Burke. The committee will additionally consist of Peter Mawer, Jonathan Smith, Jack Sharpe, Geoff Heslehurst and Pat Cambage.

Peace Lodge supports a trip to the Scout Jamboree in Sweden

After her son Jamie  received support from Peace Lodge who meet in Middlesbrough Gillian Rathbone wrote to lodge member Paul Scrimgour:

Hello Paul
Your lodge kindly donated some money towards my son’s trip to Scout Jamboree in Sweden. He returned today completely exhausted and full of stories and the word amazing has been mentioned a lot of times. He actually had two days in Denmark 10 days in Sweden and 5 days on home hospitality in Holland.

I would like to thank you again for your kind donation and I believe Jamie will treasure the memories and hold dear the friendships made for the rest of his life. I have included a couple of pictures that shows Jamie and friends on the camp in Sweden.

He will write to you in the near future and a group get together has been organised for Oct (not entirely sure when) but an invitation to this event should be sent to the lodge as a thank you. Hopefully someone will be able to attend and meet the group and see what they actually achieved during the jamboree.

Thank you again for your kindness.
Gillian Rathbone

Picture shows Jamie at the Jamboree

Presentation of The Freemasons' Grand Charity cheques to Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service

On what started out as a grey and wet day on Monday 18th July, the Provinces of Yorkshire North & East Ridings and Yorkshire West Riding joined forces to visit the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service (YAA) to present the annual cheques from Freemason’s Grand Charity.

The presentation took place at the YAA Operational base at Leeds/Bradford Airport and we were greeted by Bob Smailes, the Fund Raising Manager for YAA who made us very welcome.

Our Province was represented by David Marsh, Assistant Provincial Grand Master and Stan Thompson, Provincial Grand Charity Steward. West Yorkshire was represented by Stuart Cummins, Assistant Provincial Grand Master and Richard Bolton, Provincial Grand Charity Steward.

By the time we arrived in the afternoon, the rain had stopped although it was still grey and windy. We were treated to a very comprehensive and inspirational guided tour by Darren Axe one of the Aircrew Paramedics who described in great detail how the service operated and showed us around the aircraft and the control room. We also saw the BBC suite where television crews are permanently based, filming and editing for the highly successful television series “Helicopter Heroes”.

Two £4000 cheques from Freemasons’ Grand Charity were presented, one by each Province. These formed part of this year’s national grant of £192,000 donated by Freemason’s Grand Charity and distributed through Provinces to every Air Ambulance Service throughout England and Wales. In total, over the last four years, this scheme has provided funding of over half a million pounds to the Air Ambulance Service.

Receiving these cheques on behalf of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service, Bob Smailes said that they were extremely grateful for these donations from the Freemasons from whom they have received tremendous support. He explained that they rely almost entirely on donations from Organisations like the Freemasons and the public and the service is an extremely high cost business running into millions of pounds a year. The Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service operates two helicopters and it costs £7200 every day to provide this service.

It was a very informative and enlightening visit and a quite humbling experience to meet such a dedicated and professional group of people who, day in and day out, often in very difficult circumstances provide an essential service which can literally mean the difference between life and death. Freemasons can be justifiably proud to know that they are helping to enable services such as this to continue their essential work.

CHARITY LOLLIPOP GOES ‘DIGITAL’ THANKS TO MITRE LODGE

Lollipop (York and District) identified a need for a Digital SLR Camera and flash to properly record their events and activities. Mitre Lodge of York No.7321 was pleased to help them with the funding of this equipment and made a donation of £150. A further £350 was raised through a successful Grant Petition submitted to the Provincial Grand Charity allowing the charity to purchase this much needed equipment.

On Saturday the 14th May the Worshipful Master of Mitre Lodge,  Roy Crosbie-Wood accompanied by his Senior Warden, Martin Hemenway and PGC Area Representative. Keith Bell visited a ‘Lollitots’ session (baby and toddler group) at the New Earswick Children’s Centre and presented the donation of £500 to Miss Andrea Gitsham, chairperson  of  the  charity.  A small plaque was also presented to mark the occasion.

Andrea thanked the Freemasons for their donation, on behalf of her charity, saying that there were some 250 children/young people (0-19 years) in the York and District area that the charity currently helps and the camera will be put to good use producing quality photographs for their website and magazine and ultimately help publicise the work they do.

Left to right – Roy, Keith, Andrea holding the new camera, a parent holding the plaque that was presented, with Martin standing behind the mums and dads who were delighted to be included in the photo.

Lollipop brings families of children and young people with any degree of hearing loss together through regular FREE social activities and gatherings in a relaxed and informal environment where they can share their experiences of deafness. They provide activities such as specialist workshops including Art & Craft, Music & Film, sporting activities, seasonal gardening and design projects together with larger social gatherings including regular trips out.

The Freemasons of York donate £39,000 to charity

The Lord Mayor of York, Councillor Susan Galloway and the Lady Mayoress were guests of honour at The  Freemasons of York  ‘Charity Presentation Evening” held  at the Masonic Hall in St. Saviourgate, York on the 6th November.

Nine Lodges presented their donations to sixteen charities with the Lord Mayor being invited to present a donation to ‘Our Celebration’ which is one of the Lord Mayors chosen charities for her year in office.

The other charities/organisations receiving donations on the evening were:

ABF the soldiers Charity
SSAFA
Diabetes UK
York Railway Institute Band
York Against Cancer
Martin House Hospice
Our Celebration
York Joint Scout Trust
Candle lighters
St. Leonards Hospice 
St. Monica’s Hospital
The Wilberforce Trust
Snappy
York Group Riding for the Disabled association
Multiple Sclerosis Soc
British Legion.

A further fifteen charities, not present at the function, received their donations throughout the year.

On the Programme for the evening the following words were written:
‘Freemasons are taught to practice charity and to care, not only for their own but also for the community as a whole, both by charitable giving and by voluntary efforts and works as individuals’

Hull and East Riding  Lodges Charity Night a Great Success

Lodges from the Hull and East Riding area recently hosted representatives from local charities at the Masonic Hall, Beverley Road, Hull.

The event, attended by over one hundred guests including The Lord Mayor of Kingston upon Hull Councillor David Gemmel OBE, The Lord Mayor of Beverley Councillor Mrs Bessie Foot and her consort and the representatives of sixteen local Lodges.
Over twenty local charities received £22913 in addition to the £28459 which had already been donated throughout the year by local freemasons amounting to £51462 to benefit local charity projects.

Assistant Provincial Grand Master, Bill Fisher, welcomed distinguished guests, introduced the event and spoke of both the diversity and extent of masonic charitable works in the Hull and East Riding area and how freemasons and their families not only give financial support but also their time working with many local charities.

Presentations were given on ‘The Work of The Provincial Grand Charity’ by Stan Thompson, Provincial Grand Charity Steward and ‘Teddies for Loving Care’ by Tony Burke, a member of The Provincial Grand Charity Standing Committee.

In closing Bill Fisher thanked members of ‘The Kingston upon Hull Sea Cadets’ for acting as stewards and Roger Johnson, Worshipful Master of The Technical Lodge No 5666 and his team for both sponsoring and hosting what had been both a successful and enjoyable evening.

Lodge and Charity Representatives were invited to participate in a group photograph to mark the occasion in the impressive Lodge Room at Beverley Road where guests were eager to ask many questions and engage Lodge Representatives in discussion about freemasonry in general.

‘The Walter and Millie Rand Suite’
opens at Dales-Care Day Centre in Bedale

In May 2010 the Master of the Beresford-Peirse Lodge No. 2610, Ian Leathley, formally opened the assisted bathing suite at the Dales-Care Day Centre in Bedale, he was accompanied by the lodge’s Charity Steward, Robert Dunning, Ian Leathley and the Chairman of the Prov. Grand Charity, Mike Birch.

The suite incorporates a specialist bath and hoist.  The bath automatically rises to a level to enable the carer to help the bather without bending.  The new facility cost £13,500 funded by a grant from Provincial Grand Charity, the Beresford-Peirse Lodge and the Beresford-Peirse Lodge Benevolent Fund.  The facility will extend the services offered at the Centre.

The Day Care Centre was set up 22 years ago and is used every day by independent older people and the less able.  It provides meals (nearly 10,000 in 2009), social company, group activities and even monthly tea dances!  The intention is that this provides relief from isolation and loneliness and allows its ‘clients’ to remain independent in their own homes.

The suite is to be known as ‘The Walter and Millie Rand Suite’ after W. Bro. Walter Rand PPSGW a keen and active Mason until his death and his wife, Millie, who had been a member of ‘The Friends of Dales-Care’ committee since it formed in 1988 and was Chairperson from 1995 to her death shortly after Walter.  Both were ardent supporters of the charity and its work.

At the opening a plaque was presented to Jonathan Ropner, Chair of the Trustees of Dales-Care.  Mr. Ropner expressed his very grateful thanks to Provincial Grand Charity and the Beresford-Peirse Lodge for their generous support and was delighted, not only was the suite to the known as ‘The Walter and Millie Rand Suite’ but also that there was appropriate acknowledgement given to Provincial Grand Charity and the Beresford-Peirse Lodge.  The plaque will be displayed at the entrance to the suite. 

Jonathon Ropner, Mike Birch and Ian Leathley

Prostate Cancer Awareness Appeal produces £204,000

Provincial Grand Master, Richard John Anderson’s, announcement to the AGM of the Provincial Grand Charity in his capacity as President of the charity.

When I announced at the Annual Meeting last year that I was launching an appeal for Prostate Cancer Research I like most of you – then – knew very little about the subject except what Professor Maitland had said in his talk to us. I also was very keen to have no target because I felt that the words Prostate and Cancer were to many men very private and personal issues but that perhaps over the year one or two or even a few of our members might decide to heed the advice that to do nothing was not an option.

I could never have imagined in my wildest dreams just what a wave, a tidal wave, of interest in this medical condition would be generated. A veritable tsunami has overwhelmed the Province as the key word “awareness” has circulated from North to South and East to West. Our Provincial Charity, with help from Professor Maitland, prepared a power point presentation and teams of presenters were set up under the leadership of Tony Burke and have attended Lodges and Chapters through out the Province and beyond.

There are no holds barred and as a result, I know because I have attended one, an avalanche of questions arise. I believe from comments made to me and letters from so many brethren that hundreds and perhaps even thousand of our members have heeded the advice that to do nothing was not an option and have sought medical advice and in many cases treatment. The awareness presentations will continue for the rest if this year

To show just how widespread is Prostate Cancer you already know that I had it and have got rid of it. Did you know that my Provincial Grand Director of Ceremonies had it and has got rid of it? Did you know that my predecessor John Raylor had it and has just completed his course of Radiotherapy yesterday? There are many more here today who had it and have dealt with it or are dealing with it.

So to the appeal - this to some extent has been overtaken by the awareness initiative.
While I know that freemasons are often generous it has been amazing to learn of the many sources of contributions that have been received.

Professor I have already said that we had £55,000 at 31 December  and we were aware of your wish list amounting to £72,000 so I am delighted to tell you that on 30 April the Treasurer advised me that we had passed that and had £97,000.

In the last 15 days a bit more – well a lot more has come in or is pledged and it is with great delight and pride that I am able to present on behalf of the Freemasons of Yorkshire North and East Ridings a cheque for £124,000

Just before you express your thanks Professor I am pleased to report that the Masonic Samaritan Fund, one of the Central Masonic Charities heard about our project and for the first time ever decided to support for medical research was possible. We submitted a petition with a lot of help form Derek Broderick and were excited to learn that the petition had been approved in the full amount. I will therefore invite the President of the Masonic Samaritan Fund to join us and reveal the amount they are able to add to our appeal.
VWBro Hugh Stubbs said that he was delighted that the Fund had been able to support the appeal that the whole amount of the funding needed under the petition had been approved and he was delighted to hand over a cheque for £80,000 to provide
a total sum of £204,000

Professor Maitland then expressed his thanks on behalf of his research team commenting that in the current financial situation funding for medical research was not a very high priority and difficult to obtain. He was therefore even more amazed at the generosity shown by the massive sum donated to his research project

Master of St Germain “ Doubles Up”

In what has now become an annual event, the ‘Lodge of St. Germain’ charity walk was completed by over fifteen intrepid brethren and their friends in March.
The event was centred on Robin Hood’s Bay and had a bit of a “twist”.
Ten miles was accomplished by the party but the Master, David Bryan determined to outdo his companions by running over two circuits to their one and in the opposite direction!
David achieved this feat with great ease, or so he would like us to believe!
£700 was raised for the lodge’s local charity.

The pictures above shows the refreshment stop at Ravenscar where the support party supplied home made soup and sausage ‘sarnies’.