Ride My Bike in Brighton 2008

Each year, as part of the Royal Masonic Benevolent Institution (RMBI) Middlesex Festival, Paul Sully organises a London-to-Brighton sponsored cycle ride on Saturday, 28 June. This event started three years ago and has proved so successful and popular that it has continued since. This year is set to be bigger than ever, with 50 cyclists already signed up.
     Starting at Clapham Common in south London at 7am, the participants cycle the 52 miles to Brighton Pier, and then along the seafront to the RMBI Home at Barford Court. There will be staging points with refreshments and where bikes can be passed on to team mates.
     Riders can enter as an individual or as a team relay, and children are most welcome. If you don’t think you’d like to cycle the whole way, you can enter the mini-ride from Brighton Pier to Barford Court which is 2.3 miles and along a cycle path. Everyone who takes part will receive a medal and a certificate, and all funds raised will be credited against your Lodge or Chapter honorific.
     The camaraderie this event has created over the past few years has been wonderful, and all who have taken part have enjoyed the experience. Whether it is as a rider, acting as a marshal, or just sponsoring a participant, we need your support.
     How you can help?
     First, we need riders. The more riders, the more fun, the more sponsorship, and the more money raised for the RMBI. We also need help with things such as manning checks points and motorcycle escorts on the day. Lastly, and if you are unable to attend, we need people to sponsor the riders.
     If you are interested in helping in any way please contact Paul Sully by email psully@blueyonder.co.uk, phone 020 8429 0670 or visit the Middlesex website www.middlesexfreemasons.org.uk.

Holiday Home for RMBI Residents

Harry Priestley House is an RMBI Home located at Thorne, near Doncaster, which offers accommodation and residential care for up to 12 people with learning disabilities. The Home promotes independent living and has a training flat to support residents in developing skills for semi-independent living.
     Four residents from Harry Priestley House recently went on a week’s holiday to Llandudno, North Wales. The residents were supported by staff from the Home.
     Home Manager Mark Lowis said: ‘We are extending the boundaries this year and a holiday has been booked to Spain in 2008 for some of the residents, as well as more conventional holidays to Cornwall and Norfolk.’

RMBI CONTACT DETAILS

60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ
T 020 7596 2400
F 020 7404 0724
Email: enquiries@rmbi.org.uk
www.rmbi.org.uk

Record Support from Samaritan Fund

In the last year the Masonic Samaritan Fund has provided more support to more applicants in need of medical care and support than in any previous year since it was established in 1990. Two of the recent cases highlight the continuing impact of the Fund on the lives of individual Freemasons and their dependants.

Standing Tall

Thank you for making my life pain free at long last.
     Lin Thomas from Dorset throws away her walking stick having benefitted from spinal surgery paid for by the Fund. After years of pain in her lower back she had two X-Stop devices fitted to relieve the pressure on her facet joints.
     Faced with at least a five-month wait for treatment via the NHS an approach was made to the MSF towards the end of June. Lin underwent surgery in mid- August with the full treatment paid for by the Fund.
     She is now standing tall, walking without a stick and amazing friends and family who cannot believe how different she looks.

Wife's Life and Sanity Saved

A year after surgery to remove her right breast, the wife of a Freemason was told that two further tumours were present in her left breast. Her consultant recommended surgery followed by further chemotherapy.
     The seriousness of the diagnosis, coupled with the previous medical history, brought a sympathetic and swift response from the MSF. Within nine days of receiving the final biopsy results, the lady concerned was admitted to hospital for surgery.
     A recent follow-up appointment confirmed that the tumours had been removed and CT and bone scans were all clear. In writing to the Fund, her husband said: ‘Not only have you been instrumental in saving a life you have also saved our sanity.’
     Both of these applicants, and many others like them, were able to receive support because they knew about the Masonic Samaritan Fund. Many others are still failing to benefit because they do not know or understand what support is available and how to apply for a grant.
     The Masonic Samaritan Fund helps those who have an identified medical need, are waiting for treatment on the NHS and are unable to afford their own private treatment.
     Support is available to Freemasons, their wives, partners, widows and dependants. Funding is available for a wide variety of medical needs including surgery, drug treatment for cancer and degenerative diseases, digital hearing aids and respite care – this is short-term care, which can give people caring for someone full-time a well-earned break.
     The Fund needs help to spread the word to all potential applicants. John Williams, Development Director at the Fund, is tasked to ensure that as many people as possible are made aware of all that the MSF can offer.
     If you would like his help to spread the word, or any other information about the Masonic Samaritan Fund, please get in touch.

MSF CONTACT DETAILS

60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ
Tel: 020 7404 1550
Fax: 020 7404 1544 Email: mail@msfund.org.uk
www.nmsf.org.uk
John Williams: 07931 533648

The Freemasons' Grand Charity

Open Letter from the President

The Freemasons’ Grand Charity Annual Review is being distributed with this issue of Freemasonry Today. Do have a look at it – it makes an impressive read. I would also urge you to look at our Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 November 2007, which has been sent to your Lodge Secretary and is also available on our website www.grandcharity.org/pages/annual_report.html
     Much has happened with the four Central Charities this year to put into place, as far as is now possible and thought desirable in today’s circumstances, the 60 recommendations of the Bagnall Report.
     One of the major proposals of the Report was that ‘every Freemason should have some voice, however small and indirect, in the control of what he would regard in a very real sense as his Charities; to preserve and encourage the idealism and enthusiasm which inspire Masonic Charity……so exercised as to justify the satisfaction of the Craft and the admiration of the outside world.’
     In fulfilling this aim, The Freemasons’ Grand Charity made grants totalling £5.7m during 2007, an increase of more than 20 percent on the previous year. Of the grants, £2.7m was for Masonic Relief and £3m was for non-Masonic charities.
     The details of all these grants are set out in the Annual Review, which is also available on the website at www.grandcharity.org/pages/annual_review.html
     Some 350 charities received non-Masonic grants, ranging from £500 to £170,000. Non-Masonic grants fall within five main areas:

     • Medical research
     • Care for vulnerable people of all ages
     • Opportunities for young people
     • Support for hospices
     • Disaster relief

Specific grants in 2007 included £600,000 to 220 hospices, £190,000 to Air Ambulance charities and £50,000 under a successful pilot scheme to match grants made by local and Provincial Lodges themselves.
     Emergency grants in 2007 totalled £236,500 of which nearly half was given to support disaster relief in the UK. These UK grants included £86,500 to help unfortunate communities who suffered greatly following the summer floods and a small grant for families of the firefighters killed in a warehouse blaze in Warwickshire.
     On a separate note, the Relief Chest Scheme continues to expand with 35,000 transactions a month now achieved, involving donations from individual Masons, via Masonic organisations.
     All of us at The Freemasons’ Grand Charity look forward enthusiastically to continuing to provide the services which the Craft and our beneficiaries are entitled to expect. Please do your part by telling your Masonic and non-Masonic friends about your Charity’s work.

Grahame N. Elliott
President

GENERAL MEETING OF THE FREEMASONS’ GRAND CHARITY

With the support of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hertfordshire

Thursday, 5 June 2008
6.00pm-8.00pm
Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London, WC2B 5AZ

Refreshments will be served
You are invited to join us at Freemasons’ Hall on 5 June 2008 to learn more about the work of The Freemasons’ Grand Charity.
The meeting is open to anyone who wishes to attend including Freemasons, guests and members of the public. For further information call 020 7395 9261.

CONTACT DETAILS

60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ
Tel: 020 7395 9261
Fax: 020 7395 9295
info@the-grand-charity.org
www.grandcharity.org

All Change at the RMTGB

On 25 March 2008 it was 220 years to the day since HRH the Duchess of Cumberland and Chevalier Bartholomew Ruspini opened the doors of the Royal Cumberland Free Mason School for Little Children and so laid the foundations of what would become the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys.
     Over the past two centuries the support the Trust has provided to families in need has changed constantly, evolving to meet the challenges society has posed to different generations of children. Throughout this time, however, its principal objective, the relief of poverty, has remained constant.
     The Trust started life as a provider of boarding education. Following the closure of the Royal Masonic School for Boys and the transfer of the Royal Masonic School for Girls to the private sector, the Trust's focus has changed to supporting children and their families within the child's current educational environment. Contrary to popular belief, currently only around 20% of beneficiaries attend fee-paying schools.
     The Trust also recognises the impact that poverty experienced in childhood can bring in creating life-long disadvantage. It is now a much more proactive organisation and targets its support to combat that poverty in a variety of ways.
     As well as a termly Maintenance Allowance paid three times a year, additional help is provided with the cost of school trips, school uniforms or perhaps a small summer holiday grant for those families with the lowest incomes. By supporting families in these and other ways, the Trust aims to provide an education for life for all of its beneficiaries.
     Despite the existence of the welfare state, the Government has acknowledged the problem of child poverty and has pledged to halve the numbers by 2010 and to eliminate child poverty entirely by 2020. In the meantime, with 3.8 million children currently living in poverty, the Trust's Mission Statement is as relevant and important today as when the Trust first began in 1788.
     In 2008 the Trust continues to evolve. The first major event of the New Year was the appointment of Les Hutchinson as Chief Executive. He joined the Trust as a management trainee in 1988, where initially he gained experience within each of the departments that make up the Trust. This included a period seconded to the Royal Masonic School for Girls at Rickmansworth. At the same time he continued his formal education on a part-time basis attaining a BA(Hons) in Business Studies and an MBA. More recently, he was employed as Secretary to the Council.
     His appointment as Chief Executive provided an opportunity to restructure the senior management team and this included the appointment of Gareth Everett as Petitions and Grants Director.
     The team also comprises David Thompson as Finance Director and Douglas Neill as Properties Director, both of whom continue to support the Trust in a part-time capacity. The new management structure will enable the Trust to respond efficiently and effectively in meeting the ever-changing needs of the children of Freemasons in distressed circumstances.
     At the end of January, the Trust relocated to new accomodation at Freemasons’ Hall, leaving the office at 31 Great Queen Street which had been its home for over 80 years.
     As the other central Masonic Charities are now housed in the same accomodation, this move represents a significant milestone and already the benefits of closer co-operation with the other Masonic charities and with the United Grand Lodge of England are being realised.
     Most importantly, the move is enabling the Trust to embark upon an extensive refurbishment both of its former home at 31 and its building at 26 Great Queen Street, which was previously occupied by the Masonic Samaritan Fund. It will also explore ways of expanding the student accommodation facilities currently focussed within Parker Street. Letting the refurbished offices should provide much needed income to reduce the annual operating deficit and enable the Trust to maintain the current level of support for its core, Masonic, beneficiaries.
     Finally, in April 2008, Andrew Stebbings will retire after 13 years with the Trust, the last eight as its President. He has led the Trust through many challenges and was instrumental in bringing about the closer cooperation between the charities.
     The Trust is grateful to Andrew Stebbings for his support, guidance and hard work and wishes him all the very best for the future. He leaves the Trust well placed to continue its work in providing lifechanging support for as many as 1,800 children and young adults each year.

RMTGB CONTACT DETAILS

60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ
Tel: 020 7405 2644
Fax: 020 7831 4094
Email: info@rmtgb.org
www.rmtgb.org