Vera's Strawberry Tea Party, Sunday 24th June 2012 |
W.Bro. John Venus P.G.St.B. |
This event came about after John’s funeral where a lot of donations were given and dispersed to Leukaemia |
Research and the West Lancs Craft Charities, as Vera knew that John enjoyed his Mark Masonry as much if |
not more than his Craft Masonry she offered to hold the Strawberry Tea to raise funds for the West |
Lancashire Mark Charities Fund. |
The event which was originally planned to be held at Vera’s home and beautiful garden in Poulton-le-Fylde, |
but as the numbers started to grow (because of John’s popularity) and the weather started to look |
decidedly bleak a decision was made to change it to an indoor venue W Bro David Bell approached Marcus |
Hill at Staining Village Hall who was delighted to oblige . |
On the day of the event everyone worked hard to ensure those who attended had a good time, there was |
plenty of good food supplied by various people especially Allan Burton who donated a huge amount of pies |
and cakes and our own Deputy Provincial Grand Master V W Bro Keith Beardmore who donated over 100 |
delicious Meringues, all our family who traveled from the Manchester area to attend have decided they |
want to adopt Allan and Keith so they will be well fed. |
Vera’s Family and friends had helped her with sandwiches and preparing the Strawberries, and W Bro David |
Bell and his Wife Liz also helped. |
Liz and David Bell had bullied people for weeks to get together a fantastic array of prizes for the Tombola |
Stall, and Raffle. |
Vera bought along a lot of books some of which belonged to John and other members of her family, other |
Brethren also donated books, all of which made a brilliant display which people could purchase for any |
reasonable donation towards the funds. |
We also had a beautiful cuddly toy Dog which people were asked to guess the name of at a cost of 50p per |
guess, the winner W Bro Andrew Dickson our new Provincial Grand Senior Warden won it by guessing the |
name Sebastian. |
And of course there was the usual Raffle for which W Bro John Powell had made a wonderful solid oak dish, |
which I thought was the star prize and luckily was won by my Sister in Law. |
The background music for the event was a number of Johns favourite CD’s which Vera had brought along. |
All those who attended which included The Provincial Grand Master Peter Connolly and his Wife Lynne and |
of course our Deputy Provincial Grand Master Keith Beardmore and his Wife June said they had enjoyed it. |
One major disappointment was that Very Worshipful Brother Kevan Beardmore could not attend, he had |
spoken to Vera about the Strawberry Tea at John’s funeral and had offered to play for us but at the last |
minute got a call to go into hospital for some treatment he had been waiting a long time for. |
After the result of the Naming the Dog and the raffle the Provincial Grand Master said a few words and then |
invited Vera on to the stage to speak, Vera thanked everyone for attending and all those who had helped |
her , she also mentioned the Reverend Graham Halsall who was on a sabbatical in Israel but had still sent |
a donation and a nice card for Vera to keep. |
Thanks to the generosity of all those who attended ,it looks like there will be about £500.00p to donated |
to the Mark Charities |
Report by W Bro David Bell P.Prov.G.J.O |
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