Grand Lodge Trip Arrangements

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