Freemasons’ Charity donations result in action in the community
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Funds pumped into UGLE Provinces by the Freemasons charity the MCF continue to have a positive impact on those suffering the most during the Covid restrictions.
Groups of Provinces throughout the UK have been allocated £100,000 each to distribute in their own areas. Lincolnshire is in Group 6, and its work is being led by own PGM Dave Wheeler.
In Lincolnshire donations amount to £18,500, and have been made to:
Visor production: £2,000. This has supported production of visors for use in the NHS and care homes. The work has especially benefitted the RMBI.
Meals provision: (Sleaford and Louth) £4,000. The money has been shared between meals on wheels initiatives in Sleaford and Louth. The Louth work is ongoing, and supplying meals to vulnerable people in south Alford, Spilsby, Skegness, and Horncastle.
Don’t Lose Hope: £2,000. Centred in Bourne in the south of the Province Don’t Lose Hope supports people in an area suffering from poor internet connections by offering a mobile shop, prescription collection, and the contact they would have normally enjoyed in the charity’s cafe and counselling facility, which was closed by the lockdown, thereby robbing the organisation of its income stream.
Scrubs provision for NHS: £5,000. Freemasons have worked with groups of volunteer seamstresses to buy fabric and produce hundreds of sets of scrubs for use by front line NHS workers.
Friendship at Home: £500. This Cleethorpes-based charity connects with lonely and vulnerable elderly people, and increasingly supports those suffering from Alzheimers. Normal daytime meetings were suspended by Covid restrictions, forcing the charity to find other ways to keep in touch with its clients.
Care packs for Domestic Abuse victims: £5,000. Levels of unseen domestic abuse rose during lockdown, and we have stepped in to work with a refuge to supply care packs of simple comforts to those who are being helped.
The Provinces with which Lincolnshire is grouped, and their funding allocations, are as follows: Bedfordshire (£13,500); Derbyshire (£16,000); Leicestershire & Rutland (£17,300); Northamptonshire & Huntingdonshire (£19,400); and Nottinghamshire (£15,300).
Dave Wheeler said: “Through these donations throughout the region the Freemasons’ Charity the MCF continues to improve the quality of life for thousands of people by providing the funds to support and sustain the work of dedicated volunteers – many of whom are Freemasons themselves. I have no doubt that the challenge of providing support will continue to be met, because the need for it will sadly not disappear.”
