Surprise £1,000 donation will help charity promote its services

A donation of £1,000 given to Horncastle-based charity Shine Lincolnshire by Freemasons from Lincoln came as a shock – because the charity was expecting only half that amount.

The £500 expected by Lucy Goodchild, Shine’s Communications and Engagement Manager, has come from Lincolnshire Freemasons’ New Provincial Benevolent Fund, which gives £500 to each of Lincolnshire’s 76 Lodges to pass to a good cause of their choice. The surprise £500 was match funded from the Freemasons charity the MCF.

The donation was made at Witham Lodge’s annual installation meeting, and will be used to support the development of their new community premises in Horncastle and their quarterly  information and guidance magazine which raises awareness of the charity and the services available in Lincolnshire.

Witham Lodge charity steward Roger Hansard said: “Lucy spoke very eloquently about the Shine Lincolnshire, its aims, and the outcomes it achieves.  The quarterly magazine our donation will make possible will raise awareness of the services and help available, taking those positive results to more people.

“Lucy gave the lodge members much to think about, as did Paul Ellis, who takes over as our Provincial Charity Steward in May, and spoke about Freemasons’ charities generally. The whole made me feel extremely proud and honoured to be a Freemason.”

Shine Lincolnshire is based in the Bull Ring in Horncastle, from where it works to promote mental health and wellbeing. Created from a 2011 collaboration of Lincolnshire’s mental health organisations, Shine has continued to grow rapidly, broadening its cover to help adults and children, reacting to unprecedented circumstances such as the presentation of Long Covid and the cost of living crisis, whilst maintaining its grounding in the benefits of community-based support.

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