2015 Festival News

2015 Festival Launch Event

So Bromley’s fine-diners will find no future difficulty in answering the question, posed by a member of the organising committee to everyone across the Province of West Kent:

“Where were you on the 30th of May, 2009?”

In his speech, R.W. Bro Winpenny declared: “I must be the luckiest PGM to have Brethren such as you. You are determined to make this Festival a wonderful success and to have much happiness and enjoyment in the process.  My colleagues and I have decided on £2,250,000 as our preliminary target. I know that, together, we can achieve that figure and will go beyond it.”

He added light-heartedly: “Perhaps we will have a competition to guess the date when that figure will be reached. It is a substantial sum to raise in the next six years.”  The PGM acknowledged that times are hard. He told the Brethren: “We launch this appeal in what is probably the worst economic climate any of us can recall.

“I am acutely aware of the financial pressure faced by almost every member. We are all worse off than we were a year ago. However, tonight and for many years, our focus is not on ‘me’ or ’us’.  It is on our Brethren and dependents, who would rejoice if all they had to concern them was their financial health. The fund gives them assistance where the National Health Service cannot or will not help, and where delay results in hardship and distress.”

Money is already pouring into the Fund, whose President is Very Worshipful Hugh Stubbs, and whose Chief Executive Officer is Richard Douglas.

And another key man, the Provincial Grand Charity Steward, W. Bro.Phil May, has a golden plan for the Fund to celebrate the Olympics in 2012. He explained: “A fold-up MSF coin box was sent to every Lodge member.  The charity team are going to turn the money collected into pound coins, which will be laid end-to-end in an attempt to form a Golden Mile. This event will have to be at some secure sporting facility, because we could be talking about £80,000.  I am also going to get in touch with the Guinness Book of Records to see whether this effort could be recognised as a potential record.”

W. Bro. May went on: “This has to be a no-pressure festival because of the current financial climate. The fact that we don’t intend to issue Lodges and Chapters with individual targets is an attempt at not putting pressure on people.  We have a serious goal, and the Festival is a serious matter. But, at the same time, we ought to enjoy ourselves.”

Each Masonic centre in West Kent organised its own event to launch the Festival:

• Bromley: An “Evening of Elegance” with gourmet dinner, wine and musical entertainment.

• Sevenoaks: “The Good Old Days” – dinner, music, magic, mirth and a “best dressed” competition.

• Welling: “Las Vegas Evening” – “Blues Brothers”, dinner, casino and cabaret.

• Dartford: “Sixties Evening” – live band and buffet.

• Tunbridge Wells: “Let’s Go Racing” – with horses, dogs and humans. Buffet with fine cheese and port.

• Wrotham: “Thames Cruise” – with a buffet and disco.

If Brethren and their friends didn’t fancy the event held at their own centres, they were encouraged to have fun at somebody else’s.  But, however enjoyable the evening turned out to be, nobody forgot the less fortunate people the festival was planned to help. Here are a few Masonic Samaritan Fund case histories:

• The youngest applicant to the Fund is lively, six-month-old Oliver Kett. He has been supplied with a natty, special helmet to make sure the bones in his skull fuse together properly. This will mean he won’t have to have major surgery later in life.

• W. Bro.Joel Keryel rejected the offer of a wheelchair only days after having major heart surgery, when he visited the offices of the MSF on his way to Freemasons’ Hall to receive London Grand Rank.

• The Fund decided to give W. Bro. Nicky Waldren, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, a much-needed wet room at his home. And, during the disruption of the building work, the MSF funded respite care for W. Bro. Nicky, his wife, Maggie, and his care dog, Molly.

• Widow Esther Winsor, aged 85, feared she would lose the sight of her right eye through age-related macular degeneration. So she contacted the Almoner of her late husband’s Lodge, who got in touch with the MSF. The Fund paid for Esther to have a series of vital injections to help combat the condition.

R.W. Bro. Jonathan Winpenny summed up the work of the MSF by asking: “Is there a better cause for us to support?”.

You can read a full transcript of the Provincial Grand Master's speech as a PDF document by clicking here.