PRESTON GUILD MASONS SUPPORT LOCAL CHARITIES
It is a tradition of the Preston Guild Lodge on their Installation Night, which is effectively the birthday of the Lodge to make charitable donations from the Lodge’s Benevolent Fund. This year the Lodge, which comprises of members from all walks of life and a wide age range, decided to support our local volunteer led charities. Covid has had such a dire impact on their fundraising this year.
After reaching out through the media a number of those charities made contact with the Lodge. As a result donations totalling £2100.00 have been made to the following charities.
Barnardos for the Young Carer Project. Young Carers are the ultimate volunteers who support their families when parents are ill or suffer disabilities. The donation is to provide fun activities for these remarkable children to enjoy some childhood.
Preston Community Transport provides a range of volunteer led transport services to help reduce social exclusion in the elderly. They also make their vehicles available to other charities.
The Preston Street Pastors patrol the streets of Preston on Friday and Saturday nights proving support for the homeless and others who may find themselves in difficulty on a night out.
Caritas Care is an independent local volunteer led charity supporting the adoption of children.
Cancer Help Preston aims to support cancer patients, their families and carers through the impact of cancer diagnosis, the effects of the disease and the effects of its treatment. To do so the charity offers a wide range of free services from simple advice and signposting to complementary therapies
Lancashire Cat Rescue volunteers care for abandoned and sick cats and help to rehome them in the Preston area.
The Walmer Bridge Village Hall Association is a volunteer charity organisation maintaining a vital community hub. Their roof needs to be replaced.
In addition to those donations, the Lodge members also provided £350 worth of groceries to the West Lancs Masonic Food Bank Appeal, which has been delivered to the Salvation Army Food Bank in Preston.
It had been hoped to hold an event to present the cheques to representatives of the charities but Covid restrictions intervened as it did with the Installation Night. The Master of the Lodge, Tim Horton said, “ Although we could not have our Installation or Presentation events, we made sure the cheques were sent as soon as possible. Preston Guild Lodge have a proud history of supporting local charities, particularly at this time of year, and we were determined that 2020 would be no different, long may it continue”
The members of Preston Guild Lodge are honoured to support this wide range of local volunteers.