The charity stewards and festival representatives of the Woolton Group of Freemasons met in the Geoffrey Hirst Masonic Suite to receive a presentation on the forthcoming MCF 2021 Festival.
Woolton Group charity and festival representatives listen attentively.
Assistant Provincial Grand Master David Winder, who is Vice President of the Festival accompanied by members of his team, Geoff Saul (festival secretary) and Derek Rooney (regional charity steward) gave a detailed background on the format of the festival. Also present to listen to the talk was Woolton Group APrGM Kevin Poynton, Woolton Group Chairman Andy Whittle, Woolton Group Vice Chairman Mike Cunliffe and Woolton Group Charity and Festival Steward Gary Devlin who has been newly appointed.
Andy Whittle opened the proceedings by welcoming the brethren and introduced the guest speakers. Derek Rooney, with the help of a PowerPoint presentation, then provided important information for the group representatives. He outlined the importance of a festival saying we were the first Province to participate and the Provincial Grand Master Tony Harrison had been delighted to accept the invitation of the newly formed Masonic Charitable Foundation to arrange a festival in support of their work and for our Province to have the privilege of being the first to be invited by them to do so.
Festival jewel proudly being worn.
As part of the training being provided the audience were informed that the Province of West Lancashire has a fine heritage of giving and supporting charitable causes both Masonic and non-Masonic and especially those who find themselves in need. David Winder reminded the brethren that this Province gave £5,300,000 in 2010 and to date has received back in excess of £6,000,000, so we are a net receiver and in the four years that this festival is to run it is important to pledge our support. David continued by saying that in no way was this a hard sell, far from it.
Every brother who pledges support to the festival in the form of a one-off payment or by direct debits over the four years and reaches the patronage amounts will be sent a Festival Jewel. The hope is that everyone will wear their Stewards Jewel with pride.
Training continued by instructing representatives on how direct debits should be completed and how they should be forwarded to the Provincial office together with information on the envelope scheme.
At the end of the training session Derek and David showed the brethren the very attractive Festival Jewel featuring the Province of West Lancashire’s coat of arms. Other merchandise is available from the Provincial shop which is on the Provincial website; http://www.westlancsfreemasons.org.uk/provincial-shop/
All profits will be put into the festival account. Together it shows that we ‘do’ make a difference and we should be proud to wear the Festival Jewel.
Pictured from left to right, are: Mike Cunliffe, Derek Rooney, Kevin Poynton, Andy Whittle, David Winder, Gary Devlin and Geoff Saul.