Newsletter
Spring 2006
From: W Bro Philip Hoy Provincial Information Officer
Bishops Stortford Lodge No 1236 helping the local community
Established in 1994, Saffron Sight is a charity that provides practical help and support to visually impaired people in their area. In their Resource Centre, they have equipment and information, to help visually impaired people maintain their independence.
In their centre they display many items of equipment, from magnifying and writing aids, talking watches and clocks, tactile games, thermometers, DIY tools, to walking sticks and medical aids. They also have household items, such as talking scales, liquid level indicators and a talking microwave oven.
An essential part of their service is the demonstration and training in aids that magnify documents, by displaying documents in varying and adjustable degrees of magnification.
The Resource Centre is operated by staff and volunteers, many of whom are also visually impaired themselves.
Prompted by their Almoner, W Bro Don Hale who has himself made use of the centre some eighteen Months ago, Bishops Stortford Lodge of Mark Master Masons decided to raise money for this very worthwhile charity.
With the encouragement of the Lodge Charity Steward W Bro Maurice Lilley and under the leadership of their Worshipful Master, W Bro John Paternoster, the Lodge raised a total of £700. Part of this sum being given by the Province in a fund matching scheme.
On the 6th December 2005 W Bro John Paternoster had the pleasure of presenting the cheque to Madelaine Cassidy, the Director of the Charity, and Paul Atkins, the Centre Manager, who is himself visually impaired.
Ms Cassidy accepted the cheque with many thanks and described how this money was so essential for their work to carry on.
W.Bro Maurice Lilley said that he hoped this would help to dispel some of the myths about freemasonry and all agreed it would.
The Photo shows W Bro John Paternoster presenting the cheque to
Madelaine Cassidy the Director of the Charity with Paul Atkins,
the Centre Manager and his guide dog in the foreground.
To the
right are W Bros Don and Maurice.
"Farewell" to Andy Golledge and "hello" to Warren Vinecor!
On the 29th January 2006 Andy Golledge and his lovely wife Cecille flew from Heathrow Airport heading to the Philippines where they were starting a new life. Andy had served our Mark Province very well as Provincial Grand Charity Steward for the last two years and had really transformed the charitable works of our Province.
Amongst non-masons, the Mark is probably now the best known degree in Hertfordshire.
Andy was tasked by the PGM to run a number of initiatives from the funding of our second ambulance to the distribution of charity to some of the smaller good causes within the Province. This took him all over the Province and he visited many Lodges to listen to their ideas for where our charity should go. There are many of us who will miss him and we all hope to see him again someday.
On the 27th March the PGM will have the pleasure of investing W Bro Warren Vinecor as Provincial Charity Steward at the meeting of East Herts Lodge of Mark Master Masons.
Coming into provincial masonry comparatively late has always annoyed Warren. His London mother Craft Lodge and Chapter now take up more and more of his time in his committed effort to keep them alive! Whereas finding the Mark degree in
Hertfordshire with its views on charity is, as he says, the delight of his Masonic life!
The Promotion to Charity Steward is the fourth active provincial grand rank he has held in five years and with few exceptions he has visited most Mark Lodges in the
Province over that period. Warren will tell you that being thrown into the deep end as Charity Steward, after the highly regarded Andy Golledge, is a daunting task but is anxious for all to use his services!
Out and about with the PGM
The Provincial Grand Master accompanied by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master and the Provincial Grand Charity Steward have been out and about in the Province presenting cheques to a number of very worthy and locally based Charities.
In keeping with the Provincial initiative to support locally based Charities and good causes with-in the Province our Provincial Grand Master has been visiting a number of Charities and finding out about them and meeting some quite remarkable and dedicated people who give up their time and energies to offer their services to help those less fortunate than ourselves. The first two visits were recorded in the previous Newsletter
The third of these visits was made to the home of a truly remarkable and inspirational woman, Mrs Wendy Gough of St Albans.
Wendy is the local representative of the Everyman Campaign-which is part of the Institute of Cancer Research. The Everyman Campaign was launched by the Institute some 8 years ago as being specifically relevant to Testicular Cancer and other forms of cancer, which effect only males and was the first campaign of its kind to be primarily aimed at the research, treatment and awareness of Testicular Cancer.
Wendy suffered the personal tragedy of loosing her eldest son Mathew, a former pupil of the OV's School in St Albans, at the young age of only 18 years to Testicular Cancer in 1998 and since then she has committed herself to tirelessly campaigning to heighten the awareness of the very real problem of Testicular Cancer and to ensuring that as many lives as possible are saved and parents spared the suffering that she tragically endured. Wendy immediately embarked on her own single handed crusade to visit schools and colleges in and around Hertfordshire to conduct a series of presentations to assembled groups of young male students to make them aware of the existence of this highly virulent form of cancer and the ways that the symptoms can be easily identified and that by carrying out regular personal checks the high probability of an early detection leading to a successful treatment.
Testicular cancer primarily effects young men in their mid to late teens or early twenties and if detected early has a good chance of being successfully treated however if its is not identified early enough — and by that it needs to be in the first few weeks — then sadly the cancer is so aggressive that it quickly can spread to other areas and become a serious threat to life. Wendy over the course of the last seven years has conducted hundreds of presentations and addressed many thousands of young men and in that time there have been a number of occasions when shortly after giving her presentation one of the young men who heard her presentation found a suspect lump and was subsequently diagnosed as having Testicular cancer as was able to receive early and life saving treatment for the condition.
Through Wendy’s dedication, determination and enthusiasm to get the message across to as many young men as possible and simply to get them to have a greater level of awareness and knowledge of the symptoms and methods of self examination she has directly contributed to the saving of many lives and she is committed to continue this remarkable crusade for many years to come. The Everyman Campaign has gone from strength to strength and a network of support Groups has been set up Nationally and leaflets and videos produced to assist in bringing the knowledge forward and getting the message across to those most at risk. We can be proud to have such a remarkable lady in our midst here in Hertfordshire and it was with the greatest of pleasure that our Provincial Grand Master was able to present to Wendy a cheque for £2,000 to help her continue in the tremendous work that she is doing and to assist her in all her efforts to promote the very important message that she conveys to the young men of our Province.
The Photograph shows the PGM and the DPGM with Wendy Gough at her home in St Albans.
Wendy holds the cheque for £2,000 from the Provincial Mark Benevolent Fund.
The visit to St Albans was followed up a couple of weeks later by a trip to the Amwell View School in Stanstead Abbots just outside of Ware. This special needs school, one of only six in the Province, caters for children who come from a wide area of East Herts and are between the ages of two and nineteen and all of whom have severe learning difficulties often as a result of being mentally or physically handicapped. In total, a dedicated and very hard working staff of over 70 teachers and helpers cares for the needs of up to 110 children in classes, which are arranged according to the special needs of each small group of pupils. We were delighted to be invited to attend the morning assembly meeting of the children and staff and the Provincial Grand Master was able to present to Mr Glyn Howdle, the Deputy Head of the school, a cheque for £500 from the Provincial Benevolent Fund to assist the School in the valuable and demanding work that they carry out and to help purchase a few additional items which will benefit the children in their care.
Thanks to the additional funding the school receives by way of charitable donations, the school has recently been able to refurbish its Hydrotherapy pool, which is an invaluable aid to help the development of children who otherwise have very limited ability to exercise or strengthen their limbs. Mr Glyn Howdle on receiving the cheque on behalf of the School said how grateful he was to the Mark Master Masons of Hertfordshire and that the donation would be put to very good use for the benefit of the children.
Five-year Plan
As a number of Mark Masons will already know, the Provincial Grand Master commissioned a document to be written outlining the strategic framework within which the Mark Province of Hertfordshire will develop over a rolling five-year period.
The Provincial Grand Master launched this strategy document and explained its implications to a meeting of Grand Officers within the province at a meeting in November.
He also called a series of three meetings at different centres within the province to explain this strategy to all the brethren in the Mark Province.
It is intended that this document will be updated each year and will provide a foundation upon which the current and successor administrations of the province can build in the future.
This document has been written by the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, W Bro John Oakley-Smith and extends to some thirty-three pages and six appendices including a financial budget and forecast for the full five-year period.
The principal objectives and recommendations contained within this document are as per the Executive Summary of the document as follows:
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Hold a Provincial Conference, entitled “Shaping our Future” explaining this Policy Document
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Reconstitute the existing Development Committee to embrace these recommendations.
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Raise the profile of the Mark Degree in Hertfordshire, greater liaison with Craft Lodges
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Increase our membership in line with the projected growth, for example by encouraging younger brethren to join.
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Increase the number of Mark and Royal Ark Mariner Lodges,
especially Daylight Lodges, ensuring a presence at the Southgate
Masonic Centre.
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Consider the formation (when appropriate) of a Stewards and DCs Lodge
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Ensure we retain our membership, by mentoring, LoIs etc.
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Encourage Lodges to have later starting times, circulating minutes etc and generally streamlining the labours of the Lodge
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Embark upon a dedicated Training and Education programme establishing a Provincial Task Team to assist ailing Lodges
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Improve Communication within the Province
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Ensure a more up market Provincial Social events programme
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Utilize the Office of Provincial Inspector of Works
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Consider the appointment of Provincial ADCs for third year, or after their
two year term officially appoint them for standby ADCs duties
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Items of news should be sent to Philip Hoy at info@hertsmark.org or by fax to 01279 817793.
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