Saturday afternoon saw Gordon Craigs, of Northumberland Freemasons, join the Chair of the Friends of Crofton Fields, John Whittle, and another thirty volunteers, consisting of both adults and children, to celebrate the success of a local community garden project in Blyth.
Earlier this year Northumberland Freemasons, via the Richard Henry Holmes Masonic Benevolent Fund, donated a magnificent £1000 to the Friends of Crofton Field, to help convert the former Crofton Mill Pit Heap and Goose Field in order to improve the woodland and make it a haven for wildlife and flowers.
We are pleased to report that, due to the hard work of the Friends and their supporters, and the generous donation from Northumberland Freemasons, the Friends have been awarded two awards from Blyth in Bloom, in the form of a Silver Gilt in the category of Best Commercial Or Community Group/Project, and from Northumberland in Bloom, a Gold in the category of Conservation Projects.
John Whittle explained “The Friends of Crofton Field are pleased to send their greetings and sincere thanks to the Freemasons of Northumberland for your generous donation of £1,000, which made it possible for our ‘Love Northumberland’ Community Garden project in Blyth’s Dune Walk Car Park NE24 3EZ to go ahead. Over 100 adults and children (including a local primary school, nursery, uniformed organisations, learning disabled adults, families and individuals) took part in cultivating 12 small plots from bare soil between March and August 2022 and grew a colourful profusion of wildlife friendly flowers from seed. The plots were widely praised by the local community and were of such a high standard that they were recently awarded a ‘Silver Gilt’ certificate by the ‘Blyth in Bloom’ judges and a ‘Gold Award’ for Conservation by the judges from ‘Northumbria in Bloom’.
We hope that you feel your donation has been put to good use, as it has not only helped our community to come together but it has given a colourful and beneficial uplift to a neglected patch of ground. Thank you again for enabling our project to go ahead.”
Many thanks to W.Bro Gordon Craigs for the submission of this article.
The Benevolent Fund donates around £160,000 annually to local charities and good causes, including food banks, to boost worthwhile and deserving projects throughout Northumberland, Newcastle and North Tyneside.
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