The recent May meeting of Lodge Vandeleur No.3586, which meets at Shiremoor Masonic Hall, saw the Lodge continue its support of the Bay Foodbank, with fabulous raffle contributions from both the Lodge members and visiting brethren. In addition the current Master, W.Bro Graeme Butterfield, and his business partner made a further personal commitment to the food bank to contribute £100 of essential items, which he recently delivered. The reason for the slight delay in the second delivery was that his sister, of Artisan In Sugar Craft, had also kindly offered to make a dozen cupcakes as a reward to all the volunteer staff for their hard work and efforts to keep the food bank going.
The Bay Foodbank, located in North Shields, began in 2012 with the fervent hope of helping to meet a short-term need in the local community. Sadly, nearly 10 years on, they have grown massively and are serving greater numbers of people, year on year with the aim of providing food, in an emergency, to individuals, couples and families who find themselves in financial crisis. Find out more about the essential works carried out by the Bay Foodbank at https://www.thebayfoodbank.org.uk/
In addition to the fantastic amount raised for charity on the evening, the Lodge had cause for further celebration when they initiated Matthew Trough into the Lodge. Since that evening Bro. Matthew has now taken his Second Degree ceremony and is fully embracing his Freemasonry. and feels very humbled to be a part of Lodge Vandeleur and their ongoing charitable work.
Northumberland Freemasons welcomes Matthew into Freemasonry and wishes him many happy years in the Craft. Further congratulations must also go to the Lodge as a whole for their continued support to the community.
Many thanks to Chris Ainsley and Graeme Butterfield for the submission of this article.
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