On Saturday evening 14th September Freemasons from Staffordshire and further afield, together with wives, partners, relatives and friends gathered at Keele Hall, in the grounds of Keele University, to celebrate the 2024 Grand Charity Festival with a Festival Ball.
The celebrations were led by the Head of Staffordshire Freemasons, Provincial Grand Master, John Lockley, together with the Lord-Lieutenant of Staffordshire, Ian Dudson CBE, the Mayor of Stafford, Councillor Frank James and the Assistant Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, Steven Varley.
Over 300 people attended for the Festival meal held in a large marque and afterwards dancing to the group Fuego in Keele Hall itself.
The £1,803,640 will go to the Masonic Charitable Foundation where it will together with money from Festivals around the country be distributed to charities including many in Staffordshire.
Donations for the Festive commenced in 2016 with a two year break during the Covid pandemic when money collected was donated to help the effort to beat the disease. So, the eight year period to build up substantial funds was reduced to just six years, during which each mason in Staffordshire gave an average of £804 towards the total the fifth highest recorded across the country. This money is in addition to the many local charities supported by the 90 Lodges in Staffordshire throughout the period.
Over the years Staffordshire freemasons have given money at meeting and some by regular donations by direct debits. The Royal Arch and other Masonic Orders also contributed, showing the strength of the relationships with the Craft.
There have also been a number of high profile and extraordinary events to raise money for the Festival. Over the years John Lockley and other senior members of the Craft and Royal Arch in Staffordshire have been zip wiring in the mountains of Wales on the ‘Zip World Velocity 2’, which is the fastest zip line in the world and the longest in Europe at 1555 metres and speeds of over 100 mph can be achieved. Walking over red hot coals at Brewood Cricket Club, South Staffordshire, was another challenge, the coals were over 1,100 Celsius and nearly £8,000 was raised and in the last major fund raiser before the Festival, the Deputy Provincial Grand Master lead a team to cover over 18 miles in less than 7 hours taking on the Staffordshire Moorlands 3 Peaks challenge, raising over £12,000. Many other events raised the fabulous total of £1,803,640.
Thanks to many people for all the hard work over the years, in particular to David Thomas the Festival Chair and Ralph Howarth (Deputy Head of Staffordshire Royal Masons) and his team for organising the finale.
John Lockley said:
‘Today marks the finale of 6 years work by dedicated Freemasons in our Province of Staffordshire. The festival committee have worked tirelessly throughout this time. I wish to thank them all, but time and space won’t allow. I need to thank the Festival Chairman for keeping us all together especially during Covid and to our celebration organiser for this extravaganza. We have had some outstanding moments along the way with mad cap schemes to raise money. More especially I want to thank the masonic family of Staffordshire for their help, support and understanding. Congratulations to you all, this is YOUR festival’.
