Twenty-three major grants have been approved at the Annual General Meeting of The Freemasons’ Grand Charity. The grants have been awarded to worthwhile projects and causes in the areas of medical research, youth opportunities and vulnerable people.

Following the devastating earthquake which took place in Haiti on Tuesday 12th January 2010, the President of the Freemasons' Grand Charity has approved two emergency grants totalling £30,000.

The 7.3-magnitude quake, Haiti's worst in two centuries, struck at 1653 local time (2153 GMT) on Tuesday. The epicentre was within 10 miles of the centre of the densely-populated capital, where around one million people live, more than 50,000 people are feared dead.

Donation News – January 2010

Recently we have made presentations of Lodge and Chapter donations to Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice, Chase and Tadworth Court.

We are receiving into the Fund donations for a wide variety of Surrey Charities and of course for the Fund itself, and we are very grateful to all the contributing Lodges and Chapters for these donations and listed below are the Charities for whom we are now holding money that Lodges and Chapters in the Province of Surrey have sent so that their donations for their chosen Charities may be combined with others to make the amounts presented to those Charities greater by value and that much more effective when received.

The President of The Freemasons' Grand Charity, Grahame Elliott, has approved an emergency grant of £50,000 to the Red Cross, to support their relief work following the disasters across the Asia Pacific region, which have affected an estimated 3 million people.

Projects supporting people living with disabilities and research into the cause and treatment of illness and disease are amongst the latest beneficiaries of grants to non-Masonic charities. In total, £397,500 will be shared between eleven national charities bringing many positive benefits to the wider community.

Hopefully you will have seen the recent publicity of the Provincial Grand Master launching in April the Teddies for loving Care scheme at East Surrey Hospital. This new Freemasonry in the Community initiative was widely covered by the Surrey Mirror and Surrey Post and featured in the Surrey Mason. Started in Essex in 2001, the scheme is now established in 23 Provinces and has distributed over 100,000 teddy bears to children admitted to hospital.

TLC is very simple, but effective, A & E Departments are supplied with teddy bears, which staff give to children who have been admitted in a distressed state. The children’s family are made aware of their source as each one carries a small tag stating “Donated by Local Freemasons.” In hospitals throughout the country, the teddies have assisted and helped doctors and nurses treat children in the following ways:

• To give to a child in severe distress.
• Comforting a child by giving them a soft toy to cuddle.
• As a reward for bring brave when undergoing painful treatment.
• To demonstrate to the child what the staff are going to do.

At this year's Provincial Grand Meeting the PGM said, “I want to establish the TLC scheme in Surrey and ask that Lodges to make every effort to support this wonderful Masonic initiative.”

To ensure that the Province can continue to run the scheme on a long term basis, we will need to raise a substantial sum of money each year. Therefore we need your help; we have included in this letter 25 TLC teddy bear lapel badges. We would be grateful if these pins could be sold to your members for £2.50 each. For every £2.50 raised, we can purchase two teddy bears. Perhaps your lodge would also give serious consideration to making a donation of say £100 to help get the scheme firmly established in Surrey.

Cheques for label badge sales and Lodge donations should be made payable to ‘Provincial Charity Committee’ and returned in the enclosed envelope.

Support for the scheme has already been forthcoming; one lodge has donated £250 and raised a further £120 at their White Table Open Evening. The Surrey Widows Association has also added their support and assistance.

Thanks for your support

Nearly £2 million is to be dedicated to helping charities delivering opportunities for young people, supporting vulnerable people and researching the cause and treatment of illness and disease. The grants to seventeen national charities were approved by hundreds of Freemasons at a General Meeting of The Freemasons’ Grand Charity held in Bournemouth.