Festival News October - December 2009

NOV / Dec 2009

THE LAUNCH BANQUET FOR THE RMBI 2015 FESTIVAL - 28 November 2009

.... or Life is a banquet!

Masonic life in East Lancashire is a banquet of experiences, developing relationships, learning, sharing, caring and dining - and the banquet that we enjoyed together to celebrate the launch of the RMBI 2015 FESTIVAL higlighted each of those items superbly. Even before the evening had begun the President of the East Lancashire RMBI 2015 Festival Appeal Committee, RWBro Jack Price, Provincial Grand Master, met for pre-dinner cocktails with the visiting delegation from the RMBI at London, each of whom were warmly welcomed (below).

L to R: Peter Williams (RMBI - Head of External Affairs) with Mrs Joan Williams
David Thompson (Appeal Committee Chairman) with Mrs Lesley Thompson
David Innes (RMBI Chief Executive) with Mrs Annemarie Innes
Jack Price (Provincial Grand Master) with Mrs Dorothy Price
Chris Caine (RMBI Chairman of the Board of Trustees) with Mrs Sally Ann Caine

Jack and Dorothy also took the time to greet the various members of the Appeal Committee and those involved with organising the Festival Banquet.

Dorothy Price with Brian Durkin (Banquets Organiser), Terry Kakoullis (Fund Raising),
David Rothwell (Secretary) and Phillip Atkinson (Marketing and Design)

As guests arrived for the Banquet they were greeted in the entrance hall by Provincial Stewards (below) who
directed them to their reception area for pre-dinner drinks and then to their banqueting Hall.

The Main Hall and Museum / Library rooms filled with reception guests while our visitors from the RMBI and Provincial Leaders circulated and greeted the attendees. Almost 300 brethren and Ladies enjoyed the evening including Masters and Principals from many East Lancashire Lodges and Chapters and many other brethren and their Ladies.

Guests pre-dinner socialising in the Main Hall

The Derby Suite (below) and Goulburn Suite (above) were nearly full to capacity. Brian Durkin and his team has excelled in organisation - the tables had tremendous central displays of live fish in bowls or ornate flowers. The menu cards were decorated with the new Provincial pattern and the guests dined on Pâté, Spinach & Potato Soup, Sorbet, Breast of Roast Duckling or Sea Bass, accompanied by Market Fresh Vegetables & Parmentier Potatoes, Chocolate Tart with Raspberry & Ginger Coulis, Cheese & Biscuits and Coffee.

During the evening a raffle was held on each floor (with identical prizes including wide screen televisions and gallon bottles of whisky) which raised almost £2500 for the Festival. The complexities of communication for the speeches and announcements were overcome with a little help from John Hesketh and his team who projected / televised the proceedings from a central control room (see below).

After the Loyal Toast Jack Price greeted the attendees stating that Masonry in East Lancashire has a great reputation for Charity and the support of its beneficiaries. He thanked everyone for being here and for the time, money and energy everyone had put in to making the evening such a wonderful success. He then went on to introduce David Innes, the Chief Executive of the RMBI ( (pictured with Jack above) and thanked him, and his wife Annemarie, for taking the time and trouble to be with us to share the evening.

David Innes said they had all received a very warm welcome and felt proud and privileged to be here with us in East Lancashire at the start of our Festival. The President of the RMBI, Willie Shackell, CBE, had asked that his very best wishes for the evening be conveyed. Tonight David was to explain a little about the RMBI and why it is important, both Nationally and in East Lancashire, as a Care Organisation:

The RMBI is fundamentally a care home charity. It was founded in 1842 and its first Home was called the "Asylum for Worthy, Aged and Decayed Freemasons". (He noted that there were many worthy Freemasons present this evening but only one or two who looked like they were starting to decay). Today the RMBI has 17 Care homes each with somewhere between 40 and 90 beds. They offer Residential, Nursing and Dementia Care and the residents are 30% male / 70% female. The average age of the residents is just short of 90 and the oldest is currently a lady in Berkshire who is 108 years old. Sadly about 1/3 of the residents die each year and increasingly, with the aging population, some elements of hospice care are given which gives additional emotional challenge to the staff.

The annual turnover of the RMBI is in the region of £36M. Nationally today more than 1M people are over 85 years old (in fact for the first time there are more over-65s than under-18s) and there is a shortage of 75,000 dementia beds nationally which equates, by RMBI standards, to more than 1500 Care Homes (average 50 beds per home). Today there are 4 people in work for every retired person and it has been calculated that this will decrease to 2 by the year 2050!

The public sector debt is set to rise by 200 Billion Pounds to 800 Billion Pounds this year and the pressure on Government Departments for savings will mean that elderly care will put more pressure on the private and charity sectors.

The RMBI currently looks after 20 East Lancashire residents in 4 of its Care Homes, 10 of which are directly supported by the RMBI to the tune of £400K over the 5 years of the Festival. In recent years the RMBI has invested £2M in Eccleshome (David here took time to thank the Association of Friends of Ecclesholme for the excellent work that they do) and a further £5M is earmarked for the other 3 homes which care for East Lancashire residents.

David then spoke of a Lady who had recently been on holiday visiting family in Cyprus and who on return spoke of desire of returning to her RMBI home (she had been homesick such was the esteem with which she held her home)!

Charity income to the RMBI is approximately 1/3 from donations (especially Festivals) and 2/3 investments and legacies. The former funds are predictable and consistent, the latter less predictable. £4.5M is the amount by which the RMBI funded residents with charity income during the last 12 months.

David Innes finished by hoping that our Festival would be full of fun and enjoyed by everyone. He added that this is a joint venture between the RMBI and the Province and that if the RMBI could do anything to help then to let them know.

Jack and Dorothy Price	Harold and Phyllis Woodward
David and Lesley Thompson	Jack with members of the RMBI and the Committee
Jack with members of the RMBI and the Committee	Jack Price with David Innes

Jack and Dorothy Price with David Innes

So the launch of the Festival was celebrated in great style with this excellently planned and superbly supported Inaugural Banquet which will be remembered for many years to come. It has ensured that the Festival is now well and truly launched and so together Brethren and Ladies, side-by-side, we can look forward, with eager anticipation, to making the Festival a great success.

Ecclesholme Christmas Fair 22 Nov 09 - CLICK HERE

Launch of the RMBI 2015 Festival - 19 November 2009

The RMBI 2015 Festival was officially launched at the Annual Meeting of Provincial Grand Lodge on 19 November 2009.

The Photograph (right) shows the President of the RMBI, Brigadier Willie Shackell, with Provincial Grand Master Jack Price at the Festive Board following Provincial Grand Lodge.

During his address at Provincial Grand Lodge the Provincial Grand Master introduced VWBro Brig Willie Shackell, CBE, President of the RMBI, to the brethren for the benefit of his wisdom and advice. He said:

"I am delighted to see our President of the 2015 Festival for the RMBI looking so fit and well and clearly leaading East Lancashire into this Festival. It is a time when the greatest of fun can be had and I am sure you can generate many ideas for fundraising. One Province recently had the PGM raising £30,000 by parachuting from a plane, but then he was an ex soldier; I am not sure what you would do with an ex Prison Governor - perhaps a week in solitary with cheese and bread.

More seriously we rely greatly on income from Festivals. Over 400 brethren and dependants currently benefit from the generosity of Freemasons to the tune of some £4.5 Million. It is your Festival that will be contributing towards that. If you want to know how your money will be spent then take your lady to one of our homes. There are plenty near here - Queen Elizabeth Court in Llandudno, Ecclesholme near Manchester, the Tithebarn in Liverpool, Connaught Court in York and Scarbrough Court in Northumberland. You will be made welcome and will undoubtedly leave with a great feeling of pride.

Thank you for your welcome today Brethren and enjoy the challenge of the next 5 years".

The Provincial Grand Master finished by saying, "This is our new tie brethren - it's different, it's East Lancashire's and it's ours. I will be grateful if you will purchase a tie and handerchief and wear them with pride, both masonically within East Lancashire and outside in you public life if you choose. The income from the sale of ties etc pays for the mechanism and running of the Festival. This is our new jewel brethren and those that have one can now wear is with pride. This jewel is not worthy of any derisory comments - it is heavy, beautiful and well made. We have received 50 this morning and the rest will be coming soon".

"I now formally announce the RMBI 2015 Festival open and commenced for business. Brethren, I rely on you and thank you all very much indeed".

There was then a collection for the RMBI 2015 Festival using Gift Aid envelopes - the total donated was almost £6000 - well over £7000 with tax reclaim!

The day of course was associated with the launch of the RMBI 2015 Festival. Below we see:
WBro Chris Caine, PSGD - Chairman of the Trustees of the RMBI
WBro David Thompson, PJGD - Chairman of the East Lancashire RMBI 2015 Festival Appeal Committee
WBro Peter D Williams, JGD - Head of External Affairs, RMBI
VWBro Brig Willie Shackell, CBE, President of the RMBI
RWBro Jack Price, Provincial Grand Master, East Lancashire

Ecclesholme Christmas Fair 22 November 2009

WBro Stephen Martin Blank was delighted and honoured to have been asked to open the Ecclesholme  2009 Christmas Fair.

He was also pleased about the timing as we have just launched the RMBI 2015 Festival in East Lancashire. Stephen proudly displayed the Festival Tie and Jewel explaining how they have been specially made for the Festival. 

Stephen was introduced during the Fair’s opening ceremony (which included an excellent display by the Northenden Pipe Band - left) and said:

“Since I was appointed APGM for the Area of Ashton, Mossley and Audenshaw last year, I have become aware of the connection that brethren from my Area and indeed the Province of East Lancashire feel for the RMBI’s Ecclesholme Care Home. This despite the fact that it is in West Lancashire. That shows amongst other things that although there is friendly rivalry between East and West, Masonic brotherhood trumps it and we work together when we need to. So I am pleased to see my colleague from West Lancs, WBro John Clipsham, APGM for the Eccles and South Eastern Groups here today.

We have taken great care to be able to hit the Festival launch running so I have already been briefed twice on the RMBI, its 17 Care Homes and its 160 years of service. I’ve attended two more briefings in my Area and I also have a manual! So I feel full of knowledge but there is no substitute for seeing an RMBI home like Ecclesholme in action, under the supervision of its new Home Manager, Bev Niland. I am also aware that many people have lived and breathed RMBI and Ecclesholme long before I came on the scene, through their support for the Association of Friends.

The Association is made up of Brethren from West Lancashire Groups and East Lancashire Districts, assisted of course by their Ladies. It provides extra funding for the benefit of the residents and also provides in house entertainment and vehicles for transporting the residents on trips out and for medical visits to hospital and so on. The Committee deserves special thanks and in particular its Chairman, WBro Michael Gouldsbrough, from the Warrington Group. I would also like to congratulate WBro Don Roberts, a long time member and East Lancashire Representative on the Association of Friends, who has been nominated to sit on the Council of the RMBI.

I have been asked and am particularly pleased to thank the Widnes Group of Lodges and Chapters – and all the Groups / Districts who are involved with the Asssociation of Friends – for making the recent Gala Dinner Event such a huge success, contributing I believe £740 to the Amenities Fund. Next year the Gala Dinner is to be hosted on 30th October by my Audenshaw District in East Lancashire.

As Freemasons we aim to support each other,  as well as providing help to the Community. The RMBI and its care homes are a major part of our support for Freemasons and their dependants. We delegate that care to professionals who run the RMBI for us and to people like Bev Niland and her team. So we hope and expect that the home is run well. I am delighted to day that Bev has followed the very high standards set by her predecessor Julie Deakin and that the home has achieved its 3rd presentation of a “Gold Award” from the local authorities for the quality of its catering”.

With that and without further ado Stephen declared the Ecclesholme Christmas Fair for 2009 – open!