Celebrating 30 Years of Acorns Children's Hospice
Saturday 8th September saw the Five of Nine Club return to Acorns Children’s Hospice, Selly Oak, Birmingham taking Freemasonry into the Community to support them at their summer fayre. This year however is quite a special one for this incredible charity, as they celebrate 30 years of helping children and their families.
Saturday 8th September saw the Five of Nine Club return to Acorns Children’s Hospice, Selly Oak, Birmingham taking Freemasonry into the Community to support them at their summer fayre. This year, however, is quite a special one for this incredible charity, as they celebrate 30 years of helping children and their families.
Our events secretary Bro Dan Norman had rallied the troops and been our contact for this annual fundraising day. We had arranged to assist Acorns with a number of roles to include stewarding and attending the car park. On arrival, our Chairman Bro Carey Burke was quick to get us involved, and within minutes we were building the stalls and attempting to erect a menagerie of gazebos so that the wonderful volunteers at the centre could get set up ready for the arrival of the local community who are always keen to offer their support.
Along with assisting Acorns in the running of the event our membership secretary Bro Warwick Wakefield who runs his own hog roasting business “Ready to Roast” volunteered his services to provide food for the day. Bro Warwick was joined by past club chairman WBro Dan Thomas on the hog roast and as soon as it arrived the air was filled with a mouth-watering aroma so much so it certainly made everyone’s stomachs rumble, to the point an eager queue had formed even before they started serving!
The stall next to the Hog Roast saw the first official outing of the Warwickshire Freemasons “Let’s Talk” team where a number of Warwickshire brethren were on hand to talk openly about Masonry and promote the great work that is done by us all.
We were joined by our Patron RWBro David Macey PGM and his wife Sandra who were quick to sample the food and joined in with the day’s activities. RWBro David was thrilled to see us all helping at Acorns, a charity that he has long supported and selected to be one of his “Famous Five” charities.
The day was a huge success for everyone. The hog roast sold out and 100% of profits were donated to Acorns Hospice, and thanks to a donation from the Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association, who paid for the hog we were able to hand over a cheque for £668. This was gratefully received by Acorns Children’s Hospice.
“We’re extremely thankful not only for the donation but also for the kind assistance that the Five of Nine Club had given throughout the day, you’ve been a tremendous help...”
Our work here, however, was far from done, once the day had ended we stayed behind to help with the breakdown and clean up much to the delight of the Acorns regular volunteers!
We had a fantastic day supporting what can only be described as a one in a million charity that works so hard for children and their families when they need it most. The club is honoured to have been able to help Acorns and delighted to hear that they raised £668 during the day which will go on to help pay for care and support.
We are sure to be back at Acorns in the future and can’t wait to get involved again, if you have a local charity that could benefit from some help from the Five of Nine Club we would be pleased to hear from you, please email club secretary Bro Carl Foster at carl.foster@fiveofnineclub.org.uk with details.
Many Thanks to all the Club members who came along to help on the day and a huge thanks to Bro Warwick Wakefield of “Ready to Roast” and Warwickshire Provincial Grand Lodge for their support.
Reaching out to the Homeless…
In a meeting last year in November the Five of Nine Club’s committee members met to discuss and plan our forthcoming activities. It was unanimously agreed that we all wanted to give back to the most vulnerable and those in need over the festive season. Although we came up with a number of ideas, it was felt that we should pursue an activity that would have a real, practical and immediate effect on those that we sought assist and support.
In a meeting last year in November the Five of Nine Club’s committee members met to discuss and plan our forthcoming activities. It was unanimously agreed that we all wanted to give back to the most vulnerable and those in need over the festive season. Although we came up with a number of ideas, it was felt that we should pursue an activity that would have a real, practical and immediate effect on those that we sought assist and support.
So we decided to build on the great work and success of our last Freemasonry in the Community event at Acorns Children’s Hospice, where Five of Nine members got stuck in, rolled their sleeves up and completely redecorated their function room with friends and family. Our efforts were even captured in the local press, and our Chairman also explored our hands-on commitment to charities in the Winter (2016) edition of Freemasonry Today.
At a time when many are enjoying spending time with their families, and frankly enjoying the excesses of life, who has the least? The homeless. With that in mind the search began, and we managed to locate a small friendly local charity based in the centre of Birmingham called Birmingham Homeless Outreach. Having received the support of our Patron the Right Worshipful Brother David F. Macey PGM and the Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire, our initiative soon turned into a provincial activity. The Five of Nine Club’s appeal for food, clothing, blankets, and any items that brethren could spare spread across the province.
The donation boxes that were left in many of the Masonic Centres were over flowing, from Rugby to Redditch, and Birmingham to Coventry the brethren and their families made us proud. Although there are too many individual lodges that supported us to name them individually, we have to mention Monolithos Lodge No. 8475. The Master and brethren of Monolithos Lodge raised over £150 for our ‘Help Us Help the Homeless’ event, and went on a shopping spree to purchase to specific items to help the homeless through the cold wet winter. In addition, Dan Norman deserves a mention for his colossal achievements in raising support from the Lodge of Development who donated two large boxes of body-warmers, over sixty blankets, and bags and bags of clothes.
Monolithos Lodge No. 8475
Monolithos Lodge No. 8475
hope & jeff robinson
Finally, we also have to mention the efforts of a special young lady, Hope Robinson. The daughter of our brother Jeff from the Lodge of Happiness No. 7952, who not only gave her free time to help on the day, but handmade over 85 bags each packed with essential items to assist the vulnerable individuals we sought to help. From what started as Hope simply giving her Christmas chocolate away, her efforts inspired others to contribute to her efforts and quickly snowballed whereby individuals from the local school, her friends and shops all contributed items. Each draw string bag contained, dog food, gloves, socks, tissues, deodorant, crisps, cereal bars, chocolate bars, tooth paste and a toothbrush, while the ladies bags included feminine items as well.
The lead up to our event was ground breaking, we have never before been aware of any group within Warwickshire Freemasonry that has carried off such a feat and been able to rally such support and generosity from the brethren to support a cause that in most cases had nothing to do with their own lodges charitable aims.
Our event took place on a grey, wet and drizzly Saturday morning, as we all gathered in the cold it soon became clear why our initiative was so important and desperately needed. Homelessness is a growing problem in the UK, and ‘…rough sleeping in Birmingham has hit record levels after rising 53 per cent in one year’. The Five of Nine Club’s organisation and planning was first class, we managed to get over 35 members of the club with their families and friends to join with us at the location, all on time, with many bringing extra donations to hand out on the day.
Unfortunately, the rest of the day didn’t quite go to plan. In short we were let down. We were let down as the charity simply didn’t turn up. We were somewhat disappointed to say the least. However, we were more disappointed by the possibility that so many homeless people may have missed out, and the fact it was beyond our control.
Nevertheless, we were committed to seeing our good work through. We created a distribution point at the side of St. Martins Church in the Bullring, and encouraged a number of homeless people to spread the word across the town centre to those that were sleeping rough - about the clothes, blankets, food and other numerous items that were available to them. And come they did, it was buzzing and it was a hive of activity for a number of hours. Our members along our families and friends were fully involved, distributing many items directly to those we set out to help, everyone interacted well and made a difference to people’s lives with a positive meaningful impact.
We received so many donation from across the province we were able to give a large number of items directly to St. Martins Church, where the vulnerable who sleep rough often visit in their hour of need for support. It doesn’t stop there either. We were also were able to support a tremendous well established charity called ‘Shelter’. We felt more confident that this organisation with its own team of specialist outreach workers would reach the people we sought to serve. The manager and workers at Shelter were extremely delighted to receive such a huge amount of items and donations, which they will be able to distribute and also sell on to raise money for their charitable exercises.
a fully laden van filled to the brim with items donated to the homeless from across the warwickshire province
So regardless that the day didn't go quite to plan we are very positive when we look back at what we have achieved with the support of our members and the brethren from across the province of Warwickshire, it was fantastic. Thank you again to everybody that helped us help the homeless.
By C. Burke
All hands to the... Brush!
On Saturday 16th August, Five of Nine Club members and family attended Acorns Children's Hospice, Birmingham to take part in a volunteer day where we were given the task of redecorating the conference room as part of our first ever Freemasonry in the Community activity.
On Saturday 16th August, Five of Nine Club members and family attended Acorns Children's Hospice, Birmingham to take part in a volunteer day where we were given the task of redecorating the conference room as part of our first ever Freemasonry in the Community activity.
Our crew assembled at 0900 and were given a briefing from staff at the hospice, sporting the clubs t-shirts we quickly set to task, the large conference room which is used not only for meetings but also by Acorns sibling groups and also the Parents & Grandparents groups, was given the full makeover, we decorated from the ceiling to the floor, dismantling the room and then repainting, the #5of9 crew worked well and after a few hours the bacon sandwiches and coffee were greatly welcomed, with the tanks refuelled we put the room back together and with a quick whip round with a vacuum cleaner it looked like new! Such was the enthusiasm of the members we then headed outside and with our remaining time, repainted the fence surrounding the front car park!
The hospice which was established in 1988 provides care for babies, children and young people from 0-18 with life limiting or life threatening conditions and also gives support to their families. In the last year, they have supported over 800 children and more than 1,030 families, including those who are bereaved.
Once the crew finished off their tasks this was met with approval after an inspection by Chris Reed, Care Manager who said, "The clubs efforts today are greatly appreciated, helping the charity through volunteering allows us to better use donations we receive to pay for the care and support we provide".
The club's members had a great time helping out at the Hospice and found the whole experience very rewarding, a tour of the facility was kindly given and this really gave a sense of perspective to what we had done, towards the end of the day and really putting the icing on the cake WBro John Hayward Provincial Grand Charity Steward for Warwickshire joined us to present a cheque on behalf of the Warwickshire Province for a staggering £10,000 which was gratefully received by Debbie Slater, Fundraising Manager of Acorns Hospice, Debbie told us:
'It costs £9.2m each year to run the hospice and 2/3rds of that has to be found from donations, this money will help us in our work and the local communities will benefit greatly, thank you so much for such a kind donation'.
Taking Freemasonry out into the community today through the Five of Nine Club at Acorns Hospice we hope will have a great effect upon the communities that it serves and the members who took part, likewise raise the profile of what we do and help improve people's perception of Freemasonry in general.
By D. Thomas
