2019 Festival Appeal Gala Dinner

31 July, 2019

Over 500 Hertfordshire Freemasons and the wives and partners celebrate the successful completion of the 2019 Festival

The end of 2019 Festival Appeal Gala Dinner, held at Guildhall London on Saturday, 6 July has been hailed a huge success.

It was hosted by the Provincial Grand Master and his wife Barbara and attended by over 500 Hertfordshire Freemasons, their wives and partners.

The Guest of Honour was the Pro Grand Master, Peter Geoffrey Lowndes and other VIPs included the Chief Executive of the Masonic Charitable Foundation, Les Hutchinson and his wife, and the Past President of the Royal Masonic Trust for Girls and Boys, Mike Woodcock and his wife.

During the meal, to background musical accompaniment from Saxophonics, a continuous visual display showed all the Lodge Banners of the Province and the Honorific achievements awarded to each Lodge during the Festival Appeal.

By the Festival’s conclusion, 21 Lodges had achieved the highest honorific, the Platinum Award; representing a contribution of 175% or more of their target. In addition to this, 76 Lodges were awarded Grand Patron status, 28 Lodges were awarded Patron status and 17 Lodges achieved Vice Patron status.

Deputy Provincial Grand Master, Dick Knifton proposed a toast to the Masonic Charitable Foundation and Les Hutchinson responded; announcing with great delight the fantastic total of £3,632,368 raised by the Brethren of Hertfordshire.

He also acknowledged the enormous amount of hard work put in by our Provincial Grand Charity Steward, Chris Noble and his team.

Mike Woodcock and the Pro Grand Master also made very complimentary remarks about the achievement of our Province in their responses.

For a full report and plenty of pictures see the upcoming edition of Provincial News.