PROVINCIAL CHARITIES FOR 2008/9

The 2 Charities chosen by the Provincial Grand Master from the short-list compiled by the Provincial Charity Committee for the Province to support during the Masonic season 2008/9 are:

Lincolnshire & Nottinghamshire Air Ambulance Skill Force

The Air Ambulance needs no introduction, and is already a popular favourite with Lodges and other Masonic groups within the Province. Skill Force is a national charity, with its headquarters in Edwinstowe. Established in 2000, Skill Force utilises the instruction skills of former military personnel to work with 14 – 16 year olds who are under-achieving at school, by placing its instructors in schools to deliver vocational training programmes to pupils who are identified by the school to be at risk of exclusion, have truancy problems, are disruptive, have low self-esteem and who have, in effect, given up on school. The results have been described by the President of the Grand Charity as remarkable in reducing truancy rates and increasing the numbers progressing to employment, further education and training. In a County where such problems are manifest, the PGM believes that this Charity is particularly deserving of our support. Additional information about this Charity can be found in a folder distributed to each Masonic centre, and also on the Charity’s website www.skillforce.org .

He therefore asks all Lodges to continue to subscribe to the Provincial Charity during this year, so that we can make a real and positive difference to the work of these Charities in this County, and so that, in the autumn of 2009 he will once more be able to make a significant donation to each of them.