2024 Event Support
During 2024, the Caeruleum Club provided an amazing level of support for events run by St Michael’s Hospice. This included stewarding car parks and manning checkpoints for various events to ensure that the Hospices fundraising ran smoothly, enabling the Hospice staff and volunteers to focus on the fundraising activities. In total they provided well over two hundred hours of community support at the various events.
Supporting the Digital Fundraising Campaign
In parallel, at the Herefordshire Masonic Charitable Association (HMCA) meeting in May 2024, W Bro David Knowles instigated the ‘Call to Arms’ for a Province-wide initiative to raise money for the Hospice’s forty-hour digital fundraising campaign on 28th October. The Hospice had managed to get match funding and were looking to raise £400,000 to help fund the training and development of their nurses. To accomplish this, they wanted to receive as many pledges as possible before the start of the forty-hour digital campaign on 28th October.
Call to ‘Alms’
Following the May HMCA Meeting, W Bro Tim Bridgland-Taylor, the Provincial Charity Steward, circulated a request to all the Lodge Charity Stewards asking for help in the form of pledges that were to be run through the usual proposition and voting process in Lodge meetings.
Lodges in the Province did not disappoint. They answered the call, and together with donations from Chapters, the Mark Province and support from the HMCA and MCF a total of £30,250 was raised, which would in turn be match funded by St Michael’s corporate sponsors towards their overall target of £400,000.
Follow Up Visit.
On 12th February 2025, the Provincial Grand Master RW Bro Michael Holland, together with W Bro Tim Bridgland-Taylor, visited St Michaels Hospice to see the difference the £30,250 donation was making. They met with Matt Fellows, Chief Executive and Company Secretary, Rachel Jones, Income Generation, Marketing and Comms Director and Tony Larkin, Fund Raiser. They were able to discuss the impact the service provided by the Caeruleum Club and the donation had made. After tea they were provided with a tour of the Hereford facility except for the wards and en-route the Provincial Grand Master pointed out the plaque in memory of RW Bro David Bowen.
The picture below shows ‘L to R’ Rachel Jones, Tim Bridgland-Taylor, Nurse Kelly, Matt Fellows and Michael Holland.
Matt Fellows, Chief Executive and Company Secretary for St Michael’s Hospice summed up his thoughts on the support received from Herefordshire Freemasons:
“The support we receive from Herefordshire’s Freemasons is much more valuable than the total of these funds. Their investment of time and effort at our events and activities in our community enable them to run smoothly and provide for the best possible experience for our wider community of supporters. Further, working so closely with another organisation which is an anchor within our community extends their reach and our own in demonstrating just how critical charities, benevolent organisations, and community actors are to each other and their wider communities.”
“Thank you to all of Herefordshire’s Freemasons however it is they support us; we can only continue to care for you and our community because of your efforts.”
The Head of Freemasonry in Herefordshire, Michael Holland commented:
“We were delighted with the response from our members across Herefordshire, both in terms of their generous donations and the time they provided to assist at events. It does show that the core value of ‘Service’ runs deep across our membership, and we are delighted to be able to assist St Michaels Hospice in supporting our community.”