Family Fun Day at Fylde Rugby Club
17th June 2001
Masons raise £325.00 for North West Air Ambulance
South Blackpool and South Fylde Groups joined forces to provide a Bottle Tombola Stall and also to make use of the opportunity to give our Organisation some publicity. The display units used by the Province at Open Days of Masonic Halls were secured from Liverpool. W. Bro Robin Carey "volunteered" to pick up and return the displays. The Masters of 98 in South Fylde seized the opportunity to man the stall and were eager to display their several talents to make the afternoon a success. Although the event was advertised at all the Masonic Halls in the Fylde, support in the form of donations were rather slow in materialising. It was rather fortuitous that on Wednesday before the "Big Day", both the Group Chairmen were at Senatores Lodge Installation and managed to persuade very generous donations from the members present. On the day we had two tables covered with bottles and most of them contained alcoholic beverage.
Saturday 17th June dawned as cloudy and overcast with a threat of rain in the air. This did not deter the enthusiasm of the Past Masters who soon had the stall laid out, but we were all concerned that if it did rain, the display units would be jeopardised, and what was needed was a gazebo. W. Bro Charles Patchett came to the rescue...."I've got one at home" he said, "I'll go for it". He arrived back with a huge kit bag filled with all manner of tubes, fixtures and yards or should that be metres of material, and the inevitable "easy assembly instructions", which looked like they had been printed on Korea. Although he had not had the occasion to erect it previously, he soon hat the bits and pieces in the right places and soon we had one of the best looking stalls on the rugby field.
During the afternoon we had visits from W. Bro Peter Walker and family, W. Bro Steven Reid, the Mayor of Fylde and Michael Jacks, who managed to win on or two bottles. I cannot remember what Peter Walker won but he seemed to be struggling away from the stall with two overflowing plastic bags. The rain kept away but the weather obviously had an effect on the attendance. At the end of the day we managed to make a donation to the North West Air Ambulance of £325.00, and a letter of thanks has been received from them to everyone who made the day a success
Report by W. Bro Bill Eardley