Eccles Charitable Trust, a charity formed by the lodges and chapters that meet at Eccles Masonic Hall, in part to manage the hall’s engagement with Freemasonry in the Community, held a Charity Dinner which successfully raised over £2,500 for the local charity Loaves and Fishes.
The evening was a meal and charity auction, selling among other things a signed Coronation Street filming script, a signed Manchester City Shirt (Haaland, Grealish and Alvarez), a signed commemoration poster of Henry Cooper putting Mohammed Ali on the canvas and a television.
Jennifer-Ann Smith, the CEO of Salford Loaves and Fishes, was the principal guest. The charity was originally founded by nuns operating from Salford Cathedral, feeding homeless people in Salford. It has since become a non-religious organisation that provides meals to the homeless. It also provides skills (such as digital exclusion) and help in getting homeless people into work.
Jennifer-Ann presented powerfully on the work of the charity and said later on a social media post: ‘Not only did the event raise the amazing amount of over £2,000, but people came over to her throughout the night and offered help in various ways. They also donated their raffle prizes back, to help to raise even more money into the future.”
The Trust had provided funding last year as part of the food bank initiative, as the charity runs a food bank along with the Trussel Trust, something the Eccles lodges supported.
Jerry Lawes did a short presentation on the work of Freemasonry (80% of attendees were non-Masons) and conducted a tour of the lodge room.
Entertainment was provided by Wayne Devlin, from the South Eastern Group, and room dressing was done by Bev Sweet.
In her thanks, Jennifer-Ann said: “There was no funding currently available for Christmas but thanks to the donations from the Freemasons, 130 homeless people in Salford will have a Christmas dinner and a small present.”