The Furness and South Lakeland Group Fellowship is a monthly get-together for retired Masons, their wives and widows of Masons. One of the highlights of last year was the December meeting when everyone sat down to a traditional Christmas dinner and then they all enjoyed a sing-along to their favourite carols.
Each year Peter While and his friends organise the monthly programme of events for the fellowship and try to find a special speaker for the open meetings. Open meetings mean exactly that and visitors are welcome to join the afternoon meeting; some for just the subject matter, some to find out what the fellowship meetings are all about and some just to fill an afternoon in convivial company. This year 50 people attended.
Last year, Ian Smith, a local coroner, related local cases from way back in history, including Donald Campbell’s tragic accident and death. This year everyone was entertained by Dr Michael Clark with a talk entitled Parliamentary Anecdotes. Well, what stories he had to tell! During the whole hour of revelations, the audience response was enthusiastic and everyone was enthralled and involved with the stories.
Amongst the visitors were the Furness and South Lakeland Group Chairman Chris Gray with his wife Hayley and group secretary Tony Jackson. Furness and South Lakeland Group Fellowship Vice-Chairman, Terry Ridal, was in charge of the proceedings for the afternoon and after the talk he welcomed everyone back into the lounge for refreshments. After refreshments, there followed a free raffle (with prizes donated by members) and the ‘pick a number’ result.
Hayley Gray was invited to draw the raffle and to her surprise, not to mention embarrassment, the first ticket out was her husband Chris’ ticket! The ‘pick a number’ is a fundraising effort organised by two lady members. The winner takes half of the proceeds and the fellowship takes the rest. It is working well and it’s fun. For details of the fellowship’s activities and how to attend, please contact the secretary, Janet Ridal at her email address, janetridal@boretree.co.uk