Although our lodge has been unable to meet in person for over 12 months we have still managed to present a further £1,000 to Molly Olly’s charity. This £1,000 was then match funded by The Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire.

Molly Olly’s Wishes supports children with life threatening or life limiting illnesses and their families to help with their emotional wellbeing. They grant individual wishes and donate therapeutic toys and books to both children directly and to hospitals throughout the UK.

The lodge also supported The Desert Rats Association with a donation of £500 which was again match funded by the Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire.

On Saturday 20th February 2021, our Worshipful Master, W Bro Peter Round, together with the Deputy Provincial Grand Master, W. Bro Peter Manning, presented a cheque for £2,000 to Rachel from Molly Olly’s charity.

The £1000 raised by the Lodge of Unity last year was matched funded by The Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire so the Lodge was able to hand over £2000.

The Province are also handing out a large quantity of Easter Eggs, so shortly Molly Olly will be receiving 100 Easter Eggs too.

Molly Olly’s Wishes supports children with life threatening or life limiting illnesses and their families to help with their emotional wellbeing. They grant individual wishes and donate therapeutic toys and books to both children directly and to hospitals throughout the UK.

On behalf of The Lodge of Unity 567, W.Bro. Roger Green presented a further £3,000 to Zoё's Place Baby Hospice in Coventry from money raised during his year as Worshipful Master. Roger was shown the bathing facilities and special cots that enable nursing staff to look after babies and infants with life-limiting or life-threatening conditions and those who require palliative, respite and end of life care. 

For Zoё's Place £3,000 represents 300 hours of nursing care.

The medieval Lord Leycester Hospital in Warwick proved to be an ideal and atmospheric venue for this years Ladies Night festival.

Following a drinks reception in the Guild Hall, 90 guests enjoyed a superb gourmet meal in The Great Hall which was laid out in traditional banquette style.

Kirk Johnson, who is taking part in this years Zoё’s Place Strictly Christmas dance competition, gave a demonstration dance which was followed by our charity auction. Once formal proceeding were concluded headphones were distributed for the silent disco which proved to be a great hit - even if the headphones did make us look like cyber men! with the dance floor full for remainder of the evening.

During the evening we raised another £2,700 for Zoё’s Place which will be added to monies raised earlier in the year and we still have our Christmas party to come.

On behalf of the brethren of The Lodge of Unity 567, our Worshipful Master, W. Bro Roger Green, and his wife Sophia Green presented a cheque for £2,000 to Chris Ward at Zoё's Place Baby Hospice in Coventry. This amount represents part of this year’s ongoing fundraising for Zoë's Place.

During 2017 the Lodge of Unity 567 held a number of events to raise funds for Guys Gift, a local Warwickshire charity which provides support for bereaved children, young people and their families. As his term in office drew to a close, W. Bro. Sebastian Samperi, our Worshipful Master, was delighted to be able to present a cheque on behalf of the Lodge for £3,625 to Guys Gift. The charities small, professional team of five includes three counselors, who are helped by more than 20 trained volunteers. They draw on a range of specialist skills to provide support options to help children, young people and their families during a difficult time in their lives.

Our Immediate Past Master,  Worshipful Brother Peter Manning, presented at cheque for £3,458 to Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance. The money was raised by the Lodge during his year in 2016.

Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) was established in 2003 and exists to provide a HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) to the counties of Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and the Milton Keynes area.

Their service does not simply transport patients to the nearest hospital; their service routinely carries senior Doctors and Consultants to the scene of incidents in just minutes, providing lifesaving treatment and medication at the scene and en-route to hospital. In essence, They take the hospital to the patient, providing the best possible chance of a full recovery.

W. Bro. Barry Johnson would have been very proud to know that £10,000 had been donated to Zoё’s Place Baby Hospice in his memory. Over the years, Barry not only completed marathons and cycle events to raise money for the hospice but was instrumental in seeing that The Lodge of Unity 567 nominated Zoё’s Place as one of it's main charities.

 He would also have been delighted to see that the featured article from the Coventry Telegraph was next to an article on Long-lost swear words - Barry was never one to miss a bit of mischief! 

In January 2016 The Lodge of Unity donated a further £1,000 to Zoё’s Place as part of our continuing support for the charity.

About Zoё’s Place

Zoё’s Place Trust is a registered Charity providing palliative, respite and end of life care to babies and infants aged from birth to five years suffering from life-limiting or life-threatening conditions.  This care will be provided in a caring, safe, home from home environment known as Zoё’s Place Baby Hospices.

To deliver this service free of charge to families and with modest Government funding the charity relies heavily on the public to raise the £1.1m needed each year. You can read more on the Zoё’s Place website here.

Warwick Special Baby Care Unit provides special medical and nursing care for premature and sick babies.

Helen Ley Care Centre based in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire offers respite and long-term care for people living with Multiple Sclerosis or similar neurological conditions. Helen Ley provides the opportunity for families and carers to re-charge their batteries, safe in the knowledge that their loved ones experience high quality nursing care with the opportunity to access a range of activities and events.

Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA) was established in 2003 and exists to provide a HEMS (Helicopter Emergency Medical Service) to the counties of Warwickshire, Northamptonshire and the Milton Keynes area.

Their service does not simply transport patients to the nearest hospital; their service routinely carries senior Doctors and Consultants to the scene of incidents in just minutes, providing lifesaving treatment and medication at the scene and en-route to hospital. In essence, They take the hospital to the patient, providing the best possible chance of a full recovery.

The Provincial Grand Lodge of Warwickshire administers many charitable funds, the principal ones of which are:-

The Warwickshire Masonic Benevolent Fund. The objects of the WMBF are to provide relief to needy Freemasons of the Province, their widows or partners, their children and any spinster sisters.

The Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association Limited. WMBF Ltd was formed to manage the various legacies bequeathed to the Province and more recently to deal with the reclamation of Gift Aid as a result of charitable donations. It also distributes substantial sums on an annual basis to non-Masonic charities which operate within the Province. These charities must apply for assistance and provide audited accounts.

The 2012 Festival for The Masonic Samaritan Fund provides medical assistance to needy Freemasons and their dependents.

Article from Leamington Observer

A RETIRED rugby player has hung up his boots for a final time after completing a series of charity matches.

Old Leamingtonians player Jason Ashley has raised over £4,400 for children’s charities including Zoe’s Place in Coventry and The Friendship Project, following his ’12 Club Rugby Challenge’.

The 50-year-old played the last of his matches alongside invitational team The Tired Old Tigers against his own team – resulting in a 26-26 draw and £1,000 for Zoe’s Place.

The dad-of-one said: “Now its finished, the overwhelming emotion is one of gratitude to everyone involved.

“The way that the local rugby clubs have engaged with The 12 Club Challenge has been brilliant and we could not have done this without their support.

“My family has been very supportive from start to finish and I thank my wife Sally and our son Maximilian for all of their help.

“They have encouraged me all the way through the 12 games and also driven me home after every game, after celebrating a win or commiserating after a loss but always with a beer or two.”

The former prop-forward also thanked his wing-men Sam Reynolds and Olly Scott as well as physio John Ahmed for the hours spent repairing ‘various parts’ of his body each week.

And Jason – who is a managing director for Pluvius Ltd which supplies kit and equipment to sports clubs – added: “The whole experience has been one of the hardest things I have ever done but one of the most rewarding and a very humbling experience.

“Rugby is a great game and I have made a lot of friends over the three decades I have played and these friendships are the main thing that I will miss as I head into retirement.

“Not sure how I will fill my time now that I have retired, but for all of those players who continue to play rugby – may your balls always be oval.’’

This year the Lodge of Unity 567 will be supporting Guy's Gift.

Guy’s Gift is a Leamington Spa based registered charity providing support for bereaved children, young people and their families in Warwickshire following the death of a parent, sibling or other significant person in their life. They guide and support bereaved children and young people, and help them manage their grief.

Our Worshipful Master, Sebastian Samperi, presents a cheque  for £500 to Ian Gardner of Guy's Gift to enable the charity to take some children to Mfest 300.

In February 2016 The Lodge of Unity donated a further £2,224 to Myton Hospices as part of our continuing support for the charity.

Every year The Myton Hospices provide their special kind of care to around 1000 local people and their families who are living with or affected by a terminal illness at their three hospices in Warwick, Coventry and Rugby. 

During 2014 The Lodge of Unity raised money to support a number of charities including £1,000 for Zoe's Place baby hospice and £2,550 to Breast Cancer Campaign 

The Children's Air Ambulance is one of a kind. It's the first and only dedicated helicopter emergency transfer service for seriously ill children and babies, flying them from one hospital to a more specialist unit, alongside their team of clinicians; a journey usually made by land.

Their helicopter transferred its first clinical team in December 2012, and performed its first patient transfer on 11th May 2013.

Unbelievably, it's estimated that approximately 5,800 children need transferring between hospitals every single year. Currently the majority of these transfers are performed by land, meaning sometimes long and arduous journeys for seriously ill youngsters.

The Children's Air Ambulance is able to drastically cut the time it takes to carry out these types of transfers, which means sick children and babies can get lifesaving care as soon as possible - giving them the very best chances of survival and recovery.

Receiving no Government funding, they rely entirely on public donations and support in the local community to raise the £134,000 they need to run their vital service.

The service has been working closely with retrieval teams across the country, to ensure that the specialised equipment is suitable to transfer the seriously ill patients safely between hospitals, and that the service meets their requirements, as well as the Civil Aviation Authority. This equipment includes a stretcher that has been specifically adapted to carry a baby pod (similar to a baby incubator) in both the helicopter and a land ambulance, as well as medical gases and monitoring equipment.

Unlike other Air Ambulance services, The Children's Air Ambulance will only perform paediatric transfers from hospital to hospital, across the whole of the country. It differs to other Air Ambulances who treat children that are the victims of accidents such as road traffic collisions, sporting injuries or other emergency situations, they do not carry the equipment needed to perform a specialist hospital to hospital transfer. Having a dedicated nationwide transfer service also ensures that all the fantastic lifesaving Air Ambulances across the country, including our own (Warwickshire & Northamptonshire Air Ambulance and Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland Air Ambulance) can continue to serve and protect their own regions.

Myton Hospice aims to improve the lives of people whose illness may not be curable. It helps people to live as actively as possible after diagnosis to the end of their lives, ho

wever long that may be. The highest value is put on respect, choice and empowerment.

Each one of us is a unique individual. Myton Hospice  provides Specialist Palliative Care of the highest quality for adult patients with advanced progressive life limiting

illness, taking into account their medical, physical, cultural, psychological, spiritual and social needs in a non judgmental way with love, respect and humour in a safe homely environment.

They will try to alleviate fears and anxieties through sharing information, with time to reflect and discuss any concerns, thus bringing peace and fulfilment to life, enabling each patient to achieve their potential.

All care will be delivered in a respectful and courteous manner to preserve dignity, individuality and privacy and in doing so will be sensitive to the patient’s ever changing needs. Patients and their carers may need to access different areas of our service at differing times in their illness.

Warwickshire Young Carers' Project  helps improve the lives of Young Carers across Warwickshire. They support Young Carers in their caring role to relax and take a break and to realise their own dreams.

Action For Kids (AFK) is a national charity working with children and young people with physical and learning disabilities and their parents and carers. They help to transform young lives by removing the barriers to independence.

Cancer Back Up was supported in 2005 following the death of W. Bro. Stuart Handley whose family had been greatly helped during his illness by this charity.

Cancer Back up is now part of  Macmillan Cancer Support and improves the lives of people affected by cancer. They provide practical, medical and financial support and push for better cancer care.