As many of you know, our Provincial Grand Master has appointed me as Chairman of the Province of Cheshire 2024 festival.
The impact of Covid on fund raising over the last 2 years has affected most if not all charities and our festival has been no exception – the lack of meetings and fund raising activates has resulted in a significant drop in funds coming into the festival.
We have just over 2 years of the Festival remaining and my main focus as Chairman is to reinvigorate / relaunch the festival so that we can all raise as much as we can in the run up to 2024.
To this end our Provincial Grand Master RW Bro Gary Horstman and I have put together a new festival team, some old faces and some new, all with specific roles and objectives; including organising fund raising events, social media coverage, marketing and, of course, the end of festival banquet, which will be held on Saturday 6th July 2024, the venue for which is shortly to be announced.
Now that we are finally coming out of the pandemic, we have a golden opportunity to look again at our Festival and make the last 2 years something as Mark men we can be proud of. Over the coming weeks and months we will be sending out details of forthcoming fundraising events and I hope that you can encourage your members to support these. Similarly, if your own Mark or RAM lodge is organising a festival event let us know, we have a very good events coordination team and we would be very happy to help you promote the event throughout the Province.
You can find details of forthcoming events are on our Cheshire Mark website, and I strongly encourage you to bookmark the site:
We will also be publishing a new newsletter updating everyone in the Mark Province of where we are with the festival and what is planned for the future.
When the new season starts the festival team will be out and about visiting Mark and RAM lodges to promote the Festival, so here’s a thought – one of the simplest ways to support the festival is, I am sure you are aware, by regular giving. If just 50% of the membership (let’s say around 330 Mark men) pledges to donate as little as £5.00 a month for 18 months that would raise around £30,000.00 alone!
Thank you for your continuing support
W.Bro Steve Simpson PAGDC – 2024 Festival Chairman
