CELEBRATING 30 YEARS OF ACORNS CHILDREN'S HOSPICE
Updated: Oct 18, 2018
Saturday 8th September saw the Five of Nine Club return to Acorns Children’s Hospice, Selly Oak, Birmingham taking Freemasonry into the Community to support them at their summer fayre. This year, however, is quite a special one for this incredible charity, as they celebrate 30 years of helping children and their families.
The Five of Nine Club events secretary Bro Dan Norman had rallied the troops and had arranged to assist Acorns with a number of roles to include stewarding and attending the car park. On arrival the Chairman, Bro Carey Burke was quick to get the team involved, and within minutes they were building the stalls and attempting to erect a menagerie of gazebos so that the wonderful volunteers at the centre could get set up ready for the arrival of the local community who are always keen to offer their support.
Along with assisting Acorns in the running of the event, membership secretary, Bro Warwick Wakefield who runs his own hog roasting business “Ready to Roast” volunteered his services to provide food for the day. Bro Warwick was joined by past club chairman W Bro Dan Thomas on the hog roast and as soon as it arrived the air was filled with a mouth-watering aroma, to the point an eager queue had formed even before they started serving!
The stall next to the Hog Roast saw the first official outing of the Warwickshire Freemasons “Let’s Talk” team where a number of Warwickshire brethren were on hand to talk openly about Masonry and promote the great work that is done by us all.
The Provincial Grand Master and Five of Nine Club Patron, RW Bro David Macey and his wife Sandra were quick to sample the food and join in with the day’s activities. RW Bro David was thrilled to see the team helping at Acorns, a charity that he has long supported and selected to be one of his “Famous Five” charities.
The day was a huge success for everyone. The hog roast sold out and 100% of the profits were donated to Acorns Hospice, and thanks to a donation from the Warwickshire Masonic Charitable Association, who paid for the hog, we were able to hand over a cheque for £668. This was gratefully received by Acorns Children’s Hospice.
The work, however, was far from done, once the day had ended the team stayed behind to help with the breakdown and clean up much to the delight of the Acorns regular volunteers!
They had a fantastic day supporting what can only be described as a one in a million charity, which works so hard for children and their families when they need it most. The club is honoured to have been able to help Acorns and delighted to hear that they raised nearly £5000 during the day which will go on to help pay for care and support.
Five of Nine are sure to be back at Acorns in the future and can’t wait to get involved again, if you have a local charity that could benefit from some help from the Five of Nine Club they would be pleased to hear from you, please email club secretary Bro Carl Foster at carl.foster@fiveofnineclub.org.uk with details.
Many Thanks to all the Club members who helped on the day and a huge thanks to Bro Warwick Wakefield of “Ready to Roast” for his support.