Freemasons event raises thousands

A three year fundraising event culminated at Benidorm’s Gran Hotel Bali with a Festival Gala Evening by the Freemasons of the Provincial Grand Lodge of Valencia. Festival 2014 came to a close at the event after launching June 1 2011 and raising €143,000.

The idea came from the Provincial Grand Master of Valencia, Right Worshipful Brother Barrie Mansell, after he attended a number of annual assemblies of other Provinces in Spain.

Those Provinces, as part of their annual report, detailed the amount of money given by individual Lodges in various guises to charity and he was amazed at the considerable sum of money that was involved.

He thought that if individual Lodges could raise so much money just imagine the amount that could be raised collectively by a Province.

The target was set for the Province to purchase ambulances during the life of the Festival to be used by Cruz Roja throughout the Valencian Community.

In May 2013 the Provincial Grand Master handed a cheque and the first ambulance over to the President of Cruz Roja in Alicante at the Hercules Football Club in Alicante.

Now, with the fundraising coming to a close at the gala event, where a further €2,000 was raised from a raffle, enough money has been raised to purchase a second vehicle which will be presented in the coming weeks.

This is a homeless support vehicle to be used by Cruz Roja. It will be designed to assist people who, for whatever reason, find themselves homeless and in need of medical or social support facilities and will also include personal shower facilities.

This is a completely new and innovative move for Cruz Roja and will have a significant impact on the way that they deal with social issues in the future.