Brighouse charity amongst four organisations to benefit from Freemasons’ grants totalling almost £90k

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A Brighouse charity is one of four regional community groups to be awarded a ‘major’ grant from Yorkshire Freemasons totalling £89.5k.

Focus4Hope has been awarded £30,000 to enable it to purchase a 16-seater minibus with wheelchair access to replace ‘Hope’, their current mini-bus, which is old and becoming mechanically unreliable and is desperately in need of replacement.

The financial donations have been donated by the Province of Yorkshire West Riding, via its Provincial Grand Master’s Fund.

Each year, this fund gives grants of around £200,000, which help a wide variety of organisations across the Province, including schools, hospices, youth organisations, sports clubs and hospitals.

Whilst ‘minor’ grants of up to £5,000 are awarded on a monthly basis, the major grants are given each Spring and announced ahead of the Province’s annual meeting held each May in Harrogate’s Royal Hall.

Provincial Grand Master James H Newman, OBE, said: “Charitable giving is at the very heart of Freemasonry, and all the money that goes into this fund comes directly from the pockets of our members and their families.

“And thanks to their continued generosity, we have been able to support Focus4Hope with a major grant.
“All four recipients, who have each been nominated by a local Lodge, richly deserve their grants. Like Freemasonry, these organisations play a valuable role within their communities, and I am delighted that our financial help means they can continue to do so.”

Based on the old West Riding, the Province, which has around 5,000 members meeting in some 180 Lodges, reaches from Sheffield in the South to Ripon in the North, Goole in the East to Waddington in the West.