Cotswold Friends

A little over 12 months ago, R W Bro Brian Gargett, the Provincial Grand Master of the Mark in Gloucestershire & Herefordshire invited the brethren in his Province to submit nominations for a charity to support over the course of the year.
The parameters were clear: the charity should be local, the donations raised must not impact the excellent charitable donations already made by local Lodges, and there would be no fundraising targets.
The nominated charity which was selected for this initiative was Cotswold Friends, a community based charity operating in the Cotswold area which seeks to combat loneliness and isolation as well as supporting independent living.
Brian said: “I was so delighted to receive this nomination because the charity provides much needed support to local people. For example, their community transport work arranges over 13,000 journeys a year, including helping people in rural areas to get to medical appointments.
“Having looked more closely at the charity, I became aware of their aim to acquire a further wheelchair-adapted vehicle to enable more trips to surgeries and hospitals,
and decided that we should try, if possible, to help them with that.” Over the course of the months that followed, many brethren upped their regular giving and Lodges held extra fundraising events to help out. A very successful Summer Concert was held in Cirencester which raised valuable funds and offered brethren the chance to meet with representatives from the charity.
Brian said: “When the final calculations were done, I was astonished to find that we had raised £16,400 for the charity. Astonished and absolutely delighted! The team at
Cotswold Friends were equally as pleased to receive the funds when we attended their AGM to present them with the cheque. Significantly, this effort had not caused a
reduction in our other anticipated charitable activity.”
With the enthusiastic support of brethren in the Province, Brian and the rest of his Provincial Executive have chosen a new charity, The National Star Foundation, to support over the course of the next 12 months.
This is a charity that the Province, and indeed the Mark Benevolent Fund, has supported in the past and brethren in Gloucestershire and Herefordshire are familiar with its most valuable work.
In particular, it is hoped that the Province will be able to support the Charity’s site in Hereford which is currently being extended and where there will be a need to supply
additional learning support equipment within the premises.
Plans are well underway to make this coming year’s fundraising drive as successful as the last – and donations are already coming in!