A ‘Jo Malone Dolls House’ helps to raise over £3,000 for 'Teddies for Loving Care'
W Bro. Carl Marron (WM) making the draw overseen by
VW Bro. Paul Reeves (Chairman of TLC) & W Bro. Barry Hayward (IPM)
Richard Goodwin the current Chairman/President of the Thorpe Bay Bowls Club kindly chose, Teddies for Loving Care (TLC) as his year in office and had raised over £2,000 during that time.
He acquired a much sought after ‘Jo Malone Dolls-House’ which raised £500 in an auction at the Bowls Club and the winner, touched by the TLC cause, generousley donated it back to be raffled or auctioned again, so Richard offered it for a raffle at Saxon Hall.
The draw took place at the last Craft meeting of the year at the centre, at Thames Estuary Lodge No. 4043, on Saturday 16th December 2023; with the winning ticket being drawn by W Bro. Carl Marron (the WM). The raffle had raised a further £525 to which the lodge generously added a further £200.
The winning ticket had been purchased by W Bro. Stuart James who was delighted when he was told and he will be donating it to a very good friend who has a delightful grandchild who he has no doubt will have endless hours of fun with it.
The TLC initiative provides unique cuddly bears to Accident & Emergency Departments for medical staff to give, at their discretion, to traumatised young children coming into their care. The bears are used to calm those children down, reward them for being brave or to demonstrate procedures. Often the bears distract children so nurses and doctors can get their jobs done quickly and efficiently. The TLC Teddy has become an invaluable tool for medical professionals and a real comfort for traumatised children.
The lucky winner of the House, Stuart James
being congratulated by Paul Reeves
VW Bro. Paul Reeves, Chairman of TLC Essex said, “TLC was conceived in the Province of Essex 22 years ago and we can justly be proud of that as, since then, it has spread to every Province in England & Wales, all of Ireland and North Island New Zealand with over 3.5 million distraught children receiving a Teddy in that time.”
He added, “along with social media we rely on TLC Centre Reps to promote TLC at their Masonic Centres and we also have TLC Hospital Reps who liaise with their NHS contacts at hospitals and walk-in centres and who, in some cases, deliver cartons of new TLC Teddies to their local A&E Departments.
We currently have vacancies for Centre and Hospital Reps across the Province, so if you have the time to offer your services to what will be a heart warming experience, please contact me.”