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News - Date: 05 July 2002
The Freemason's Lion of the North Lodge in Louis Trichardt and Messina Lodge, in conjunction with their sister lodges in the district of South Africa North, donated R1 million to Child Line on Saturday (29th).
The donation marked the end of a week devoted to "Freemasonry in the community". Freemasons celebrated this under the banner of the United Grand Lodge of England worldwide.
The money will go into a trust and the interest will be used for running the various Child Line projects. Apart from their better-known service of providing telephone counselling to abused children, Child Line runs several homes for abused and abandoned children and provides protection to vulnerable children.
For the last couple of years the Lodges in the district have donated annual amounts in excess of R250 000 per year to deserving charities - such as the R250 000 given to the Avril Elisabeth Home for the mentally handicapped when it was in danger of turning out patients due to lack of funds. The Lodges also helped to build new kennels costing R350 000 for the Blind Guide Dogs Association, which enabled the association to double their output of trained dogs.
In 2000 an amount of R50 000 was donated for flood relief in the Northern Province and R 150 000 to Mozambique for the same purpose.
In contrast to most other service organisations the freemasons raise their funds for charity from their own members and do not generally engage in public fundraising drives.
The Lion of the North Lodge has a proud history of service to the community since it was founded in Louis Trichardt in 1913. The founding Master at the time was CE Schlesinger (the Grandfather of a Louis Trichardt businessman) who had been attending the lodge in Pietersburg prior to that date. He used to travel each month by bicycle along the dirt tracks between the two towns, and the name of the Lodge has a connection to the many perils he faced on that journey.
Similarly, Messina Lodge has been of service to the community since it was founded in 1934 shortly after the development of the Messina Copper Mine. The building itself in Whyte Street is of interest with the small lodge room having classical proportions which were sketched for the members on the back of an envelope by the renowned architect, Sir Herbert Baker.
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