Battalion of Freemason bears stand ready to bring comfort to even more children
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A donation of £500 from Freemasons of Scunthorpe-based Pharos Lodge is preparing the ground to deliver comfort bears to the town’s children facing scary hospital visits.
The bears are part of the Teddies for Loving Care scheme, funded entirely by Freemasons, which has given more than four million bears to comfort children during hospital visits.
Graham ‘Teddy Man’ Cadel, who spearheads the scheme in Lincolnshire, brought a battalion of bears to Scunthorpe to celebrate the donation. He said: “The Freemasons will never know most of the children these little bears will help – but past experience tells us that our input comforts not only the young patients themselves but also their parents, who are grateful that complete strangers care enough to support their children through trying times. The world needs more kindness like that.
“I’m in the process of liaising with Scunthorpe General Hospital to arrange setting up the scheme, but this donation means the bears are ready to go!”
The money for the donation has come from Lincolnshire Freemasons’ New Provincial Benevolent Fund, which until this year has given 76 Lodges £500 each to give to the good cause of their members’ choosing. Next year that sum will increase to £1,000 each to be shared with two organisations, meaning £76,000 will be shared with more than 150 good causes in communities between Barton on the banks of the Humber in the north and Deeping, near the Wash in the south.
