It was a warm and sunny day on June 19th 2019 when our reigning Worshipful Master, WBro Jake Knox carried out one of his last official duties in the chair on behalf of Phoenix Lodge N° 847.
Phoenix had been given a sum of 700€ from the Grand Lodge of British Freemasons in Germany, as a charity initiative instigated by the Grand Master, and tasked with increasing this amount and donating the final sum to a worthy cause, within ‘cable tow’.
The cause chosen was the The Evangelical Children’s Home Sonnenhof, which looks back on a long Christian- humanist tradition. It was founded in 1894 by Alexander Spengler, a pastor of the Lutheran community, who supported distressed children and their parents. In 1906 he opened a children’s home: the Sonnenhof in Berlin- Spandau.
Throughout the masonic year the lodge championed this cause and through donations from the brethren, a donation from our sister lodge Schwarzer Adler at a combined Christmas Festivity and money collected at a very successful Burn’s Supper the entire amount available was increased to a very fruitful 2.500,00€.
WBro Jake received a very warm welcome indeed from the management, staff and room-mates at the home and was treated to a tour of the whole set up including the residential groups in the ‘House Nemo’, the offices, the basement and the garden. The Ev. Kinderheim Sonnenhof e.V., currently has 69 employees, who look after 60 persons between 2-17 years, partly in residential groups and partly as a youth welfare institution.
Here we see Frau Becker, Managing Director and Head of the Children’s Home, thankfully accepting the donation in the form of a symbolic check for the amount of 2.500, – €. This money will be primarily used to build a bicycle shed in the grounds of the area. To date, children and adolescents have had to carry their bikes cumbersomely through the narrow staircase of the house to protect them from theft and the weather in a narrow basement room. Any residual money will be used to refurbish the tired and worn seating in the much-used consultation room.
The brethren of Phoenix and the WM, WBro Jack Knox are very proud of this combined charity achievement and are delighted to have contributed in some small way to improving the lives of others.
Fraternally, WBro Jake Knox