New kitchen on the menu at Balgonie breakfast club
Saturday 12 July saw the new look kitchen at Lodge Balgonie, Markinch, being put to the test as the monthly breakfast club once again opened its doors and served over 60 breakfast rolls to the members, their families and friends who came along.
The Breakfast Club first welcomed Lodge members in July 2023 and was established as a way of enabling older members and their families, who are no longer able to attend evening meetings at the Lodge, to keep in touch with friends they met through the lodge. In that two year period the Breakfast Club has become a firm fixture in the Lodge events calendar and has a regular attendance of 30+ people.
The monthly club offers a choice of breakfast rolls, cereals, tea and coffee and is a donation based service allowing those who attend to donate what they can. The Club is attended by a mixture of members, their family and friends as well widows whose husbands were members of Lodge Balgonie. The chatter is constant and the lounge is always filled with laughter and the sharing of memories.
In the two years the Breakfast Club has been running those who attend have donated over £1900 which has been used to support the costs of installing the new kitchen and replacing the flooring throughout the lounge and kitchen areas.
In addition to the Breakfast Club, the Lodge also run a Last Man Standing competition throughout the football season. Over the past year this initiative has contributed £1400 to the kitchen refurbishment costs.
Brother Stewart Quigley, a Past Master of Lodge Balgonie and current Treasurer commented that “the combined contributions from the Breakfast Club and Last Man Standing competition have contributed around £3300 to the costs of the kitchen. Meaning the overall contribution from the Lodge funds was reduced. For a small lodge like us, having these additional ways to raise funds in order to maintain the building to a good standard are essential. But the members who know me, will appreciate the purse strings are well and truly tied tight for the season ahead”.
Right Worshipful Master of Lodge Balgonie, Brother Ian Stevenson added to the Treasurers comments and stated that “thanks must go to all those members, their families and friends who support Lodge Balgonie through attending the Breakfast Club, participating in the Last Man Standing competition and coming along to our ocasional Saturday social events, that support is vital to our Lodge maintaining not only our building for future generations of Freemason’s, but our presence as part of the Markinch community.”