Worshipful brother Howard Hodgkinson took great pleasure in presenting on behalf of the Provincial Grand Charity a cheque for £1000-00 to Andrew Mathews the PR and Fundraising officer for the Derbyshire Cave Rescue Organisation, whilst at the same time presenting another cheque from his own Lodge Buxton for a further £375-00. This money has been donated at a very significant time for the team as they had previously shipped their own Heyphones ( a specialised type of radio capable of transmitting through hundreds of metres of rock ) which were of considerable use in helping the British divers who were first to reach the trapped Thai children during their recent rescue.
In view of the fact that they were collected from Buxton by a Police Armed Response unit and delivered to a Military aircraft in record time to be flown to Thailand to assist in this rescue, which it is fair to say is probably one of the most difficult ever, it is a matter for speculation whether or not the radios will ever get back to Buxton. Perhaps for this reason this may be considered as a very timely donation.
W Bro Hodgkinson was also very happy to be tasked with this donation as in his youth (and also when he was considerably slimmer than in this picture) he was a proud member of C team which was the name allocated to the Buxton division in its early years. However he was unable to get an opportunity to hijack a TV team who were interviewing members at the time ready for a BBC News slot the following day much to his disappointment , they had probably been warned in advance just how long he can talk for !!
