The Masonic trailer made another appearance in Blackburn town centre at the Countryside Comes to Town event. The stall was set up early in the morning on Church Street opposite the market, and was manned by a few volunteers throughout the day until the 5.00pm close. Attached to the trailer was the very popular face painting stand, where the children had their faces transformed whilst the dad’s chatted about Freemasonry and collected balloons for the young ones. As the day progressed and the number of balloons handed out increased dramatically, a sea of blue could be seen across the town as over 200 blue balloons were being welded by excited kids, each one advertising Masonic charity and a link to the website.

We had a visit from our Deputy Provincial Grand Master, VWBro Derek N Thornhill, and throughout the day there were many conversations with existing Freemasons and their families from as far afield as Bournemouth and Cleveland who were very impressed with the trailer and how we were spreading the word at such an event. It was also nice to talk to people who had genuine interests in Freemasonry and to dispel some of the preconceptions they had picked up through the media and online, and, to answer some very specific questions and hopefully allow them to see Freemasonry in a different light. The charitable aspects of the fraternity genuinely impressed people who had no idea of the levels of giving across the local area as well as the rest of the country and further afield.

The trailer was broken down and packed away before another outing the day after at Townley Park in Burnley. Watch out for it… Its coming to an event near you soon!