St Wilfrid & St George

St Wilfrid Lodge have had a long-standing association with St George’s Crypt in Leeds, supporting their appeals and making regular donations over many years. In November 2018, St Georges Crypt launched an appeal for the funding of a state-of-the-art industrial washing machine. The current machines used to launder the large amounts of towels and bedding used daily at the Crypt were unable to cope and needed urgent replacement. We met and quickly agreed to make an application to the Provincial Grand Master’s Fund for a grant of £5,000 towards the projected cost of £8000. We were delighted to learn that a full grant of £5000 was made and the good news was passed to the Crypt by the Lodge Charity Steward, W Bro Sudarshan Hargun. The Crypt’s target purchase figure was reached by mid-January 2019, the washer ordered and installed and now just awaiting commissioning.

The photograph shows W Bro Brian Mason and W Bro Sudarshan Hargun handing over the Provincial Grand Master’s Fund cheque to Kim Parkinson, the Crypt’s Housekeeper, with the new washer in the background, ready to deal with the daily mountain of laundry!

Kim and her staff were clearly delighted with our efforts:
“I can’t tell you how much of a difference our new Electrolux washer will make to daily life at the Crypt. We are caring for so many people with complex needs now and your kind donation means that we can be confident that we are dealing with laundry to hospital standards. This is vital because we need to ensure that we minimise the risk of infection – the ability to use a sluice & disinfect cycle means that we will no longer have to dispose of all soiled bedding as we can ensure blood borne viruses are eliminated safely. The machine can cope with any type of washing powder, which is great as we rely heavily on donations – there is scope for us to bleach items if necessary as well as use fabric conditioner and as a result our laundry will not only be super clean but sweet smelling too!

We have managed – just – for so long with limited facilities & the extra capacity we now have means that we can put the equivalent of nearly 3 previous loads into our new washer. No wonder then that my team and I are so delighted!
Hospitality is so important to us and being able to deliver to a high standard makes all the difference to anyone who comes through our doors. Tonight we will be providing beds for up to 50 of or most vulnerable people. The laundry that this generates can at times seem overwhelming. Having an effective means of dealing with it all has made us all very happy!
A massive Thank you to everyone involved”