Official 90th Birthday Street Party Celebration
To help celebrate the official 90th Birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, Rochdale Masonic Social Committee (RMSC) organised an Indoor Street Party at Rochdale Masonic Buildings on the 11th June 2016. The Buildings were splendidly decorated with bunting & Union Jack regalia and over one hundred guests attended all of whom were ‘royally’ entertained by the 30 strong Greater Manchester Police Concert Band.
Rochdale District Charity Steward, WBro Kenny Greer, welcomed all present to what he felt was sure to be a fantastic celebratory evening and announced that all monies raised were to be donated the East Lancashire Masonic Charity. He then took great pleasure in welcoming Alison Emmott, a Manager at Hewlett Court, who was accompanied by four of Hewlett Court’s residents, our principal guests for the evening.
WBro Greer then introduced Jonathan Taylor, Principal Conductor of the Band who began proceedings with a trumpet fanfare of the first two verses of the National Anthem and continued with both traditional and modern scores. A medley of songs from the rock group Queen being a particular favourite.
During the interval a splendid buffet was served up by the Rochdale catering staff suitably attired in Union Jack shirts and a short quiz was held relating to the Queen, devised by the Deputy Charity Steward, WBro Tony Gillard. The customary raffle was then drawn for prizes consisting of a Kindle HD6, a food & drink hamper and several bottles of spirits and wines.
Two of the guests were celebrating their birthdays that evening, Mr Glyn Williams, 89 & Mrs Joan Durne, 71, in addition to Patricia, 73, one of the band members!! All were given a huge round of applause.
The Band commenced the second half of the evening with Holyrood which is a traditional marching piece, Crown Imperial which was written for the Queen’s Coronation followed by medleys from the Sound of Music and James Bond themes. The music progressed to familiar favourites – The Last Night of the Proms, Fantasia, British Sea Songs, Pomp & Circumstance (during which hundreds of balloons were released from above) concluding with Jerusalem. As an encore the band performed the Dambusters theme which rounded off a fantastic evening.
District Chairman, WBro Peter Rhodes took great pleasure in announcing the residents of Hewlett Court as winners of the quiz, winning a box full of goodies for their return journey. He thanked all the RMSC members for their hard work in organising the evening, the Band or entertaining us and everyone for attending and making it such a memorable occasion. Finally he announced that over £1,000 had been raised for ELMC.