Mount Bigelow Lodge #202 secretary Vern Bean, right, presents  a check for $3,546.97 from his virtual “Foggy and Friends” concert fundraiser to Christine Hobbs, left, Lions Club Stratton-Eustis Food Pantry manager. Submitted photo

STRATTON — For 11 years, Vern Bean, the secretary of Mount Bigelow Masonic Lodge #202 in Stratton has performed during the Memorial Day weekend with his band “Foggy and Friends” at the Plaza Hotel to benefit the pantry. This year, Bean coordinated with Peter Farnsworth, the master of Mount Bigelow Lodge, to make this a Lodge fundraiser. Working also with both the Grand Masonic Lodge of Maine Charitable Foundation for matching grants and the Stratton-Eustis Lions Club president, Sally Iverson, he held a virtual fundraiser.

With the support of the members of both the Masonic Lodge and Lions Club, it was the annual event’s most successful fundraising effort to date.

The virtual event raised $1,546.97 in donations with the first thousand dollars collected matched by the Grand Lodge of Maine Charitable Foundation with two dollars for every one dollar collected using two different matching grant categories.

Bean said, “I would like to thank everyone who helped put this fundraiser together and especially all the Masonic brethren and Lions Club members who promoted the event and made donations in these difficult times.”

“The Food Pantry has served many more families than usual in the past months and this donation really helps,” added Hobbs.

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