Weymouth & Portland Lions Club donates £1,000 to M.V. Freedom.

On Wednesday 11th January 2023 Lions Mark Lockie, Dave Woolford, and Roger Sutherland where with volunteers and supporters of M.V. Freedom at Portland Marina recently, presenting them with a bumper cheque for £1,000.

M.V. Freedom provides Weymouth & Portland Lions Club with much needed assistance every Christmas Day on the water in the harbour as part of the ever-popular Lions Christmas Day harbour swim. The 2022 swim was again a very successful event, with over 366 swimmers taking part. Proceeds from the swim will be distributed by Weymouth & Portland Lions Club to individuals, charities and groups such as M.V.Freedom throughout the year.

The idea for the quilt came about when Mark was District Governor and I had decided to take on Children’s’ Hospices South West as my charity. I wanted to use my lifelong passion for textiles to raise money for this cause. I used previously purchased ‘shibori’ fabrics as the base and used the yellow for Lions’ colours.

Unfortunately, because of illness last year I was not able to complete this during Mark’s DG year and a shortened convention taking place in 2022 meant that we would not have a large enough audience interest to make the raffle viable, so the project was put on hold. Lesley has agreed for it to be raffled at this year’s conference.

The materials alone cost me more than £200 and I have not included my time for making or planning of about 100 hours. I hope that clubs will make every effort to sell tickets for as much money as possible to be raised for CHSW. The draw will take place during Convention 2023.Thank you for your support.

Lion Martin Rogers

Just some photos from our Annual Boxing Day Walk into The Sea, at Paignton Beach over 40 years since its inception.

We raised just over £3000 for our local charities. Kevin Foster MP started the event again this year.

Just over 300 people braved the rush into the sea, with over a 1000 watching from the pier and the seafront. Great weather and thank you all for your support this year.

Looking forward to 2023

HAPPY 2023! The Weston Lions welcomed the new year in with hosting their monthly radio show on the local channel – talking about all things Lions and what new years resolutions the members are welcoming in. Lion Geoff and Lion Martin had a great time and Wave Radios usual host loved having them on.

Shaken – not stirred the Lions donned their ‘DJ’s’ and bow ties for an evening put on by Breast Cancer Now where they held the Casino. With a black jack tables, roulette tables and the popular dice game – the evening was a great success and raised a successful amount for the charity! Alongside a donation from the Weston Lions Club in support too

The Weston lions have teamed up with the Weston Hospicecare in the last couple of years to assist the The Grand Pier in the delivery of their annual fireworks display in November.

All money raised from parking on the lawns and a bucket collection is donated to the Hospice and Lions charities equally. This year’s event raised £1,887.98 for both good causes and Dick Berry from Weston Lions can be seen presenting the cheque to Weston Hospice.

The Club had the first social of 2023 at a local pub where they welcomed 4 new potential members to the evening to get a feel for the Club and members as individuals.

Three members of the Club spoke about their life and the interesting things they have been a part of from medical sales repping to coastguard cliff rescues and then innovating ways of greener waste disposal! The Club has very fascinating individuals with a whole array of life experiences and that's what makes the it work, everyone's different talents and strengths.

The Club is gearing up for it’s second MUD MASTER – an exciting mud run with over 20 obstacles. Last year there were over 400 participants and this year, we are hoping for more! The beneficiaries this year are the Great Western Air Ambulance, Children’s Hospital South West and Weston Hospice care. It was a great event last year and this year is promising more mud …. So, more fun!