Issuu

The International Association of Lions Clubs

District 105SW

JANUARY 2024 NEWSLETTER District Governor - Lion James Mathers In this month’s issue DG’s Message Cabinet meeting dates St Austell Lions

Budleigh Salterton Lions Bridport Lions Foreign coins Plymouth Lions RLLI Blackmore Vale Lions Hearing Aid Batteries Truro Lions Paignton Lions Diabetes Up-date Weymouth & Portland Lions Special Photo Competition 105SW Environmental Project Competition Message from the editor Happy New Year 2024!

I hope that you have all enjoyed the Christmas activities and recovered from the New Year celebrations. Lions clubs are always busy in December, with the majority accompanying Santa on his sleigh bringing cheer to local residents, especially children. I have always enjoyed seeing the expression on young faces greeting the man in the red coat and white beard, promising to be good and to leave Santa with a mince

Club news from around the South West DG Lion James Mathers

pie and a carrot for Rudolf. Whilst my predecessor was caught on camera plucking turkey feathers, I can be seen all dressed up! This festive season is a major fundraiser for many clubs, with a combination of Santa runs and tin shaking at local supermarkets. But as many of you will have already discovered, there is an increasing number of people who don’t hold cash, at least in terms of coins. An alternative is to use a Chip & PIN device, which are inexpensive and ideal for tin- shakes but not very practical on the doorstep in the dark, where a signal may be weak or non-existent. Another method, however, may be to use a QR code attached to your collecting bucket. Definitely worth considering. In addition to the festive fundraising activities, my fellow members of St Austell Lions and I have been collecting necessary items for Ukraine, and this month I have filled my vehicle to capacity on two separate occasions and delivered to Callington Lions, who conducted a convoy in December and will be going out again in February. The response by clubs throughout this District has been outstanding and has demonstrated a

commitment to service beyond the boundaries of our own individual communities. Together as Lions we have maintained a steady stream of necessary relief, greatly appreciated, especially as Winter is upon us, and we can be justly proud of our achievements. However, on behalf of Callington Lions, can I bring an important matter to your attention. Many of those who drive across Europe have been using their own vans and, given the number of convoys that have taken place and the distances involved it is taking a toll. They are now having to rely upon hiring vehicles, which comes at a cost. If, when looking at the funds raised during your Christmas fundraising, you can spare a little then please give this

Club news from around the South West DG Lion James Mathers

effort a thought. (see page four) Incidentally, for the avoidance of doubt they have not asked me to mention this, but I know that it is beginning to become a problem. My final activity before Christmas was a visit to MD HQ in Birmingham with three boxes of spectacles together with a card and a Christmas cake for our top team who do so much for us.

Lion Roger Sutherland

Certificate of appreciation & £100 donation Weymouth and Portland Lions Club was pleased to present a President’s Certificate of Appreciation together with a cheque for £100, to Easton Methodist Church during the recent Christmas coffee morning. This donation was made following the July visit of the Lions Youth Band during their trip to the area sponsored by the Weymouth and Portland Lions Club. The band was due to play in the Easton Gardens, Portland, but inclement weather caused this to be cancelled at the last minute. However, upon hearing this, members of the church kindly opened the hall and allowed the band to give a 'pop-up' concert, which was enjoyed by residents. Photograph shows L-R Lion Roger Sutherland, Ruth (Methodist Minister), Heather & Bob (Church Members) & Lion Dave Woolford.

Club news from around the South West DG Lion James

2nd Vice District Governor position up-date On Thursday 21st December District Governor James Mathers met Immediate Past DG Lesley Chudley and 1st VDG Kevin Moore to consider an application by Lion Richard Allen to become our 2nd Vice District Governor, a post that has been vacant since the commencement of the current Lions’ year. DG James is delighted to announce that the DG Team was unanimous that Lion Richard would be an excellent candidate for that post, which will become effective from 2nd January 2024. Lion Richard is currently President of Budleigh Salterton Lions Club and Zone Chair of Zone I. Richard will step down as President of his club but will continue as Zone Chair for the remainder of the current year.

DG Lion James

Cabinet

Date

1st Cabinet

Saturday 12 August

Location

Zoom (Completed)

2 Cabinet

Saturday 4 November

Okehampton (Completed)

3rd Cabinet

Saturday 10th February

Zoom

4 Cabinet

Saturday 18 May

Okehampton

The next trip to Poland with aid for Ukraine will leave Cornwall on the 10th February 2024. To donate please follow the link to the sendinglovetoukraine website.

https://sendinglovetoukraine.org

Club news from around the South West Lion Roger Dovey

Santa DG Reaps the rewards St Austell Lions Christmas Santa Sleigh pictured on 1st December at Woodside, St Austell. A total of over £267 was collected on the evening. For details of our future routes, please see our Facebook page and website.

Lion Richard Allen

Donation to Budleigh Salterton Carnival At the December Business Meeting Budleigh Salterton Lions Club presented a cheque for £600 to Michael Hilliar, Chairperson of the Budleigh Salterton Carnival. Michael said that he was very grateful to receive the donation from the Budleigh Salterton Lions Club. "Without donations like this we simply wouldn’t be able to put on our carnival. The Lions have been one of our key supporters over the years and their continuing support is greatly appreciated.”

Lion James Mathers

Cabinet

Date

Location

1 Cabinet

Saturday 12 August

Zoom (Completed)

2nd Cabinet

Saturday 4th November

Okehampton (Completed)

3 Cabinet

Saturday 10 February

Zoom

4th Cabinet

Saturday 18th May

Okehampton

Club news from around the South West Lion Shelia Greenaway

BRIDPORT LIONS CELEBRATE SWIMARATHON WINNERS

On 28th November, Bridport Lions held their Swimarathon presentation evening at Highlands End, Eype, Bridport. Medals, awards and cups were presented by Chris Browne from AmSafe Bridport, one of the event’s main sponsors. There was a raffle and the swimmers enjoyed an excellent buffet. This was the 27th Swimarathon held by the club and the total money raised by the teams, the raffle and gift aid is over £4,300. The total raised over the years is now over £90,000, enabling the club to continue to help those in need in our community. President Clive Greenaway gave two new Lionheart Awards to Caitlyn Raison from Parrett & Axe School and Anya Williams from Bothenhampton Brownies to reward their exceptional effort. Other winners were:

Club news from around the South West Lion Shelia Greenaway

Highest Laps Junior - Barracuda Stingrays Highest Laps under 11 - Parrett & Axe School Highest Laps Mixed - Barracudas Starfish & Swordfish Highest Laps Senior - Barracudas Sharks Highest Sponsor Senior - Barracudas Sharks Highest Sponsor Mixed - West Bay Coastguards

Highest Sponsor Junior - Barracudas Seahorses Best Effort by a Youth Team - Bothenhampton Brownies Mermaids Congratulations and heartfelt thanks go to all the swimmers.

Club news from around the South West Lion Lesley Chudley

Club news from around the South West Lion Roy Russell

Plymouth Lions welcome Lion Nuwan Fernando as associate member of the club The Lions Club of Plymouth has been honoured by the joining of Lion Nuwan Fernando as an Associate Member from the Lions Club of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka. Lion Nuwan is here in Plymouth to further his career opportunities. The Plymouth Lions Club President Bob Dight exchanged pennants with Fernando to commemorate the joining. Fernando kindly provided the Plymouth Lions Club with an indication of the works being carried out by his Mother Club in an effort to enlighten them on the differences and similarities being administered on the other side of our world. Quote - “A lot more support than you think”! “Since our formation, Lions Club of Moratuwa has organised hundreds of events raising funds for many charities and needy cases in Moratuwa and Sri Lanka. “We assist community, both district and country. All funds raised for charity go to charity and all administration expenses are paid by club members. However, we will always welcome a sponsor! “Apart from fundraising, we offer support by organising communitybased projects. We annually support schoolchildren in Moratuwa (Sri Lanka) by providing food, books, uniforms, shoes and clothes to their parents. On the same day we conduct medical camps in school for them. “Also, we annually clean the Elders Home in Panadura, provide a musical event and serve vegetable soup in the evening to their 50 mothers & fathers.

Club news from around the South West Lion Roy Russell

Upon completion of his presentation, Lion Nuwan Fernando answered many questions, particularly in connection with the 2004 Tsunami which the Islanders had experienced. He also gave gifts to each Lion member present at the meeting. It is hoped that Lion Nuwan Fernando will become a permanent member of the Lions Club of Plymouth early in the forthcoming New Year.

Some of the activities undertaken by the Moratuwa Lions Club of Sri Lanka

Club news from around the South West Lion Richard Allen

CHRISTMAS LUNCH, VISIT TO ST PETER’S SCHOOL AND BRIXINGTON BLUES U14’S AWAY KIT SPONSORSHIP

On Saturday 9th December the Budleigh Salterton Lions Club held its annual Christmas Community Lunch in the Public Hall. One hundred and seventeen guests from Budleigh and the nearby villages were served a complimentary three-course Christmas Lunch (plus mince pies, teas and coffees) with all the trimmings and refreshments, including wine and sherry. The food was cooked and served by Lions Club members and their partners and friends. After lunch local resident Peter Dolling played the organ and the Lions and guests sang carols. Additional entertainment was kindly provided by the Otter Folk Band.

Club news from around the South West Lion Richard Allen

After the meal local resident Chris said, "it was a brilliant afternoon, the food was delicious, the service was excellent. The Lions have done a wonderful job bringing so many local people together at Christmas time". Another guest said, "Great atmosphere, great food and a wonderful time, thank you Budleigh Lions". Richard Allen, the President of Budleigh

Salterton Lions Club, said, "The Community Christmas Lunch is one of my favourite days of the year. The Lions, together with partners and friends, come together to plan and deliver a very special community event. I am extremely proud that we have managed to cook and serve a delicious Christmas meal to 117 local people free of charge. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.”

Club news from around the South West Lion Richard Allen

VISIT TO ST PETER’S SCHOOL Lions Richard and Sue visited St Peter’s School on 23rd November during the school’s ‘Recycling Week’ to judge the Lions’ sponsored environment poster competition. The Lions bought three prizes for upper Key Stage 2 (Y5 and Y6) and three for Lower KS2 (Y3 and Y4). The prizes consisted of six bags of ‘ecofriendly’ items supplied by ‘Budleigh Unwrapped’ including a glass straw cup and food pot, a beechwood toothbrush and some sweet treats in paper bags. St Peter's Eco Lead, Jemima Moore, said “We're very grateful to Richard and the Budleigh Lions for sponsoring the poster competition and organising such brilliant eco prizes. It was exciting for children to have a competition to enter and is a great opportunity for them to share the recycling messages with the wider community. It was wonderful to have Sue and Richard to be part of our Recycling Week and present prizes.” As well as the competition, the Recycling Week included recycling workshops provided by Suez, as well as a recycling assembly presented by the school's Eco-Champions.

Poster winner

Lion Richard Allen with Jessica from Suez and Lion Sue

Club news from around the South West Lion Richard Allen

BRIXINGTON BLUES UNDER 14’S TEAM RECEIVES AWAY KIT SPONSORSHIP FROM BUDLEIGH SALTERTON LIONS CLUB Some of the Brixington Blues U14s squad attended a recent Budleigh Lions monthly meeting where they had the opportunity to thank them for sponsoring their new away kit. Brixington Blues are Exmouth's longest running youth football club and provide youth football for around 250 young people in the local community. The club is also looking to start its first girls’ team. This is the first away kit the team has had, so they can't wait to put it to good use. Several of the team attended the meeting along with team manager Paul Cameron, Team Coach and Club Chairman Edward Wright and Club Treasurer Lorraine Ralph. Budleigh Lions Club President Richard Allen said, "We were very pleased to have the opportunity to sponsor the Brixington Blues U14's away kit. Lions have a number of Youth programmes to support and encourage young people to develop life skills including our 'Young Leaders in Service' programme. It was great to meet some of the team and I'm very much looking forward to seeing the new kit in action!".

Club news from around the South West Lion Martin Rogers

PAIGNTON LIONS DONATE £350 TO ‘SENDINGLOVETOUKRAINE’ Paignton Lions donated £350 towards the cost of hiring a van that went to Poland with aid for Ukraine recently with the group of volunteers from “Cornwall and Devon sending love to Ukraine”. The group have made 137 trips with van loads of provisions and medical items and equipment since March 2022. The aid is sorted, weighed, and packed by volunteers in Callington and then transported the 1200 miles to Warsaw in Poland by volunteer drivers. The picture shows Steve McEvoy one of the main volunteers of the group, and Lion Martin Rogers from Paignton Lions Club.

Lion Peter Rowe

It is with sadness that we announce the passing to higher service of

There are special people in our lives who never leave us, even after they have gone

Lion Mike Delf & Lion Neil Hopkiss Looe Lions Club

Please contact the respective Lions Club president or secretary for further details

Club news from around the South West DG Lion James Mathers

Club news from around the South West Lion Tim Ottter

BLACKMORE VALE LIONS DONATE £400 TO THE VALE PANTRY This last month has been all about being out doing routine things, the bread and butter of Lions work. A little-known fact about the Blackmore Vale area of North Dorset/South Somerset is that it is blighted by rural poverty. Against this background, Blackmore Vale Lions Club (BVLC) works to try to help people and organisations that need or deserve help. Of the latter, the Vale Pantry https:// www.valepantry.co.uk/ based in Sturminster Newton is surely one of the best examples. BVLC is proud to support them. A social supermarket, it exists to alleviate food poverty. It’s about local people doing things locally to help other local

Lions Colin McLeod, Bill Brown & David Birt at The Vale Pantry

people. BVLC was delighted recently to present a cheque for £400.00 to them to fund “Christmas goodies” and provide things that many of us take for granted, to impoverished families this Christmas.

BVLC likes to work with other philanthropic organisations to maximise our effect. Apart from the Vale Pantry, which has several local contributors, we work with many other organisations on projects big and small. At the same time as food issues, there are physical effects of overty we can help with. Working with Rotary, we helped provide carpets for an elderly, infirm lady Lion David Birt planting a cherry tree at Sturminster Newton Recreation living in social housing where Ground there were none. Almost literally in the same breath, a severely asthmatic child whose desperate parents could not afford the specialist suffocation-resistant pillow she needed found the pillow being delivered.

Club news from around the South West Lion Tim Otter

On a much more cheerful note, but all part of the same theme, BVLC has been delighted to team up with local supermarket Dike and Son to plant three trees across the Vale to commemorate the Coronation of King Charles III. The trees have been planted in local recreation facilities in Henstridge and Sturminster Newton and one will follow in Stalbridge. No, we were not late, but took the advice of the tree supplier, Castle Gardens in Sherborne, who also helped with the planting, as to the best time to plant them. They join other BVLC memorials, benches or trees, to celebrate and remind people of important moments in the UK’s history. Cherry tree at Henstridge Recreation Rround The run-up to Christmas has been hectic for us all. Isn’t it always? Doubly so for BVLC Lions because we have been out and about doing bucket collections. Cold and frosty, wet and windy weather contrasted markedly with our collections over Easter and August Bank Holiday when we basked in the sun. Inclement weather aside this routine essential activity has helped us with our Keep Lions in plain Sight (KLIPS) programme, raising our profile with the maximum number of people to increase our profile and visibility. As a tangential benefit and showing just what “being there” can do to help, offer hope, and achieve Lions aims: outside one collection point we met a retired GP who had found she was in competition with Lions to provide recycled Spectacles for Sierra Leone where she had worked. Conversations are to follow. We are sure some form of joint activity can be arranged with Lions Sight Savers and it might just recruit a new member!

In the background we have been working steadily to get ready for the Blackmore Vale Half Marathon (4th Feb Bishop’s Caundle at 11.00). Links are https://bvlhm.yolasite.com or RUNBRITAIN.COM/ RACES to enter or https://bvlions.yolasite.com/ to help. We hope to see you there in one Blackmore Vale Lions – donation. Lion Jerry Dawkins

£480 DONATION TO ST PIRANS HALL & £300 TO PENGARTH DAY CENTRE There were three recent events celebrated by The Penzance Lions Club. As always, any Lions club is proud when a member receives a coveted MJF award, so it was a double celebration when at the recent Charter evening, two members were recognised, the club President Gill Dawkins and Vice President Giane Mortimer, who received their awards from Lion Leslie Clarke, a Past District Governor. Two donations were also made recently, the first to St Pirans Hall in Goldsithney with a donation of £480. The hall needed support for its quiet room; the money donated was used to purchase the required chairs, allowing users somewhere comfortable to sit whilst using the room. Pengarth Day Centre asked for assistance with its annual Christmas party for the local elderly community, Lions Gill Dawkins, Karen Roebuck and Liz Williams were on hand to serve lunch to the attendees; a wonderful time was had by all and it was capped off with a donation of £300 made by the Lions to support the cost of the lunch. It has been an exciting and rewarding last few weeks of 2023 for the Penzance Lions Club which looks forward to another successful year in 2024.

Club news from around the South West Lion Lesley Chudley

THERE’S SILVER IN THEM THEIR BATTERIES

Button batteries contain a small amount of silver. A member of Southend Lions has the ability to extract this and dispose of the rest, environmentally safely. One kilogram of batteries will yield £50 of silver at today’s prices. Please collect these from care homes, medical outlets, chemists, hearing aid providers or anywhere that will save them for you, and bring them to zone meetings, cabinet, or post them to Lesley Chudley. All monies generated will go into the MD Vision Screening Programme. SO we are helping the environment and vision in one go!

WIN! WIN!

Club news from around the South West Lion Geoff Kaye

TRURO LIONS ANNOUNCE CHRISTMAS HAMPER WINNERS

During the last four weeks the Lions Club of Truro has been running Christmas hamper draws at the Pannier Market in Truro, plus a cash collection at Tesco. We have concluded a very successful campaign raising a great amount of just over £2,500! The monies raised are for our principal charity Penhaligon's Friends, plus other local good causes, including Lauren and Rosies Fund, (LARF), a cancer charity and the Invictus Trust, a mental health charity. This was only possible due to the wonderful support from the people of Truro and surrounding areas. A big, big thank you to all who visited us and very generously entered the draws and donated at Tesco. Many thanks to Tesco, the Co-op and Marks and Spencer's for their generous donations to fill our hampers, and to Lampier's Butchers of Threemilestone, who jointly funded a £30 meat voucher. The Pannier Market has again been especially supportive this year, allowing us to collect on three days each week. Many thanks to John Roach and E Cigs R Us for their great support! Also, thanks to Ann of Martins Bakery for making the draws. We also thank Tesco for allowing to us to do a one-day cash collection for the charities listed above. Finally, we couldn’t achieve our results without our dedicated Lions, partners and friends, who were on duty at the markets!

The recipients are as listed on the attached photos, together with a photo showing the recipients.

First Prize Winner

The draws for the winners of the Hampers were made on 16th December and prizes have since been delivered

Club news from around the South West Lion Geoff Kaye

First Prize, ticket number 1384. Mr Nick Chaffin of Porthscatho.

Second Prize, ticket number 1420. Ms Linda Potter of Truro (photo shows hamper being received by her daughter).

Third Prize, ticket number 57 Mrs Penny Gange of Mevagissey. Second Prize Winner

Third Prize Winner

Lions collection at Tescos

Club news from around the South West Lion Martin Rogers

PAIGNTON LIONS ANNUAL BOXING DAY WALK INTO THE SEA The Lions Club of Paignton would like to thank all the participants and locals who supported us on our Annual Boxing Day Walk in the Sea 2023. We took £2,924.05 in bucket collections and a further £944.71 on our SumUp machine. Over 300 individuals, many in fancy dress, braved the waters of Paignton Beach. We feel very fortunate that the weather was kind to us. We have always been amazed at the wonderful support that is given to Paignton Lions Club events.

Special thanks to Torbay Hospital Radio, Torbay Lifeboat and local Coastguards and our many helpers.

Lion Thomas Miner

Here is the final District 105SW diabetes update for 2023. For those of you eagerly waiting for the outcome of the November MD Diabetes Officers Zoom meeting, well, unfortunately there was no meeting, and no sign of a December meeting either. However, I would like to thank the clubs who arranged diabetes awareness stands during November, some braving the weather with outdoor stands. I found it cold enough standing in the foyer of the local Co-op! They were all very good and hopefully achieved something positive. According to the Independent Diabetes Trust: People with Type 2 diabetes are often diagnosed because of having complications rather than because they suspect they have Type 2 diabetes, i.e. when it's too late. Type 2 diabetes can remain undiagnosed for several years. Hence the need for diabetes awareness. Finally, may I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Kind regards Tom Miner District 105SW Diabetes Officer

Club news from around the South West Lion Kevin Brookes

A VERY BUSY, BUSY DECEMBER—CLUB ACTIVITIES FOR THIS MONTH Weymouth & Portland Lions Club Christmas festivities got off to an early start on Saturday 25th November when Lions helped at Weymouth BID’s Elf Day and the Christmas Lights Switch-on ceremony. In previous years Weymouth BID has tried to beat the Guinness Book of World Records for having the most people dressed as elves in one place at the same time. However, this has proved very difficult to achieve and although no record attempt was made this year, it didn’t stop everyone from dressing up as elves and just acting silly. The Lion led the Santa Sleigh parade through the town before a day of local entertainment and the

Kevin the Lion leading the Santa Sleigh through Weymouth on Elf Day

Christmas Lights Switching-on ceremony at sunset. Saturday 2nd December saw the Lions taking a well-earned night off with a three-course dinner at the Avenue Restaurant, Weymouth College for 45 Lions, guests and friends who all enjoyed an early festive treat. At the dinner, Lions President, Ryan Hope presented Daniel Brookes with a President’s Certificate of Appreciation for all his hard work shaking a yellow bucket at numerous Motocross events and Christmas Day Harbour Swims. Well done, Daniel.

Daniel receiving his certificate of appreciation from President Ryan Hope

On Sunday 3rd December Weymouth & Portland Lions were invited to attend a very popular local Christmas event in Wyke Regis called ‘I’m dreaming of a Wyke Christmas’. This was an opportunity to showcase what the club has been up to over the year and what it has to offer, with plenty of little green messages in a bottle handed out, specs collected for recycling and funds raised through the very popular Lions Soft Toy Tombola. Although the weather had other ideas and tried its best to put a dampener on the whole event, it still went ahead between the heavy rain showers and, according to the organisers, it was a great success. The Lions Soft Toy Tombola and collection raised £746.56 for local charities

and good causes. At 7.30 pm on 5th December saw curtain-up once again at the

Pavilion Theatre for the Lions

Club news from around the South West Lion Kevin Brookes

Christmas Variety Show, an annual event that gets better each year. Over 480 tickets were sold at a bargain price of just £5.00 each and, from customer feedback at the end of the show, it was the best show ever. The first half of the show kicked off in style with a lively set of dance routines by Lion Julie Storey’s dance company, Let’s Dance, quickly followed by solo artist Eloise Spence. Alistair Dean and Briana Brat-Tanasa were next on stage and the first half ended with a selection of songs performed by the Casterbridge Male Voice Choir under the musical direction of Alistair Dean. The second half started with our very own Lion Norman Stagles and wife Ann who took us back on a nostalgic musical ride with songs from the 50s and 60s. The highlight of the evening (according to customer feedback after the show), was classical duo of Paul Sundt on guitar and Barbara Gasior on violin who led the audience on a dizzying foot-tapping tour of dances and jigs to rapturous applause and cheers. The evening came to a very lively end when Wessex Musical Theatre took to the stage with a compilation of songs from show and screen. A bucket collection raised a further £460.00 on the door after the show. On Friday 15th December Lions Ryan Hope and Kevin Brookes, (dressed up as Father Christmas) attended and handed out sweets to the children of Conifers Primary School, Weymouth, on their last day of term. If going home for Christmas wasn’t exciting enough for the children, a packet of brightly coloured Gummy Bears added to the mix and always does the trick. Although not a fund-raising event, the children insisted on parting with £28.18 of their hard-earned pocket money. Two bucket collections at the local Asda store followed on successive Sundays which again were very popular and raised £294.86.

The Santa Sleigh was out in Westham on 22nd December and collected £243.29. On Saturday 23rd December Lions Roger Sutherland and Dave Woolford attended Easton Methodist Church Coffee Morning and presented the church with a Certificate of Appreciation and a cheque for £100 (see page 3 of this newsletter). Further activities included distributing £200 towards the Dorset Echo Toy Appeal, £1,000 donation to Weymouth Foodbank, £500 to Portland Foodbank and a further £304 donated to the local foodbanks through 152 Christmas selection boxes. There was a £250 donation to LCIF Mexico Hurricane Appeal, and two more local sporting youngsters were also helped with

Club news from around the South West Lion Kevin Brookes

sponsorship; £200 to Ollie, a promising Ju-jitsu star and £200 to a young girl called Lexi who is outstanding at baton-twirling. When the British Army pulled out of Afghanistan last year, many of the Afghanistan armed forces who had helped the Army as guides and interpreters, found themselves at risk once the Taliban had re-taken control. They were quickly moved over to Pakistan while the British government decided how to re-settle them in Britain. This process was taking longer than planned and the Pakistan government told them to leave the country. They were flown over to the UK with very few possessions and housed on a temporary basis at Chickerell Army Camp. A week before Christmas word filtered out from the camp via the Mayor of Weymouth that the families didn’t have any warm clothing and the children didn’t have any toys to play with. Lion President Ryan Hope immediately sprang into action and contacted Weymouth Town Council, Portland Town Council and Chickerell Town Council, who all opened their offices as collection centres for toys, warm clothing and other presents. Contact was also made with the Veterans’ Hub, which helped in the collection process. Many of the ex-veterans who attend the veterans’ Hub had served with the soldiers when on tour in Afghanistan. They were only too eager to help. £500 of emergency funding was made available via the Lions Welfare Committee and a boot-full of toys was quickly delivered to the camp by Ryan. Weymouth Rotary also helped with a delivery of toys. Little did we know that the £200 donation we had made a few days before to the Echo Toy Appeal would be used quite so quickly. And so to the highlight of our fundraising year with the Lions Christmas Day Harbour Swim. 420 swimmers all paid £15.00 each for the privilege of tackling the 70-metre stretch of harbour from Trinity Road over to the Harbour Master’s Office. This attracts swimmers from all over the country and the Lions have been organising this event for more than 35 years. Over £7,500 was raised through swimmers’

Club news from around the South West Lion Kevin Brookes

fees and bucket collections on the day. After the swim President Ryan Hope took the opportunity to present his son Lewie, with a Certificate of Appreciation for his contribution to club activities and all his hard work. Well done Lewie! As we all begin to put our feet up to enjoy the new year, Lion Kevin Brookes is already planning his next trip, in the new year (his fifth) to Poland with aid for Ukraine with the group, sendinglovetoukraine. It never stops, does it?

Club news from around the South West

Lion Kevin Brookes

Thank you to everyone who has contributed this month’s South West Post. Deadline for articles and photographs for next month’s newsletter is 25th January 2024. Until then... 29