Latest News from Petersfield Lions
Petersfield Lion Honoured
Lion John Sheeley was honoured by the Club at the 2010 Annual Charter Anniversary dinner when he was presented with a Melvyn Jones Fellowship. The award is the highest that a Lions Club can bestoy and the award to Lion John is only the second in Petersfield Lions 38 year history. The award, which is named after the Chicago businessman who founded Lions in 1917, was presented jointly by Club Lion President Les Jarman and Lion District Governor Judith Goodchild.
Lion John Sheeley has been a Lion for 35 years. The last 18 with Petersfield. During his time with the Club he has been avery active member, was President three times, held most officerships and has been Zone Chairman (a local network of 3 or 4 Clubs). Before Petersfield John was a member of Merton Club (south London).
A Lion's Legacy
Terry Tidd, a founder of Peterfield Lions who passed away in the summer of 2009, has remembered his community in his will. The Club has been left a sum to be used for the annual Christmas parcels project. This good cause was a particular favourite.
A Busy and Rewarding Christmas 2009
A collecting we will go
Trevor , Mike and Tony hit the Town
Another very busy Christmas for Petersfield Lions. We had collections around the Town on the Saturday of the Petersfield Christmas Festival and at Tesco (thank you, Tesco) on 23rd December. In addition we had a Bric a Brac stall at the Festival Hall Xmas Market on 15th December. Tiring but it was worth it. Over £1000 raised all together. But it wasn't all work as we went to the Hampshire Hog (aka Hogs Lodge) for our Club Christmas meal and a good time was had.
What did we do with the £1000? We distributed 67 Christmas goodies parcels to the lonely and housebound, donated £200 towards Christmas entertainment for the residents of Bulmer House, earmarked £300 for panto tickets for Homestart Butser and put £250 towards home furnishing for a family being looked after by social services.
2009 Annual Quiz is another RECORD
The 15th Annual Quiz and Grand Draw (30 October) in support of Holidays for Disabled People was another record. A sell out with 180 players, as usual, helped the Lions and the Eight O'Clock Club raise £2204 for the charity. The Clubs thank everyone who took part in whatever capacity. For details of donors and teams click on 2009 Quiz Results.
Next year's Quiz is on Friday 29 October, 2010. Book early to avoid disappointment. 2010 is the 50th Anniversary of Holidays for Disabled People; let's make it special.
A sad start to 2009/10
The Lions year started on a sad note with the death of Terry Tidd. Terry was the last serving Charter member (i.e. founding) of the Club and had been at the centre of Club affairs and activities since 1972 and will be sadly missed. Terry is survived by his wife Audrey, his son David and his daughter Elisabeth.
Ethiopia Sponsor Reports Back
In June 2009 Petersfield Lions were delighted to receive a report from a young lady, Eleanor Updegraff, who they had helped sponsor on a trip to help in orphanages in Ethiopia. Eleanor had a purposeful and uplifting time helping and experiencing the third world. Her activities are a great credit to her and the organisation, Projects Abroad, who organised the trip.
The Lions look forward hearing personally from Eleanor in the near future.
Eleanor Updegraff and Elshada
Railway Festival Success
In April, Petersfield Lions rolled out their Animal Tomobola stall for the festivities celebrating 150 years of the railway through the Town. In keeping with the Victorian theme many Lions dressed up (or down) in 19th century style. This included the Town Crier who doubled as an event marshall. The stall was its normal financial success adding a couple of hundred pounds to the charity account coffers.
Best Lion Photo
For the second successive year Petersfield Lion Clive Midson won the Lions District (i.e. regional) Environmental Photograph Competition. Clive's excellent shot of woodland covered with blossoming wild garlic is below. The competition is run annually and covers Lions Clubs in Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Berkshire, Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.
Busy start to 2009
In the first couple of months of the year Petersfield Lions made 3 donations to good causes. £100 was sent to Water Aid towards their ongoing support of supplying safe water to the third world and £200 was donated to Petersfield's King's Arms youth centre.
In addition, £100 was sent as sponsorship to a local young person who was using part of her gap year to help out in a orphanage in Ethiopia. The Lions were particularly impressed that the young lady had already put in six months similar work in Argetina and had funded it by part time work. The Club look forward hearing about her experiences upon her return.
In March, the Club are providing labour for the Big Dig . This is a local Community Project to help the confidence of elderly people and get them more active. Later in the year in a similar activity Petersfield and Woolmer Forest Lions are joing to fund a garden at Fitzroy Support's Disabilty Centre at Ramshill, Petersfield.
Early Start to Christmas 2008
The Lions were out at the Petersfield Christmas Festivities (7 December) with their fluffy toy tombola and a collection at Tesco. The weekend was very worthwhile raising over £400 for the Charity account. A street collection was held in the following weekend. Monies raised were soon dispersed on good local good causes. £200 was donated to Ramscote Resdential home for Christmas goodies, £145 was spent on packs of shortbread to be distributed around the Town and £360 was passed to Homestart Butser for panto tickets for their clients.
2008 Quiz is the Biggest Ever
The 14th Annual Eight O'Clock Club / Lions Quiz (31 October) was the biggest. With 180 players and 30 teams the Festival Hall (the biggest local venue) was filled to capacity. All the feedback is that people had a really good time whilst raising £1800 for the Holidays for Disabled People charity.
The winners were "Buddies" for the second year running.
A full list of the results and, those all important, sponsors of the Grand Draw prizes is shown at 2008 Quiz Results.
Lions at Petersfield Festivities
Just itching to be a "lucky winner"
The Lions were at both days of the Petersfield Festivities at August Bank Holiday. The event which was attended by around 15000 gave the Club the chance to raise over £300 on the "Cuddly Toy" tombola and distribute some publicity material.
Fine day at East Meon
East Meon Country Fair was the first fete that the Club attended in 2008. With a good weather and record crowds the Club's tombola and other games raised a record £625.
Bringing in the customers
Higher or Lower? Er...........
Spectrek 2008 hits new record
April 2008 saw a new record achieved in the 26 year history of the annual used spectacle collections. The total was in excess of 105000 and brings the overall total to over 1,980,000. Next year we will break the 2 million mark. With new specs costing at least £100 today the 26 years of Lions collections represents a gift of nearly £200 million from the people of central Southern England to eye sight projects in Afric and Asia.
That's another van nearly emptied
Petersfield Lions get District Awards
At the annual Lions District 105D convention in March the Club were delighted to receive two awards. Lion Les Jarman won the Best Club Website Award for 2007/8 and Lion Clive Midson won the award in the photographic competition for the best environmental photograph.
Lions help out Homestart Quiz
Petersfield Lions had a good fun evening out in March at the Homestart Butser Quiz.. As well as entering a team (which came 6th) the club also provided the Question Master and staffed the bar. There was also another team of present and former Lions who came 3rd out of the 27 teams present. Indications are that the quiz raised about £3000 for Homestart Butser funds .
Homestart at Pantomime
The Petersfield Lions were delighted to help Homestart Butser take 25 adults and 35 children to the local pantomime in early 2008. A wonderful time was had by all. Our picture shows a couple of the children meeting one of the cast.
Christmas 2007
The Christmas period has begun. We've donated another £400 to Homestart Butser to let them take children to the local pantomime in January. We are giving £75 to a local luncheon club towards their Christmas Lunch and we have agreed, in principle, to pay for much of the cost of entertainment at the Ramscote Day Centre Christmas entertainment. We also hope to donate small gifts to our friends in outings for the housebound.
As usual, we're out "shaking the tins" at this time of year. Our collection at Tesco raised £277 from their generous customers. Next week (8 December) we had our street collection (£488 raised) and also a stall at the Festival Hall Christmas Fair (£30). Thanks again to the generous people of Petersfield
2007 Quiz is a record
The 2007 annual quiz ( the 13th year) hit an all time attendance record. All 28 tables were sold. A donation of £1664 was made to Holidays for Disabled People.
Next year's quiz will be 31 October 2008 when we will try to make another couple of tables available. Make a note in your diaries now - we had to turn 10 tables away this year as we were full up.
Busy Summer
The none too summery summer of 2007 did not deter Petersfield Lions activities. We took our Furry Toy Tombola to fetes at East Meon, Swanmore, South Harting and the Petersfield Town Festivities. All made very useful contributions to our Charitable Funds which ,as is our way, we tried to spend asap.
We were happy to help our friends at Elizabeth Fitzroy Support a couple of times during recent months. We took a group in a mini bus to Paultons Park when all had a really good time. And, at our annual changeover of Presidents, outgoing President Clive was pleased to be able to hand over £250 to the Charity. At the same time we handed over £500 to Homestart Butser. Other recent donations have included £250 for a third world eye camp (this is an annual committment we take on as part of our SpecTrek activities) and we were glad to be able to hand on £100 to the Lions Disaster Fund for the summer flooods in the UK.
At the end of the summer we were able to help three local Guides attend an International Rally in Denmark. They have let us know that they are most grateful and had a great time.
The Guides and Friends prepare for Denmark
As the summer drew to an end we helped Petersfield Round Table with their Charity Cycle ride and, at the same event, two of us took part in the ride and raised over £250. This will be divided between our Charity Funds and Elizabeth Fitzroy support for their agricultural project at Liss.
Some of us gave a hand to Woolmer Forest Lions at Headley fete in September. We will be meeting them again at Blackmoor Apple Farm in October for the annual Apple Festival day when we will help with car parking and have our Tomobola stall raising some funds.
Our normal small activities ( the monthly Pop-In cafe at Winton House and helping Outings for the Housebound) continue while we gear up for our big annual quiz at the end of October. And then there's Christmas.
And some of say that we don't do much!
SpecTrek25
Unloading at Midhurst
The 25th Anniversary run of Spectrek (April, 2007) was another great success. The total collection fell just short of the 100000 mark. A superb effort by the Lions of District 105D (i.e. largely mid southern England). In addition sufficient funds were raised for the Club to sponsor at least one and possibly two eye camps in the developing world. In the previous year's effort a similar number of specs were collected. In the 2006 Spec trek we collected 99800 pairs of specs for reuse in the Third World.
Tall Ship Sponsorship brings thanks
A young person who we helped sponsor for a week's Tall Ship experience in the Azores has written to the Club thanking us for our help. She obviously had a great time and says " It seemed scary at first but the adrenalin soon kicked in.... The most memorable part for me was climbing to the ends of the yards to set the sails, looking down into the sea watching dolphins playing in the waves around the ship......I made some wonderful friends ... am sure that we will all keep in touch .... I had an amazing time and I am very grateful for your help without which I would not have been able to participate. I have enclosed a photograph so that you can see how much fun I had during the voyage. Thank you once again"
For more about Petersfield Lions click on "What do we do?"