IRONBRIDGE LIONS NEWSLETTER
Published 31st August 2019
Welcome to the newsletter of the Ironbridge and Severn Gorge Lions. If you have questions on any of the items listed or if you wish to volunteer for any of the events or activities, please contact Colin Thompson – cthompson@bcs.org.uk or call 07970 417497
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Looking Back – Recent Events and Activities
Silver over the Bridge
Two silver over the Bridge (SOB) events in August. On the 4th we were joined by Members of the Newport Visually Impaired Persons group and on the 25th by the local First Responders.
Two excellent events with great interaction with visitors and total donations for the two days in excess of £800, all of which goes to the groups involved. We have been struck this year by the extent to which the community groups involved have enjoyed the experience – as the following extract from a letter from John Williamson of the Newport group will ill
ustrate.
“Last Sunday was, for myself, Christine and our small group of members, a truly memorable and most enjoyable day spent with you and your great team of volunteers. The day passed by very quickly and we all agreed that it had been very rewarding meeting up with your team and chatting to visitors from all over the world. The weather stayed good for the day and the pies and pasties at lunchtime were excellent”
SOB 40 year’s on
Last month’s edition of this newsletter contained a photo of the group of Ironbridge Lions at the first Silver over the Bridge event held in August 1979 – 40 years ago. On 4th August this year, an item on Radio Shropshire about the 40th anniversary produced a surprise visit from the parents of one of our first SOB beneficiaries. Philip Sedgley was a small boy with significant hearing problems who was struggling at school as a result of his deafness. The collection on the bridge was to buy him a phonic ear. His parents heard about the 40th anniversary on Shropshire Radio and came down to the bridge to say hello and to express their thanks for the support they received 40 years ago. Philip is now in middle age of course and the phonic ear has long since been superseded but at the time it was a great success. A rare opportunity for a conversation spanning a gap of 40 years.
The SOB for the Newport group also included a surprise – in the form of Rachel Shanks. Rachel is a member of the visually impaired group but she also happens to be the mother of Neil Shanks who came to the rescue of our late member and friend Lou Llewellyn in Thailand in late 2017. The story of that rescue reads like an outline for a film script. Lou, who suffered from motor neurone disease, was alone and desperately ill in Hua Hin, a town 125 miles from Bangkok, having been abandoned by a travelling companion. The Foreign Office had managed to locate Lou in an hotel where he had collapsed while calling the club to ask for help. They arranged for him to be transferred to a local hospital but this still left Lou alone, very seriously ill and without friends in a foreign country. Neil, who lived in Hua Hin, knew nothing of this until he took a call, via Everest base camp, from a close friend, Martin Cole, at 2 am one morning. Martin was hiking in the Himalayas but he knew Lou and had heard from home that he was in trouble. Despite the hour, Neil set off immediately on a tour of the 8 local hospitals to find Lou. Once he did so he provided the local support which was crucial to Lou being able to return safely to the UK. Sadly, Lou died earlier this year but he never forgot the care and kindness that he received from Neil.
CAL-SIBZ Paediatric Oncology gifts
August also brought a request from Kerry Finazzi, mother of Liam and Callum. She wrote that “Callum was eight years old when his brother Liam was diagnosed with leukaemia and his world turned upside down. During Liam’s treatment it made Callum really happy when people remembered him too. So much so, that Callum wanted to be involved in setting something up to help support siblings too, which is what CAL-SIBZ Charitable Trust is all about.
Everything changes when a child is diagnosed with cancer. For siblings it can be especially hard having families split up, parents spending a lot of time away from home and being unable to do the things that they used to do with their brother or sister. The CAL-SIBZ trust aims to bring smiles to siblings faces whilst their brother or sister are being treated by the paediatric oncology ward at The Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.”
The club agreed a small initial donation of £100 accompanied by an offer to meet with the trustees in about 3 months’ time to discuss how the charity is progressing and to explore ways in which we can help them to raise additional funding.
POD Children’s charity
We are staying with children and hospitals for this item. POD Children’s Charity is a nationwide charity that organises entertainment for children in hospital. Founded in 1977, POD now gives monthly shows in 150 hospitals and hospices across the UK, aiming to alleviate the trauma of a hospital stay with fun and laughter. We were greatly impressed when we saw the entertainers in action at the Princess Royal Hospital 4 years ago and the club has funded a monthly visit by an entertainer ever since. The current year’s funding came to an end in August and members voted unanimously to extend it for a further year.
Madeley Community orchard and Men in Sheds
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There is something uniquely satisfying in working in partnership with other local volunteer organisations to deliver benefit to our community – as we’ve found in our partnership with Ironbridge Rotary for prostate testing. We had another partnership opportunity recently when we were approached by Pam Marshall of the Madeley Community Orchard Committee. The orchard is a large area of land behind the graveyard to St Michael’s church which is managed and tended by a group of volunteers. Pam explained that the orchard is now well stocked with a variety of fruit trees, including varieties of apple plus pear, plum, cherry, damson, greengage, medlar, and others. They have also created a wide life area including a 
pond, Bee boarders rich in colour and wheelchair friendly paths. The ambition now is to train fruit trees against the Victorian brick wall which separates the orchard from the land belonging to St Michaels.
The club very readily agreed to fund the purchase of the new fruit trees plus the wire and other materials required for the support structure. That left just the matter of the construction of the support framework and here we turned to our good friends the Newport Men in Sheds who, despite the name, are based at Hall Barn Madeley. Willie Gormley and his Men are happy to do it and we should have the necessary structure in place in time for the trees to be planted in the Autumn. Three groups coming together for the benefit of the community
Coracle regatta
As always, August Bank Holiday Monday wa
s Coracle Regatta day in Ironbridge and this year we enjoyed near-perfect weather conditions for the event. Sadly, our days of selling tents and chairs died with the V Fest last year but we had a busy day with our Nerf Gun challenge and Teddy tombola together with running the car park.
Looking Ahead – Future Activities and Plans
The Final SOB of the season
Our final Silver over the Bridge event is scheduled for Sunday 15th September and is for the local MyFam project. MyFaM (‘My Family and Me’) has been set up in order to bridge the gap between abled and disabled children in the community.
The group runs youth clubs in locations around Telford, providing silent disco sessions, sensory play, arts and crafts, dance and music plus child led workshops, aiming to ensure that all children are educated indifferent ways of socialising with a variety of different personalities, ensuring that children learn lifelong skills that they can take with them into their adult life. The aim is to create more understanding of different disabilities and to teach this in a fun, safe environment for all, from a young age. As with all our local group collections representatives of the group will be with us on the bridge.
Ironbridge Open Day
As part of the Ironbridge Festival of Imagination Ironbridge is having an open day on Saturday Septermber 21st. The Wharfage and High Street roads will be closed for the day (until 6pm) and the square and street will be filled with local arts crafts, charities and entertainers. Many pubs and bars are putting on entertainment and special outside food offerings too. Ironbridge Lions will be there, with activities for the children in which our model of the Iron Bridge will take centre stage.
Autumn fashion show
Following the success of the event that we held in May, the club has now booked to run an Autumn fashion show on Saturday 9th November commencing at 5pm.As in May, the venue will be the Wakes in Theatre Square, Oakengates and the fashions on show will again be from the well-known High Street brands. And all will be on sale at the end of the show at a minimum of 50% discount on the shop price.
For more information and to buy tickets: http://tiny.cc/Lions
Christmas 2019
Unbelievable though it seems, there are just 116 days left before Christmas, which means that once the Fashion Show is behind us, we will be into Christmas activities. As always, collection of food for our Christmas hampers will be the first item on the Christmas work schedule. We plan to produce a minimum of 100 hampers – for which we will need in excess of 2.5 tons of non-perishable food items.
Historically, most of this has been achieved through door to door collections but increasingly we are
trying to work smarter by getting individuals to put together a boxes of food within the family, the workplace or their local street and then to call us to collect. This year we also plan to have a number of collection points within stores, cafes and community centres where people can drop off their food collections. We know from feedback we receive, just what difference our hampers make to families at Christmas and we are always grateful for the generosity of people in our community which makes it possible.
The second stage of the Christmas activity is of course the collection of food and financial donations with the Santa Sleigh. As usual, that will start with the Christmas Lights events at Madeley and Ironbridge on 30th November and will run through to 4pm on Christmas eve at one of the local supermarkets. That is a fairly exhausting schedule and it would be absolutely impossible without the support of the amazing Friends of Ironbridge Lions.
And Finally
Have you ever considered becoming a Lion? Membership provides an opportunity to make a real contribution to your community, to acquire new skills and to make lasting friendships. And there is real satisfaction to be gained from helping others.
But if your family commitments do not allow you to commit the time for full membership, why not consider signing up as a Friend of the club. As a Friend, you are free to give as much or as little of your time as you wish, there is no subscription, no minimum commitment, and no pressure; we just send you an email every few weeks showing the upcoming activities so that you can volunteer for any that take your fancy.
If any of this appeals to you, we’d love to talk to you – just complete our contact form and we will give you a call.