IRONBRIDGE & SEVERN GORGE LIONS -LION PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2017/18
It has been a great honour and education to be the Club’s Lion President, as the Lions celebrate their 100th Anniversary.
Fundraising – As can be seen from the Jim Philbin’s Fundraising Report our club has had its usual busy year, we have collected money across the Iron bridge (Silver over the Bridge (SOB)), for a variety of charities. We have manned fundraising stalls at various events. We have collected tents and other items, left behind at the Weston Park V Festival, for International Disaster Relief efforts, with surplus chairs and tents being sold off at various events to raise further charity funds. We have supported Lou’s Llewellyn’s charity event in aid of Midlands Air Ambulance. We have raffled Easter Teddies and Christmas Teddies, the latter looking very appealing in their bespoke Santa outfits made by Kay Philbin and her ‘Crafty Sew-an-sews”. At Christmas, in line with the Lions Centennial theme, our Vice President, Jim Philbin, utilised a wide variety of suspect DIY skills and abilities of both Club members and our friends, to make 100 wooden Christmas Trees, with lights, out of pallets and 100 wooden Santas; this was a hugely enjoyable, social and practical challenge. John Marsh, our silver tongued Club PR Officer, who clearly has a silver pen too, crafted a very successful lottery bid towards our second Prostate Screening Event. Colin Thompson has done sterling work to enable the club to claim and receive considerable sums of Gift Aid, from HMRC, based upon our bucket collections and other donations. The scrap collection and tool sales have become an increasingly relied-on source of Admin Account income, some of which has subsequently been transferred across, to top up the Club’s Charity Account.
Supporting – Peter Derham’s detailed Welfare Committee Report records and reflects the wide ranging level of financial and practical support the Club has given to individuals and organisations. We have supported several local individuals and families, in Telford, who have undergone life-changing circumstances. We have supported the Jane Sergeant Foundation Charity, to take a number of those either diagnosed, or undergoing treatment for cancer, on a fun day out, hosted by several Club members, on the Friendly Bus, to ‘Tea-on-the-Way’. We have supported Scouts and Girl Guide groups with funds and tents. We have taken the Skittle Alley to Dawley Academy Primary School Open Day to help raise funds for their school. We have supported a young carers group by buying them a Play Station and football goal. We supported a local group of 24 brownies to have an amazing PGL adventure holiday. We are strong supporters of the on-going restoration and use of the Anstice Hall in Madeley. In 2017 we provided cutlery and crockery sets and under June Softley’s coordination we recently held a fund-raising concert that raised over £1700 for Anstice Hall work projects. We have supported Dogs for the Blind and Dogs for the Deaf appeals. We have provided pond-dipping nets for the National Trust at Atcham. We have supported the Poppy appeal and ensured that the three War Memorials in our patch are all attended by at least one member of the Club. We have laid wreaths at the Remembrance events. We have provided Santa’s for a variety of local events and Christmas Light switch-ons. The Club has also donated considerable funds to Lions International overseas appeals and disaster relief efforts. The Club has continued to plant and maintain the flower beds around the Madeley War Memorial at the request of Madeley Parish Council. Various Club members have continued to “be there “ and provide assistance for Lou Llewellyn, following his dramatic return from Thailand. The Ironbridge Square Defibrillator unit has been checked and kept in good repair on a weekly basis. We have hosted a series of speakers, many of whose visits have resulted in donations to their charities or individual projects. As LP I supported the 2017 Wrexham Maelor Lions stand at the Llangollen Eisteddfod music event in July.
Christmas Hampers – We collected food for both Tesco and our own Food Hamper Drives, coordinated by Peter Derham. We have been genuinely and warmly astounded by the generosity of people over the Christmas period and subsequently managed to sort and then make up over 120 food hampers (under the ever watchful and experienced eye of Gordon Weston, our clubs only serving, Charter Founder member) all of which went to selected individuals and families in need of support, or the Wellington Food Bank, prior to Christmas.
Lions Buckingham Palace Reception – On 28 Feb I braved blizzards and freezing temperatures to attend a Reception with the Countess of Wessex at Buckingham Palace as part of the Lion’s Centennial celebrations. The Countess paid heartfelt tribute to our work and dedication and thanked us, on behalf of all the Lions, for the magnificent service that they (along with our friends and partners) have rendered both here in the UK and overseas and the millions of lives that we have made a positive difference too.
Prostate Screening Event – Based on our experience gained from our successful first Prostate Screening event in March 2017, organised by Mavis Derham, we ran our second joint Prostate Screening event, with Ironbridge Rotary, at the Anstice Memorial Hall, in Madeley, on 26 March, where we tested 650 men. Such was the demand on the night, that we made a promise to organise a second smaller testing session, on 23 April, for those men we had processed, but had sadly run out of test kits for, at the end of the night. It is clear that there is a continuing and growing demand for Prostate Screening events and I suspect that the demand in 2019 will be larger again.
Social – The club supported a local Rotarian quiz night in Dawley, but sadly we did not fair particularly well! We have taken John Boydell’s Skittle Alley to Wem Senior Club in October and gave a creditable team performance. We are looking forward to the Zone Social on 17 May. As LP I attended various Lions Club Charter events 7 Oct 17 Crewe and Nantwich – 59th Charter, 18 Nov 17 Leek – 42nd, 24 Mar 18 Bridgnorth – 42nd Charter, Charter, 8 Apr 18 Market Drayton – 30th Charter. On 20 Nov 17 I also attended Billingshurst Lions Business meeting. On 4 Mar 18, we celebrated the Ironbridge and Severn Gorge Lions 39th Charter, which attended by the District Governor Teresa Nickson, Shaun Davies, Leader of the Telford and Wrekin Council and the Deputy Leader, Richard Overton.
Awards – On 13 Sep, Mavis Derham, June Softley and I attended the Telford & Wrekin “Active Lifestyle” Awards Evening at Oakengates, where the Club’s effort in organising the Prostate Screening Event at Madeley in March 2017 was publically recognised. On 17 March at the District Convention at Warrington, I received, on behalf of the Ironbridge & Severn Gorge Lions, the Kevron Award, in recognition of submitting the most entries to the LION magazine. The credit for this, for which we are enormously grateful, goes to Elaine Bradburn, our former Club PR Officer, who sadly, has since left the club.
Infrastructure – Thanks to John Marsh the Club now appears to have secured two long term, ‘off-the-radar’, storage locations at Stafford and Hadley Industrial estates, where we are able to store our myriad stores, Lions paraphernalia and trailers, scrap, pallets etc. Thanks to John Boydell the club also now has a lease on the Tollhouse Shed until the end of September 2018, with the option to renew for the following year, to store our SOB, Bridge, A-boards and boxes.
I would like to record a huge thank you to all my fellow Lions and our invaluable ‘friends of the club’ for giving up so much of their time and energy, to do so much to help so many others and for making it possible to do what we do.
Charlie Miller 12 Apr 18
Lion President
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