It’s back!  Introducing the “Making A Difference” Blog which started on our previous website during the pandemic but disappeared when we had to abandon our provider as they messed up transferring the site to our current provider.  So we had to start the website again and now as we start a new fiscal year for our Lions Club we have brought the Blog back.

September 2023

We started this month with the beginning of a new heatwave, or so we were told, we had a visit to the annual Great Bentley Show on their village green.  We took our Soft Toya stall and raised over £270.

August 2023

This month started off with further weekend storms meaning that the Fete organised for Saturday 5th August by Holland Residents Association at Brighton Road, Holland on Sea and which we were to have a stall was cancelled as the site offered no shelter from the high wind and rains forecast.  However, we did attend the Veterans and Services Day on the West Greensward in Clacton on Sea on Sunday 6th when the weather was a bit kinder.  We mainly ran an information stand with a small game alongside.

The following Saturday we travelled to Mersea Island to have a stall at the Mersea Island Lions Club Family Festival where we were joined by other Lions Clubs from within our District.

This month we have made a donation to Lions Clubs International Foundation of £100 to support a Lion in one of our District’s Internet Clubs and who lives in Essex and is attempting to climb Mount Kenya in September to raise funds for a special school in Kenya along with a group of her Lions friends from around the world. 

We have handed over 7 boxes of large printer cartridges to the East Anglian Childrens’ Hospices for recycling which should raise in the region of £750 for their funds.  162 Message in a Bottle kits were distributed last month and we took delivery of another 300 kits.  We replaced the time expired Battery in the Defibrillator outside Tom Peppers.

After the cancellation of some events Bank Holiday weekend saw us raise over £400 at our stall in the Community Fayre in Clacton Town Centre on the first day of the Air Show and then on Bank Holiday Saturday we raised almost £700 at the Late Riser Car Boot Sale in London Road, Clacton with our MEGA Stall. Wow!

July 2023

We started the month with a new President, Lion Paula Batchelor, and our first activity was manning two gates at the Tendring Show in Lawford giving out out “Guardian Angel” wristbands to help keep youngsters safe amongst the 20,000 plus visitors to the Showground.

At our July Business Meeting, we inducted a new member – Welcome Lion Brenda – and we also welcomed a previous visitor to our meetings who was a local but joined a Lions Club in Ireland on moving there fifteen years ago but now he is back and would like to transfer his membership to us.  With excellent reports from his previous club we are sure he will be a breath of fresh air.

We have also added another £120 to the £6,000 donated to the Lions Brain Tumour Research Appeal which was last year’s President’s main charity.  We were due to return to the Late Riser Car Boot Sale site in London Road, Clacton for a Fun Day event on 27th July but this was postponed due to the effect on the ground of recent bad weather.  However we were there with our MEGA stall for the Car Boot Sale itself on 29th July.

On the theme of “Fun and Fellowship”, we had a coffee get together in Brightlingsea,  and a Fish and Chip Supper followed by a game of Adventure Golf at the Greensward Cafe one evening and a fun time was had by all those who took part.

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