January 2011

After a busy Christmas  several members were on chauffeur duty taking local residents to and from The Shrubbery for the Senior Citizens Christmas meal.
Later on in the month we made donations of £500 to SURE and a further £2000 to the Somerset and Dorset Air Ambulance.

February 2011

A quiet month with quite a bit of planning going on in the background for the Easter Egg raffle, the Summer Fete and the Charity 10k.
Members  continued the good work of their late club president, Peter Lawrence, by collecting spectacles from local opticians, clinics and individuals and passing them on for processing by Chichester Lions. Most months nearly 2000 spectacles are despatched.

We donated £1030 to the Children's ward at Musgrove Hospital for the purchase of a special bed. Money raised at the 2010 Taunton Flower Show

Several members collected outside Tesco Ilminster on behalf of Marie Curie and raised £1000.

March 2011

Another optician in Chard became a holder of reading lamps that could be loaned out to customers who need better quality lighting for reading.

We donated £500 to Selwothy School Taunton, a school for children with learning difficulties in memory of our late President Peter Lawrence to buy a ground level trampoline.

April 2011

Our major effort during the month was our Easter Egg Draw. Eggs were deposited in various premises in and around Ilminster. some £2000 was raised.

May 2011

Just after Easter we heard that the South Petherton Brownies had had their Easter eggs intended for an egg hunt stole. We promptly replaced them and there were many delighted brownies when we delivered the replacement eggs.

By now nearly 4000 unwanted spectacles had bee collected and these were sent to the UK collection centre for onward transmission to third world countries,

Just before the Fete the club raised £250 with a mile of pennies, supporting The Royal British Legion.

We finished the month with Peter Marshall being formally installed as Club President for 2011 -2012.

At the same time  wives manned the soft toy stall raffle and raised the best part of £1000 over the 2 days. Wives and friends spent a  total of 120 hours helping at this event.

We held the last of our Car Boot sales at Tesco Car park Ilminster.

We took the opportunity to make a donation to  Ilminster Army Cadets for their help with our Summer Fete and support a local person running in a half marathon in aid of  Motor Neurone Disease.

We supported the South Petherton Carnival by manning the Carnival collecting float with all the monies collected going to the carnival fund and ultimately to local organisations in South Petherton.

We celebrated our 35th Birthday party later in the month when the Lions District Governor presented our remaining founder members with recognition awards

Members helped a local school children run a mile of pennies for their school charity the Duchene Muscular Dystrophy. £150 was raised.
A local church had lead stolen from it's roof. We made a £350 donation to help with repairs etc.

The Charity 10k.
This annual event held on 1st Sunday in November, attracts 300+ runners. We are very grateful for  the support the event gets from with sponsorship from local businesses, members wives, red cross, army cadets and many friends. Just over £2000 was raised.

A local community organisation collects shoeboxes filled with toys and personal articles for despatch to children in third world countries. Lions donated £250 for the purchase of toothbrushes and similar small items. Members helped with the packing and loading of boxes. Some 12000 shoeboxes were sent to Belarus in early December.

We supported a local infants school by paying for entertainments and a visit from Father Christmas at their Christmas parties. All hugely enjoyed by the children.

We supported the  'Festival of Christmas Trees' in The Minster Church in Ilminster which has been running for a number of years. This year there were 50 trees decorated for various charities.

In early December a local school in Chard had a lock up shed broken into and all it's contents i.e. children's outdoor toys vandalised, beyond repair. Our community Services chairman contacted the school and arranged the purchase of £250 worth of replacements.
Photograph © Chard & Ilminster News.

We supported the Christmas carol singing at the Royal Oak Over Stratton. Images to follow

On the two weekends before Christmas we sold raffle tickets for our soft toy stall at the Local Co-op and then the following week at the entrance of Tesco Ilminster. Buy 5 tickets for £1 and if one of the tickets has a number finishing in 50 or 00 then a soft toy can be claimed. We were overwhelmed by the generosity of the local people, many of whom just wanted to give donations. We raised over £1000 over the two weekends. This will enable us to make our contribution to the 2012 Senior Citizens Lunch in January 2012. Full circle!