2018
July 2018
Another year, another show! The weather was kinder to us this year (thankfully) and this year we really got the most out of the evening entertainment with warm weather, a glass of wine and wonderful musicians. This year we raised even more than before and have been looking at all the different local causes to start donating to. Thank you to everyone who came along and supported the day to the wonderful arena displays, evening musicians and all our sponsors and supporters.
Some of the great things that happened at the show!
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29th May 2018
We go from one fancy evening 'do to the next!
On Saturday 26th May, Bracknell Forest Lions invited members, partners, past members, representatives from charities and other organisations and fellow Lions from other clubs along to our 50th anniversary Charter Night, held at the prestigious Grange Hotel. Charter nights signify the passing of another year of Lionism, and passing the baton to the new incoming officers whilst congratulating the current officers on their year. Thank you to Isabel for all your hard work as Club president!
The Charter was a wonderful evening with a fantastic meal, some (brief!) speeches, a raffle, a few awards and we danced into the night. It was great to have the club together to celebrate 50 years of Lions in Bracknell. As a club who were threatening to close less than ten years ago due to low membership, it really feels like a huge success to not only be up and running still, but to Pride of Bracknell award winners, and to be making a real difference in our local communities to the lives of those in need.
A special congratulations goes to incoming Club President, Lion Steve Pope who was recognised by our District President Pete Burnett by awarding him with the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. Lions Clubs wordlwide recognise outstanding individuals by bestowing on them an award that is named for it's Founded, Melvin Jones. This award is the highest form of recognition and embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with the nature and purpose of Lionism.
Bracknell Forest Lions Club
Thank you as always to everyone who has supported our club over the years, we are truely grateful.
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11th May 2018
We have had some amazing news! Bracknell Forest Lions Club have just been awarded the Pride Of Bracknell Award, for Team of the Year 2018! We are over the moon with this honour and it really shows what we can achieve when we work together. A few of our members attended the ceremony in late April, and had a wonderful time, topped off by our win. Thanks to Shorts Group who sponsored the award this year.
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12th April 2018
It's time for us to start getting up to speed for the Bracknell Show 2018!
Email bracknellshowbookings@aol.com if you'd like to book a stall or arena display in and we'll send you out a booking form. Media enquiries through the "Contact Us" section of the website please!
This month we've also raised over £600 with our Easter Egg Raffle and Easter Egg Tombola!
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22nd March 2018
Time for an update on Gambia!
Reminder of the background:
In January 2016, members Brigid and Mike went on holiday to The Gambia and met with Kebba Cham who took them to the village of Gunjar Kunkujang where they sat with the elders and the chief and spoke about the issues there and what help they required.
In their village they have a bore hole powered by solar power which currently services just 9 taps for 2000 people (one of those taps is dedicated solely for the school which has over 800 pupils).
Their need was to get a minimum of 25 taps which potentially could provide clean water to 10,000 people. To do that meant replacing the existing solar panels, water tank and tower and provide larger ones to power the water distribution to a wider area.
TIMELINE:
- January 2016 – first trip to The Gambia and Gunjar Kunkujang
- August 2016 – with the approval and support of Bracknell Forest Club the project fundraising was launched nationally
- November 2016 – second trip with 90kgs of school stationery (mostly donated by St Teresa's Catholic Academy, Wokingham after we addressed a school assembly)
- July 2017 – have raised £8000 in 12 months from clubs in this District, other clubs in MD, schools, companies and family and friends
- July 2017 - Banjul Kairo Club now established 1 year – advised to apply for LCIF International Assistance Grant
- August 2017 – completed paperwork despatched to Oakbrook
- 25th October 2017 – matching grant of £7200 granted by LCIF
- November 2017 – third trip to Gambia with another 40kgs of goods. Minor variations in project - contractor instructed to start work
- End December 2017 – work starts
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13th March 2018
This has been a great month already with much more planned too.
We collected for Marie Curie on 10th March and raised a huge £588.05 which we have rounded up to £600 to provide 30 hours of care.
In addition we were lucky to have Elizabeth Burton-Phillips MBE, founder of DrugFam come to our meeting to talk about how and why the charity was set up and what they do. We are excited to be donating the proceeds of our Easter Egg Tombola to DrugFam later in the month. That's right, we have an Easter Egg Tombola at Tescos in Martins Heron on Sunday 25th March 2018. For 50p a ticket you can win from a huge range of easter eggs, with all proceeds going to DrugFam and the wonderful work they do with the family, friends and communities around people suffering with addiction.
In April we have Joe from Sue Ryder coming to speak to us about their hospices.
Last but not least, we had some awards to give out at our meeting in March! Both Terry and Brigid receive awards for bringing new club members in (including Scott, pictured on left below), and Brigid received a further award for membership. All are pictured below with Lion President Isabel at our meeting.
22nd February 2018
We've been awfully busy again since we last updated our blog!
In the winter months we've been planning the updates to our beautiful Centenary flower bed, have donated to Citizens Advice, distributed Message In a Bottle Packs to numerous places including 4 Square, helped Red Diamonds disability sports club find new mini bus drivers, and raised £230 with our Christmas raffle at Homebase and carol singing at Waitrose! Some of this money went to Pilgrim Hearts which is a local homeless shelter charity that operates over the winter period.
We've got lots of things planned in for 2018 already- including the Bracknell Show, Easter Egg raffle, Easter Egg tombola, Marie Curie collections..... watch this space!
We are also proud to announce that the club won the International Relations award this year for our fundraising for the Gambia project. To find out more, visit our BT Donate page here.
