Romsey & Waterside Lions support local good causes through various activities including street collections, monthly bookstalls, fashion shows and quiz nights, and we are always happy to welcome anyone, young or old who would like to offer a few hours each month to help raise funds for others in their community. To contact us call 0344 963 2463.
LIONS FASHION SHOWS IN ROMSEY
From time-to-time we have fashion shows where, in conjunction with Travelling Trends who put on such shows, many clothes are available to buy at a large discount compared to normal High Street prices.
Over 75 ladies attended our Autumn Fashion Show and were welcomed with a glass of fizz and a selection of nibbles before settling down to view the show.
Five volunteers modelled a wide selection of the available clothes before the audience were able to browse the racks of clothes, scarves and gloves available to purchase. Over £730 was raised during the evening which will be used to support local charities and the Romsey Foodbank.
Below are photographs which were taken during our Fashion Show.
Romsey & Waterside Lions Club recently made another donation of food to the Romsey Foodbank to help them re-stock their shelves with essential supplies. We continue to support two foodbanks at regular intervals, the other one is the Waterside Foodbank. In total over £6,500 has been donated to Foodbanks since the start of Covid. In the upper photograph Lion Ruth Blake is presenting the most recent food donation to Eve Ibbott at the Romsey Foodbank.
And we have given £400 to the Waterside Foodbank to help it purchase food to help it re-stock. In the lower photograph Lion Pat Geere is presenting the cheque for £400 to Peter Fordham at the Waterside Foodbank.
LIONS DONATE £750 TO ROMSEY YOUNG CARERS
Romsey Young Carers Charity are now in their 20th year of operation and currently support 167 young carers. Romsey & Waterside Lions presented a cheque for £750 to help the Charity buy Christmas presents for the young carers they support who are aged between 8 and 21 and live in Romsey and the Southern Test Valley area.
In the photograph Lions Jillian Peckham and Sandra Trowbridge are presenting the Lion’s cheque for £750 to Lisa Treasure and Charlotte Anthony of Romsey Young Carers.
LIONS GIVE A DONATION TO BABY NECESSITIES FOR NEW COMPUTERS
We recently gave a donation to Baby Necessities in Romsey which is a non-profit Charity created to alleviate child poverty. The Charity collects good quality pre-loved items which are cleaned and where necessary checked for safety before being distributed to families, with children up to 5 years old, who find it difficult to buy basic needs. With over 1,000 families helped in 2024 it has been a busy year for the Charity. We learnt that two of the Charitiy's computers are failing so Romsey & Waterside Lions stepped in with a donation to replace them.
Lion Treasurer Sandra Trowbridge is seen presenting a cheque for £500 to Hayleigh Jarvis of Baby Necessities.LIONS SUPPORT SOLENT DOLPHIN CHARITY
LIONS FUN DAY AT PAULTONS PARK
Every year Romsey & Waterside Lions organize the raffling of Giant Easter Eggs in numerous pubs and other outlets to raise funds to buy tickets to send disadvantaged children for a Fun Day at Paultons Park and Peppa Pig World.
Paultons Park, which opened in 1983, has over 70 rides and attractions within 140 acres of beautiful parkland on the edge of the New Forest National Park. There are children’s rides, family rides, roller coasters, water rides to name a few.
There is no charge for those deserving families invited to join the Lions on this Fun Day as all tickets are paid for by the Lions from the profits generated by the Easter Egg Raffles, and children who are less than 1 metre tall go in free. This year Romsey & Waterside Lions Club were delighted when over 200 children and carers/parents went through the turnstiles.
Thankfully the weather was warm and sunny and the sight of many smiles on children's faces is a fine reward for the time and effort put into organising the event.
The following pictures are of some of the families and carers who joined us for the fun day in 2024.
A BIG THANK YOU TO PAULTONS PARK FOR BRINGING MUCH HAPPINESS TO SO MANY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN
LIONS PRESENT BOOKS TO NORTH BADDESLEY INFANTS SCHOOL
LIONS DONATION TO MINIBUS APPEAL
LIONS DONATION TO HALTERWORTH SCHOOL
Following a request for financial help Romsey & Waterside Lions have made a donation to the School to purchase IT Equipment.
LIONS SUPPORT THE CHARITY "YOUTH IN ROMSEY"
The Charity "Youth in Romsey" supports young people on any issue they may be facing including counselling, employment, education, financial help, sexual health and mental health. The Mission Statement of the Charity is to "Support children and young people at times when they need it most".
A cheque for £250 was presented by Lion President Andrew Trowbridge to Wendy Herbert of Youth in Romsey to help fund their activities.
LIONS RE-CYCLE SPECTACLES
LIONS PRESENT SUN UMBRELLAS TO THE HORRILL CENTRE
A shady spot on a hot summer’s day is a welcome relief. Romsey & Waterside Lions donated sun umbrellas to the Horrill Care & Wellbeing Centre in Dibden.
The Centre aims to help older people to continue living independently in the community as well as providing much needed respite for families and carers.
Members can benefit from dementia support, hot lunches, transport to the Centre, craft activities, reminiscence sessions, daily exercises, music therapy, table tennis, entertainment and much more.
In the photograph Pat Geere is presenting the umbrellas to Donna Best of the Centre. Seated on the bench are Derek, Sally and Margaret who were at the Centre on the day.
LIONS GIVE A DONATION TO THE ROMSEY FAMILY SUPPORT GROUP
We have given a donation to the Romsey Family Support Group. The Group is for parents of pre-school children, from birth to four years, who may be experiencing a difficult time and in need of friendship and support.
LIONS CONTRIBUTE TO BRAIN TUMOUR RESEARCH
In 2020 we agreed to provide an annual donation to support the Lions Brain Tumour Research Appeal, which aims to raise £1 million. The Appeal has been set up to help fund research into brain tumours, and supports one of the UK’s largest collaborative groups of laboratory-based scientists. We felt it was important to improve the lives of brain tumour patients and their families and know that with our donations we can help to make a difference.
Our Club has so far donated £2,100 to this worthy cause.
LIONS SUPPORT THE POD CHILDRENS CHARITY IN SOUTHAMPTON HOSPITAL
Romsey & Waterside Lions Club continues to give financial support to the POD Children’s Charity at Southampton Hospital.
The POD Children's Charity is a non-profit organisation, providing live entertainment for children in over 150 hospitals and hospices around the UK. It has been sowing the seeds of magic, fun and laughter to sick children for over 45 years. POD isn't an acronym - David Jamilly the founder of POD came up with the name when he and a few friends did some shows for children at Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1978. He felt that out of a pod come seeds of fun, laughter and feeling better and the name has stuck.
The Charity’s specialised team of local magicians, musicians, puppeteers, storytellers and clowns provide happiness and diversion to sick children, their families and carers. They perform in the playroom, on the ward or at the bedside alleviating the trauma of a hospital stay by sowing the seeds of fun, laughter and feeling better. A few moments with an entertainer can brighten up their day or help them through a hard time. This is now recognised to be of crucial value to these children.
A parent recently sent grateful thanks to the POD entertainers at Southampton Hospital in bringing joy to her son who had been in hospital for 4 months. Here is her letter and a picture of the entertainers who brought magic to the Children's Ward.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
We know from local feedback that Message-In-A-Bottle save lives. Bottles can be obtained free of charge from many Surgeries and other outlets that support the scheme. They can also be picked up at our monthly bookstall.
LIONS BOOKSTALL IN ROMSEY CORNMARKET
Usually you will find us outside Bradbeers department store in the Cornmarket on the second Saturday in the month with our very popular Bookstall. We have thousands of good quality paperbacks on offer each month at £1 each covering titles such as romance, thrillers, war, sci-fi to mention a few. We also have a selection of bric-a-brac, toys, games and jigsaws. We also have a selection of children's books, many at only 50p.
At our stall we also collect used spectacles to send away for re-cycling.
Our next bookstall, including bric-a-brac, toys, games and jigsaws items is on:-
Saturday 11th January 2025 between 9:00am and 2:30pm.
FAME FOR TWO OF OUR LIONS
Lions Nicola and Sandra have put in an appearance in Kate Jackson's YouTube Music Video entitled "You are always on your phone". It is nice to have natters in moderation!
FINALLY – A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY AND THE WHITE CANE
In 1917 a group of independent social clubs gathered in Chicago to join forces to help their communities, and so with the birth of the International Association of Lions Clubs a whole new era began. Lions Clubs spread across the world, and currently there are over 1.4 million members.
Lionism arrived in the UK after the Second World War and from then on has flourished. The Lions motto is “We Serve”.
Romsey Lions was formed in 1979 and so is over 45 years old. It is a registered charity governed by the rules of The Charity Commission. Anyone over the age of 18 is welcome to join by invitation.
Our Patron, who is also a Lion, is Sophie, Duchess of Edinburgh.
And the white cane? The white cane is the international symbol of independence, mobility and safety for people who are blind or visually impaired.
The white cane came into wide use beginning in 1930 as two caring problem solvers stood on busy street corners thousands of miles apart—one in Paris, France, and the other in Peoria, Illinois.
Throughout history, visually impaired people have carried canes, staffs and walking sticks to help get around obstacles. But increasingly they faced terrifying new challenges in the 20th century as cars, vans and lorries multiplied. The plain, walking stick still worked as a way-making tool, but was useless as a warning sign to motorists. A blind Englishman named James Biggs claimed to have found an answer in 1921 when he painted his walking stick white. A decade later, this simple invention began to gain ground.
The white cane crossed first to continental Europe through a one-woman campaign. A wealthy Parisienne named Mme. Guilly d’Herbemont would watch nervously as sightless students commuted to a nearby school for the blind. So, in November 1930, she wrote a letter to a leading Paris newspaper urging the use of attention-getting batons blancs, similar to those carried by French traffic police. A few months later, Mme. d’Herbemont arranged for the French president to ceremoniously present one white cane to each blind war veteran and blind civilian. She then made personal gifts of 5,000 more white canes to the city’s blind and visually impaired residents.
Meanwhile, one day in 1930. in Illinois, Peoria Lions Club President George Bonham, like his Parisian counterpart, noted a blind man tapping his cane helplessly as traffic swirled around him. No one seemed to notice the man’s dilemma, which set Bonham thinking. The answer again was the white cane, this time with a red band for even greater visibility. Bonham shared his idea with club members who immediately voted their endorsement and began painting white canes for the blind and writing letters to city officials. In December of that year the City Council went one step further by passing the nation’s first “white cane safety law,” giving blind citizens the right-of-way and other protections when carrying a white cane.
At the 1931 international convention in Toronto, Lions heard a detailed presentation on the white cane programme and received copies of the Peoria ordinance to take home. And so by 1956, with the help of a full-scale awareness and advocacy campaign, every state in the United States had enacted white-cane safety laws.
Every October 15th, on International White Cane Safety Day, many Lions wear a white cane lapel pin, as a reminder as to how far visual impairment awareness has been recognised since 1930 and the introduction of white canes.
LIONS ARE ORDINARY PEOPLE WHO ARE DOING AMAZING THINGS
