Fundraising

The club, through its fundraising effort, is able to provide some £15,000 per year for use on welfare projects in the local community and in the wider international community.

This money is raised by a variety of means, including pub raffles, charity collections at local supermarkets, table top sales and stalls at local shows. However the main bulk of our funds are raised from two major events - an annual Race Night, an annual fireworks display for details of these events   please click on "Calendar".

Social

Clubs within Lions Clubs International are organised into Zones, of 5-8 clubs, and the Zones organised into Districts. Our District has 6 Zones. Each club holds an annual "Charter" dinner dance to celebrate its formation. We at Stoke love to put on our "best bib and tucker" and go along to support our fellow clubs on their special evening.

One of the highlights of the year in the annual District Convention when Lions from all over the District assemble for a weekend. One full day is spent in conference discussing Lions business, but the two evenings are set aside for fun. Friday evening is Host Night - an evening of food, fun and fancy dress - and a lot of 'mickey' taking! The Stoke Lions are usually at the heart of the fun.

In addition to the above we have a very active social life within the club. This runs very successfully alongside our fundraising activities.

During recent months we have enjoyed  theatre visits, meals at local restaurants, been greyhound racing, been bowling, held quiz nights, been to a floral art demonstration (upmarket flower arranging), held barbeques and had a lunch aboard a canal boat and numerous BBQ's.  In fact anything that we can have fun together.  Please look at our Facebook page for regular posts.

All the above is arranged by our Social Committee, who meet from time to time to plan future adventures.

 Welfare

We have supported many local organisations, including: the Staffordshire Blood Bikes, the Grocott Day Centre for the disabled, Gingerbread, Arch, Scouts, Guides, Special Olympics group, Donna Louise Trust, Lions Youth Brass, Hanley boys football team, North Staffs carers.  One of our most heartwarming activity has been to provide a special blender for a young boy. (See photo gallery and our Facebook page).

Some of our recent Charitable donations and services are as follows:

Donations to, and assembling mail shots for the Douglas Macmillan Hospice as well as donations to Macmillan Cancer Care.

We made collections at Tesco and Asda on behalf of Marie Curie Cancer Care.

We funded a Christmas party and donated Christmas presents for children with life threatening or life limiting conditions.

Donations towards the cost of guides and scouts to go to Africa and America to develop their life skills.

Donations to the Dove Service who provide counselling and support to people struggling to come to terms with bereavement and life changing illness.

We funded Christmas presents for the children, and moving on packs for families supported by Gingerbread.

We organised beetle drives, race nights, a christmas carol concert, and made donations for the service users at the Grocott Centre in Fenton.

A donation towards the cost of respite holidays for families with children suffering from Cystic Fibrosis.

A donation to the Breast Cancer Campaign.

A donation to "Talking Newspaper for the Blind" towards the cost of changing to digital equipment.

Donations to North Staffs Special Olympics who organise annual sports events for athletes with learning difficulties

This year has seen Stoke Lions host 3 young people from other countries.  We have also seen 33 young Air Cadets obtain an international award for services to the community through our Young Leaders' in Service Pro.

We had a very successful fun day at Burslem Park to celebrate 100 years of Lionism.  We have also recently developed our own karaoke and held a successful evening at The Grocott Centre for adults with special needs.   We are also holding a further karaoke event at The Grocott Centre for their regular pensioners group.

As an international organisation we do not forget our international obligations. We have raised substantial funds for use in reconstruction after the Asian Tsunami, for the Pakistan Earthquake Appeal, for the floods in Australia, the Brazilian mud slides and Aid for Africa and provided water purification equipment for Nepal.

Most of our international funding has been done via. our international foundation, the Lions Clubs International Foundation. The LCIF funds and oversees projects, with the local management done by the local lions club. By this means the projects are able to commence without delay and the risk of siphoning off of funds by local government officials is avoided.

We have more pictures and activities on Stoke On Trent Lions Facebook page.