May 2022 update
Help for Scouts to achieve their dreams
|
Southwell Lions have supported two local scouts who are among 36 young people chosen to represent Nottinghamshire Scouts at the 25th World Scout Jamboree in South Korea in August 2023. Jayen Patel of the 1st Coddington Scout group and Grace Fieldwick of the 1st Farnsfield Scout group are busy fundraising to pay for the trip of a lifetime and Southwell Lions President Nick Parr was delighted to present them each with a cheque for £200 to help them on their way.
The World Scout Jamboree takes place every four years and in 2019 was in West Virginia, USA. Likened to the Olympics of Scouting, in 2023 the event will be hosted by the Korean Scout Association. The two week event is attended by over 50,000 people where the focus is on a sustainable world where everyone’s welcome. To attend the World Scout Jamboree, each of the 3,000 UK participants must raise £3,600. This not only pays for their attendance but contributes towards helping young people from less developed countries. President Nick Parr presents cheques to Grace and Jayan |
|
Support for Ukrainian families arriving in our area
Southwell & District Lions Club has teamed up with Southwell Town Council to establish a dedicated fund to help support Ukrainian families arriving in Southwell and the surrounding villages, including Farnsfield, Fiskerton, Rolleston, Morton, Upton, Bleasby, Thurgarton, Lowdham, Edingley, Kirklington, Halam, Hoveringham and Kirklington. The fund is to be used to purchase essential school related items such as uniform, shoes, trainers, sportswear, school bags, football boots and calculators etc.
The Town Council asked the Lions if they could manage the applications and payments to the arriving families or their sponsors as they are not allowed to make payments to individuals. The Lions readily agreed to help and, because the Council funds are for families settling in Southwell, added a further £1,500 from own its charitable funds so the scheme could be extended to all the villages in Southwell Lions' area, whether the children are going to the local village school or to Southwell Minster School.
Southwell Lions President, Nick Parr, said: "We have already donated £1,000 to the Lions International Fund for Ukraine, which is channeled to Lions Clubs in Ukraine and the surrounding countries to provide aid to Ukrainian refugees, and several of our members have been helping out at the Kirkby-in-Ashfield sorting warehouse, organised by Magda Wasiewicz of B-Sweet in Southwell, sending huge donations of food, medication and many other items so generously donated by our community.
"We can't imagine what these families have been through over the last couple of months and our hearts go out to every one of them. This new fund is a great way to support the families who have left their homeland and are being welcomed into our community. We were very keen to find a way to help them here, so were very happy when Southwell Town Council approached us to manage the fund on their behalf, and to add our own contribution so we can help even more of the youngsters when they start at their new schools."
Initially, Ukrainian families or their sponsors will be able to apply for up to £100 per child. See below for full details and how to apply.
The Town Council asked the Lions if they could manage the applications and payments to the arriving families or their sponsors as they are not allowed to make payments to individuals. The Lions readily agreed to help and, because the Council funds are for families settling in Southwell, added a further £1,500 from own its charitable funds so the scheme could be extended to all the villages in Southwell Lions' area, whether the children are going to the local village school or to Southwell Minster School.
Southwell Lions President, Nick Parr, said: "We have already donated £1,000 to the Lions International Fund for Ukraine, which is channeled to Lions Clubs in Ukraine and the surrounding countries to provide aid to Ukrainian refugees, and several of our members have been helping out at the Kirkby-in-Ashfield sorting warehouse, organised by Magda Wasiewicz of B-Sweet in Southwell, sending huge donations of food, medication and many other items so generously donated by our community.
"We can't imagine what these families have been through over the last couple of months and our hearts go out to every one of them. This new fund is a great way to support the families who have left their homeland and are being welcomed into our community. We were very keen to find a way to help them here, so were very happy when Southwell Town Council approached us to manage the fund on their behalf, and to add our own contribution so we can help even more of the youngsters when they start at their new schools."
Initially, Ukrainian families or their sponsors will be able to apply for up to £100 per child. See below for full details and how to apply.
Supporting young people's mental health
|
Southwell Lions are delighted to support Enabling Hope, a not-for-profit community interest company based in Southwell, that provides mental health support to young people and those who care for them. Our donation has helped Enabling Hope to purchase a range of arts and crafts, therapeutic cards and sensory toys, all of which support the therapies offered by the team at Enabling Hope.
|
Pictured: President Nick Parr with Sally Falkner of Enabling Hope, with some of the therapeutic aids donated by the Lions.
|
April 2022 update
Surfing to success!
In February, we gave an aspiring champion IQFoil class windsurfer, Duncan Monaghan, £250 to wards new kit to help him train for his goal of competing in the Paris 2024 Olympic games. 17 year old Duncan, who is also studying for his A-levels at the Minster School in Southwell, already has some serious achievements under his belt - Vice European Champion (U19) September 2021 youth and junior IQFoil European championships, Bol, Croatia; 4th at the World Championships (U19) July 2021 youth and junior IQFoil world championships, Lake Garda, Italy; 1st place at the UK IQFoil class event in Weymouth, July 2021; selected for the RYA Youth Performance squad 21/22 - and gave us a demonstration of his skills on the water when we met him at his sailing club to present him with his new 'long john' wet suit and a new harness. Duncan makes it look so easy but it frightened us!
Southwell Lions wish this exceptional young man every success as he strives to become a sporting hero!
Southwell Lions wish this exceptional young man every success as he strives to become a sporting hero!
We donated to
- the fund raising efforts of two local Scouts, who have the distinction of being selected to attend the 2023 World Scout Jamboree in South Korea.
- The Lions Club International appeal to provide aid for refugees from the war in Ukraine, adding to the donation we made last month.
Activity packs for children with cancer
|
Pasic is a wonderful charity that supports families dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of a child with cancer. Earlier this year, we donated £500 to pay for 'Art Activity Packs' and activities to brighten up the hospital stay and make life a little more fun by offering respite and distraction for children with cancer who face very long stays in hospital. The packs are also given to children when recuperating at home. Louise Whittle from Pasic came along to show us the packs and the wide variety of activities they contain to help entertain the children.
You can find out about the great work that Pasic does by going to their website here. President Nick Parr (left) with Louise and Lion Peter Brooker |
|
March 2022 update
Collecting for Marie Curie
On Friday 18th and Saturday 19th March, a group of Lions were to found wearing silly hats in Morrisons in Newark and holding collecting tins in aid of Marie Curie.
Learning books to Newark's Holy Trinity R.C. Adademy
|
In November 2021, we donated £250 to Holy Trinity R.C. Academy parent/teacher association in Newark, which raises funds for items that the school budget doesn’t run to. Due to Covid restrictions, their fundraising had been very limited over the previous 18 months so, as the school was desperately in need of some good quality non-fiction books for the school library, the PTA appealed to Southwell Lions. Although the pupils have now been back in school for several months, the educational impact of the lockdown, particularly in poorer readers, is quite marked, so our donation has gone towards the purchase of 46 new, age appropriate non-fiction books to enthuse and engage them. Not only do these books help with improving reading skills but they also dovetail into the educational curriculum. An added bonus is that the children really do enjoy them - the combination of facts and illustrations excite the children and makes them want to pick up a book.
|
(Parental consent was obtained for this photo)
|
|
Help for Ukraine
Linda from the Bramley Apple and Magdalena from B Sweet have organised one of the many local initiatives to provide support to the refugees in Ukraine. Southwell residents have been amazingly generous with their donations and some of the Lions lent a hand to the many volunteers in sorting through the items for shipment to Ukraine and neighbouring countries. |
Many of our members have also been helping out the Romo warehouse in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, organised by Magdalena Wasiewicz, a resident and business owner in Southwell, who has been inundated with donations of goods for the Ukrainian people since starting her appeal following the invasion of Ukraine. Magda has family in Poland, who own a logistics and transport company, Gigamix Broker. They are located 10 miles from the Ukrainain border, and have extensive experience in transporting goods directly in to the Ukraine. Huge thanks also to Romo for its support, with use of the warehouse, supply of boxes, equipment and manpower.
We made donations to:
- Enabling Hope, which provides mental health support to young people in Southwell
- The Lions Club International appeal to provide aid for refugees from the war in Ukraine
- A local resident for mobility aids to their home
- The Lions Club International appeal to provide aid for the people of Madagascar following Cyclone Batsirai
- Sightsavers, Medic Alert and Water Aid
February 2022 update
Southwell Scouts build nesting boxes for birds and bats
|
Combining our commitment to the environment and supporting youth groups, we created a competition to make and decorate bat and bird boxes. The judges - Craig from Southwell Handicentre and Gareth Jones - Lead Ranger at Clumber Park - picked two winners to be installed at Clumber Park, while all the other boxes will be put up in the refurbished Squires Pond area when it's completed. First up were Southwell Scouts, who built and decorated some brilliant boxes for birds and bats to nest in. Our thanks go to Gareth, Karen Roberts of Southwell Town Council for enabling the boxes to be installed at Squires Pond, Lion Keith Hobbs for organising it all, Southwell Handicentre for providing the wood, Lions Nick Parr and Verdun Webley for preparing the kits for the Scouts to build and to the Scout leaders and Scouts themselves for taking part so enthusiastically. Next step will be to install the boxes at Clumber Park and Squires Pond area.
|
L-R: Lion Verdun, Scout leader (Kaa) Chris Barnes, Craig, Karen, Lion Keith, Gareth, Lion Nick
Members of Southwell Scouts Woden and Thor Troops (Parental consent was obtained for this photo) |
New play equipment at Minster Junior School
In early 2021, Southwell Lions made a donation towards a new play facility for the 40 pupils at The Minster Junior School, which was established over 1000 years ago to educate the choristers of the nearby Southwell Minster and which acted as a community hub for keyworker children for the surrounding villages of Southwell during the first Covid lockdown. After supplier delays as a result of material shortages and Covid backlogs, the equipment has now been installed and was ready to be used after the half term break. Prior to the new equipment being installed, the only facility available to the pupils, aged from seven to 11, was a small open space with no play equipment. Rob Burns, head of the junior school (pictured with Lions and children), told Southwell Lions that the new equipment has arrived just in time for the weather to improve and the children are able to play outside. As the picture shows, it's already proving highly popular with the children.
(Parental consent was obtained for this photo)
(Parental consent was obtained for this photo)
Latest donations
At our February 'business' meeting, we agreed to make donations to:
At our February 'business' meeting, we agreed to make donations to:
- Duncan Monaghan, a Southwell Minster School student, to help towards the cost of competing internationally at IQFoil windsurfing, including at the world championship in August;
- Holy Trinity Infant School towards a forest school type area;
- Beaumond House hospice for new equipment;
- First aid training for Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme participants at the Minster School;
- Lions Club International appeal to help relieve the suffering in Tonga, following the volcano eruption, tsunami and earthquake.
January 2022 update
Carols for Everyone donation to Refugees in Southwell
|
We have totted up all the ticket money, donations, closing collection and Gift Aid that were so generously given by the residents of Southwell and the surrounding area at the joyous Carols for Everyone community concert in Southwell Minster at Christmas 2021 and have reached a fabulous total of £3,500! On a bright morning in January, we presented a cheque to Support Refugees in Southwell, a local charity that supports Syrian and Afghan refugees who have escaped war and persecution in their own countries and settled in Southwell.
Lion President Nick Parr, with fellow Lion Steve Foster, presents the cheque to SRiS Chairman, Ian Bunting |