By Peter Drysdale
The most satisfying thing about raising money is to be able to distribute it to needy causes, and Caterham Oxted & Godstone Lions Club has been doing just that recently.
Through Social Services, bunk beds and white goods have been provided for clients and received with much delight and grateful thanks. The annual donation to Caterham Food Bank has been increased to £2,000, and £2,000 also went to a Thrive Wellbeing Project at local schools. We gave Sing for Joy, a project to help people with memory loss in Godstone, £150 towards their printing and music costs. Godstone Fete Committee received £1,500, which will join the overall profits that are passed on to various Godstone organisations.
Another of our ever-popular Trivia Quiz Nights was held at the end of September – it netted around £700, which will all go towards helping those in the community less fortunate than ourselves.
Now, you know that Lions help people…but now we desperately need some help ourselves.
Our Father Christmas float should be touring areas of Godstone, South Godstone, Bletchingley, and Caterham Village in the early evenings in December – but it won’t go ahead unless we can find some more experienced drivers to tow the sleigh. If your vehicle has a tow-bar, please give some thought as to how you might help us. We hear from residents that this event heralds the start of Christmas for them – even going back to when their grown-up children were small and rushed outside to see Santa on his sleigh!
It’s a really important activity but, as it has been going on for so many years, it means some of the Lions are feeling their age and we desperately need some younger people to help us in the door-to-door collections. Offers to shake a tin for a couple of hours at our static weekend collections at Morrisons in Oxted would also be gratefully received, or would you like to dress up as Father Christmas, ring your bell and chat for a minute to the children accompanying their frazzled parents as they do their seasonal shopping? We have vacancies for that job too…
If you can help the club out for a couple of hours one evening in December or at the weekend collections, please contact Lion Secretary John on 01883 742680. We need you so we can help others!
To find out more about your local Lions club, visit coglions.co.uk or call Lion Tony on 01883 741809. We also have a minibus available for hire – contact Lion David on 01342 893353.
