News & Events
We organise and attend a number of events each year. These range from Fund-raising to Social events, but they are always enjoyable.
Below are a few of our recent and forth-coming events:
Beccles and District Lions Club St John Lemon High School Kenya Exchange
At the Sir John Leman High School Kenya Exchange Charity Auction, Beccles and District Lions Club presented a cheque for £1,000.00 to the students and staff for all their help and support with the Beccles Lions Christmas Float.
The club’s Secretary Lion Ivan Holmes said “The students and staff
had been a great help this year in assisting us with collecting monies
as the Christmas Float travelled around the local villages. This year
has been one of the best for giving from the public and with the extra
help that the students provided meant that we were able to complete all
of the villages we had planned to visit this year.
Adam Burroughs said “This is a fantastic gift and a big thank you must
go to Beccles and District Lions Club for allowing us the opportunity to
help again this year. We thoroughly enjoyed helping last year and were
delighted to be able to help again this year and see just how much joy
and happiness the Christmas Float brought to the villagers as it went
round”
Adam added “This gift will help us achieve the target amount we are
looking for in order to host the return visit of the students from the
Alliance Boys and Girls High Schools near Nairobi, and the Port Reitz
Special School in Mombasa. They are planning to arrive in Beccles for
the summer and the students from St John Lemon High School will aim to
make their stay as enjoyable as they made their visit to Kenya last
year.
Lion President Chris Eglington said “It is a real pleasure to be able to
help these young people, they have all worked very hard and their
enthusiasm is so infectious it is really great to see and long may it
continue.”
£500.00 cheque presented to East Anglia’s Children Hospice
Beccles Lion President, Chris Eglington along with Services Chairman Lion Dermot Wesley-Smith presents a £500.00 cheque to Miss Claire LeLievre Community Fundraising Co-ordinator for East Anglia’s Children Hospice (EACH).
EACH supports families and cares for Children and young people with
life-threatening conditions across Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and
Essex. They provide care and support wherever the family wishes – in the
families’ own home, in hospital or at one of their hospices in Quidenham,
Ipswich or Milton.
Miss LeLievre said “I would like to thank the Beccles Lions for this
generous donation as it will go a long way to help with the needs of the
hospice at Quidenham. The things we could provide with this donation
range from Art supplies for 3 sessions of specialist play. 2 essential
care kits for our nurses to use when providing care in the family home.
2 hours of musical therapy. 4 hours of bereavement support for all the
family members, or even 6 hours of care at the end of life enabling
specialist staff to be with the families as they care for their child
whether at the hospice or at their home when their child is nearing the
end.”
Lion President Chris Eglington said “Naturally we are very pleased to be
able to make a financial contribution to the work of EACH. It provides
such a valuable contribution to families when they need it most. To hear
what a valuable support service the specialist staff of EACH provides to
those brave children and their family members only goes to demonstrate
the need of such a worthwhile organisation at a time in people lives
when they need that the support the most.”
If you wish to know more about EACH and the work they do please contact
Claire LeLievre Tel: (01953) 715538 or email
Claire.lelievre@each.org.uk
or visit their website at
www.each.org.uk
Beccles and District Lions Club
St John Lemon High School
Kenya
Exchange 2010-2012
St John Lemon High School
At the St John Lemon High School Kenya Exchange Charity Auction, Beccles and District Lions Club presented a cheque for £500.00 to the students and staff for all their help and support with the Beccles Lions Christmas Float.
The club’s Secretary Lion Ivan Holmes said “The students and staff had been a great help this year in assisting us with collecting monies as the Christmas Float travelled around the local villages. Considering it was one of the coldest Decembers on records all the members of the club admired the way that everyone turned up on time and worked very hard in extremely cold conditions. With this sort of enthusiasm they would all make great advocates for the ethos of Lionism in general”
Adam Burroughs said “This is a wonderful gift and a big thank you to Beccles and District Lions Club for allowing us the opportunity to help. At first we did wonder what we had volunteered for although after the first night we saw just how much joy and happiness the Christmas Float brought to the villagers as it went round we all went away looking forward to the next nights”
Adam added “The Charity Auction raised £1,502.00 and with the Lion
£500.00 donation the whole £2,002.00 raised will go the help the St John
Lemon High School Kenya Exchange project. It was started in 1991 by Don
Moxon; then Head of RE at
When they return from the trip they will need to
begin fundraising again to host and provide a programme for the pupils
from the Alliance Schools when they visit the
New Beccles Lions President
At a recent ceremony, Lion Vice President, Chris Eglington received
the Presidents chain of office from the retiring Lion President, Keith
Coomber. Before handing over the chain of office Lion Keith said “It has
been a great year for the club with everyone working so very hard trying
to raise as much money as we can for local causes and I have been very
proud to represent the club. The members have all been fantastic and it
shows from what has been achieved this year. Over the year my colleagues
have shown me through their hard work why I am so proud to be a member
of Beccles Lions Club and such a great organisation as the Lions.”
The new Lion President, Chris Eglington thanked Lion Keith for all
the hard work he has done during his year in office and added “It is
such an honour to serve as Lion President and I will do my best to
represent Beccles Lions Club wherever I can. I want us to have lots of
fun too, while raising even more monies for local causes so we continue
to show the people of Beccles that Beccles Lions members are just
ordinary people doing amazing things for the community.”
The Presidents Annual Award for the Lion of the Year for 2009/10 was
presented by Lion Keith Coomber to Lion Trevor Wisener and his wife
Sharon. The Award was made for all the magnificent work and effort that
Trevor and Sharon has put in during the year. Lion Keith said of the award “It isn’t usual
to award it to two people although this year it would have been
difficult to give it to Trevor without Sharon as they have both been so helpful this year and I felt it was right to
acknowledge this by giving them this much deserved award.”
Beccles and District Lions Club
Presents £500.00 cheque to Help for Heroes.
Due to the generous support received from the public for the recent
Clock Stop Competition, Beccles and District Lions Club were able to
make a donation of £500.00 to Help for Heroes.
Lion President, Keith Coomber presented the cheque to Mrs Jane Drane
Suffolk Co-ordinator for the Help for Heroes.
Mrs Drane thanked the Lions Club for the generous donation and said
“This generous donation will be of great help to the organisation, which
has come a long way in such a short time. It was founded in October 2007
after Bryn and Emma Parry visited some wounded servicemen and women at
Selly Oak Hospital. They were so moved by the bravery they witnessed
that they decided they had to do something. To help with the cost of
running the charity they started an Online Shop and the public’s
response was over whelming. The Sun Newspaper has supported the charity
from the start with its wristband campaign and now over 700,000 people
wear them.”
Mrs Drane added “Help for Heroes supports all the services and one new
area they are looking at is Personal Recovery Centres which provides a
launch pad for the seriously wounded or long term sick service
personnel, supporting them as they make a transition to a fulfilling
future. To raise funds for this they will be holding a 3 day event at
Glemham Hall from 23rd to 25th July this year and naturally everyone is
welcome to come along and support the event.”
Lion President Keith Coomber said “We have seen just how valuable work
our armed services are doing in Afghanistan and other places around the
world therefore we felt it was only right to show our support with this
donation. We would like to thank the people of Beccles for their support
to enable this to happen.”
If you wish to know more about Help for Heroes and the work they do
please contact Mrs Jane Drane by email
jane.drane@h4hcounty.org.uk
or Tel: 01502 675623.
Beccles and District Lions Club
£250.00 cheque presented to Beccles Guides.
Beccles Lion President, Keith Coomber presents a £250.00 cheque to
1st Beccles Brownies Brown Owl, Mrs Caroline Carvosso to help with the
funding of their Girl Guiding Beccles Centenary Rose Garden, which they
have recently completed.
Mrs Carvosso said “I like to thank the Beccles Lions for this generous
donation and for there practical help and support in building the
Centenary Garden, it allowed us to fulfil our plans to build a
Centenary Rose Garden. We wanted to do it as a long term reminder to
represent this year’s Centenary of Guiding. The Girl Guide Association
was founded as an organisation for girls lead by Agnes Baden-Powell,
sister to Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts, in 1910.”
Mrs Carvosso added “The Rose Garden is laid out in the style of the
Guide Trefoil. We have planted The Girl Guiding UK Centenary Pink Rose
and Yellow Brownie Roses. In addition two Time Capsules have been buried
within the Rose Garden for the future. The garden will be maintained by
1st Beccles Brownies”
Lion President Keith Coomber said “Naturally we are very pleased to be
able to make a financial contribution to the Guides Centenary project,
as well as being involved and assisting with the building of the Rose
Garden. I’m sure when all the roses come out it will provide a very
colourful display and one all the Rainbows, Brownies and Guides in
Beccles can be proud of.
If you wish to know more about joining Girl Guiding in Beccles either as a
child or adult volunteer please contact Sally Turner, District
Commissioner Tel: 01502 713516 or e-mail
negg@tesco.net. They are urgently trying to recruit more leaders to
open new units to meet demand for places which is currently exceeding
maximum capacity.
Charter Dinner & Dance 2010
Please contact Lion Ivan Holmes on 0845 833 5074.