We were pleased to welcome District Governor, Lion Goff Morris to our business meeting.

At this meeting the club approved donations of £103 to the poppy appeal, £250 to Julian House and £120 to SWAN.

DG Goff presented 35 year service chevrons to Lions Colin and Keith and 15 year service chevrons to Lion President Derek and to Lion Russell.  He presented Centenary Growth pins to Lion Derek Livsey and Lion Alan Denham.

He thanked the club members for all the service given in the name of Lions over the years and was particulary pleased to see that fun was being enjoyed whilst serving.

He wished us a happy 40 Charter annieversary and wished us every success in our efforts to obtain growth.

Photo: DG Lion Goff and president Derek Livsey exchanging friendship banners.  In the foreground amongst the paraphernalia the Lions Friendship trophy (previously the travelling Lion Trophy) can be seen.

Calne Lions hosted the district thanksgiving service this year, in St Marys Church Calne.  The service was led by the Reverend Bob Kenway, assisted by organist, David Bevan.  The Oath of Service was delivered by District Governor, Godfrey Morris, intercessions were led by PDG Larry Pearce and PDG Martin Ruddle read Wesley's exhortation.

Photo: Lion President Derek Livsey, Midsomer Norton Mayor, Paul Myers, Rev. Bob Kenway, Calne Vice President, Rachael Viles,  DG Godfrey, and Mayor of Calne, Tom Rounds.

Radstock and Midsomer Norton Lions took part in a number of remembrance day parades throughout our area.
Lion President, Derek Livsey laid the wreath at the memorial in Holy Trinity Church, High Littleton, accompanying the British Legion, Scouts, Guides and the local council.


Photo: Lion President Derek Livsey, carrying the wreath during the parade into the Church.

Lions have been champions of the blind almost since their inception in 1917 and promoted the use of the white cane in the 1930’s.  Last Saturday was Lions World Sight Day.  To publicise this event, we staged a blind walk through Midsomer Norton High Street, visiting various shops and coffee houses on the way.  We were accompanied by Anne Skinner and Linda Hole (puppy walkers) and Steven Hyde who is himself registered blind.  We were also particularly grateful for the company of our Mayor, Paul Myers and our MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg.  Paul had been due to go up to London that day, but he cancelled the trip in favour of discovering for himself the hazards that blind people face negotiating Midsomer Norton’s hazards.  Both Paul and our president, Lion Derek Livsey were blindfolded during the entire event which lasted for nearly two hours.  President Derek said “I was very surprised to find out how tiring the experience was, it gave me a taste of the problems that blind people face every day”.  During the walk, we handed out leaflets on precautions to take to protect your eyes.
Photo  L-R Lion President Derek Livsey; Lion Geoff Moore; MP, Jacob Rees-Mogg; Mayor, Paul Myers, and Steven Hyde (who is himself registered blind and works for the RNIB as a rehabilitation officer).

We were pleased to support Relate with a donation at their business meeting in October.  The donation will fund counselling for one family.

Penny, CEO of the Mid Wiltshire branch, has 25 years’ experience working in local government and charities.  She said “Supporting people through difficult periods of change when relationships may struggle to survive is at the heart of the Counselling that Relate provides.  To ensure the services are accessible to all, we run a bursary scheme to which Radstock & Midsomer Norton Lions Club have made a generous donation.”

We heard that Penny herself had recently taken part in a Sky Dive jump to raise funds for Relate.  You can find out more on their website, www.relate.org.uk/mid-wiltshire.

Sherborne Town Brass Band gave a wonderful Last Night of the Proms performance at our excellent local facility, the Dragonfly Theatre, Writhlington School.  Musical Director, Steve Rogers, in his last event as director, led the band in a varied programme.  The first half included the “Dam Busters March” and “Dear lord and Father of mankind”, which well-illustrated their versatility.  After refreshments the second half included “Pomp and Circumstance”, with much waving of flags and excitement!  Lion President, Derek Livsey, thanked everyone for their help and contributions to making this a memorable evening.  St John Ambulance were in attendance, thankfully their services were not needed.  Sponsorship by local business was very much appreciated.

Photo: Lion President Derek Livsey, Soloists Paul Slator & Julie Hipworth, MD Steve Rogers and Soloist John Derrick.

For the first time, Radstock & Midsomer Norton Lions were exhibiting at the Clutton Flower Show.
We, and everyone at the show enjoyed some lovely sunshine, hopefully there were not too many cases of sunburn!
Along with our Lions Tombola, we had our new game, shuffle board, where “children” of all ages could try their skill.  £1 gave you 30 counters to slide into gates to score.  As with most things, points mean prizes and we were offering 50% of the takings to the highest scorer.  The winner was Lucy who kindly donated her winnings to the Lions funds – thank you Lucy.  Don’t worry if you missed this exciting new game, we will have it at the High Littleton & Hallatrow Village day on the bank holiday Saturday at the end of this month.  We were also distributing Message in a Bottle, very helpful to elderly people, particularly those living on their own.

Photo: Lucy holding the high score slate, together with the shuffle board.

Our thanks to the public for their support and our thanks to the Flower Show Committee for a well organised event.  Here’s looking forward to next year.

On the Friday the 1st July at Mendip Golf Club the Presidents Handover ceremony took place. Outgoing President Robert Jamieson (right in photo) thanked club members for their support and hard work throughout his year and wished incoming President Derek Livsey (left in photo) success before handing over the chain of office. One of the first events in his year is the 'Duck Race' which is taking place during the Midsomer Norton Fayre on Saturday 9th July. Buy yourself a duck or maybe two and come and cheer them on! 1st prize - £50, 2nd - £30 and 3rd - £20.

We will be manning the gates and running a membership stall at Peasedown St John, Party in the Park on 11th June.  We had a photoshoot at the Beacon Field where the party will be being held.

Photo L-R Craig, Sally, Tom, Margaret, Nathan, Alan, Colin, Derek and Russell.

Our 39^th Charter celebrations at Cameley Lodge, were marked by a donation of £3,600 for the Lions own eye centre in Korle Bu.  This money was raised in association with our Twin Club, Chateau Gontier in France. 
The cheque was accepted from Lion President Rob by PID Howard Lee who also represented our international President, Dr Jitsuhiro Yamada, responding to the toast to Lions International.  PDG Max responded to the toast to our partners and guests.  Our 40^th Charter will also be held at the same popular venue, Cameley Lodge. 
 

Photo: PDG Max Mongia, PID, Howard Lee and Lion President Rob Jamieson. .

We have been running a monthly quiz in High Littleton for many years, this is a friendly affair with a small number of teams.  One of the teams is variously called “South of the Star” or “Southern Rock” and have a reputation something like the Eggheads, except, as far as I can recall, they have never been beaten.  One of the team is Ian Trickett, who used to live in the village, with his wife, the Reverend Prebendary Susan Trickett.  Susan was the part-time vicar of Holy Trinity, High Littleton and Dean of Women’s Ministry at Wells from 1999 until her retirement in 2005.  Leaving High Littleton, they retired to Combe Down in Bath.  It seems that vicars never retire and she continued ministry by becoming an assistant priest at St Barnabas, Southdown, Bath.  We were also pleased to see her when she took occasional services at her old parish, High Littleton.
We were sorry to hear that she had contracted cancer in 2015 and sorrier to hear that she had passed away early in 2016.  Ian tells us that he was extremely grateful for the care and support provided by Macmillan Nurses, both to Susan directly and to the family.  Ian’s quiz team pledged all their winnings from the quiz and consequently the Lions were able to make a £150 donation to Macmillan Cancer Support.
Photo: Quiz organiser, Lion Richard Munden, Lion President Rob Jamieson and Ian Trickett receiving the cheque.

The Bath and North East Somerset Music Service presented a very good concert at the Dragonfly Theatre, Writhlington which included the Schools Philharmonic Orchestra, Writhlington School and Mendip Music.
A varied selection of music was played in the first half including wind instruments, brass, strings, guitars and choirs. This included some very young budding musicians.
The second half gave the Philharmonic Orchestra to show their talents with a trumpet solo by Wesley Downing.
Many thanks to the sponsors and people who donated prizes for the raffle.

Photo: Soloist Wesley Downing and conductor Rainer Dolz with the Schools Philharmonic Orchestra.