Bungay Lions Club

Forthcoming Events 2008

17th May - Stall at the Buttercross
19th July - Stall at the Buttercross
10th August - Family Fun Day & Car Boot Sale on Skinners Meadow
30th August - Table Top Sale, Bungay Community Centre
7th September - Ray Burcham Memorial Trophy bowls competition
12th October - Car Boot Sale
30th November - Senior Citizens’ Christmas Party, Chaucer Club
8th December - Santa arrives in Bungay ….

In the Beginning
Lions clubs were started in America in 1917 by Melvin Jones who thought it would be a good idea to get together with a number of his friends and form a club who would help in their community by helping those less fortunate than themselves. He thought that by giving of himself and serving in his community he could make life a little better for those around him.

Little did he know I guess that so many years later there would be over 40,000 Lions clubs in 182 countries with almost 2 million members all of whom serve their community, maybe not in the same way as he did, but in their own way and in their own manner.

There are now many clubs in this country as well, the first being started in 1950 in London and at that time the British area or Multiple District as we call it was known as 105.

The multiple district is broken down into 13 Districts and if I told you that we in East Anglia are called District 105EA it won't take too much brain power to work out how we came to that conclusion. Our District Governor and a Vice District Governor look after District 105EA.

Local Set up
Within 105EA, which as I said covers the whole of East Anglia, we have broken this down further into 6, what we call "regions" and Bungay are in Region 6 of District 105EA.

However each region is still quite large and therefore to keep the close knit spirit of Lions clubs this region is broken down even further still into zones. There are 2 zones in our region and Bungay are in zone A, which also encompasses Beccles, Halesworth, Harleston, Southwold and Lowestoft.

There are 6 clubs in our zone A, 11 clubs in our Region 6, 74 clubs in District 105EA and there are over 1000 Lions, Lioness and Leo clubs in Multiple District 105 with a combined membership of over 24,000 people all serving their own community.

So you can see that wherever you are in the UK or Ireland there will be a Lions club in your town or at least a town very close to you. It is this closeness which makes Lions the strong force that it is today and allows us to make our presence felt within any community in the country.

Bungay Area Lions Club
We started our club here in Bungay in 1974 and we meet every 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month at the Chaucer Club in Bungay at 8.00pm. We, like any other club, are just ordinary people who by joining together in this organisation are able to bring about change for the better for those who are less fortunate than we are. The money we raise from the community and its surrounding area virtually all goes back into that community in ways that we see is most benefiting to those in need at the time.

What We Do
We are able to assist the old by supplying travelling assistance to hospital, meals and parcels at Christmas, concerts, outings and many other ways. We can help the young either individually or as groups in the scouts, brownies, gym clubs or youth clubs etc. We can help the handicapped with holidays, trips or financially within their home. In fact if you have seen our Father Christmas sleigh in the last couple of years you will know that we will go to any lengths to make money but more importantly to make people and especially children very happy.

International Connections
Having said that most of money is spent locally we do also get involved in national and international projects.

Bungay and Lechland Lions are giving direct help with money to the Colombo Lions to rebuild houses what were destroyed by the tsunami.

We have also in the past few years been involved in an international project called "Sight First". This was a project that involved all of the Lions clubs in the world. We were all asked to raise money to help halt the spread of preventable blindness mainly in the third world countries but also in this country where many cataract operations were carried out to help those people whose sight could be restored by a simple operation.

Over 32 million people who are blind could have their loss of vision prevented or have it restored. Vitamin A deficiency and river blindness causes over 2 million people to go blind each year. All of this is preventable. The total raised by all the clubs in the world was over £125 million. This money is still being used today to build better water and medical facilities to stop the spread of this debilitating disease.

Local Connections
We also join together with Lions clubs in our own zone and arrange joint local projects such as we did with Beccles Lions. We also join other clubs at their Charters (Club Birthdays) and Host Nights (Fun nights)

What Can You Do
So in conclusion you can see that we rely heavily on the public to help us in many ways. Either by supporting us as many have done so magnificently at our events or by supporting us when we ask for money at our cake stalls, on our Father Christmas sleigh or any of the other events we organise.

What we really need now however are new ideas from new members who may see things from a different perspective to the members who have been with the Lions for a long time. Our club is a mixed club with lady Lions members as well male Lions and the club has taken on a new dimension since this inception.

There is however one more way you can help us and that is by giving up some of your most precious commodity and that is time. We specifically need new members as I mentioned before to come up with the good ideas and to keep us long standing members on our toes and therefore keep the club alive and kicking. If that's not an option for you then we need manpower and women power at specific events such as our Father Christmas sleigh which we take around the estates of Bungay during the two weeks prior to Christmas in the evenings and at weekends. We desperately need help to door knock and rattle tins on our behalf and help to raise more than the £1000 we raised this last year. Some of the money from this years Santa Sleigh is going to the organisation who help young children in the area suffering from Cancer or Leukaemia.

If you feel you would like to become a Lion or if you feel you have some time to help us out then please contact us on any of the e-mail addresses on this page or telephone us on any of the following numbers: 01502 717189 or or 01986 892381 and we will be pleased to tell more about Bungay Area Lions Club.

Contacts
Chriss Spooner - Secretary - spoonerchriss@aol.com
David Lewis – dl@davidflewis.freeserve.co.uk

www.bungay-suffolk.co.uk