Community Support

Lion John Cleary ran our annual Can Can Christmas Food Appeal again, as he has for the last 20 years. He organised our volunteers outside Tesco and Waitrose, asking customers to buy an extra item and donate it to us as they left.

The collected items were taken to First Days Children’s Charity who again offered us space so we could collate them into about 150 bags. We then delivered them to individuals in Wokingham who are finding life a little tough at the moment. We also made bulk deliveries to the Salvation Army and selected care homes.

All the item remaining were taken to Wokingham Foodbank, who used them to support individuals and families facing hardship with a little Christmas cheer.

A special thank you to Tesco and Waitrose in Wokingham for their ongoing support and of course their very generous customers. 

Member Nick Halford runs our Spectrek project and took another batch of spectacles to Chichester Lions Club. There they are sorted and despatched to France from where they are passed on to third world countries.We participate in an international project to recycle spectacles and hearing aids for use in third world countries.

For more details click here.

Tesco Wokingham repeated their annual fund raising event to cycle to Ukraine. Volunteers from their staff took turns to ride exercise bikes with the objective to cover the equivalent distance from Wokingham to Kyev, to raise money for the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. Wokingham Lions helped them by managing the collection, which raised over £1000

As in previous years we assisting with the Marie Curie Daffodil collection at Morrisons supermarket. As usual we will made fools of ourselves by dressing up!

We collected over £700 for them

About 40 members and friends attended a presentation by Tony Colby of South Central Ambulance Charity, who outlined the role of the SCA Charity, and what their wide range of volunteers get up to. This includes Community First Responders, who are volunteers contacted by 999 operators at the same time as ambulances are called.  If a responder reaches a patient before the ambulance he/she will give emergency first aid.

He also outlined the basics of how the lay person can respond in the case of a medical emergency, particularly cardiac arrest. He instructed us how to apply CPR, and demonstrated how easy it is to use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). He explained that by using these simple techniques the patient’s chance of survival is dramatically increased.

Our club continues to grow with the induction of another new member, Nandini Banerjee.

Nandini (in orange), was accompanied by her sponsor Sarah Newstead, as she was inducted by president Claire Mangers-Page and Membership chairman Bob DuGard.

The Can Can Christmas Food Appeal had another successful year with nearly 2700 food and personal hygiene products being donated by Tesco and Waitrose customers.

First Days Children’s Charity kindly gave up some of their warehouse space for a couple of weeks which enabled us to make up over 230 bags of shopping. These were then distributed to families and individuals in Wokingham who are finding life a little tough at the moment.

We were also able to deliver a bulk order of assorted food items to SHARE Wokingham to help towards their effort in supporting local people through the festive period.

Can Can started 30 years ago, long before Foodbank’s were a thing, however our collaboration with Wokingham Foodbank, First Days and SHARE Wokingham in recent years has proved extremely successful ensuring that donations continue to reach all the right people.

A special thank you to Tesco and Waitrose in Wokingham for their ongoing support and of course their very generous customers. 

Jonathan was accompanied by his sponsor Sean Clarkson as he was inducted by president Claire Mangers-Page and Membership chairman Bob DuGard.

On Sunday 14th August the Ollie Young Foundation held its annual fun day at the new venue Reddam House, formerly Bearwood College. The Wokingham Lions ran a children’s and adult Tombola, using the brand new Tombola drum kindly made by Mens Shed. Despite it being a blazing hot day meaning a lower turnout of people than usual, we had plenty of fun with those who did come along and raised £409.50! All proceeds went straight to the Foundation whose aim it is to find a cure or prevention of brain tumours in children through research. 

Thank you to those Lions who gave up their time to help at the event and everyone who supported it. 

Wokingham Borough Council ran a special event on Elms Field to welcome new arrivals to the borough, including more than 400 refugees from Ukraine (as part of the Government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme) as well as families from Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Syria and other places who have moved to the area.

Those who attended were able to get food from stalls or bring their own picnics with them to enjoy in the town centre green space.

We were asked to provide a tea tent, so we offered tea, coffee and cold drinks free of charge to all newcomers and to families hosting refugees. 

Cllr Clive Jones, leader of the council, said: “We’d like to welcome anyone who wishes to join us on the day to provide a warm welcome to those who have moved to our borough. This is a perfect chance to build relationships and make new connections, as well as being a fun day out for all the family”

As well as food vendors there were stalls representing charities offering support to refugees, including Reading Ukrainian Community Centre, Citizens Advice, First Days, SHARE Wokingham, the Cowshed, Home-Start and Churches Together.

It is a tradition of the club that the town mayor is inducted into the club as an honorary member. Maria Gee was recently elected as Wokingham Town Mayor so we duly inducted her into the club.

We were at Tesco Wokingham to help support their energetic staff for their two-day virtual cycling marathon to Ukraine (1,500 miles!). They managed to raise £1622.34 in aid of the British Red Cross

We participate in an international project to recycle spectacles and hearing aids for use in third world countries. We collect them from opticians and individuals and take them to the UK centre run by Chichester Lions. They collate them and send them on to a centre in France which then forwards them on to people in need. for more details click here.

Nick Halford and president Andy Goffin took our latest consignment of over 3,000 pairs to Chichester

Our membership continues to thrive and we inducted two new members, Monnie Lin and David Dunham. We are still open to new members so if you would like to find out more about what we do why not contact us at mail@wokinghamlions.org.uk? We will invite you to our meetings and social events then, if you like what you see, you can join us.

One of our members, Alan Rouse, was honoured to receive a civic award from Wokingham Town Council for the voluntary work he has done with Lions, Citizens Advice, the Foodbank, Wokingham Fireworks and the Unicorn Club. He is pictured second from left, with the five other recipients

After a break of two years due to Covid we were again able to assist the Marie Curie Daffodil collection. As usual we made fools of ourselves by dressing up!

Tom was an active member of Wokingham Lions Club from 1999, but sadly died in December. He will be fondly remembered for all his contributions to the local community.

In his later years he was closely involved with the WADE day care centre for the elderly, so we felt it would be a fitting tribute to leave a memorial to him there.

We donated £500 to WADE and financed a stone garden for them as a permanent reminder of Tom.

We took an active part in the Christmas Presence project, co-ordinating the infra-structure by providing furniture, electrics, lighting and sound, for which we are very grateful for the support given by Mike Smith, Harlequin Marquees and Rapid Hire.

We then spent two days at Tesco and one at Waitrose, asking customers to buy an extra item and leave it with us so we could use it to make Christmas hampers for those in need.

As in previous years we were bowled over by the generosity of the public. We took the donations to the Christmas Presence unit that we were sharing with Wokingham Foodbank, SHARE Wokingham, First Days Children’s Charity and various other local charities.

We were able to create over 150 parcels and deliver them to local individuals (mainly elderly). We also delivered bulk packages to local council-run care homes.

Some of the surplus was then given to SHARE to distribute to families who came to the Christmas Presence shop and the remainder was taken to Wokingham Foodbank.

Our project complemented that of the other participants in the Christmas Presence project, who created and delivered Christmas food and toy hampers to over 200 families

Town Mayor Tony Lack was inducted as an honorary member of the Wokingham Lions Club outside the Town Hall, observing social distancing. President Nigel Page and Membership Director John Cleary welcomed him to the club.

“We are delighted to welcome Cllr Town Mayor Tony Lack as an honorary member of the Wokingham Lions Club. We have always been closely associated with supporting local charities and the local community. We greatly value working with both the Wokingham Town Council and the Wokingham Borough Council,” said Mr. Page.

The underlying principle of the Lions Club is to serve the community, and as a worldwide organization it has been doing this for more than 100 years,” Mr. Cleary said.

Mayor Tony Lack said: “It was such a privilege to be inducted into the Wokingham Lions by their President, Nigel Page, and Membership Director, John Cleary, today. Wokingham Town, not just the Council, really appreciates the work that the Lions do year in, year out, to support local charities, by running some of the best events around.”

He added: “It is very sad that we were not able to enjoy the May Fayre, and we know that many other events will be at risk, but the success of the Great Woky Pub Quiz just showed what the Lions can do when they need to. I look forward to keeping up with the Lions and supporting them in their future events, whatever those might look like.”

Traditionally we have an annual charter celebration and handover luncheon to welcome a new president at the beginning of July. That was not possible this year due to the Coronavirus epidemic, so outgoing President Lyn Baily and new President Nigel Page met outdoors for the handover ceremony. The chain of office was presented on a two-metre tape measure!

Lyn said: “My biggest challenge was obviously leading our response to the Coronavirus epidemic. Decisions had to be made regarding the cancellation of our May Fayre in this special year, which was scheduled for 8 May, the same day as the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe. Although I was personally disappointed, it was necessary to unite members in our response, and to ensure that we managed the financial risk, whilst at the same time maintaining our goodwill. Fortunately, the May Fayre team made sure that this was managed superbly.”

“With the support of Ian Grange and his now legendary virtual quizzes, plus a £1000 grant from Lions District, we have now donated £5500 to the Wokingham Borough Community Hub. The Hub and their volunteers distribute much needed food and essential supplies to those in need in our community”

“We are a happy club, and one of the main reasons I became a Lion was to extend our friendship group. We have enjoyed a great deal of social outings with fellow Lions, as well as balls, treasure hunts and themed evenings. We have also enjoyed parties, dinners, BBQs and drinks with good friends we have made through the club”

Nigel said: “Taking over the reins from Lyn is not easy. Lyn has been an excellent president over the last twelve months. Her enthusiasm for projects like supporting local scouts and youth, charities like School Days, and more recently the Wokingham Hub, have been an inspiration. Thank you, Lyn, you have been great to work with.”

“We now find ourselves in a different world, full of change. Raising funds will be our most challenging task, and Ian’s brilliant Woky Pub Quiz has shown the way that we can find different ways to raise money.  The remaining months of 2020 are still unpredictable, but I know that we will adapt and succeed in our efforts. We have an amazingly experienced and dedicated team, and I for one, greatly value the friendship, humour and energy of my fellow Lions,”

Every year we help Marie Curie with their daffodil collection.  Several members took shifts to cover two days at Morrisons supermarket and collected a total of £767.

Wokingham Lions have sponsored a new plastic wrap around a BT OpenReach cabinet outside the town hall. This greatly improves the appearance of an otherwise unsightly piece of streetside furniture whilst at the same time publicising the club.

Wokingham Town Mayor, Cllr Lynn Forbes is grateful to the Wokingham Lions Club for sponsoring the wrap and Wokingham Borough Council for their support.

“The wrapped cabinet really brightens up this spot on Market Place” she said.

“I would like to encourage other charities to approach the Town Council’s Arts and Culture officer if they are interested in seeing their logo displayed on a street cabinet in the town centre.”

This year’s Can-Can took place at Waitrose and Tesco supermarkets, where we collected food donations from customers which we then packaged into parcels that we distributed to the elderly living at home and in state run care homes, single parents with young families, day centres for the elderly, Wokingham Hospital, social services, CAB clients and the Salvation Army. We also donated some to the Wokingham Food Bank.

It is part of the tradition of Wokingham Lions Club that the Town Mayor is invited to become an Honorary Member during their period in office.  We therefore invited the new Town Mayor, Lynn Forbes, to join us at our business meeting, where she was inducted into the club by president Lyn Baily.

Every year Wokingham Lions Club help Marie Curie with their annual Great Daffodil Appeal.  This year was no exception, and over the two days we participated we collected over £1,000

We ran our annual Can-Can appeal in December, where we collected food donations outside Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco supermarkets.  We collated the donations into more than 200 food parcels that we donated to numerous needy indiviuals and organisations in the locality.  This event is always well supported, and the recipients are extremely grateful for the bit of Christmas Cheers that we bring them.

One of Lions International objectives is to address sight problems around the world.  Every club helps with this through the Spectrek initiative trough which they collect unused spectacles and recycle them to third world countries.  This scheme is explained in detail in our Spectrek page.

Wokingham Council organised this event to celebrate our national heritage.  This year’s theme was Extraordinary Women and our president, Debbie Slay, was honoured to be chosen as one of those honoured as a mark of recognition for the many years she has been involved with Wokingham Lions, supporting local good causes.