Charity Support

Every year we help Marie Curie with their daffodil collection.  Several members took shifts to cover three days at Morrisons supermarket and collected a total of £917.

Representatives from the two main beneficiaries were invited to our business meeting to accept cheques for £3,500 each.

Claire Revie explained that SHARE Wokingham started four years ago to help those in need and reduce food waste. It now works from 15 sites throughout Wokingham Borough and each month around 40 tonnes of food are processed that would have otherwise been wasted. Claire also talked about two new schemes. The first called the Roots Community Food Store, has been set up to help residents who can’t afford a full, healthy diet and is run from Norreys Church. The second is a pilot scheme in conjunction with Keep Hatch Primary School called The JAM Club (Just about Managing), to offer school children fruit, vegetables and other healthy items.

Amy Fennell explained that Home-Start Wokingham District is a small charity supporting families in crisis. Their only proviso is that there is at least one child under five in the family. Last year they helped about 45 families by matching them with one of their trained volunteers. The volunteers can provide both practical and emotional support to the families and can also signpost them to other services that may be useful.

Representatives from the two main beneficiaries were invited to our business meeting to accept cheques for £4000 each.

Samantha Rosier, Fundraising Chairman for Camp Mohawk receved a cheque from president Lyn Baily and said “We will use the money to refurbish our Sensory Room, to provide options of both calming and stimulating environments. Sensory rooms play a pivotal part in assisting with the development of children with sensory issues. They are also hugely enjoyed by children with other learning difficulties and disabilities and as such are a fundamental part of Camp Mohawk’s range of facilities”.

Layla Pipe, Senior Community Fundraiser for Thames Hospice said “On behalf of us all at Thames Hospice, I would like to thank the Wokingham Lions for the £4,000, which could fund six weeks of vital end-of-life care for two patients at home. We rely heavily on support from groups such as the Lions to help fund our care, and their continued support and amazing donation are so very much appreciated”

Camp Mohawk is one of the beneficiaries of the May Fayre so a number of our members visited to see first hand what they do.

It’s a multi-functional day centre for children with special needs and their families, set in 5 acres of beautiful countryside, just outside Wargrave, Berkshire. Throughout the year the centre provides a range of activities, facilities and natural space to encourage children with a variety of special needs to play, socialise and learn in a secure and caring environment.

It was a very informative session for members – thank you for showing us around!

You can read more about their work here https://www.campmohawk.org.uk

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In April, Wokingham Lions Club members Paul Baily and Andy Goffin were delighted to accept an invitation to attend the Thames Valley Air Ambulance, Supporter Day. It was a good chance to find out more about this excellent charity and to see their helicopter up close. The opportunity was also taken to present them with the donation of £5,000 from The Wokingham Fireworks event.

Kaleidoscopic UK and Building for the Future were nominated an the main beneficiaries of the Winter Carnival.

Claire Mangers-Page (Wokingham Lions president) and Tim Hanton (Chairman of the Winter Carnival committee) met with representatives of the charities to hand over cheques:

Vickie Robertson of Kaleidoscopic UK was the grateful recipient of a cheque for £3,500. They are a charitable organisation of survivors for survivors of domestic abuse in ALL its forms, based in the Thames Valley and providing support services throughout England and Wales. It was founded by Vickie in January 2019 after her experience of childhood and adult domestic abuse.

Jane Holmes received a £3,500 cheque for Building for the Future. They are a Wokingham based, parent led charity providing activities, support and therapy for children with disabilities and/or additional needs and their families.

Wokingham Foodbank asked us if we could run a special collection for them to help with the expected increase in demand leading up to Christmas. We were given permission to set up a stall outside Waitrose supermarket, asking customers to buy an extra item and leave it with us.

Their customers were very generous, so we were able to collect over 400Kg of donations.

Leukaemia UK and Wokingham Men’s Shed both received £1,500, which will be put to good use very soon.

When presented with the funds Paul Abbott from Leukaemia UK was delighted and said: “We are so grateful to Wokingham Lions Club for choosing Leukaemia UK as one of the charities to receive this money. Donations like this help us continue to fund life-changing research to accelerate progress in diagnosis, find kinder treatments and better care for leukaemia patients. Leukaemia devastates lives and it’s due to fundraisers like Wokingham Lions Club that we hope one day this will no longer be the case.”

Ron Baillie of Wokingham Mens Shed was similarly pleased and said “It is wonderful that the Wokingham Men’s Shed has been widely recognised in the community. We are all about helping to combat loneliness and isolation, by giving men an opportunity and good reason to get out of the armchair and go and do something collaborative with others in the Shed. This donation from the Wokingham Lions will go towards new tools, and we are deeply grateful for their support.”

Just Around the Corner, JAC, was the second charity chosen as a beneficiary of the May Fayre so we had pleasure giving a cheque for £3,000 to the founder, Sam Milligan.

Sam gave us a tour of their premises and explained how JAC started from humble beginnings about 24 years ago and has grown into an amazing facility that helps young people overcome difficulties that prevent them from engaging in society. It does this primarily by encouraging them to interact with animals, and also by developing interests in topics like gardening, bee-keeping and horticulture. They also run a shop manned by youngsters to encourage them to interact with the public.

Sam showed us the buildings and facilities they have created, and the livestock, including horses, donkeys, goats, chickens and rabbits. He explained that horses have an affinity to people and there is a two-way interaction that is particularly beneficial to youngsters who may have problems interacting with people.

We were totally overwhelmed by Sam’s dedication and commitment, and astounded at his breadth of knowledge. We all agreed that JAC richly deserved the donation we gave him

Link Visiting was one of the charities we chose as beneficiaries of the May Fayre. We therefore invited their John Mallaghan to our business meeting, at which we presented him with a cheque for £3,000.

John thanked us for the donation and gave a summary of the history of Link Visiting and the work they do addressing loneliness and and social isolation. They currently support around 400 people living on their own by matching them to volunteers who befriend them and give whatever support they can. Their motto is Confronting Loneliness, Celebrating Friendship. The pinnacle of their success was receiving the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

Gerry Aggett was a very active member of our club, but he sadly died several years ago. One of his greatest achievement was to instigate the Wokingham May Fayre in 1994, which we have continued running ever since.

As a momento we created the Gerry Aggett award which we grant annually to an individual who we consider has made a major contribution to the local community. As well as receiving a certificate the recipient also receives a donation of £1,000 to be given to a charity of their choice.

This year we gave the award to Claire Revie, who founded SHARE Wokingham at the start of the Covid Pandemic. SHARE collect surplus food and give it to those in need. Claire naturally chose SHARE as her nominated charity for the donation

Wokingham Foodbank told us their stocks were running low as a result of increased demand. We responded by co-ordinating with Tesco to arrange a day’s collection similar to that in our Christmas Can-Can appeal. We were again amazed at the generousity of their customers and collected 511Kg of food donations plus £504.

Wokingham Lions Club is one of the five service clubs that together form the Wokingham Fireworks Charitable Trust which organises the annual fireworks display every November. The 2021 event raised over £30,000 so our share was £6,000. We nominated the Thames Valley Air Ambulance as our chosen charity. Covid restrictions prevented us from holding meetings earlier, but we were able to invite Nicola Bishop to come to our April business meeting to accept our donation.

Nicola gave an illustrated presentation of the great work carried out by the TVAA before being presented with a cheque for £6,000 by our president, Andy Goffin.

At our business meeting there was universal support and sympathy for the residents of Ukraine. It was agreed that we would donate £500 to the Disaster Emergency Committee Ukraine Relief Fund. This attracted Gift Aid, and the government had pledged to match all donations, so the effective total was £1,200.

We also agreed to give £1,000 to the Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF) Ukraine Humanitarian Fund. This is directly administered by Lions Clubs in the area, thus ensuring that no money is lost in administration costs.

Proceeds from the Wokingham Lions Club virtual pub quiz in September have been donated to the Ollie Young Foundation (OYF), a local charity which funds targeted paediatric brain tumour research and support. Nigel Page, president of the Lions club, presented a cheque for £320 to Sarah Simpson, founder of OYF.

Sarah said: “We are extremely grateful to the Wokingham Lions Club for their support through this extraordinary time. Their efforts and selflessness are what gives charities like ours the little boost we need. Thank you to all those who took part in the virtual quiz. Thank you to Ian for hosting yet another great evening, and to all those who donated to our charity too. We very much appreciate it.”

We distributed giant easter eggs to numerous pubs and restaurants in Wokingham and the surrounding area.  Each venue would have held a raffle with the egg as the prize. All the proceeds would have gone to our charity account, which is used to support local good causes.

However, due to the coronavirus all pubs and restaurants were closed over the Easter period.  Some venues had already sold tickets, and gave us the takings.  We have asked each venue to use the egg however they choose, and several donated their eggs to the children’s ward at the Royal Berks Hospital

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.

Gerry Aggett was a very active member of Wokingham Lions Club whose achievements included initiating the May Fayre. When he died the Club created the Gerry Aggett Award in his memory. It is given each year to an individual who we consider has contributed significantly to the local community, and a donation of £1,000 is given to a local charity of their choice.

This year the Club unanimously chose Lyndsay Browne as the recipient.  Lyndsay created the charity School Days, which collects used school uniforms and equipment, renovates them then distributes them to families in need.  They also buy new uniforms when necessary.  Wokingham Lions have supported School Days since its inception in 2018.  Our president, Lyn Baily, has established a particularly strong association with Lyndsay, who the Club decided was a very worthy winner of the award.  Lyndsay chose to give the donation to School Days and Homestart.

In accepting the award Lyndsay noted that School Days have so far helped over 530 children.  One recent initiative that was helped by various Lions members was refurbishing over 50 pairs of football boots that were kindly donated to them.

President Lyn Baily handed a cheque for £1,500 to Jake Morrison from Wokingham Citizen’s Advice.

John Cleary was instrumental in organising the first #Woky Comedy Night, and at our business meeting we handed over the proceeds. President Lyn Baily presented a cheque for £1000 to Jackie Wilson from WADE, who explained that they provide a day centre for the elderly, but they were finding more and more of the people they help now suffer from dementia.  She then presented a cheque for £500 to Sarah Simpson and Barbara Young from the Ollie Young Foundation.

£500 Donation to MacMillan Cancer Support

£500 Donation to Berkshire MS Therapy Centre

£500 Donation to Headway Thames Valley

£500 Donation to WADE

£500 Donation to Younger People with Dementia

May Fayre 2019 Beneficiary - Home-Start

May Fayre 2019 Beneficiary - Me2 Club

£2000 Donation from Wokingham Fireworks to School Days

£1000 Gerry Aggett Award to Chris Pape

BWA help support victims of domestic abuse, the Wokingham Lions Club donated £1,000 to Berkshire Women’s Aid (BWA).

Liz Terry, Chief Executive, Berkshire Women’s Aid, said: “Thank you for your generosity. This money is really timely and very welcome. BWA are soon to take possession of a new building, and this donation will be used to provide furniture. We offer a safe haven for victims of domestic abuse and violence.”

Debbie Slay, president, Wokingham Lions Club, said: “We are pleased to support this important organisation, which was founded 40 years ago. We raised £480 at our Tea Tent at the Rock Choir Festival (Cantley Field) on the August Bank Holiday Monday. Our club matched the amount raised from our charity funds, and rounded it up to £1,000 for Berkshire Women’s Aid.”

Berkshire Women’s Aid works throughout Bracknell, Reading and Wokingham. For more information, please visit the website, www.berkshirewomensaid.org.uk. The Helpline phone number is 0118 950 4003.

Profits from this year’s May Fayre event were donated to two local charities by the Wokingham Lions Club at the 8^th August business meeting. The beneficiaries are Thames Valley Air Ambulance and Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service.

Debbie Slay, president, Wokingham Lions Club, said: “We are once again pleased to be able to support two worthy charities, with a cheque for £3,000 to each organisation. We hope that this money will enable them to carry on their important work. In addition, we are pleased to welcome Wokingham Town Mayor Cllr Julian McGhee-Sumner as an honorary member of the club.”

Claire Redrup, Community Fundraising Manager, Thames Valley Air Ambulance, said: “We rely on the generosity of the communities we serve. We are not government funded and receive no National Lottery funding. Donations from the community are what keep our vital service operational. The generous funds from supporters such as the Wokingham Lions Club help us to deliver advanced care to people when the worst happens. We are now operational 19 hours a day, 365 days a year, attending more emergencies than ever.”

Claire Coldicott, Director of Fundraising and Communications at Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service said: “We are delighted to receive a donation of £3,000 from the Wokingham Lions Club. This money will go towards running our day care services that opened in June this year, in our new state of the art hospice building just outside Maidenhead, to support families who have a child with a life threatening or life limiting condition. Children will be able to enjoy play sessions in our fully-equipped sensory room, as well as making a mess in the creative learning zone and music in our dedicated all-age music space. We can’t thank Wokingham Lions enough for their support at such an exciting time in our development.”

The Wokingham Lions Club works in partnership with the Wokingham Town Council to organise the annual May Fayre. The May Fayre’s profits are made up from proceeds from the May Fayre (stall sales), sponsorship and public donations on the day.