Recent Events

Another great night of comedy with four great comedians:

Martin Graham, Philip Simon, David Tsonos and Paul McCaffrey had the audience rolling in their seats. A great night was had by all.

The next Comedy Night will be Friday 16 May. It will be the last of the current season

Eight of our members joined a team organised by Wokingham Town Council to pick up litter.

Our recent bowling night at the Superbowl with 17 fellow Lions brought many laughs, screams, along with some questionable skills, and just the right amount of competition. 

It’s easy to get caught up in our routines and forget to make time for fun but honestly these are the moments that matter most.  No overthinking, no big plans, just showing up and making memories with lovely friends, and we all did just that with bowling…

It was a fantastic evening and the highlights…. but not to name any names…… there was a Lion who slid down one of the lanes accidentally of course!! but did manage to let go of the ball.. a Lion who polished their ba….. a lot!! , a Lion who wasn’t paying attention to their turn so someone else took it for them and scored them ‘zero points’ in the process. 🤣and many others which I can’t possibly mention………

Every year we assisting with the Marie Curie Daffodil collection at Morrisons supermarket. As usual we made fools of ourselves by dressing up!

Over the two days we were collecting we raised £836 for them

Seventeen potential Lewis Hamiltons including Lions, friends and family attended a 2-hour Raceway Experience at Pinewood on Tuesday.

Teams were allocated by Steve Clark, our instructor, cleverly  ensuring that everyone had a chance to drive each of the six cars in different lanes, making it fair for everyone.

A complex computer system counted your laps, your speed and your position in the races.

During the break Steve introduced us to the “Chocy Challenge”, the driver able to stop their car nearest the Finish line won a bar of chocolate.

The “A” team, Andy, Andy and Ade took first prize, but we were all winners on a very enjoyable night.

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our quiz – we hope you all had a good time.

Congratulations to our winning team “Brain Pickers”, beating “What The Dickens?” into second place by only two points – it was playing the joker on the pop music round that clinched it!

Thanks to Everyman Cinemas Wokingham and COOK Wokingham who donated prizes for the raffle!

We’ve raised over £1200 for local charities – thanks to everyone who supported the quiz, we’ll be back with another one in the autumn. Follow us on Facebook at Wokingham Lions Club for updates!

Sixteen of our members and guests thought they were going to the National Grid control centre, so were surprised to find that they were actually at The National Energy System Operators, NESO, the new amalgamation which was formed in October 2024.

They were greeted by Sue Stewart, their guide, who took them to a conference room and introduced them to her husband. Between them they showed a video and slide presentation, explaining the aims and practicalities of making sure ‘the lights stay on’ throughout the country, 24 hours a day, every day.

There are about a dozen people on shift all day and night calculating how much power will be needed in any 5-minute period,  to make sure it’s available,  where it’s coming from, and at the most beneficial cost to the consumer. 

They then went to the viewing gallery of the Control Room but didn’t see any crystal balls, just banks of desks with computer screens and a whole wall screen showing a grid of the power supplies across the whole country.

Although the experience was quite technical it was made very enjoyable by Sue and her husband who had worked there for 35 and 32 years respectively.

About 50 members and their guests spent an enjoyable evening at Bearwood Golf Club, where they enjoyed a Christmas dinner followed by an 80’s disco.

We are part of a consortium that runs the annual Wokingham Fireworks Spectacular. This year’s event was extremely successful and raised over £40,000. The proceeds were shared equally between the four participating clubs: Wokingham Lions Club, Wokingham Rotary Club, Easthampstead Rotary Club and Windsor Forest Unicorn Club, each of which received £10,000.

A presentation evening was held in Wokingham Town Hall, attended by representatives of each of the participating clubs and of the beneficiaries.

Each club committed to donate a large part of their share of the proceeds to their nominated charity. Our chosen charity was Keep Mobile so president Andy Goffin presented them with a cheque for £5,500, with the balance going into our charity account.

The beneficiaries nominated by the other clubs were Debra, Homestart and Bracknell Samaritans, each of which also received £5,500.

Another entertaining night with three great comedians plus an MC:

MC: TOM TOAL

ACT 1: JONNY PELHAM

ACT 2: KIRK FONTAINE

ACT 3: LAURA LEXX

We are part of a consortium that runs the annual Wokingham Fireworks Spectacular. This year’s event was exteemely successful

We sold 700 torches and lit them ready for an amazing procession from the the town centre to Cantley Field. Watching them follow Saint Sebastian Band down Broad Street was a sight to behold!

The firework display was equally spectacular and watched by 10,000 spectactors, which was a sell-out crowd.

Funds raised from the event are distributed to charities nominated by each of the participating clubs. This year’s main beneficiaries are:

We organised the second Classic Motor Show on Elms Field in June. The main beneficiary for the show was Regain -The Trust for Sports Tetraplegics charity.

President Andy Goffin and Chair of the Motor Show Committee Bob DuGard met with Calum Frampton from Regain and Kylie Grimes MBE, Regain Ambassador, to present a cheque for £3,000 to the charity.

The presentation took place in Kylie’s hometown of Farnham. We would like to thank Alan Moore of Berkshire and District Classic Car Club (BADCCC), for bringing his classic Ford Capri 2.8 as a backdrop for the photo.

Bob DuGard said “The Classic Motor Show was very successful, and Wokingham Lions have received lots of positive feedback from the public. We raised a total of £5,000. Regain were delighted with their £3,000 donation, and the balance will be distributed to local charities and good causes”.

Over 300 walkers took part on the Autumn Walk. They had the choice of 5 mile, 10 mile or 15 mile routes through beautiful countryside around Wolkingham.

Some fantastic feedback has been posted on social media:

• “Thanks to everyone involved in the organisation, really good route, we had never walked along the Blackwater before”

• “I just wanted to thank the organisers of The Wokingham Walk, Autumn 2024 and Wokingham Lions Club. With the 10-mile walk, it was really nice to see different areas of Crowthorne and the countryside beyond as well as the familiar Wokingham town and countryside”.

Some walkers also took the opportunity to raise funds for their favourite charities. One family walked for The Thames Valley Air Ambulance after they helped them this year, saving the life of their child. Two walkers, who shared the walk, told us they had raised around £1,000 for The Alzheimer’s Society and Me2, whilst another family were supporting the National Autism Society. A small group were walking for No5, which supports young people aged 11-25, who live, work or study in the ‘RG’ area, with their mental health.

We were again helped in the organisation of the event by the Ollie Young Foundation, their supporter’s ‘younger legs’ did a lot of the setting up and taking down of the route. Some of the profits from the event will be going their way. They also had one of their supporters walking the route, and despite having had a replacement hip not too long ago, he completed the 10-mile route, raising around £1,000 for them!

Organiser Andy Slay said “We are really happy with the support this event attracts. Although final figures are yet to be calculated, we will have made a significant amount for local charities and good causes, including of course the Ollie Young Foundation. It was good to see people using the event to explore the countryside around Wokingham, catch up with friends and family, get some great exercise, and of course our thanks to those who use the Wokingham Walk to raise money for causes close to their hearts”.

We continued our season of comedy nights with four more comedians entertained a full house in Wokingham Theatre . As before it was a great night enjoyed by everyone.

The event raised over £3,000 for good causes

For future reference there will be more Comedy Nights on Fridays 15 November 2024, 28 February 2025, 4 April 2025 and 16 May 2025

12 teams of 8 competed for the coveted achievement of winning the challenging quiz set by our quizmaster Ian Grange, with the prize of achieving the accolade of being quiz champions, puls a bar of chocolate for each member of the winning team!

The event was held in a new venue for us, the 1st Wokingham Scout hut, which proved to be a nice room easily able to accommodate us all.

As always Ian Grange made a very professional presentation and asked some very challenging questions. The event raised £1,700 for our charity account.

‘Beating the Bounds’ was an ancient practice carried out to ensure the knowledge of parish boundaries was maintained and passed from generation to generation.  This involved walking around the boundary swatting local landmarks with branches to maintain a shared mental map of parish boundaries. You can read more about the history of this ancient tradition here.

2024 marks the 50^th Birthday of Wokingham Town Council, who were keen to revive this tradition as part of the town celebrations. Wokingham Lions Club is also celebrating its 50^th anniversary, so the council asked us to help them bring this new event to fruition.

It was a free event, open to everyone, and over 200 local people took part to share the fun of this ancient tradition.

The boundary is about 16 miles long so many participants didn’t want to walk it all. We therefore split it into 3 routes of differing lengths so people only needed to walk as far as they could comfortably manage.

The Wokingham Swimathon was a community event in the Wokingham Leisure Centre which allowed teams of swimmers to raise funds for their nominated organisation or charity and have fun at the same time.

22 teams took part, with each team having up to eight swimmers. They had 50 minutes to complete as many laps as they could (each lap being two lengths of the pool). They didn’t compete against each other, so the scores were only for their personal satisfaction.

However, each team was encouraged to seek sponsorship and together they raised over £10,000 for their own charities

A big thank you to the management team at the Wokingham Leisure Centre and Places Leisure, the company that runs the centre, without whom we couldn’t run this event.

Our year runs from 1 July to 30 June, so at our business meeting of 10 July we formally handed over the presidency from Lyn Baily to Andy Goffin.

Lyn noted that the club raised a record £67,000 during her year as President. She thanked the Lions members who have worked hard to achieve this impressive amount of money raised for good causes and individuals in need.

She said: “I have enjoyed my second term as President of the Wokingham Lions Club. We welcomed three new members, and celebrated our 50^th Golden Anniversary in style! I know that our club will continue to thrive under the leadership of our new President, Andy Goffin.”

Andy thanked Lyn for her outstanding year as President, and presented her with a prestigious Melvin Jones Fellowship Award. (Melvin Jones was the founder of Lions Clubs International in 1917.) Andy said that the club has grown from 32 members when he was President three years ago, to the current 38 members. He hopes to have more members next year, so that the club can continue to expand its activities and achieve even more.

Andy said: “My aim during my year as President is to assist Wokingham Lions Club to grow and develop in helping the local community. We are fortunate to have members who are actively involved in our club’s events. Our new members have made a tremendous contribution, and we look forward to welcoming more members in the future. We can always use new ideas, experience and expertise.”

Eighteen members and guests enjoyed the hottest day of the year (s0 far) by meeting in the evening for a get-together at the Leathern Bottel.

Rain showers and at times gusting winds couldn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the vehicle owners, the visiting public and volunteers at the second Classic Motor Show at Elms Field.

The show was opened by Wokingham Town Mayor, Councillor Rob Comber, who also spent time viewing the exhibits and meeting the owners and visitors.

We decided to make Regain Sports Charity the nominated charity for the show. An advocate for the charity is Kylie Grimes MBE. Kylie is a triple Paralympian of the London, Rio and Tokyo games, finally becoming Paralympic Champion with her fellow teammates in Wheelchair Rugby at the delayed Tokyo Paralympics in 2021. Kylie was delighted to be at the event and happily chatted and showed her Gold Medal to the public. For more information about the charity visit www.regainsportscharity.com.

There were several prizes available. Best in Show was awarded to Robert Pidgeon’s Bullnose Morris, which had been set up on the day as a van, but is actually a 4-seat tourer, and which featured in the popular TV drama, Downton Abbey. The best motorcycle was a Yamaha RD250 owned by Alister Tallents. The Trophy Sponsors, Trimmania Ltd. chose David Simms’ Ford Escort Mexico as their favorite, and the Children’s Choice was the Messerschmitt KR200 owned by Gary Hammond. All vehicles displaying at the event received a unique lapel badge.

We would like to thank Wokingham Town Council for their support, as well as the event sponsors, Clifton Ingram, Wokingham MOT & Service Centre, Bulldog Triumph, Lind Harley Davidson, Trimmania, Wokingham Tyres & MOT, Total Tyre Company & Triple C Paintwork.

To celebrate our 50th anniversary we offered 50 Golden Awards of £500 each to local charities providing special projects during 2024. We then held a presentation event in Wokingham Town Hall to hand over cheques and interact with the recipients and local dignitaries. You can read all about it here:

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the formation of Wokingham Lions Club we had an evening out on a pleasure boat on the Thames. The boat left Windsor at 7:30pm and sailed upstream for 2 hours before turning back. During the journey they served a lovely barbecue meal, then entertained us with a old-time disco.

40 of our members and guests attended, including Sandra Manktelow, who is the Vice District Governor of Lions district 105SC, which covers the south of England. Sandra gave a short speech congratulating the club on reaching their 50th milestone and noting that we have gained 14 new members over the past 5 years, making us the second largest club in the district. She then presented our president, Lyn Baily, with a Certificate of Appreciation.

Four more comedians entertained a full house in Wokingham Theatre . As before it was a great night enjoyed by everyone:

For future reference there will be more Comedy Nights on Fridays 4 October 2024, 15 November 2024, 28 February 2025, 4 April 2025 and 16 May 2025

We have rarely had bad weather for the May Fayre, but this year was an exception! The previous day and the next day were glorious, but it rained most of the day!

However, that didn’t deter the hardened locals who attended in numbers almost as great as any other year. Everyone enjoyed it, even if they got a bit wet!

As before the event took place in Elms Field, Denmark Street and Market Place. There were about 130 stalls covering charities, crafts, novelties and of course, food and drink.

We run the event with three objectives:

• It’s a free event for the local community
• It gives charities the opportunity to raise much-needed funds
• It raises money for our charity account, which will be used to support local good causes and worldwide disasters

It was a succes in all respects. Charities raised a total of around £20,000 and we raised a further £20,000 for our charity account.

Around 350 walkers braved the elements and completed our 5, 10 or 15 mile routes. As you can see from the pictures we had some challenges with flooding around the route – around 20mm of rain fallen overnight. Thank you to everyone who worked to help us overcome the challenges, and to our walkers who took it all in their stride!

Our president, Lyn Baily, and member Andy Goffin visited Holme Grange school to talk to pupils about service in the community.

We hope that the younger generation will follow the lead of our existing members and help make real contributions to Wokingham community

Some of our Lions are volunteering to support First Days Children’s Charity with their School Uniform shop on Thursday afternoons where they are open from 3-6pm for low cost school uniforms. You can read about the service here https://www.firstdays.net/school-uniform-requests

This is just one example of Lions working with local community groups – if you’d like to join in, download a leaflet here https://wokinghamlions.org.uk/getinvolved

We, along with Wokingham Rotary Club, Easthampstead Rotary Club & Windsor Forest Unicorn Club, organise the Wokingham Fireworks each November, a long established and popular annual charity event. Each Club names their chosen beneficiaries and the proceeds are distributed equally to them.

We chose Daisy’s Dream and First Days Children’s Charity as our beneficiaries. Together they received the majority of our share of the proceeds, with the remainder going into our charity account.

At our April business meeting we welcomed Joanne Somner from Daisy’s Dream, a charity that supports children through a significant bereavement. Joanne said that Daisy’s Dream were delighted with the donation of £3,500. She went on to explain how the charity came into being:

• The charity started in 1996 when a local mother suddenly lost her husband. She and her children attended an out of area residential weekend which she found ‘transformational’, and she wondered why there was nothing available in Berkshire? From that thought grew Daisy’s Dream, named after the family dog!
• She explained that our donation could fund their phone line for three months, facilitate a great family day out for the children they help, or allow 10 children to access a course of six one-to-one coaching sessions.

Lion Debbie Slay presented a cheque for £2,500 to Clare Springate and Alison Saunders of First Days Children’s Charity at their Uniform Shop in the Elevate building in Wokingham.

First Days support families who are living with a low income or experiencing financial hardship, by providing everyday essentials for children who need them. They also provide school uniform to those in need upon referral.

First Days have opened the Uniform Shop where parents can purchase pre-loved uniform at reasonable prices. The proceeds are used to fund uniforms for families who can’t afford to pay. Wokingham Lions are helping them by manning the shop on Thursday afternoons.

Eleven members and guests took a pleasant 3 mile walk through the countryside followed by Sunday roast dinner at the Queens Oak pub. The weather was good to us, but the heavy persistent rain of the previous weeks left some of the ground very wet and muddy! However this didn’t dampen spirits so it proved a very convivial and friendly day out.