PRESIDENT’S BLOG

MAY 2010

This month we will celebrate the 37^th anniversary of the presentation of our Charter. The club that was responsible for our formation was Chester Lions Club. Last month, they celebrated fifty years of service in the city. We were represented at their charter night by six members and five wives. We felt that such a milestone should be honoured with a gift and I, therefore, presented Lion President Michael Hill with a quaich appropriately engraved. You can’t just present a quaich, can you? It was appropriate to christen it with a wee dram to drink the health of our parent club.

In my November Blog, I wrote about our Zone Chairman’s Project for his year of office: Ken Greig chose Buzz-Ah. During April, they put on their musical performances at a School in Mold. Ken attended and was able to present a cheque for £1,000: Flint Club provided the bulk of those monies but donations were also made by the Lions of Wrexham, Oswestry and Vale of Llangollen.

Unfortunately, I was not able to attend the event and Lion Vice President Peter McCracken deputised for me. The evening of the presentation of the cheque coincided with the Charter anniversary of Flint & Holywell Rotary Club. I was invited as a guest and thoroughly enjoyed a most pleasant evening with our colleagues in service. Most of our members were committed to the Buzz-Ah event but Lions Bryn Jones and Dennis Williams flew the Lions flag with me.

At our charter night, I shall have the honour to present three donations. The club always support the District Governor’s spouse’s appeal and this year we are pleased to support the North East Wales Search & Rescue Team, the chosen charity of Paula Marnell. Further information about this most worthwhile organisation can be obtained at www.newsar.org.uk

My chosen charities are Crimebeat Clwyd and DangerPoint two organisations that I come across in my capacity as Under Sheriff. Both have a vital outreach to young people, the first encourages groups of youngsters to pursue projects within their community to prevent crime and anti-social behaviour and the other runs courses at its premises in Talacre to demonstrate dangers that young people (and others) face in the home, on the road, on public transport, on the beach, on the computer and much more.

I arranged for members and friends to visit Dangerpoint on 21^st April. I thought it would be a good idea for them to have an insight into the marvellous work that the staff and volunteers do at the Talacre site. The visitors were impressed – they could not help but be! To find out about National Crimebeat go to www.national-crimebeat.org.uk and for details of Crimebeat in Clwyd please use your search engine for various reports. Dangerpoint’s web site is at www.dangerpoint.co.uk.

Only two months to go! Keep taking the tablets!           

 John Gregory