President’s Blog

October 2009

On 19^th August, Flint Lions were saddened to learn of the death of their colleague Lion David Gunther. David had not enjoyed the best of health in recent times but his passing to Higher Service, at the age of 57, came as a complete shock. We extend our condolences to his wife Ann and his family. Over half the members were in attendance at David’s funeral where they were joined by District Governor Frank whose support at such a time was very much appreciated. I have prepared a short tribute to David: it will be placed in the news section of this web site.

We had a brain storming session at a fund-raising committee meeting in July. We considered reverting to one of our early-day fund-raising successes, a charity shop; these days, however, by the time you have found a sympathetic landlord prepared to let you have access to an empty shop, have arranged for water and electricity to be switched on, taken out insurance and carried out a health and safety audit, it is clear that you have to sell a lot of second hand goods just to meet the overheads. So, we decided to take our chances at a local car boot sale organised by Flintshire County Council every Sunday in Mold. The club members found the goods and at 6 a.m. (yes we are nuts!) on Sunday 13^th September we set up our stall. I was accompanied by First Vice President Peter McCracken, Zone Chairman Ken Greig and our wives. Lions Phil Cunnah and David Gregory were present for parts of the morning as was David’s 20 month old son, Dion. (See news pages)

It was an eye opener to me! People were approaching us before we were set up. What had we got? How much is this? Will you accept less?  We soon tuned in to the correct wavelength and during the morning must have sold over 300 items, raising over £170. Much of our success was down to the fair-ground barking antics of Ken and one of our wives rehearsing for the role of Auntie Wainwright in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’! We felt that this trial run had been successful enough to run another session in the Spring. Hopefully, we can look to have sessions like this twice a year.

In an earlier blog, I wrote about involving our wives in our activities. We were grateful for their help at a packing session we held to keep up our supplies of Message in a Bottle (see Projects in this web site). The packing did not take too long because of the numbers who were there: the evening, however, continued beyond the packing with members and wives enjoying an informal get-together and a buffet. It just illustrates the way we run our club and the assistance willingly offered by our wives.

I have just realised that this is my fourth blog: I have been President for three months. Where has the time gone?