THE ROAR The Newsletter of the Lions Club of Windsor WELCOME

Dear Supporter providing a decent Christmas gift for those children in our area – and yes, they still do exist Hello everyone and welcome to the latest – who don’t get a gift at Christmas. The trick is edition of Roar – the News sheet to keep our finding such children in these days when they are supporters in touch with Windsor Lions. We’ve – quite rightly – protected with reams of safe - had a very busy Autumn and Christmas period guarding legislation. Can you help here? Do you with a new event and a very successful addition know any children who would fit this bill – if you to our Lions’ calendar – The Santa Sleigh (see can help please let us know. page 3 for further information) . If you have a great fundraising idea that you’d Fundraising is a challenging prospect – and like to put to us, just email Paul Skinner – thinking of something new is always a struggle. [email protected] or So we were delighted to be able to take over the phone 07980 547147. Santa Sleigh from our colleagues at Windsor Round Table. It proved to be a massive success as you will read later. This led us to ponder Diane Purchase whether we could extend the project into President, Lions Club of Windsor

WINDSOR LIONS SWIMATHON helps raise over £9,000 for Local Charities

Swimathon 2018 in October was another great Windsor Lions club event with the club helping many organisations to raise funds for chosen charities and good causes. The Swimathon at the Windsor Leisure Centre was Windsor Lion’s 22nd and is a major charity fundraiser that enables teams to raise funds for their nominated charity or good cause. This annual event has raised over £170,000, which has helped to benefit many people within our community.

Winkfield St Mary’s School

During the previous 21 Swimathon’s a total of 800 teams have swam, raising funds for 347 charities/ projects/good causes etc. All the sponsorship raised by the teams is sent to the Windsor Lions and is donated to the teams at the Club’s annual Awards Pupils and Masters from Windsor Boys School Presentation evening in January at the Guildhall. Windsor Lions celebrate another Windsor Lions and spectacular Horseride success Vision link up a record entry and romantic to highlight sight related interlude make it one of the best! issues in the Borough

Last September saw Windsor Lions’ biggest fundraiser of the In association with Berkshire Vision , the Berkshire Club’s annual calendar, the Sponsored Horseride in the based charity supporting the blind and partially Great Park. It exceeded all expectations with almost 650 riders sighted, Windsor Lions held an awareness event in successfully completing the 9 mile course in the glorious Peascod Street, Windsor to promote the issues of the surroundings of the Great Park. Over £50,000 was raised for local blind and poorly sighted and to raise money for those charities and good causes. needing help. Event organizer Mark Fraser enthused: “What a wonderful event we had – so much fun enjoyed by so many! The weather was Windsor Lions Project Manager for Sight-Related just right, dry and warm but not too hot, and once again the Projects, Martin Tocher, explained: “An important Great Park looked spectacular and all our riders and their horses focus for Windsor Lions’ work in the local had the most glorious time. The feedback we have had from community is the health and general welfare of our them this year has been particularly amazing – we added some citizens, particularly those concerned with sight refinements like new fences and rider bibs and introduced a difficulties. They have very specific and difficult new registration process which all went down particularly well. issues to face and if we can support them in some We try hard to make the Ride work well for our riders – their way, either through financial aid or helping to raise enjoyment makes it fun for all of us.” the issue up the public’s awareness agenda then This year’s event was marked by a wonderful romantic interlude as that is very worthwhile. This is what our event in one of the riders, Ben Pinion, proposed marriage on his bended knee Peascod Street was all about. We asked the shoppers to his lovely partner Zoe Griffiths, in the glorious surroundings of on the day to look out for us and pop a few coins in The Long Walk. Thankfully she said “YES!” - amid floods of tears. our collecting buckets - and drop off any unwanted It seems the only person who did not know that this one-off event spectacles. was going to happen was Zoe! She said at the end of the Ride: “I can’t believe my lovely boyfriend Ben proposed to me, and Berkshire Vision’s Emma Corentin added: in such incredible surroundings of The Long Walk in Windsor “Berkshire Vision are delighted that Windsor Lions Great Park! I had no idea it was going to happen and am over are supporting us. This awareness event complements the moon.” entirely Windsor Lions work, as part of the Lions International initiative, in providing support for the prevention of avoidable blindness and restoring sight for people around the world. The Club actively supports the Lion’s SpekTrek project which has been running for more than 36 years and, as of end 2018, has collected nearly 3 million spectacles from Lions Clubs in the South of . Locations of places to drop off your unwanted spectacles across the RBWM can be found on the Windsor Lions website. Mark summed up: “We now have the enjoyable task of determining the charities and good causes that will benefit from this year’s ride. We are keen to spread the funds across a wide range of local organisations as well as retaining funds for the support of local people and projects that come to our attention during the calendar year. The beneficiaries, as well as the riders who have had a particularly successful event, will all be announced at our awards evening in January. And of course, none of our success would have been possible without the incredible goodwill and support of Windsor Great Park and The Shanly Foundation for sponsoring the event. We are indeed very thankful to both organisations.”

Photographs courtesy of MHPhotos of Windsor to whom we are very grateful WINDSOR LIONS Santa’s trip to Windsor 2ND SUCCESSFUL was a huge success LION’S DEN CHALLENGE £3,000 raised for local charities

Three local initiatives Windsor Lions completed their first Santa scoop £5,000 Prize Fund! Sleigh Initiative bringing plenty of Christmas cheer to the people of Windsor - especially the The Windsor Lions held their second Lion’s Den Challenge , children who flocked to see Santa and in which saw six finalists compete for the final three places and doing so helped to raise funds for local good a share of the £5,000 prize money. causes. Over 30 Lions took part, with 6-8 elves The Lion’s Den Challenge aims to create sustainable projects helping Santa on each visit to various areas in that would directly benefit the local community. The concept is Windsor. based on the highly popular TV programme, ‘Dragon’s Den’ , where budding entrepreneurs seeking financial investment Windsor Lions have taken over the project present their business initiatives for scrutiny by multi- from Windsor Round Table who had initially millionaires. The six finalists were invited to present their ideas established this fun event several years ago to the panel of prominent local business people. and continued to support it. Each team presented very strong projects to the Dragons Santa brought festive Christmas music, judging panel, after deliberation three teams were awarded funding for their projects, and the awards were made during the sweets for kids and sprinkled some of his Club Awards Evening in January. The winners were: magic stardust in Dedworth, Hill and Windsor Winter Homeless Night Shelter New Town areas on six weekday evenings, In response to the increasing number of rough sleepers in as well as in Windsor Town Centre on two the Windsor area, this project will open church buildings in the Saturdays. Due to the advanced publicity of Windsor area to accommodate rough sleepers for a minimum the event and its route many kids stayed up period of 4 weeks during the harshest winter weather. They were to greet Santa and were well rewarded. awarded £2,000. The generosity of the Windsor community meant that just over £3,000 was collected, which will go towards local charities.

Windsor Winter Homeless Night Shelter with Emilie Chana, Mike Sells (the Lion’s Den Project Manager) & Kevin Gallagher Windsor Girl Guiding who needed to renovate the building at the Wickwood Girl Guides Campsite to enable girls to have a safe environment and enjoy the outdoor adventure. They won £2,000. Windsor Baptist Church Their Tree House Café needed funding to buy a stock of reusable bamboo fibre coffee cups which they would sell on to their customers (not for profit) and then be able to replenish stocks. They were awarded £750. Lion President Diane Purchase commented: “We wish to thank all our 20+ teams this year who submitted Lion Paul Maxwell, the event organiser explained: great cases and while some did not meet the criteria of the “It was lovely to see the faces of the children Lion’s Den Challenge, we hope to be able to support some of when they saw Santa and his sleigh. They were them through the broader work of Lions. The Lions motto is encouraged to sit in the sleigh and have their photo “We serve!” and that’s exactly what we’ve been doing locally taken by their parents. We really appreciate the since the 1960’s. Our congratulations go to our three winning generosity shown by the community of Windsor in projects which I hope are the first of many we can help through raising over £3,000.” Lion’s Den over the coming years.” SOME DATES FOR YOUR 2019 DIARIES

10th March – SILVER PARTY for Senior Citizens 12.00pm to 3.00pm The Windsor Lions Club covers Three course meal, drinks & entertainment. a wide area of East Berkshire 5th April – CHARTER BALL in support of Thames Hospice including Ascot, , Horton, Welcome drink, canapes, 3 x course meal, and band. , Sunninghill, Windsor Racecourse - Tickets £69. Table of 10 - £65 each. and Windsor. 7th April – LIONS FUNFEST - Windsor Leisure Centre It is part of Lions International, The Funfest is an event for children with disabilities and the largest community service learning difficulties. Last year over 200 children attended. organisation in the world. 31st/1st September - JUMP BUILDING for the horse ride - Worldwide there are about 43,000 Windsor Great Park Lions Clubs in over 180 countries, with more than 1.4 million 7th / 8th September - HORSE RIDE – Windsor Great Park . members. 1st Monday of the month – our regular Dinner Meeting . Windsor Lions was established in We extend a very warm welcome to all Supporters of the 1961 and have raised over £2m in Windsor Lions to participate in any or all of these events. funds by organising events and corporate sponsorship. See future issues of THE ROAR for more diary dates. We serve the community by supporting local people in need - Youth projects, Senior Citizens groups, Mencap, provision of sports facilities for the disabled Did we help anybody? and holidays for the elderly, these We have a great reputation for our community work. In Windsor and surrounding are some of the ways in which areas, members of Windsor Lions currently provide a range of services to help The Lions Club of Windsor offer those in need – from supporting the elderly to providing the basic household items to families who have fallen on hard times. support. Here are some examples from the last three months where we have helped people:

A new cooker and replacement security glass for the front door. GET IN A family in were struggling to make ends meet, and desperately needed a washing machine. We funded the cost TOUCH of the washing machine. For more information on the Windsor Lions contact: A young Windsor mum with two toddlers, was about to move into social accommodation with only cement on the floor. Paul Skinner Windsor Lions supported the cost of laminate flooring. Email: [email protected] or Mobile: 07980 547147 A lady who lives in social housing suffering from lung cancer, moved into a property without carpet. Windsor Lions supported Web: www.windsorlions.co.uk the cost of carpet to keep her home warm and to reduce any risk Facebook: of infection due to the undergoing chemotherapy. http://www.facebook.com/pages/ Lions-Club-of-Windsor/ In addition we have recently supported a disabled tenant who needed a 126969737412502 large hole to be filled & made safe in his garden following some unfinished building work and a needy person suffering with mental health issues, Twitter: required a small new cooker and a couple of rugs for the bare floor to make @windsorlions his home living more comfortable, Windsor Lions helped provide these items.