Guildford Lions’ Amazing Achievements During A Difficult 2020

Published on: 14 Jan, 2021
Updated on: 14 Jan, 2021

Guildford Lions Club had a difficult 2020, having to cancel its major fundraising events due to the pandemic. But despite setbacks its members have worked hard and have achieved an amazing amount of things for the benefit of the community.

Lions member Eric James has compiled a list of what the club has done.

He said: “2020 was a difficult year for all. The Lions motto is ‘We Serve’ and that is exactly what Guildford Lions have striven to do throughout the pandemic.

“As is the case with most charities, all of our community fundraising events were cancelled. However, this did not prevent us from providing support where needed.”

Immediately the first lockdown commenced Guildford Lions set up a Covid-19 support hub, accessed via its website, providing a diverse range of links on where to get advice, such as financial help, physical and mental health issues, how to keep young people occupied, online support groups, online entertainment, and so on.

Without any income, Guildford Lions Club was not able to maintain its financial support to the same level as past years.

However, members were still able to step in and offer assistance wherever they could.

Examples being: A £3,000 donation to Pirbright Nurture Farm project. This is based at Pirbright School. The donation will help fund a nurture farm which provides a wonderful environment for children in the local community. They can grow produce and food for the animals and supplement their forest school sessions with practical hands-on activities in the outdoor environment.

Click here for details of thr Pirbright Nurture Farm.

The Lions Christmas Appeal enabled the club to supply 250 £20 supermarket vouchers to deserving local residents and also provided 11 local families with free tickets to view Guildford Shakespeare Company’s online production of A Christmas Carol.

A total of 220 creativity kits and 500 puzzle books were supplied to five local schools – Burpham, Northmead, Sandfield, Stoughton and Weyfield. This was made possible by the fantastic support of stationers Biddles of Guildford who supplied the creativity kits and Majestic Publications Ltd, who produced the puzzle books free of charge.

Click here for more details.

Members sourced and supplied a number of working laptops computers to the children of local families to help them with their home learning.

As the Lions expected, the need for local foodbanks increased dramatically during the pandemic.

The club has maintained a very close working relationship with them and has made regular contributions to help them meet this demand.

A free to enter Christmas colouring competition for local children was arranged.

Members helped the brain injury charity Headway Surrey deliver Christmas gifts to its clients all over Surrey.

The club has formed a team of volunteers who will be working alongside Voluntary Action South West Surrey to provide hands-on assistance wherever it is practical to do so.

Its normal face-to-face business and social meetings for members have not been possible. Eric said: “Therefore, like many others, members are now experts in the Zoom culture – a great way of keeping in touch and keeping our spirits up.

“Looking forward to 2021, we will continue to put on a variety of online Zoom talks and competitions as we did last year, but we are keen to resume a full programme of outdoor community fund-raising events as soon as practically possible.

“At this stage it is not possible to forecast when this will be. Inevitably, despite the roll out of the vaccine, the staging of future fund-raising events will necessarily entail significant Covid-19 regulations.

“We fully support these measures and will be working closely with Guildford Borough Council to ensure our events, whenever they may happen, are, as always, safe for everybody to attend.”

To keep up to date with Guildford Lions Club’s planned events and what it is doing to support the community you can follow the club on Facebook.

Or Twitter.

Instagram: @guilfordlions

Website: www.guildfordlions.com