Newsletter - December 2021
BUSY BASINGSTOKE LIONS ! And we’ve had a very busy 3 months…
October saw our 9th World Sight Day with our customary display in the town, offering both information re sight loss and a collection point for spectacles. But if the pandemic has brought any ‘good’ (very loosely speaking), then our haul of spex was increased this year by repeating what last year was a contingency plan only when prevented from displaying in the town, i.e. a collection point in Morrisons. Last year, however, it ran for the one day – this year we ran it for the week, resulting in our regularly being asked by Morrisons to empty the bin!
To Activity No. 2: our collection of second-hand books were going nowhere sitting in storage, so a rapid decision was made resulting in an even more rapid negotiation with the wonderful Malls management and agreement to our sale on half-term Saturday. Over half the books were sold – and a record £101.50 collected in the ‘Lennie the Lion’ bucket!!
And No. 3 : We responded to the call to action regarding the ‘Queen’s Green Canopy’ in celebration of HM the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and applied for the package of 30 saplings from the Woodland Trust.
After some 35 individual approaches, well over 300 emails have resulted in 19 venues across Basingstoke for the Rowans, Wild Cherries, and Silver Birches; these include, amongst others, two hospitals, several schools, two colleges, and various parks. We have been present at 2 plantings so far and await more. Recipients may choose to mark the site with a physical plaque (as prescribed by QGC) or by placing a photo and description of the planting on QGC’s ‘Virtual Map’ https://queensgreencanopy.org/map-education-hub/qgc-map/#/, a digital record of the Jubilee tree planting projects across the United Kingdom.
On to No. 4 : much calorific indulging at the home of our Past President Tony Bamberger resulted in a substantial donation to Macmillan at the annual coffee morning blow-out!
And FINALLY : another of our very popular Zoom quizzes took place on Saturday 27th November – we sincerely hope to return to the face-to-face events soon!
The hope now is for some fruitful festive supermarket tinshakes collections!
HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL!
