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After the success of their
Platinum Jubilee party last year, Stony Stratford Lions Club
entertained 75 senior citizens to a Coronation afternoon of fun,
food and friendship. Helped by fellow Zone Clubs MK Central and
Bletchley MK plus our District Governor Kav and Pammy, the
guests were treated to a freshly cooked fish n chips lunch,
Royal Bingo with interesting facts about the history and the
monarchy, a free raffle and a sing a long finishing with
afternoon tea and cakes. Everyone received a MIAB and wallet.
The Mayor of Milton Keynes
mingled with our guests and echoed their appreciation. There was
also a competition to splat plastic ears on a poster of King
Charles ….and the winner was DG Kav. Everyone received a goodie
bag containing Coronation souvenirs plus a packet of wild flower
seeds to plant locally. |
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On Tuesday 4th April 2023
Lion President Doreen had the privilege of escorting our Peace
Essay winner Dayzie Simpson to the Palace of Westminster where
she read her winning essay to an invited audience which included
Members of the House of Commons and the Lords. The day was
organised by Lions MD105 British Isles to celebrate our
partnership with the UN. Dayzie was given an exclusive behind
the scenes tour where she was able to touch some of the
intricate carvings and hear about the buildings history. She was
also presented with a certificate and £100 as her Multi District
prize. The Multi District includes the British Isles, Northern
Ireland and Eire. |
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Youth Peace Prize |
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Stony
Stratford Lions Club were delighted to sponsor Dayzie Simpson a
13 year old student of the VICTA Charity in Milton Keynes, into
the annual UN/ Lions Peace Essay contest. The contest was open
to blind/visually impaired young people between the ages 11-13
years. Dayzie is totally blind and suffers from FND*.
The theme for her 500 word essay was ‘Lead with Compassion’.
After
winning the first level - London and the Home Counties, her
entry went to win the National Final Great Britain and Ireland.
She has won £110 and a trip to United Nations Day at the House
of Parliament in April.
Dayzie’s
essay has now been sent to Chicago, USA where it will be judged
against other essays from around the world.
*Functional
neurological disorder (FND) describes a problem with how the
brain receives and sends information to the rest of the body.
It's often helpful to think of your brain as a computer. In
someone who has FND, there's no damage to the hardware, or
structure, of the brain. It's the software, or program running
on the computer, that isn't working properly.
Dayzie's essay may be read
here.
Dayzie has
said, 'Hi, I
have no vision at all, including not being able to see light or
dark, nothing and my condition is FND and i touched typed this.'
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World Sight Day |
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World Sight Day is an annual
day of awareness held on the second Thursday of October, to
focus global attention on eliminating preventable blindness and
improving sight. On World Sight Day, Lions clubs around the
world carry out special sight-related projects including:
collecting eyeglasses, conducting vision and diabetes screenings
and planning educational programmes to inform their communities
about the importance of eye health – and diseases such as
diabetes that can impair sight.
Your local Lions Club Milton Keynes (Stony Stratford) continues
to support this initiative and invited MK Cabinet Member,
Councillor Jane Carr to walk blindfolded along High Street,
Stony Stratford on Thursday 13th October 2022 at 1.30pm. She was
guided by Lion President Doreen Allen. There was also a
collection of any unwanted spectacles or sunglasses which will
be recycled to third World Countries.
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Autumn Newsletter in Stony
Stratford Town Crier |
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MK(SS)Lions
Club serves all of the North of Milton Keynes. Due to Covid-19
we are moving to a mixed media Club with some members joining
meetings via Zoom but still taking part in social and
fundraising activities. Please contact
office@stonylions.org.uk if you are interested in further
information or in joining us. We welcome Lion Doreen Allen as
our incoming President. Doreen is an experience Lion having
served as District Governor.
Last year
July to June we served 64,217 people and gave 5,974 volunteer
hours mainly via our foodbanks and spectacle recycling
During the
summer we have hosted four Motors at the Museum (3rd
Thursday – May to August). We hope to run these again in 2023.
Message in
a Bottle is a little plastic bottle containing a form showing
all of your personal details and medications that may be needed
by emergency services if you are unable to tell them.
It is kept
at home, in the fridge because the fridge is easy to find –
usually in the kitchen, most fridges keep the contents safe even
from fire.
Each bottle
comes with a sticker to go inside your front door. It’s inside
so we don’t reveal that a vulnerable person lives here.
Bottles are
distributed free of charge across the country by Lions Clubs
International. Stonedean Medical Practice, Market Square, hold a
stock for us.
Please contact them if you would like one for a friend or a
vulnerable person you know. |
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Spring Newsletter in Stony
Stratford Town Crier |
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The ongoing
concerns regarding Covid-19 are still affecting our activities.
We have completed a successful Christmas hamper raffles in
carefully selected venues including some local pubs, retirement
villages and even dance clubs – anywhere where we can reach the
public with minimum contact.
While we
can’t keep a high profile in the community with active
fundraising, we have continued with our core service activities.
These have included a Book Corner in Morrisons for children,
assisting at vaccination clinics at the Open University and
Water Eaton Health Centre. The Food Cupboard and Food Banks
continue to provide much needed supplies to families in the
community. Local schools, throughout Milton Keynes have
continued to receive a selection of books to supplement their
libraries and classrooms. We continue to support the Women’s
Refuge. Our assistance at the Walking for Health walks continues
although, as they are hampered by limits on the number of
walkers per leader – Covid-19 again, they are not opening up to
new walkers just yet. A number of leaders have sadly decided
not to return following the lockdowns.
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Yesterday I collected 87 pairs of glasses which will
soon be on their way to cleaning, sorting and
distributing to Third World countries. Overall, the box
has collected over 400 pairs, all of which go to needful
places instead of landfill – or left lying around in
drawers and cupboards!
Please, if you have unused glasses at home regardless of
where you bought them please take them to Stony Optical
in Cofferidge Close where there is a collecting box just
inside the door. |
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 We
are very grateful to Cllr Joe Hearnshaw for nominating the Club
to receive a grant of £1,000 as part of Covid-19 restoration
funding. We would welcome requests for support from this grant
and our usual funds particularly around our aims to help youth
and sight.
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Our area in Milton Keynes is bounded
to the North and West by the Unitary Authority boundary,
to the East by the M1 and to the South by Portway.
Members of the Club regularly take part in local
district litter picks. Here they are assisting
Stantonbury Parish council. |
Although
our fundraising activities have been much curtailed by Covid-19
restrictions we have still been active. Our reports to Lions
Clubs International show that since the beginning of July we
have served 40,251 people in 193 separate activities which took
2249 volunteer member hours. |
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Autumn Newsletter in Stony
Stratford Town Crier |
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Our members
routinely take part in Parish litter picks and assisting at
various Covid-19 and Flu vaccination clinics. We organise a Food
Cupboard, lead Health Walks, and support the Homeless Hub, the
Women’s Refuge and Willen Hospice. Sadly, the Party in the Park
in Bancroft Park on the 21st August was cancelled due
to the weather and continued caution due to Covid-19.
We are
pleased to report that on 12th October, the members of Milton
Keynes Lions Clubs were able to present a poster to commemorate
the opening of the new Family Room in the Cancer Ward at Milton
Keynes University Hospital
It was a
proud day, after 3 years of planning, campaigning and
fundraising the room has been set up and is now used by patients
and family members to relax, unwind and have refreshments.
Sadly, the opening was much delayed by construction problems and
Covid-19.
The
fundraising was done in partnership with neighbouring Lions
Clubs including Central Milton Keynes, Bletchley and Newport
Pagnell and Olney.
We were
able to hold two evenings of Motors in the Museum on 19th
August and 2nd September. Over 50 vehicles attended
each event. We are hoping to organise some Sunday lunchtime
meetings in the New Year.
In the last
month we have continued to present local schools with books from
the Ihezie Foundation. The Foundation is based in Milton Keynes
and has so far distributed 70,950 books to Buckinghamshire
Schools. Ihezie are currently midway through a project to
provide Anambra State Government, Nigeria, with one million
educational books that are being distributed to over 1,300
schools. Their website says, ”There are worse crimes than
burning books, One of them is not reading them.”
Although
our fundraising activities have been much curtailed by Covid-19
restrictions we have still been active. Our reports to Lions
Clubs International show that since the beginning of July we
have served 13,325 people in 103 separate activities which took
895 volunteer member hours.
Wendy and Matt at Stony Optical, in Cofferidge Close, have been
kind enough to have one of our Spectacle collecting bins on
their premises. Last month we were able to send 137 pairs of
used spectacles to be cleaned and sorted and sent around the
world to aid Lions Clubs International’s pledge to Helen Keller
in 1925 to work to eradicate preventable blindness. A big thank
you to all who have helped us. Whether a customer or not please
help by donating any used spectacles.
We meet
with a meal twice a month at Abbey Hill Golf Centre. The first
Wednesday is a social evening with partners and friends and on
the third Wednesday we meet to decide how we are going to raise
funds and help the community
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Peace Prize |
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For over three decades, Lions
clubs around the globe have been sponsoring a very special art
contest in schools and youth groups. Creating peace posters
gives children everywhere the chance to express their visions of
peace and inspire the world through art and creativity. |
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We invited local schools to
contribute and have selected a poster and a piece of writing as
our entries |
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Aya aged 12 |
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Click
here to read the writing by our anonymous 13 year old author |
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Slated Row School |
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We recently presented Slated
Row school with some exciting outdoor play equipment |
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Stony Stratford Town Fayre |
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Town Fayre is back in a new
venue - Wolverton Road recreation Ground. Click on the
picture to see our slide show. |
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Lion President David proudly
receives the shield for having the winning team in the annual
John Hart Memorial Quiz. John was a hardworking Lion who sadly
passed away due to pancreatic cancer. The Quiz is held annually
in his memory. |
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Our 43rd Charter Anniversary Dinner |
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| Lion
Mark receiving his 20 year service award. |
District Governor Doreen and President David exchanging banners |
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Lions
Convention March 2019 |
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In early March,
LP David Tunney attended the annual Lions Convention at the
Watermill Hotel in Hemel Hempstead. LP gave a well-received
presentation to the 300+ attendees, on the Food Cupboard with
Milton Keynes Lions. The Food Cupboard program is supported by
local Lions Clubs and works with nominated families through
Milton Keynes social services. The three Clubs involved are MK
Stony Stratford, MK Central and Bletchley MK and he objective
was to show how Clubs working together can achieve more. |
At the
Convention, LP David Tunney was presented with the District
Service Club of the Year Trophy for 2017-2018. This trophy is
awarded to one of the 68 Clubs in our District 105A for service
activities in their local community. Whilst only having 14
members the Club has an amazing set of regular activities from
youth work, support of cancer patients, health awareness,
supporting local refugee families, promoting youth literacy,
feeding local families and working with blind and visually
impaired people, |
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Centennial Awards
Lions Clubs International celebrated its centennial in
2017. The 45,000+ Clubs were challenged to serve 100 million
people through hunger, vision, youth and environmental projects
and to make a lasting Legacy project. Internationally the
Association achieved all the targets and more.
There are 68
Clubs in our District. Stony Stratford Lions Clubs made their
contribution to the overall goals and we were one of 18 who were
awarded a 4 Gemstone banner patch and significantly were the
only Club to be awarded Gold Legacy award in recognition of
their support for School literacy. |
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| Lion
President David Tunney presents Headteacher Zoe Baines of Slated
Row Special School our cheque for playground equipment. |
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| Lion President David
Tunney congratulates our newest member, Peter. A welcome member
with previous experience of working with young people. He is now
our 15th member. |
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Contact us (FREE)
Membership Lion David
0345 833 6783
Registered Charity
285949
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KINDNESS MATTERS
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