A pledge to St Dunstan's

It was in January 1951 that Brighton Lions Club was chartered so we celebrate our ‘official' 60th birthday next month. Our charter was presented in May 1951 and, at that first charter night, the young Brighton Lions Club made its first donation. A cheque for £100 was handed to a representative of St Dunstan's to pay for the purchase and training of a guide dog for a blind Sussex ex-serviceman.

It seemed serendipitous to us when we learned of the project for Lions Clubs across the country to raise £50,000 for St Dunstan's during our own diamond jubilee year. So much so, that our members agreed to raise, during the next six months, a further £100 for each of our 60 years and to donate the sum of £6,000 to the MD project at our charter night in June.

Lilac Lark

The date of the 2011 Lilac Lark which we organise in conjunction with the Friends of Withdean Park has now been confirmed as 8 May.

Fun Day invitation

Brighton Lions Club, in collaboration with the Pavilion Gardens Café, organises a Fun Day in the Royal Pavilion Gardens each year with the proceeds being donated to a specified charity. As previously advised, we have chosen to support Help for Heroes at our 2011 event.

We would like to extend an invitation to other Lions Clubs, Rotary and Round Table to take part in this event, thereby increasing the funds raised for this very worthwhile charity. There are just two stipulations:

1. All proceeds are to be donated to Help for Heroes, either directly or through Brighton Lions Club.
2. As the event is run in conjunction with the Pavilion Gardens Café, refreshment stalls, hot dog sales etc will not be welcome.

The Fun Day will be held on Sunday, 26 June and will run from 12 noon until 5.00pm, with stalls being set up from 11.00am.

A stall booking form can be found on our web site: www.brightonlions.org.uk >Our projects >Fund raising events >Pavilion Gardens Fun Day.

Book fair cancelled

We regret that the conditions underfoot mean we have to cancel the book fair due to be held on Saturday, 4 December 2010. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to see all our regular visitors at the next fair on Saturday, 1 January 2011.

Pavilion Gardens Fun Day

The beneficiary of our next Pavilion Gardens Fun day - which we are planning to hold on Sunday, 26 June 2011 - was decided at our meeting last night. It is to be the charity Help for Heroes. We hope this will prove a popular choice with both businesses that support the event by donating items for the silent auction and with the general public who come along to spend money.

Fireworks

Our fireworks display on Friday went very well: a great display, a good crowd and no trouble of any sort. It will be a while yet before we know how much money we have made, but we are hoping for a profit in the region of £15,000 to swell our charity trust fund.

To find out the sort of things we spend the money on just check out our web site - their is a link on the right.

The Patcham Elms

As the two ancient elm trees in Elm Square, Patcham, have had to be felled as a result of Dutch elm disease, Brighton Lions offered to pay for replacement trees to mark the 60th anniversary for the founding of the Club. The Council responded that they would accept a donation (to pay for seven trees at £150 a tree) but would not allow us to have a plaque stating who had paid for the trees and why. We have decided not to make the donation.