2012 Feb - Lions Australia

LIONS ACTION
Students with green thumbs
Queensland’s Mooloolaba Lions are doing
their bit for a greener planet with a garden
care and work experience project for the local
state high school.
For the third year they have co-ordinated and
sponsored the project for Maroochydore State
High School students under the care of School
Chaplain Andrew Pearce, whose work the club
has financially supported for some years.
The Sunshine Coast Regional Council and their
Mooloolaba Area Parks and Gardens Team, led by
Parks Supervisor Lion Tom Sullivan, provided all
necessary equipment for the project which
includes white card inductions, on-site safety
training and site awareness, horticultural
practice, maintenance and small plant and hand
tools use.
Taking care to the streets
6
Maroochydore students and their trainers after the
completion of Moolalaba’s Lions’ latest garden care
and work experience program.
Picture courtesy View News.com.au
Students also assisted in planting 162 trees,
including 60 advanced two-metre high
specimens requiring staking and tying.
The latest seven-week program was held at
Amarina Park, Mooloolaba.
Certificates were presented to successful
students.
The program gives students a chance to give
something back to their local community. Past
programs have seen students gain traineeships
with council and other employment, with work
experience certificates being worthy additions to
their resumes.
Thanks to Lions, the homeless and needy around Melbourne’s Altona area
are now receiving a little nourishing cheer.
Last year local Lions launched a soup van that each Friday makes three stops to
feed the less fortunate.
At its very first stop, the Altona club’s van attracted 12 customers. When the stops
were increased to three there were 40 customers on hand.
Soup and sandwiches are handed out along with staple foods to last them until the
next soup van visit.
Good work, Laverton Lions!
$100,000 cubbies
Fourteen years ago Taree, NSW, Lion Geoff
Thompson, who builds truck bodies,
suggested a cubby house raffle to assist
children’s charities.
Since then, the total donated has exceeded
$100,000
Charities to have benefitted include the
children’s and maternity wards at Manning Rural
Referral Hospital Taree, the Lions Cord Blood
Appeal, the Australian Lions Childhood Cancer
Research Foundation, as well as the Nicholas
Trust, recently established to provide paediatric
palliative care.
A perfect example of community
collaboration, the cubbies have always been
built at no actual cost, as all materials are
donated by Taree businesses with building done
by qualified tradesmen who are members of
Lions.
Designed to last, the first cubby is in its
original condition except for a few scratches, .
Club members maintain a five-and-a-halfday
roster from early November to sell tickets at
a local shopping complex before the draw just
before Christmas.
Lion