May 2021
#lionsdayofservice – “Hearts & Flowers”

The Lions Club Merritton held their 2^nd Food, Clothing and Bottle drive of this Lions year on Saturday March 27, 2021. For five (5) straight hours donations streamed in from the surrounding community, with most people dropping off all three items requested. Twenty-five (25) Lions and family members collected 1100 lbs of food, 1500 lbs of clothing and over 20,000 empty containers.

All food and clothing were distributed to Community Care of St. Catharines & Thorold. The $5000 netted from Bottle Drive and raffle will be distributed to organizations in our local community dedicated to helping others. Local organizations previous supported by our fundraising efforts this year include YWCA Oakdale Commons, Wellspring, Start Me Up Niagara, St Georges Breakfast Program, Salvation Army, Community Care, United Way, St Vincent De Paul, and Westview Centre 4 Women.

The Grimsby and District Lions Club has taken on a unique tree planting project along Grimsby’s new Waterfront Trail. The Club is planting a grove of native Carolinian trees and shrubs. The location comes with a wonderful viewscape of Lake Ontario. The Club has already donated two benches to the trail and the grove is located by our first bench.

The soils of this area are very disturbed by construction and are not welcoming to young trees at all. The species selected include Red Oaks, White Oaks, Hickory, Hackberry, Black Cherry, Tulip and Sugar Maples to reflect what is found growing in our nearby heritage woodlots. All of the trees have to be planted with good amounts of amended soil. With our droughts of late we have had to bring in water to help the saplings get a root down.

We have started with small trees for affordability and a better survival rate in the difficult conditions found on the site. Along the lakeshore in Grimsby almost all of the native woodlands have been removed and now with the recent loss of ash trees some areas are bare of trees. As time and funds allowed we have been expanding our grove. Hopefully, we will end up planting more groves.

The Lions Club of Merritton, once again, was a supporting sponsor for Coldest Night of Year Walk held in St. Catharines on February 20, 2021. The Coldest Night of the Year is a family friendly walk-a-thon that raises money for people experiencing homelessness, hurt and hunger. The event is a major fundraiser for Start Me up Niagara, who offer a place of safety and support for those struggling with poverty and homelessness in the core of our city.

Keeping everyone safe, this year’s event was completely virtual, with all walkers free to walk 2 or 5 km in their own community. Our club had a total of 15 members participate in the walk, along with 7 family members. At 90, Lion Dunc Tolley was our oldest walker and prospective member William Peddie, 17-day old son of Lions Natasha and Troy was our youngest.

With our sponsorship and fundraising our club was able to donate a total of $4500. The community was also incredibly supportive, as the goal of $150,000 was exceeded.

Next year, it would be great to see other Lions Clubs support the Coldest Night of Year walks held throughout our region.

The Fisherville Lions opened the Multi Purpose Recreation Facility in 2014.  The purpose of the facility was hockey, ball hockey, basketball, tennis, or renting it out for events.  We have been putting in natural ice every winter we are able to.  This year was a challenge, with the warm start to winter and Covid lockdowns and restrictions.  On Thursday, February 4th, the rink was flooded for the first time.  We proceeded to flood Saturday February 6th in the morning and afternoon, and Sunday February 7th in the morning, before opening the rink to skaters that afternoon.  We have a dedicated crew of Lions and volunteers who come out nightly to flood the rink at 9:00 pm.  We have a Zamboni that was donated to us by a member and his family and Lions who drive it proudly!  Right now we ask that the Public only skate, with no hockey permitted right now and that everyone abide by all the Covid rules and regulations.

Tillsonburg Lions Club held its first post-New Year’s bottle drive on Jan. 2 and community donations filled a trailer...and more!

“I think we were just a little over $1,700 raised,” said Tillsonburg Lion vice-president Kelly Oatman. “It was an awesome day. It definitely exceeded our expectations.”

“It was really good,” said Blair Oatman, Lions Regional Zone Chair. “People started showing up about 8 a.m. and we shut it down around 12:15 p.m. and we filled an 8×12 trailer right to the ceiling.”

“We actually had to start loading some of it into our pickup truck because we couldn’t get any more in the trailer,” said Kelly. “It was full!”

Port Dalhousie Club President Wayne Stoddart formally presents $1000 towarda a local schools
Breakfast Club Program.

St. Davids Lions Club members donated the ingredients to prepare 122 Casserole meal kits.  The kits are designed to provide a meal for a family of 4-6 members.
Each of the 6 casserole kit variations included a receipe, food stuff and spices.
The 122 meal kits were donated to the Niagara Falls 'Project Share' food bank.  The club has plans to contribute additional meal kits to the Niagara on the Lake and St. Catharines food banks in early 2021.

The Lions Club of Merritton hosted a successful “Merritton Gives” day on November 14, dedicated to helping our community in these challenging times. The Community was asked to donate non-perishable Food Goods, Winter Wear and Empty Bottles.  Below is a summary of what was collected.

• Food Drive – collected 1650 lbs of non-perishable food goods

• Winter Clothing Drive - filled 4 bins, weighing over 175 lbs

• Bottle Drive - along with cash donations netted over $2000

All food and clothing collected has been delivered to Community Care, St Catharines. All funds collected will distributed equally to the following four (4) organizations, who are dedicated to helping others.

•   Community Care of St. Catharines & Thorold

•   The Salvation Army Niagara Outreach Program

•   St Vincent De Paul Lunch Program

•   St. George’s Anglican Church Breakfast Program

A follow-up drive is being planned for the spring of 2021.

Click the Link Below to View a Community News Report

https://youtu.be/feTFeQLAK2A

The Ridgeway Lions and the Chute-Pelosini Family partnered to host a golf tournament in an effort to support Benjamin Chute-Pelosini.  Benjamin suffers from a rare disorder called septa-optic dysplasia.  The disorder causes blindness and severe immune system vulnerabilities such as autism and he requires costly speech and physiotherapy therapies.

During a planned Wednesday school PD Day - 23 St. Davids LEOs gathered for more than 5 hours to sort through a 2 year stockpile of recycled eyeglasses (and hearing aids).  At the end of the day 92 boxes containing 14,086 pair of eyeglasses were prepared for shipping to CLERC (Canadian Lions Eyeglass Recycling Centre) in Calgary.

Fonthill Lions President Steve Pellerin and
Lioness President Pat Norton present Pelham Cares
with $600.00 worth of gift cards, plus toques, gloves, scarves, socks and pajamas.

The Port Dalhousie Lions Club would like to thank the Delta Bingo Sponsors Association of St. Catharines for assisting our club in serving our community. The funds received allowed the club to assist a local resident in need. 
Approached to assist a local Port Dalhousie disabled resident and her disabled daughter by improving access to their home: they were confined and not able to leave their home without significant assistance.  
$1,400.00 was donated to cover the materials and the club provided the labour to build a ramp to the entrance of their home.

December 2020
Lynn Valley Lions: Empties can be Fulfilling