Morpeth Lions Club recently held its annual Street Collection on a day blessed with dry weather and kind hearts.
(L-R) Morpeth Lions Les Sage and John Gray, helpers Ken Brown and David Hunt with Lion President Dave Wheeler.
At what is becoming an annual fixture, 100 guests sat down to enjoy the Morpeth Lions Club Chinese Charity Banquet at the Mulan Restaurant in Morpeth. This year, however, the event was held twice - on successive Mondays.
This event started just after the 2008 floods that had affected the recently opened restaurant. In a gesture of sympathy for all those more drastically affected the owner Kevin Liu allowed two fundraising banquets to take place. These raised over £2,000.
Lorraine Dryden, left (Northumberland County Blind Association) and Ann Purvis (Castle Morpeth Disability Association) receive cheques for £250 each from Morpeth Lions Club vice-president Simon Pringle
Morpeth Lions Club members were recently faced with a dilemma. What do you give a fellow member for his eightieth birthday? - especially when that member is Eddy Gebhard.
Eddy has lived in the Morpeth area all his life and is probably best known as the past owner of the business that still bears his family name - Gebhards the Butchers on Newgate Street. For many decades he counted riding as a passion and is well known in these Circles. For the past 35 years he has been and still is an active member of the Lions Club.
Following the death of a friend, Sue Brind has been raising money for the Marie Curie, in her memory.
Recently she and her partner Stuart Lewis opened their home on Lancaster Park, Morpeth as part of the charity's 'Blooming Great Tea Party'.
Helped by good weather, some lovely home cooking, a raffle and generous friends, Sue and Stuart have been able to forward a cheque for £180 to the Marie Curie Society, which will pay for 9 hours care in a persons own home.
Pictured: Sue Brind, Stuart Lewis and the Blooming Great Tea Partyers
The sight of two wheelbarrows laden with groceries at Morpeth Lions Club's Town Fair stall certainly attracted the generous crowds attending the Fair. These were the prizes on offer together with the promise to deliver the wheelbarrow and its contents to the prize winners' homes.
One lady was from Stiffkey in Norfolk and doubted the delivery promise; only to be informed that one of the Lion members would be visiting his sister in Cromer soon and would be delighted to honour the promise. As it happened, deliveries were much more local as the lucky winners came from Morpeth and North Shields.
Recently Morpeth Lions were out in force on the streets of Morpeth collecting in aid of the Northumbrian Gathering and to provide local Lions support wherever it is needed.
The Gathering is a three day event featuring Northumbrian music, dialect and dance. Traditionally the Lions have donated 'their' half of the proceeds back to the Gathering Committee. This year it is particularly needed by the Gathering as sources of funding have been depleted.
As usual and to provide additional amusement, some of the Lions drew attention to themselves by adopting colourful headwear. It seems to have borne results as a total of £665.43 was achieved.
Whilst many Morpeth Lions Club events are tried, tested and remain popular, a newcomer is about to appear.
In conjunction with Lemington Male Voice Choir, a concert is being organised. This will take place on Saturday, April 16th in St.George's United Reformed Church starting at 7pm.
Tickets are priced at £8 and can be obtained from Stait Photography, Morpeth, Lion Harry Cone (Tel 01670 511540) or any other Morpeth Lions Club member. They will also be available at the door on the night of the concert.
It's that time of the year again when some local dandy Lions pick up boxes of daffodils in aid of the Marie Curie Cancer Care charity. In addition, this year they were able to sport an eye catching Marie Curie hat.
A combination of collections in Morrison's store on three days with a Saturday Street collection saw a total of £2034.27 raised for the charity; over a quarter more than was raised last year and a record for the Morpeth Marie Curie collection.
People in Morpeth again demonstrated their humanity on Saturday when they dug deep into their pockets to assist Morpeth's Community Service Organisations' 'Japan Disasters Appeal'.
On the day the sum of £2177.67 was collected however the previous night the audience of the play 'Star Quality' organised by Greater Morpeth Development Trust contributed £152.33 making a grand total of £2330. The funds will be sent to the British Red Cross Japan Appeal to help their efforts in the disaster stricken towns in Northern Japan.
Following the dramatic disasters of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear threats that have befallen Japan in recent days, the Morpeth voluntary service organisations are coming together again to raise relief funds for the stricken country.
Organiser, Lion Simon Pringle has approached the Churches, Contact Mental Health, the Scouts together with, Morpeth Lions, Inner Wheel, Rotary and Soroptimist members to assist with a Street Collection.
This will take place in Morpeth on Saturday, March 19th between the hours of 10am and 3pm with volunteer collectors meeting 15 minutes before their allotted time at the Contact office's side entrance off Bridge Street.
Morpeth Links
John Dawson - Local history tales
Wildlife - With Conservation Officer Kevin O'Hara
Ian Lavery - Updates from the MP for Wansbeck
Ray Purvis - Through the seasons at Wallington
DAWN Advice - Liz Chadwick from the advice charity
Robson and Prescott Vets - Pet advice
Morpeth Lions Club - By Lion Simon Pringle
Wendy Errington - Volunteering at Wallington
Andrew Gibson - Fishing and photography
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