Focus article for August 2012

News from the Lions Den...

Firstly, a sincere thank you to all of you who braved the downpours and came out in force to support the Carnival – in true British style we carried on regardless and hopefully all had a most enjoyable day.

This was our second carnival, although our first time as part of the procession, and we were delighted with how many readers came and introduced themselves and commented on our articles.

Our games on the carnival green seemed to keep you all entertained and as a result we were able to raise a considerable amount of money to put towards the purchase of high visibility waistcoats for local children. Our aim is that by early in the September term all of the 7 – 9 year olds at the Eaton Bray Academy will have been given a waistcoat. The other schools will follow in due course. We are planning some form of presentation event for this and parents will be advised of the details in due course.

We have recently made a cash donation to ‘Step Up’. The Limb Fitting Centre provides specialist knowledge and services to lower limb amputee patients throughout the region.

The dedicated staff of the Luton & Dunstable's Limb Fitting team ensure that they provide the highest quality prostheses and offer ongoing support and a maintenance service. The multidisciplinary team includes a consultant, prosthetist, nurse, physiotherapist, occupational therapist and rehabilitation engineer - all complemented by a team of highly-skilled technicians.

In addition to being the specialist unit, the centre provides physiotherapy sessions to local amputee patients and there are good communication links with other teams in referring hospitals.

We are delighted with the response we have received to our trial fish and chip delivery service – we were taking calls from the very first day that the Focus magazine was circulated. Hopefully this will take off and can become a regular activity for our club to conduct. We are going to run two more trial dates, 31st August and 21st September so get your orders in to avoid disappointment. If we make a positive difference to just one person’s life then we can be assured we are doing a good thing.

As we approach our first birthday, we are taking time to reflect on all of our achievements to date. From our national award winning scrapbook to our donations of almost £3000, Santa’s grotto in Dagnall, our race night, the high visibility waistcoat project the work with Stoke Manderville and more recently the introduction of the fish and chip delivery service. Individually these are perhaps modest, but combined they display a significant amount of entirely voluntary service designed to support our local area. We sincerely hope that the community is beginning to see the real benefit of having a Lions Club and we hope we can count on your support as we continue with our community service projects in the years to come. Thank you for your generosity this far.

One Shot, One Life

Whilst we are busy working to support our local community, Lions International is hard at work also and has recently joined the Measles Initiative, founded by the American Red Cross. This initiative plans to vaccinate 157 million children this year at a cost of less that $1 per child.

A highly contagious virus, and one most of us will have experienced, Measles is spread and spreading quickly. Each day some 450 children die. On a crowded bus of 100 people, if there is just one person with measles, 90 people will become infected if they have not been vaccinated.

Measles vaccinations are among the most cost effective public health interventions today. For just $1, a person can receive life long immunity. If this vaccination is so cheap, why doesn’t everyone get it?

Ordinary people doing amazing things