Convention

This year 10 members attended, including four for the first time.

We were delighted to receive the following awards

• Club Excellence Award 2022-23
  • IPP Simon Edwards received this on behalf of the Club.
• Best Club Web Page
  • This was presented to Rick Hough, the club's webmaster.
• Club Travelling Lion
  • IPP Simon commented "It is a fun, sociable and informative way for clubs to come away with new ideas that they can put into practice in their own clubs, to better serve their community."
• Allan Tidy Cup
  • Competition Officer Stella Harris received the award on behalf of the club for the second year in a row. The poster also won the MD competition.
• International President's Award
  • A surprised and delighted LP Pam Edwards received her award from International Director Anthony Paradiso from New York and DG Paul Dedman.

Community

Fire Service Cadets - Climbing to new Heights

The Club was invited to attend an open evening with the Fire Service Cadet Force. Aged between 13 and 17 years they demonstrated the drills and activities undertaken at their training sessions. It was a very impressive display of their newly found skills.

During their time on the programme they have fun, make new friends and learn all about what it means to be a fire fighter and make a positive impact on their community. It gives them an opportunity to gain qualifications whilst learning valuable lifeskills that will help them in the future.

We have donated funds so that they can purchase a flag and pole to display at local remembrance parades and ceremonial events. We are also looking at other ways of supporting this valuable youth programme that helps develop practical and transferable skills.

Footbridge Gallery 2.0

The original Footbridge Project was opened in 2021.Two years on, another competition was held and Footbridge Gallery 2.0 recently opened with a new range of amazing art works. We are very proud to be a sponsor again, providing funding for the graffiti proof vinyl printed art display.

Lion Stella has now arranged for the recent District and MD winning poster sponsored by Bexhill, to be displayed in a prominent position on the bridge.

The Footbridge Gallery is a community arts initiative selecting artworks through a competition with residents in Rother and Hastings, which are displayed as printed artwork. For the original project, the Club contributed funds for a community gallery at one end of the bridge where pictures change monthly with art from schools and community groups.

FUNdraising

Easter hampers

You really can't go wrong with an Easter hamper packed full of delicious goodies.

So we launched our "Easter Hamper Luck Draw", with hampers being placed in a range of local businesses, including pubs, restaurants and retail outlets. Punters have the chance to win the Easter hamper at each location.

We are very grateful to Tesco Ravenside for their generous donation of hamper items and for the businesses for their continued support of this popular FUNdraising event.

Social Events

Christmas celebrations

With December being such a busy month, we delayed our party until January. We enjoyed an excellent meal at the Black Horse in Telham. Some even braved the staircase to test their skills on a traditional skittles alley. It was a great evening bringing together, members, Friends of Lions as well as guests.

Zone Olympics

The Club took part in the first challenge, the Crystal Maze organised by SEBI.

We won! and will be hosting the next challenge, an indoor bowls competition.

Social Media

Awareness competitions

We continue to use competitions on FB to raise our profile and encourage people to follow us. The latest one was to celebrate Mother's Day. Here are some figures over a 28 day period.

• We had 18 New Page Followers.
• We had a post reach of 10,947 - The number of people who saw any posts at least once.
• We had 2,600 post engagements - The number of comments, likes and shares.
• 79.9% of the audience were women.
• Our reach was up 383.3% in the 28 days period

The Mother's Day Pamper Hamper Competition has generated a lot of our reach and post engagements. This not only serves to build our page but is also keeps people aware of our community and FUNdraising activities.Leading we hope to being interested to find out more about us and then joining the club.

At the time of writing one of the Pamper posts had 886 post reaches and 147 engagements and is currently in first place.

The second place was 754 post reaches and 104 engagements.