“We’ve had another amazing year here at Westbury Lions Club, with fantastic community support underpinning everything we do, reports Lion President Nigel Coward.
“After the best Christmas Float collection result for many years in December 2017, the first couple of months of the new year allowed for members to celebrate and focus on supporting welfare projects within the community.
“At Easter, our popular Easter Egg Hunt at the All Saints Church was very well attended, with over 100 children joining in, despite the awful weather that day! We followed up with our Senior Citizens Party at the Paragon, entertaining more than 120 local pensioners with songs and gifts with plenty tea and cakes.
“Our 44th Charter dinner in May was a popular event, where friends and members of local Lions clubs along with dignitaries from our own community joined us to celebrate the formation of the Westbury Lions Club. This year we were also joined by representatives of our Leos club, now growing rapidly with over 30 members under the safe guardianship of Matravers School.
“In June, our Donkey Derby entered its 13th year, and still remains as popular as ever with the community. It’s a great event to put on and its always rewarding to see the joy on young children’s faces when they see the donkeys! June also marked the end of Lion Angie Fawcett’s year as President, making way for myself to step in for my second turn representing the club.
“The next big event for us was a new one on our calendar, the White Horse Classic Vehicle Show, held in September in collaboration with our friends from Trowbridge Lions. This was a fantastic success for us, with almost 300 vehicles arriving on the day, and our fresh format and live entertainment through the day proving popular with visitors. We’ve already scheduled the event for next year, so keep 1st September 2019 free!
“October brought on our 10k Run and again wonderful support from local runners. This year we had over 120 runners join us for the day for a steady run to Bratton and back, with the fastest runner completing the route in 35 minutes, pushing our lead cyclist Kev, being forced to break a bit of a sweat on the home straight to stay ahead of the winner.
“It’s worth noting just how much our Leos have contributed across the year, not just to our Lions’ events but also community activities in general. They’re a wonderful group of people and their work on the Quaker Graves project needs special mention, as they have kept Westbury in the local media time and again this year, with their hard work on excavating and restoring the site. In a time where our children get a raw deal for staring at screens and delivering monosyllabic answers to every question, these individuals represent the best of Westbury and its future generations and we are proud to be associated with them all.
“December is looking like a good month once again for our Christmas Float, so I am left to thank everyone in the community for their generous support and kind words for our volunteers as we make the rounds. It’s a hard slog for our members at this time of year, but we always get a lift when we see the children meet Santa on the float.
“Being a Lion is simply about caring for your community, doing the best you can for the place you love and trying to help bring improvements to people’s lives in any small way possible. If you think you can be part of that, and you fancy being involved with a group that also tries to keep things light-hearted and social, do get in touch via our website (westburylions .org.uk) or Facebook page. We’d love to hear from you.
“Wishing you all a prosperous and happy new year.”
President, Nigel Coward.
Westbury Lions Club.
