The Lions Club of Cheltenham celebrated their fiftieth Charter Anniversary with a Dinner and Dance at the Hatherley Manor Hotel. They were pleased to welcome the towns MP, the Mayor, District Governor, three past D.Gs and several past members of the Club.

Lion President David Storey gave a short history of the Club, recalling various fund raising events over the years including the Cheltenham Carnival which the club organized for twenty eight years and at its peak included over thirty floats and six bands, taking over a hour to pass through the town, tied in with this was the Donkey Derby and Family Fun Day.

More recent events have included plant sales run in conjunction with a local Nursery and an Annual Book Sale, in 2007 this event raised £6500 for local flood relief. There has also been regular concerts in the Cheltenham Town Hall.

Regarding Service work David spoke about the Clubs Holiday caravan at Burnham-on-Sea which is used to give free holidays to local disabled people and their families, it used extensively by Acorns Children’s Hospice and the Leonard Cheshire Home. The first Caravan was purchased in 1983,replaced in 1991 and to mark our fifty years a new one was purchased last year. The money for this(almost £30000) was raised by the sole efforts of the Clubs only Charter Member, Phil Newcombe. Lion President David at this point presented Phil with a plaque to commemorate this unique achievement.

David recalled our collection of £20000 in a single day for the Tsunami Appeal, this was sent to Lions Clubs in the disaster area and in each case we were informed how the money was spent.

At today’s value the Club has raised over one million pounds. The majority of this has been spent for the benefit of local people, a recent gift to Cheitenham Hospital was a Harmonic Scalpel at a cost of £6900.

David mentioned that the Club enjoyed a good social life and stressed the comradeship of its members, we wear our badge with pride and hope to continue to work for the benefit of the town and when needed on an international basis.