The Lions Club of Corio Norlane recently celebrated its fifth birthday. To celebrate the milestone and in line with its community work, members decided that the best presents were the ones you give.
The club approached each of the local 3214 schools to ask if they would like a helping hand with initiatives to support their students or assist with community ideas.
Club secretary Richard Walter said: “It’s really important for us as a community group to be able to put any of our fundraising activities to locally identified areas of need.”
At St Thomas Aquinas and St Francis Xavier primary schools, help to improve their play areas was quickly identified and supported by the club.
The students at each of the Northern Bay College campuses were asked for input. Each campus had different ideas to make good use of the donation and club members were happy to deliver a cheque to each campus.
A $1000 donation was made to support Goldsworthy campus students who will undertake a two-week World Challenge in Thailand in 2018. At the Wexford Campus, the money will be used to buy gardening tools for the children to use in a big community garden project they have been developing. At the College’s Early Learning Centre the money was used for new toys and games, while leadership training, playgroup renovations and robotics programs were funded at other campuses.
Northern Bay College’s David Neilson said “The support this year from the Lions Club has been astonishing and The Lions Op Shop was also responsible for the provision of table tennis equipment at Wexford. Every campus will have the benefits from the work that the Lions Club of Corio Norlane does.”