Hands Together in Friendship & Service

District Governor Lion Ken Gatehouse with our President Jenny

(Ed. Note that all bold text are links that you can press on for background information!)

This meeting we were joined by District Governor Lion Ken Gatehouse and his wife Lion Dawn. Lion Ken is a founding member of the Lions Club of Sorell which was formed 36 years ago has been honored with a Melvin Jones Fellowship and James D. Richardson
Award.

DG Lion Ken's motto is Hands Together, as we use hands to congratulate each other, hands to work, hands to wave, and we always need extra hands! Ken promotes working with younger people as they are our future and we need to bring up the young Lions to follow in our footsteps in the next 10-15 years.

Lion Ken told us we are all little beacons of lights in society, and by joining hands we form a big beacon with a strong light. Our beacon was shining brightly at the District Convention in Burnie this month where 35 of the 49 clubs (1259 members) from the district were represented. The lunch and dinner were well attended with about 180 attendees. Catering was exceptional as were the great speakers especially the Youth of the Year and the Leo speeches. A special mention was also made about the dog demonstration for the Tasmanian Lions Autism Assistance Dogs program, an initiative of the Rocky Cape Lions Club, showing the amazing work the dogs do for children with autism and their families, and the training required for them to become assistance dogs.

There was little business matters discussed as the District clubs had not put up any agenda items. This made the convention a particularly fun and enjoyable experience. If you failed to make it the next MD201T1 District Convention will be held in Triabunna, hosted by the Spring Bay Lions Club, on November 2011. The 2011 MD Convention will be in Launceston April 14-18 2011. Registration form HERE - more information HERE or visit the MD Convention website.

On closing Lion Ken emphasised the importance of meeting with other city and rural Lions clubs, if only socially, to see how they do things in their club, congratulate them, and learn from each other! He left us with a nice banner!

Other business covered at meeting:

• Please bring non-perishable items to the next meetings for a Christmas basket we are putting together for the Salvation Army.
• Bowling night on Saturday 11 December at 630pm at the Devonport Tenpin Bowl.
• Don't forget to get Lions Christmas Cakes to sell to friends, family, businesses, at work and wherever! Check with Lion Sam re supplies.
• The Christmas Carols by Candlelight scheduled for Sunday 12 December cannot be held at the SoundShell at the Bluff due to construction of the nearby Surf Lifesaving Club and the new venue is likely to be Meercroft Park. The alternative venue in case it gets rained out is at Devonport High School the following tuesday (14/12/2010).
• Our Shed in Spreyton is ready for occupancy as of next Monday 29 November! Congratulations to Lion Hos and his army for completing this huge project! A thank you slash shed warming BBQ will soon be organised! A big thank you to all involved.
• Magic Show on Saturday 4 December at Devonport High School! 800 Tickets have been sold for the two sessions 2pm and 530pm). We will be there to set up the venue as of 10am that morning, and if you are smart enough to volunteer as an usher you will catch the show too!
• Our Christmas Luncheon will be hosted by Wendy (and Gary) Beaton on Sunday 19 December and celebrity master-chef Hos (of Shed Fame) is recruited to run the BBQ operations.
• Lion Ree and Lion Walter returned from their Cystic Fibrosis Mission with a flag exchange from the Koo-Wee-Rup and District Lions Club in Victoria. Their club has one dinner meeting and one non-dinner meeting where people are free to bring along food. They also do combined club social functions, which is a good idea for us too where we could invite nearby Lions Clubs for an occasional TenPin Bowling tournament for instance!
• Lion George reported on the Over 90s Party to convey the message from the oldest person there, a Centenarian, that this was the happiest afternoon she has had in 5 years and was looking forward to next years party. Good on you to George for organising the event with our City of Devonport Lions!

Youth and Family Focus Inc

Janine Phillis from Youth and Family Focus Inc came and spoke to our meeting. Janine with her two kids moved from South Australia where she was a professional cook. In Tasmania she was retrained as a drug and alcohol counsellor to complete her island-change. She worked as a counsellor and health promotions worker in a range of alcohol, drug, youth and family related services and organisations. Currently she is project manager of the Mersey Respectful Relationships Project.The program is funded by the Australian Government Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs ( FaHCSIA) under the Gender Equalities for Women Program.

The primary focus of the project is to provide education to young people ( particularly males) so they can develop the skills they need to conduct healthy ,respectful relationships. The initiative uses a three stream approach in the Community, Schools and through an Alternative education stream. The program used in schools is based on a program called 'Relationship Things' developed by the YWCA in Canberra. The school sessions look at: Diversity and Uniqueness, Respect - what it is and how to earn it, Communications and fighting fair - how to effectively communicate and resolve conflict, Gender bias, Looking after yourself and others and Peer education . There is also a special focus to deal with electronic communications amongst young people.

Next weeks is YWCA week without Violence. It runs from 17-23rd October and includes all sorts of activities from public forums to photo competition. Launching the program under the banner of "world family" the YWCA Week Without Violence will be launched with a symbolic laying of flowers for all the past and present victims of violence in Tasmania at the Magistrates court on Sunday 20 October at 1pm. All welcome, please bring flowers!

As part of the week's activities a forum is held at the East Devonport Recreation Centre with Dr Stephanie Dowrick which is free for all people working and living in relationships. It will cover respect in professional and private lives.

Janine, pictured below, hopes the project gets funded again next year!

Janine Phillis from Youth & Family Focus Inc.

Also at our last held meeting;

Remember Lion Sam takes the cake. Every member of our club should try and find an outlet for at least one box of Lions Christmas Cakes. Just order them with Sam and he will make sure you will be stocked up in no time!

Our new shed in  Spreyton is making great process. Bill successfully lobbied for and received $5000 from the Lions Fundation! Next Saturday morning from 8:30am till noon the steel walls are going up. A working bee will be held at the shed the following Sunday morning. Find the shed near the pony club in Spreyton,  the driveway past the tip.

Youth of the Year: If we can all start approaching colleges for candidates we will get a good field of youths to choose from. Alert Lion Rob with possible candidates.

Taste the harvest: Geoff Phillips is the new chairperson again. Held on the the 13th of March this year. Council funding is in the process of being applied for. A new website look is under development - Ian has been working on it with the council. Tuesday 9 November next committee meeting.

Over 90s party: Received over $500 from council. George Russell is still looking for more qualifying elderly people. All aged care facilities have been assigned a member of our club.  The event will be held at the Senior Citizens Club in Devonport on 7 November. The Devonport Times and The Advocate have been notified. Jenny will write a nice invitation. The Mare has been invited and  has RSVP'd. Jim Pearson is create a certificate for the honoured Devonporrt citizens. A commemorative special pen has been made and a special card both paid for with the council grant.

Pink Ribbon Day: Monday 25 October Lions volunteers will be in The Rooke Street Mall near the Hub Arcade from 9am-3pm collecting money for breast cancer..

Lion Garry came back from 3 weeks of holidays in the Kimberleys. As it happened he ran into the 2010 Broome Lions Pearl Convention in Broome on the long weekend from 24 to 27th September.  The Lions descended on Broome for their 45th Lions International District Convention.An impromptu Ellenbrook Lions Club banner exchange was arranged with the 4 representatives from that club. Lion Garry enjoyed meeting 120 Lions from 51 clubs from District 201 W1. Our own Lions Tasmania Convention (District 201 T1) is from 12 to 14 November in Burnie, and is hosted by the City of Burnie Lions Club. 

Sam our memberships chair says we need to bring new blood into club!

Adopt a Highway

Although the official Adopt-a-Highway signs are not up yet, we did get a certificate of appreciation from Conservation Volunteers Australia for our cleanup held in April this year. Soon we will plan another cleanup day to keep our stretch tidy!

Walk like a Lion on the Catwalk!

Lion's President Jenny strutting on the Lionwalk, ahum catwalk.

LOCAL women tore up the runway early October as part of the Devonport Zonta Club's Fashion with Flair fundraiser. Zonta members modelled a range of fashions for summer from casual to evening wear. The fashion night was held at the Devonport Football Club to raise money for various women's causes within the local area. Read more [here].

The Advocate's top 120 Inspirational Coasters

In the Advocate: Who are our 120 most inspirational coasters? A 32-page special feature in the Advocate (Friday October 1, 2010) commemorated the120th birthday of  The Advocate Newspaper. Readers were asked to nominate Coasters for the honour and a special judging panel came up with the final 120 from the nominations.

Not surprisingly we found quiet a few names well known to us City of Devonport Lions. They included people as diverse as King O'Malley and  Joseph and Enid Lyons to more current personalities such as Norma Jamieson, Kath Medwin,  Julia Butler-Ross,  Betty Hite, Elsa Kat and our own Lady Lion Judy Wild, Lion Walter van Praag!

Click on the below images for a bigger view!









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