Lions welcome Christmas with festive market
Apart from the variety of stalls they also honoured a few of their well-known Pillars of Service.
The Lions Club of Wilro Park recently hosted their annual Christmas Market. As always they had stalls with some yummy food, festive music and of course an array of good causes to support.
They also honoured a few of their well-known Pillars of Service when they invited Claw (Community Led Animal Welfare), Choc (Childhood Cancer Foundation) and the Queen Butterfly Foundation to the market on Saturday, December 4.
“We invited Claw to raise awareness and that’s why we asked visitors to donate dog food. They also introduced two of their gorgeous fur babies and we are so happy to announce that these two beautiful dogs were adopted and should both be in their new forever homes for Christmas,” Club president, Sandy van Heerden said.
“The Lions Club of Wilro Park also gifted Christmas stockings to Claw for all their young volunteers who live in the informal areas close to the shelter. All they have to give is their time and love for the animals, and in return we wanted to give them something small for Christmas.”
They also supported Choc on the day, which the club has been working with for the past few years. They have been donating food, Jars of Hope as well as clothes and blankets in times of need.
“Childhood Cancer is one of our Pillars of Service and so we gifted 100 Christmas stockings to Choc for children undergoing cancer treatment over Christmas at both the Bara and Charlotte Clinics. We thank our members, family and friends who filled all the stockings to pay it forward to these children,” she said.
Even though it’s tradition to switch on the lights on their Tree of Remembrance, they weren’t able to honour it this year as the lights and cables had unfortunately been stolen.
Nonetheless, the tree was still decorated and visitors had the special privilege of hanging an angel on Molly’s Tree. Molly Francis is a past president and was a special member for many years. She passed away on Christmas Day 10 years ago and until this day, the Lions remember her each year by keeping her light shining.
“The event was a huge success. It brought our community together for a fun day in a safe environment and we gave small businesses an opportunity to market their products. Queen Butterfly joined us to host their Fun Run or Walk; Claw found forever homes for two fur babies; and we supported the Cradle of Hope by handing over dignity handbags for women who are victims of gender-based violence,” Sandy said.
“They say team work makes the dream work, and I had a great team who worked so hard with me. All our Lions contributed and we thank Lee-Anne Larkins, a big part of our team, and friends of our Lions Club for managing all our vendor registrations.”
On behalf of the Lions Club of Wilro Park Sandy would like to wish everyone a happy, safe and blessed Christmas filled with love and peace. She would also like to remind the community that anyone can make a difference and to think of those less fortunate this Christmas. She encourages everyone to be an angel and help just one.
“We also wish to express our sincere thanks to the caring people in our community who help us to help others. We are all connected and without their support of our Service Projects it would be impossible to meet all the needs. Everyone can make a difference – kindness matters! We Serve,” Sandy concluded.
For more information, or to order some Christmas cakes, you can follow the Wilro Park Lions Club on Facebook or contact Sandy on 083 564 6388.
