Projects

Convention Reports Zone Chairs Reports

Global Action Team (GAT)

GAT Chair - DG Sandra Manktelow

The GAT team have met regularly via zoom to discuss membership, leadership, service and LCIF.

GMT lead Dianne Hopkins and I attended Mission 1.5 seminars in Oslo at the beginning of October.  Alongside the other Districts of MD105 we decided to promote 'MD Challenge 10000' rather than Mission 1.5. Our own district's aim is to finish the year with 1000 members.

Four of the GAT team met in December to plan not just for the remainder of this Lion year but also to put things in place for the future of our district.

Sadly, Linda Picton stepped down from her roles as Global Leader Team Coordinator and Global Extension Team Coordinator.  My thanks to Linda for all she has done for the District. Her deputies PDG Brian Donovan and IPDG Dave Ebsworth stepped up as Coordinators for which I am grateful.

The GAT team recognise that more needs to be done to encourage members to take on responsibilities at club and district levels – we need to ensure that the District has new members to step into the shoes of those who wish to take more of a back seat so that we continue to move forward.

My thanks to all members of the Global Action Team for all the service they have given this year.

Global Membership Team – 1VDG Dianne Hopkins

Update since the last Cabinet meeting:

We are working with Havant Lions Club re their options to avoid a closure. 

It has been known for some time that Fareham Lions are closing and are working with the Lions moving to other clubs, and what the options are. Possibility of a new Branch club starting.

Blandford Lions who had older members wanting to close the club, has turned around and is now a success story.

Hopefully we have stemmed the closure of more clubs, and overall the membership is holding steady.

I will continue to work with the Global Extension Team and all clubs to grow their membership if possible, look at formation of Branch and Speciality Clubs, and most importantly the retention of members.

Global Services Team (GST) coordinator - 2VDG Tim Hanton 

There have been a number of changes to the District Officers during this year – a big thank you to those who have taken on roles throughout the year and to all the District Officers for their work throughout the year in promoting our service activities. 

I have held regular meetings with District Officers via zoom.  I have encouraged District Officers to write articles for Sentinel and send out district mailing to promote their causes and provide examples of activities that Clubs can undertake.

It is fantastic that we have now been given permission to start the Vision Sight Camera project, as this is a key service project that Clubs and Zones can get involved in. We have raised sufficient funds at District level to purchase 4 cameras and Mark Cooper is working on the LCIF proposal to obtain matched funding to enable us to receive a further 4 cameras.

Thank you to Judith Goodchild for negotiating the District Funday at Marwell for Sunday 22^nd June. It is great opportunity to show Lions serving their community by bringing people to Marwell and I hope that a good number of Clubs will be able to support the event. 

I have been actively working with a number of Clubs to try and increase our level of service reporting on the Lions portal. There were a number of technical challenges when the portal was introduced but these have now been resolved and it would be good to see more Clubs reporting their service activities to enable us to hit our target of 75% of Clubs in the District reporting Service. Service data gives the Lions the ability to communicate how We Serve around the world.  In 2023-24, Lions served 253 million people worldwide. If you need any assistance on reporting service, please let me know.

I have attended two of the MD GST meetings in Birmingham and provided feedback from the meetings to the District GST team officers. These meetings provide an excellent opportunity to see at first hand the service activities that are being carried out throughout the MD. 

The service activities carried out by Lions at a local level are key to showing Lions service in action. I am of the strong belief that it is through our service activities that we attract new members to our Clubs. There are many examples in Lions of people joining Lions as they have seen us carrying out our service activities.  

District Leadership - Global Leadership Team (GLT) 

GLT Chair, Global Leadership Coordinator - PDG Brian Donovan

I am taking on the challenge of leadership training for our district, following on the great work of Mike Baker and Linda Picton. I would like to thank them for their dedication over the recent years.

I am planning the forward training programme with DG Sandra and 1^st VDG Dianne.  There are lots of roles for Lions to take on within their clubs and at district and being prepared to do these roles is a key to success. There are different ways to approach each role, and I find it valuable to bring Lions who are experienced in these roles to join in with training sessions with those that are either new to the role, or anyone wanting to learn more to help them decide.

Training can be done successfully face to face, but not everyone has the time, so we will look at Zoom meetings or webinars (even pre-recorded webinars), this is all in the pipeline. It would be useful to know what Lions would like to learn, and preferred formats and venues

For those that will be new to a post, and for those that would welcome a refresher, there are plenty of on-line resources in the Lions Portal, as well as structured routes (Learning paths), for some of out key roles. I am keen that I can show how Lions how to access these in the April Second Saturday Swapshop.

Whilst on the subject of the Second Saturday Swapshop, It will be really good to see more Lions come along to these.

GET Team - PDG Dave Ebsworth

Unfortunately Lion Linda Picton had to stand down for personally reason so unfortunately not a lot has been done.  I have stepped up to lead and hopefully will move this are forward over the forth coming months. I will be speaking to other districts to see how they are doing things.  If anyone would like to join me, please drop me an e-mail.

Brain Tumour Research - 2VDG Tim Hanton

Lions Brain Tumour Research ('BTR') is one of the key MD Projects with a goal to give £1 million to BTR. BTR has matched funding in place and for everyone £1 that Lions donate, they are able to receive a further £3 in match funding, which makes our donations very worthwhile to them. 

The Table below shows what donations to BTR will help to fund: 

Amount	Will fund
£10	A month of micro-plates
£25	A PdD Researcher for a morning
£50	A Senior Research Fellow to run a lab for an hour
£100	Half a day of Gene Sequencing
£150	A day of gene-sequence to understand how brain tumours grow
£300	For solutions, pipettes and dishes needed by a Centre each day to analyse brain tumour cell behaviour
£500	3 days of next-gen sequencing (NGS)
£1,000	Research paper to be published in a high-impact scientific journal, providing another piece of the jigsaw to help find a cure
£1,000	A laboratory technician for a week to work on one of our childhood cancer research projects
£1,500	A weeks' worth of solutions, pipettes and dishes

So far this Lions year, Clubs in 105SC have donated £5,870 to BTR, thank you for this.  If your Club can spare some funds to make a donation, please make a payment to the District Treasurer. Alternatively, if you would like more assistance in running an event for BTR e.g. wear a hat day, please let me know. 

BTR are holding a 10 Rivers online Duck race. It is started at the MD Convention and will last 10 days. Tickets will be available at our Convention and are £5 each, please support if you can. 

Childhood Cancer - Lion Paula Thorp

Raising awareness of Childhood Cancer is always the primary aim.

I have been able to visit 2 clubs and they have been surprised by the prognosis and types of charities around to support children and their families.

Childhood cancer month in September was highlighted in Sentinel and will continue to need publicity in early summer to encourage clubs to initiate fund raisers in time.

The exhibition stand this year will offer a quiz to highlight how we can support and encourage clubs to share that support with members and also to ask for a talk.

Dementia - Lion Denise Deacon

A handful of clubs have shared information about what they have been doing to raise dementia awareness and fundraise. These were included in the Sentinel, but it has all gone very quiet.

In summary, Yateley & District Club have members who volunteer at the Daisy Chain Café on a regular basis, have paid for attendees to go on a day trip and have funded some activity packs for the local hospital and are donating the tail twister funds to Dementia UK. Fleet Club have been fundraising, paid for canal boat trips and are funding a premises for a local dementia group. Newport IOW Club provided activity packs and outdoor area seating for a local hospital.

District Website

Useful website links have been included on the District website with a reminder put forward for the Sentinel.

https://www.lions105sc.org.uk/projects/health/dementia.html

Convention

I have been preparing materials for the Dementia exhibition board at Convention, with booklets to read, and some available to take away and if I run out there is information where to obtain. I have prepared a Quiz sheet, which can be taken to complete for fun & help with raising awareness of dementia (answer sheets can just be requested from me). There will be postcards available at Convention for clubs to fill in with what they have been doing in support of dementia. A fellow Lion from another club will also be having a stall showing resources that are available. In addition, there will be a drop-in area at convention to come in and have a 1:1 chat & a cuppa about dementia, for anyone needing support or information, it's good to talk! Happy to signpost as I did last year but will be more comfortable having a seated area.

Competitions - PDG Judith Goodchild

A new competition was established this year.  It is the Ian Hambleton Award for Hunger given in memory of Ian who was the very enthusiastic District Hunger Officer for several years. This award is being presented by Aldershot Lions, (now part of Farnborough and Aldershot Lions Club) to the Lion, Club or Zone which has made the greatest impact on/or improving food security and access to nutritious food to alleviate hunger and avoid food wastage within 105SC.  I am please to say that this competition attracted several entries.

The Peter Allen Environmental Photographic Award did result in several good quality entries.

Otherwise it has been a rather disappointing year.  I started the year by sending out information on all the competitions and followed these up with items in both the District Mailing and The Sentinel during the year.  Unfortunately, due to ill health, the entry form and call to enter did not go out as early as I would have liked.  However there was still plenty of time to enter!

As a result some trophies are not being awarded this year.  The Barrie Richardson award for the Travelling Lion received just 1 visit being reported despite the reporting procedure being simplified.

The following Awards are being made:

The Nixon Award for Community Service

The Leo Plumley Award

The Dave Ebsworth Environmental Award

The David Firth Award for ROAR

The Peter Allen Environmental Photographic Award

The Ian Birch Membership Award

The Ian Hambleton Award for Hunger

The scripts form the winning entries are in the Convention Exhibition Display but with names of clubs removed!

Following Convention the DG and myself will be reviewing all the competitions.  If anyone has any comment on any of the competitions please let me know

DentAid 

Diabetes - Lion Chris Stubbings

Since taking on this role of Diabetes Officer, I have discovered this is a much bigger problem than I first thought. Diabetes has become more prevalent than cancer and dementia combined. For many people this can be a very difficult subject to understand. How would you feel if you had just been diagnosed with diabetes? It could happen to anyone of us. Trying to manage and understand type 2 diabetes, strong mental and emotional factors may come into play. This has to be dealt with whether you have support from family and friends, or no support at all. I personally do not have diabetes, but came pretty close to getting this dreadful disease had I continued eating all the wrong foods! To learn more about diabetes I have purposely joined more than twenty various diabetic platforms on Facebook and other social media sites, including becoming a full member of Diabetes UK. 

Today 27th March, 2025 we visited Great Western Swindon Hospital where a family member, last week, Thursday evening and overnight had suffered a mild heart attack was admitted in for check-ups. This afternoon we discovered that a large valve in his heart had become diseased and he will now have to be transferred to another hospital in Bristol for open heart surgery. For someone who has led a healthy lifestyle, not smoking, drinking, eating what he thought was healthy food, lots of exercise, weight training at gyms three times a week, and a body to be proud of, was now in a state of shock and scared stiff as to what was going to happen next. Three other guys sharing his ward, all suffering from diabetes are now waiting for their operations. Just one of the many complications of getting diabetes. This is a situation anyone of us could unexpectedly find ourselves in without warning. Speaking to many people who have diabetes, in every case they all said the same, if they had known better, they would not have got diabetes in the first place and done everything to avoid this terrible disease. 

High blood sugar levels can seriously damage parts of your body, including your feet, eyes, nerves, heart, pancreas, liver and kidneys. These are called the complications of diabetes. Very few of us understand the quality of food we are about to eat. Where does our food come from? What about the hybridization of wheat, and what about the use of pesticides in our fruit and vegetables? Do we really care what we eat? Where is it leading us to, and what about our children and future generations? One in ten children are already obese by the time they are old enough to start school. Poor diets linked to the cost of living makes a bad situation even worse. More children than ever are developing type 2 diabetes linked with obesity.  

My proposal is for Lion clubs to set up alongside their diabetes screening program a Lions Diabetes Support Team with the aim of helping to prevent diabetes and the promotion of healthy living especially with the younger generation. 

More research is required on the following. 

a.  Lions present activity on diabetes. 

b.  Thoughts on setting up this new activity. 

c.  Design and the production of new leaflets on healthy living. Support from Diabetes UK. Could be similar to ROAR in leaflet design. 

d.  Research what goes into our food manufacturing, processed foods and meats etc. 

e.  Where do we get our food from? Is organic a safer bet? Farming and use of pesticides. 

f.  Packaging of ready-made meals now containing chemicals and plastic! 

g.  All foods made, or containing sugar. 

h.  Genetically Modified Crops (GMC). The hybridization of wheat introducing new starches and proteins that our bodies are not well equipped to handle leading to rapid spikes in blood sugar levels and an increase in diabetes. Amylopectin A, is a starch present in modern wheat, one of the main culprits giving rapid digestion and the rise behind blood sugar spikes. 

i.  Understanding the glycogen index GI, an invaluable tool helping to manage blood sugar levels. Focusing GI foods creating balanced meals and the understanding the role of modern wheat. 

j.  Research special school programs on domestic science, including choice and preparation of our food. 

k.  Children developing diabetes through family lifestyle. 

l.  Setting up diabetes awareness hubs, groups or clubs. 

My role will involve setting up a new Diabetic hub where I live, and a club in Royal Wootton Bassett. Also hope to involve the Royal British Legion and other military groups who might be interested in setting up their own diabetic hub. 

My personal involvement which started on Saturday 8th March, 2025 the One Million Step Challenge for Diabetes UK. Taking the first steps aiming to walk 10,000 steps for 100 consecutive days until mid-June. Also pledging to donate £1 a day for the 100 days until around June 16th.  To date 28th March, I am averaging over 20,000 steps a day. Looking good so far for an 81 year old. 

Would all Lion clubs please consider at least joining Diabetes UK. Only £36 per year. You will then be sent on a regular basis all the information you need to support anyone suffering from this disease and what is happening in researching diabetes. Any other donations directly to Diabetes UK would be much appreciated.

Marwell Zoo - VDG1 Dianne and PDG Judith Goodchild

An experience even better than Paulton's Park!

The Lions Fun Day at Marwell Wildlife is definitely going ahead on Sunday 22nd June and we hope that many of you will be there together with your groups of deserving people.

The cost will be £22 for everyone except for carers and children under 3 who will have free entry.  This compares to the normal high season cost of £29 for adults and £25 for children.

Bookings this year will be via the Marwell website at their insistence but payments will still be via the District Treasurer.  The Marwell system should be available on 4th April.  The last date for bookings will be 1st June.

The process of booking this event was started in July 2024 but apart from booking the date nothing was heard from Marwell until January 2025.  In January Marwell contacted us to say our date was no longer available as they wanted to run a Father's day Event on our preferred date.  We agreed to change to 22nd June.

In February we received the agreement for this year which had changed quite considerably from previous years but after approval from the Finance Committee Judith signed it.

This explains the lateness of the information going out to clubs.  We had hoped to be in a position to send out details in January!

In the mean time articles have been written for The Sentinel and letters for The District Mailing.

Environment - PDG Judith Goodchild and Lion Paul Allaway

Report from PDG Judith Goodchild

This year the Environment role has been shared between myself and Lion Paul Allaway.  It has been interesting as we tackle the issue in rather different ways but it has meant that there have been articles in The Sentinel and the District Mailing in most months.  I thank Lion Paul for his contributions especially when I have not been very well.

Personally I have written articles on Litter Picks, recycling, ways of saving power, water and food, encouraging members to enter the Environmental Photo Competition and recycling articles for use in the garden. I am pleased to say there were several entries for this competition and the photos will be on display at Convention.  The winner will be announced at Convention.  Next year it would be wonderful if we could have even more.

Likewise the prize winner for the Dave Ebsworth Award for Environmental Effort will be announced at Convention.

A reminder that World Earth Day is on Tuesday April 22^nd.  This is the ideal time to do something for the Environment especially Litter or Beach Picks.  

Report from Lion Paul Allaway

Objectives for the Year:

1.3.1 To support Judith in promoting environmental awareness.

1.3.2 To promote the series of Wild Tribe Heroes books

To encourage Clubs to set up "clean waterways" initiatives

1.4 Progress against Objectives

To achieve my objectives, I have successfully written monthly articles for District mailings and the Sentinel that have focused on additional Environmental aspects.

In the last quarter since the January Cabinet Meeting these articles have focused on – 

Gifting a tree scheme – an unusual present

Details on possible rewilding projects either at home or around the countryside.

RSPB annual bird watch – aids an indication of how local habitat is progressing

Revisit to the Pollinator projects article

Focus on Global recycling day – March 18^th and ideas to encourage clubs to participate.

Focus on Recycling schemes going on at Convention.

Comment

It is disappointing that with over 50 Clubs in the District only 6 have responded to requests for information! 

Zone Chairs please encourage your clubs to participate in projects and keep us informed.

Hunger - Lion Mark Thorpe

I am visiting clubs to spread the word about gleaning, particularly coming up to harvest time. My own club highlighted benefits of gleaning from a Lions garden in the Sentinel.

I contact local food banks to see how Lions may best support their needs to and inform clubs within each foodbank area.

I am aiming to visit more clubs over coming year to facilitate discussion about Hunger/ Food Waste and Sustainability

Medic Alert 

Message in a Bottle 

Prostate Cancer - Lion Brian Proctor

Clubs, listed below, having held screening sessions since 1st July 2024 have tested 4,362 men. These tests resulted in 217 red letters being issued. Hopefully these men have received further tests and if necessary are receiving appropriate treatment and in some cases saved their lives.

Fleet Lions – Saturday 31st August – 236 Tests – 3 Red letters, 4 amber letters

Salisbury – Saturday 14th September – 153 Tests – 6 Red letters – 7 amber letters

Alton Lions – Saturday 21st September – 335 Tests -15 Red - Amber letters

Maidenhead Lions – Saturday 28th September – 557 Tests – 25 Red – 9 Amber letters  

Alton Lions – Saturday 12th October – 314 Tests - 15 Red – 6 Amber letters

Farnborough and Aldershot Lions – Saturday 12th October - 201 Tests - 7 Red – 3 Amber letters

Swanwick Lions – Saturday 26th October – 475 Tests - 37 Red – 7 amber letters

Hook and Odiham Lions – 9th November -  217 Tests – 15 Red – 4 Amber letters

Reading Lions – 843 Tests – 39 Red – 30 Amber letters

Havant Lions – 15th February – 391 Tests – 21 Red – 10 Amber letters

Wimborne  and Ferndown Lions – 15th March – 134 Tests – 8 Red – 4 Amber letters   

Eastleigh Lions – Saturday 15th March –  506 Tests – 48 Red – 26 Amber letters 

Testing Group

In addition the following clubs have planned to hold testing events in 2025.

Loddon Valley Lions – Saturday 26th April – The Link 9Tadley Community Centre).  GFCT

Windsor Lions – Saturday 26th April – Ascot Race Course – Ascot.  GFCT

Hook and Odiham Lions – Saturday 17th May – Odiham Cottage Hospital  GFCT

Petersfield Lions – Saturday 13th September – Festival Hall, Petersfield.  PCaSO

Fleet Lions – Saturday 9th August – The Key, Elvetham Heath, Fleet  GFCT

Speech and Hearing - Lion Frances Bond

I have uploaded items on the website, I attended Zoom meetings with the MD officer, have kept the MD officer updated on what is now on the website, and on what information I have available.

Vision District Vision Officer – ZC Mark Cooper

Spectacles

This continues to be a popular service with the clubs and the public. However, the number of spectacles collected is phenomenal, so forwarding them for processing is challenging. We are overcoming this issue by pooling collections. We also anticipate several clubs bringing boxes to the convention to be transported to National HQ.

Child Sight UK

The child sight-vision camera is finally a reality and has been rolled out across MD105. Seven members from District SC were trained as trainers in early December. We have already trained 20 operators and more have expressed interest in getting involved with this long-awaited programme. 

Several schools have been approached, and they are also keen to screen the children for vision problems. 

We have been demonstrating the camera to clubs to raise funds to purchase up to four cameras for use in the district. LCIF match-funding will increase this number to eight cameras. At the time of writing, we should have raised enough to purchase around three cameras. 

We expect the programme to begin early in the new school year. Where possible, we will target children in Reception class and Years 1 and 2.  

Peace Poster - Lion Frances Bond

I would like to thank all the clubs that participated in last years Peace Poster Competition. 

Guernsey 

Petersfield 

Swindon

Ringwood and Fordingbridge 

The Winner of last years Competition was from Ringwood and Fordingbridge Lions Club. 

Lorelei aged 12 from Forres Sandle Manor School.

All the details are on the website along with a picture of the winning poster. 

This year's 2025-2026 competition will be open on the 15^th January 2025.

There is also a New Digital Peace Poster kit, available I believe, from the MD website at a cost of $11.95.

The New Theme is " Together As One "

There were no entries again for the Essay Competition. 

Project Portfolios Reports

Communications - Tom Sayers 

I continue to work to further improve the information available to Cabinet Officers and clubs. Much more information can be accessed once logged-in. The District Directory is a good example but various documents and forms are available, such as Insurance documents maintained by Insurance Advisor Steve Spencer and Financial Information maintained by Treasurer Dora Kan. 

This year's Convention website is simply https://2025.lions105sc.org.uk and gives comprehensive information and links to an online booking form.  

The District 105sc Sentinel newsletters, ably edited by Peter Tabb, are uploaded to the website each month and appear on a 'Lions year' page www.lions105sc.org.uk/newsletters with District 105d archives going back to 2006. The latest issue of the Sentinel is featured on the Home page with a thumbnail image and link to the PDF file.

The Clubs page of the website is a database of club information such as the names of the officers, meeting dates/venues and links to the club website and contacts together with Zone data. Club Secretaries may login and update 'their page' to add/edit details of meetings and venues etc. It features a map of our District showing 105sc clubs. Do periodically check that the information is up to date. 

We have a great resource in our website and I urge you all to get involved in using it, promoting it and improving it. 

Zoom remains available to clubs with some regularly using it and some using it for hybrid meetings. It remains a good alternative to travelling miles and is of course environmentally friendly.

Tom Sayers – it@lions105sc.org.uk

Marketing & PR - Tom Sayers

The Marketing Team are quietly making progress in helping the District and our Clubs improve awareness of what we do for the 105sc area. 

Our page on Facebook is back online, thanks to Dave Rose who has spent a great deal of time adding articles to it - please see Facebook

There is a lot of information on the District website including info-graphics that Clubs and Officers may use on printed and virtual media. See www.lions105sc.org.uk/clubs/prteam/graphicsforsocialmedia.html

There is a Recruitment Handout page with a very useful template at www.lions105sc.org.uk/clubs/prteam/recruitmenthandouttemplate.html

Each month in the Sentinel you will find a series giving first rate advice for gaining attention of your community.

Tom Sayers – it@lions105sc.org.uk

LCIF Report  

The last year we have all seen the continued need for grants from our charity, Lions Clubs International Foundation. Lions around the world have relied upon the Major Catastrophe Grants that the Foundation can award when disaster strikes. Just think of the flooding in Spain, the recent devastation in Los Angeles caused by wildfires.  Due to having Lions on the ground, often affected by the events themselves, the Foundation can support those Lions and bring a bit of hope to those affected. I know many of you reading this associate the Foundation with major disaster relief, but remember there are other grants available to help Lions serve their communities. 

Once again some of the clubs in our district supported the last two WICTU (Winter is Coming to Ukraine) projects. I was delighted to send out banner patches on behalf of LCIF to those who supported WICTU II. As a district we donated Ꞓ12,330.99 which turned into 82 stoves. The final figures for this past campaign are not yet in at time of writing.

As LCIF Coordinator for 105SC I have continued to attend district Cabinet and GAT (Global Action Team) meetings. I also continue to submit articles regarding the Foundation to the Sentinel. I have dealt with inquiries from clubs and made MJF applications on their behalf. At Convention 2024 I made a presentation to Convention and had a stand during the weekend.

During 2023-20234 Lions in 105SC donated $58,263.73

Total funds donated for 2024-2025 to date stand at $41,551.02

Thank you if you or your club has supported Lions Clubs International Foundation. 

Youth Projects

Youth Camp and Exchange  

Key Information

The Lions International Youth Camp and Exchange Program introduces thousands of young people (aged between 16 and 22) to life in other cultures by helping them experience living with a host family in another country and then spending time at an international youth camp (whilst called camps most don't involve a tent or any camping). Each year usually over 100 camps are available to choose from 40 or more different countries around the world.  The scheme has been in operation since 1961.  

Clubs in our District can participate in one of two ways; 

1) by inviting anyone aged 16-22 from their local communities to apply for a place at an international youth camp of their choosing around the world next summer; and/or 

2) by offering to assign one or more of their club members to act as a short term host family for youths applying for a place at the camp in this country next year.

The personal information clubs receive from youths who apply for this scheme is very sensitive and needs to be stored securely in order to comply with Data Protection Laws.

Updates

1) MD 105 Youth Camp

There has been no further updates about The MD105 Youth Camp for 2025 which is being hosted by District A at the same location as last year (Royal Masonic School for Girls, Rickmansworth) from 11 August to 21 August 2025.  Age range 18-25. 25 participants. Activities: Team building; visits to cultural icons, visits to London, Windsor castle a walking tour of London, London Eye. Service activities and a gala dinner on Tuesday 19 August 2025 at the Royal Masonic School in Rickmansworth.  Attendees should aim to be at The Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth from 2pm on 11 August 2025.

2) Youth Hosting in District 105SC

Families from or known to Lions Clubs in District 105SC are invited to host one or more incoming youths until the start of the Youth Camp on 11 August 2025.  Every youth attending the 2025 MD105 Youth Camp at Rickmansworth will arrive into The London Heathrow Airport on Friday 1 August 2025. 

There will be a welcoming committee in place at the airport for the day to receive all 25 incoming youths and helping them to reach their designated host families in the different Districts around the country. Host families are welcome to attend the airport to collect if they wish. If not, each youth will be helped onto public transport to a destination near their designated host family who will be advised when to collect them.

Details about hosting and a request for host families has been circulated amongst the District via an appeal distributed to all Clubs via Zone Chairs on 17 February 2025, an article in the March edition of The Sentinel and via the District Mailing at the end of February 2025.  To date we as a District have received 3 kind offers to host incoming youths from the following people:

A) Tony & Karen Poll from Yateley & District Lions Club who have kindly agreed to host 2 youths

B) Jane & Paul Cadman from Crofton Lions Club who were fantastic last year as hosts

C) Mr & Mrs Hodgson from Fordingbridge who are non-lions but known to Ringwood & Fordingbridge Lions Club

All of the above details have been relayed to Philip Goodier.

It would be nice to have a few more volunteer families from some of the larger Lions clubs in the District.  

Philip Goodier MD105 Officer for Youth Exchange has invited our Tom Sayers to construct an on-line registration website for host families so that their details can be retained safely and securely for the whole of MD105.  

3) District 105SC International Youth Camp 2030

Each District in turn will be invited to host an MD105 International Youth Camp with CE having agreed to host for 2026 at Loughborough, CN hosting in 2027, CW hosting in 2028, N hosting in 2029 and SC being invited to host in the summer of 2030. 

New Committee Roles to fill in 2026  

We need to make preparations for hosting the MD105 international youth camp in District 105SC in the summer of 2030 and assembling a team.  MD have produced a guide (https://fliphtml5.com/bookcase/kucxm/) which states that the camp usually lasts for 11 days, 10 nights, should accommodate anywhere up to 40 young people (aged between 18-22), and takes place during the summer break in the UK (late July to August).  

The District SC hosting team should comprise 6-8 members and the roles we need to fill include:

• Youth Camp Chairman,

• Youth Camp Treasurer, 

• Youth Camp Secretary, 

• Youth Camp Officer for Logistics/Transportation, 

• Youth Camp Planning Officer, 

• Youth Camp Officials/Counsellors who will be on site.  

There are more posts to fill than District Officers available in the current Youth Team and so recruitment will have to be made externally from Clubs and Zones directly and if possible to draw upon participants from Leo Clubs in our District.  

Lions District SC will be expected to prepare and submit a bid to The Council of Governors in or around June/July 2029 which will be accompanied by a budget of all anticipated expenditure (accommodation, 3 meals each day incorporating a packed lunch if out and about, transport, visitor attraction costs, welcome booklet, brochure printing, website design, room hire, sports facilities, tee shirt designs, pins, bannerettes), with explanations for each cost and a copy of the programme and draft promotional brochure ready for printing so that it can be circulated at Europa Forum in the Autumn of 2029.  If agreed, the costs will be funded by the MD Youth Fund with any additional costs needing to be sourced directly from Clubs and Zones in the District.

a) Outbound Youth Exchange

I understand that a total of 15 outbound youths will be attending Youth Camps abroad this summer from MD105 as a whole.  10 of these come from District SC with all of these from Ringwood & Fordingbridge Lions Club:

Name	School/College/University	Age in 2025	Offered
Clara	Brockenhurst College	18	Wisconsin USA (3rd choice)
Jing	Burgate School	16	Austria, Vienna and around (default choice)
Thomas	Burgate School	17	Japan 41st (2nd choice)
Katie	University	20	Spain (1st choice)
Emma	Ringwood School	18	Turkey Antalya (1st choice)
Rosalyn	Burgate School	18	Japan Hokkaido (1st choice)
Jessica	Burgate School	17	(1st choice) Scouting America USA (1st choice)
Colette	Brockenhurst College	16	Iowa (1st choice)
Indigo	Burgate School	17	Turkey Istanbul (2ndchoice)
Bella	Ringwood School	18	Hungary (1st choice)

It has been quite frantic at times trying to find out responses from camps before the deadlines this month and we were very lucky to secure anything in Spain, and Japan this year as the camp organisers were overloaded with more applications than places available, and the MD Officer had to escalate matters internationally to get any response at all from Canada. Our MD Officer, Philip Goodier has been very helpful and supportive but with one young man from our District receiving 6 rejections it seemed like a lot of hard work to place only 15 young people. It will need to be a much smoother communication and allocation process with countries abroad when larger numbers are involved (MD105 used to send 50+ youths outbound each year and at the moment with the way in which we find it difficult to get quick responses from lions abroad, that would cause problems).

Ringwood & Fordingbridge will be hosting a farewell BBQ on Saturday 14 June 2025 to wish all 10 youths the best for a fantastic adventure abroad this summer.  Anyone from the District who would be interested to meet them or find out more about the program would be very welcome to attend.

Convention Reports Zone Chairs Reports