Newcastle Lions thrilled with public support for spectacles project

In his address to Newcastle Lion  members at their first meeting on  Tuesday, Lion President  John  McDonagh said having helped to pack glasses dispatched to  France , that this was a wonderful example of the  Circular  Economy in action where we try to minimise waste, in this case spectacles. John also thanked the people of  Clough and  Newcastle for their fantastic financial support over the  Christmas period. As a result of this the Lions are now distributing the money raised by making donations to various groups.

On  Monday  John met up with four other Lion members to sort and pack glasses and cases. This would not have been possible with out the generosity of  Newcastle shops including  Saltrock, Regatta and  Essence who provided  strong boxes. As a result of recent spectacle collections just under  2,000 pairs of glasses and a large number of  spectacle cases were dispatched.

The glasses come from various location where collection bins are available, including our library,  GPs, and the opticians McGloins, Judith  Long Clough  Health  Centre and  Specs- Express and Eye  World  Kennedy  Centre  Belfast ,as well as the four  Belfast  City  Council recycling  centres. Having dispatched the glasses to  Lions  Medico France, the glasses are sorted and cleaned. Lion  Clubs all over the world then request these to help people in need. 

Newcastle Lion members,  Irene  Martin, President  John  Mc Donagh, Frank  McGreevy and  Terry  O'Reilly sort and pack glasses.

Seven large boxes containing  nearly  2,000 pairs of glasses bound for France.

Newcastle Lions Club December Fundraising

Newcastle Lions Club would like to thank all those who supported their fund-raising efforts during December. Collections outside Eurospar Castlewellan Road, Tesco supermarket and Barbican Dundrum Road Newcastle and Eurospar Clough were all very well supported and along with the raffles for hampers and bottles of wine at the Christmas Dinner Dances in the Burrendale Hotel the amazing sum of over £3000 was raised from all these events. 

In addition thanks to the Quiz night held at the Harbour House Inn Newcastle on Friday 20th December over £475 was raised for Mourne Grange in Kilkeel.

The club would like to thank Tesco and Lidl for their contributions to the hampers and Eurospar Newcastle and Clough, Tesco , Barbican, Burrendale Hotel and the Harbour House Inn for allowing them to use their premises for the fund raising efforts. It is hoped that presentation of cheques to charities including Mourne Mountain Rescue and Mourne Grange can take place shortly.

Lions Club President John McDonagh outside Eurospar in Clough.

Marion Mcgreevy , 1st District Grosvenor Lions Club Ireland and her husband Lions Club Member, Frank McGreevy outside the SuperValu.

Lions Club members Virginia Hughes and Chris Davies outside Tesco

Newcastle Lions Celebrate 40 years

In 1984 Downpatrick Lions club began looking into the possibility of sponsoring a new Lions Club in Newcastle and on 7th December 1984 Newcastle Lions Club were formed.   At their monthly meeting on Tuesday 10th December 2024 the club celebrated the occasion with birthday cake baked by the club treasurer Virginia Hughes. Two of the original members are still members of the club Peter May and Michael Niblett. Unfortunately Michael was not present but Peter was able to blow out the celebratory candle and then the members had mince pies, chocolates and birthday cake before getting their photo taken on the Christmas sleigh at their meeting venue the Burrendale Hotel Newcastle.

The club will have a special event in July 2025 with members of The Lions Club Ireland team joining in to mark this special achievement and celebrate the service our club provides. Some of the projects that they have been involved in include providing carbon monoxide alarms to local senior citizens following the deaths of  Nan & Francie  O'Reilly,  children projects, including an environmental competition, school quiz and on two occasions, produced calendars from the artwork of children on the theme Don’t Talk To A Stranger. Other events included golf events at Royal County Down, collecting toiletries to be sent to Bosnia and also Kosovo, helping Down District Council with the centenary celebrations of the 1910 flight of Harry Ferguson by getting 10 post primary schools to make a 5 minute film or a talking newspaper on Harry's life with the winning team from  St.Malachy's getting 5 minutes ride in a helicopter over Newcastle.

The most recent successful projects have been fundraising and buying 10 defibrillators and managing and maintaining these and sending 23,000 pairs of spectacles to people in need. Of course the generosity of the local community and businesses have helped the Lions achieve so much in the last 40 years.

Vice District Governor Marion McGreevy, Peter May one of the founding members and Newcastle Lions President John McDonagh.

Newcastle Lions members with Charter Club Treasurer, Peter May and Club President , John McDonagh sitting in the sleigh.