Golden Grove Lions Club

Ms LUETHEN (King) (15:45): I rise on behalf of the people living in King to speak about the Golden Grove Lions annual handover. As a long-serving Golden Grove Lion, it is a pleasure to be able to acknowledge the achievement of the Lions. I would like to acknowledge the attendees at the handover, including the member for Makin, Tony Zappia; district governor Tony Pederick OAM and his wife, Lion Marilyn; past district governor Meg Butler; past zone chairperson and current GMT chairperson, Peter Korndorfer; Lions partners; and the Golden Grove Lions members, of course.

Our outstanding president, Annette Slater, who was re-elected as president for the coming year, is a King local community member. She paid tribute to our members and our local board of directors for their absolutely outstanding service. President Annette remarked on the positive relationships that exist in our Golden Grove Lions Club, which she said made it a pleasure to be a leader.

The Lions ethics and purposes are practised and guide the Lions' interactions. One of these purposes is to be careful with criticism and liberal with praise, and to build and not destroy—an absolutely admirable objective. Recently, the Lions Club International President, Dr Jung-Yul Choi, informed us that the Lions vision to improve the lives of at least 200 million people per year has been achieved in the last 12 months. That is such a credit to all Lions members in over 200 countries worldwide.

At a local level, the Golden Grove Lions Club's activities have included the annual Clean Up Australia Day, Fred's Van barbecues to feed the homeless, reading glasses collection and distribution, hearing dogs training, apple picking for Foodbank, Youth of the Year, supporting bushfire relief and a generous contribution towards a new caravan for Camp Quality. The pandemic impacted the local fundraising for Lions, but we are back on the barbecue at Bunnings next Saturday.

We were lucky enough to attract Ann and Richard as new members in the past year and Sajin as a transferee. They have all brought a breath of enthusiasm and new ideas to the group. Sadly, one of our members, Harry Drury, passed away early this year. His generosity in allowing us to pick apples from his orchard for Foodbank each year will be long remembered, as well as his outstanding commitment to his local community.

An incredibly successful activity in the past 12 months was the provision of a hearing dog, Merlin, to Adrienne Williams, under the leadership of Lion Warren, which has made such a positive difference to Adrienne's life. Adrienne shared her experience with us and made us laugh and feel very good about this activity. Dogs and follow-up support are provided free of charge by Lions. The overall cost is estimated at approximately $30,000 per dog. This is a wonderful example of Lions service.

The Golden Grove Lions continue to be active in coordinating large volume skin cancer screenings for the local community, which has been led by Lion Graeme, and feedback has indicated that it is very probable that this screening could have helped to save some lives, which is so exciting for the Lions.

Lions' involvement by serving food at Fred's Van is a humbling experience. We resumed this service on Sunday 6 September after a COVID break and provided hot meals for many local people in Salisbury. As president Annette said, it is impossible to go home afterwards without feeling lucky about one's own circumstances in life, and more importantly, feeling humbled by helping someone else in need.

Lions food service at Turramurra evacuation centre during the December and January fires was a similar experience. We thanked and acknowledged Lions Peter and Warren for organising the Gumeracha Show and Shine, which has been running for eight years. This was a fundraiser for Camp Quality.

In the past 12 months, Golden Grove Lions fundraising activities have supported many organisations and individuals. In total, The Golden Grove Lions Club donated $15,862. The Golden Grove Lions celebrated its 30^th anniversary in October 2019 and all of our members fondly reflected on our service to the community and the great benefit of enjoying fellowship together.