Trees of Light
The principal fundraiser was Trees of Light which once again formed the centrepiece of the town’s wonderful Christmas lights on the front of the town hall. Started by the club in 1999, the lights are sponsored in celebration or remembrance of a loved one or event; charities benefitting this year are Plymouth and Cornwall Cancer Fund, St Luke’s Hospice and Children’s Hospice South West. As ever, the club’s thanks go to those organisations that have helped with the trees: South West Lakes Trust for donating them, the town council works team for their erection and decoration, Tavistock Times Gazette for including the sponsorship form and sponsor names, Links magazines for including the sponsorship form, and Simon and Lucie Luke of Morris Bros. (Tavistock) Ltd who cover the administrative costs so all donations go to the nominated charities.
With near perfect weather for Dickensian Evening, the club had its most successful evening ever, selling out completely of hot dogs and burgers and making a profit of around £1,700. The club has an excellent reputation for great quality food, all thanks to Palmers Butchers and the club’s chefs! The club ran its third Christmas postal delivery service for the Tavistock and Whitchurch area; with 10 collecting boxes, around 3,000 cards were posted bearing the Lions’ stamp which club members delivered in two tranches in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. The club was grateful to all outlets who hosted the boxes, Whitchurch Post Office being the most popular where around a third of the cards were posted.
In 2018, Santa asked Tavistock Lions if they would accompany him on his sleigh as he toured the local primary and junior schools distributing presents which he cheekily asked the club to pay for! The club readily agreed and it proved to be a great success with both pupils and teachers, so much so that the tour was repeated in 2019. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the old man was in isolation and unable to visit in 2020, but the Santa tour has resumed for the last two years much to everyone's delight! The Lions had an allocation of £1,000 to spend on presents for the eight schools, thanks to a donation from Tavistock Athletic Club, so just before the end of term, the sleigh bearing Santa set off with help from the Lion's elves, to deliver presents to the schools in the local area. The choice of presents, which had been left to the teachers and pupils, included a wide variety of items such as space hoppers and eco-friendly games!
So after a very busy period, the Lions go into hibernation and will probably appear again to help celebrate the coronation of our new monarch. So until then, details about the club can be found at www.tavistocklions.org.uk, on its Facebook page or by calling 0345 8334807.