Alnwick Lions Club is a member of Lions Club International, the largest voluntary service organisation in the world.

Lions International started in Chicago in 1917 with the object of helping the more needy members of society and has since grown into an international organisation of 1.4million members with clubs in 193 countries of the world.

The motto of the Lions is “We Serve” and that is what they do in all corners of the world, be it small, individual ways of assistance or helping in major disasters such as the South East Asian Tsunami disaster at the end of 2004.

Alnwick Lions Club was chartered in May 1975 and still has two of its original members in the club, Lions Len Reece and Adrian Ions.

Since inception, Alnwick Lions have been at the heart of the community and been involved with many stunts, ideas and events to raise money for worthy causes, such as selling teddy bears, tombollas, fetes, roll-a-dice, wheel of fortune, etc etc. Some of the more memorable money-raising events include the Mile of Bras collection, which raised £4,000 for Macmillan Cancer Relief Ward at Alnwick Hospital, Family Fun Days in Hulne Park.

Through this and their many fund raising ideas Alnwick Lions have been able to distribute in the region of £18,000 per year to various causes. Some examples are £4,000 to Alnwick Hospice; £1,000 to an osteoporosis mobile scanner appeal; £3,000 to a Zambian refugee camps; wheelchairs for Alnwick Garden; £1,000 to Alnwick Stroke Club; £1,000 to Alnwick Hospital “Comet” fund; plus many donations to Scouts, Guides, football clubs, Alnwick Christmas Lights, Hillcrest Maternity Hospital, Alnwick Music Festival, Northumbrian Air Ambulance, Northumberland Mountain Rescue Team, school choirs, public choirs, lifeboats, etc etc.

We made an intitial donation of £3,500 to the South East Asia Tsunami appeal and intend to continue to support those affected by the tragedy to help the communities in the coming year. We are also intending to use some of the funds from the Food Festival to add to the initial £1,000 we donated to the osteoporosis mobile scanner appeal for people living in rural Northumberland.

Many of our donations are anonymously issued to people in Alnwick District but they would not be possible without the continued support of the people of this area donating or purchasing second-hand books, jigsaws, CDs, videos etc at our shop in Bondgate Within, or supporting us at our many and varied events. We thank you for your support.