Last Wednesday, during the Honorary Lions evening
Wednesday evening, at Sainte-Colombe high school, members of the Sens Lions Club gathered for their traditional Honorary Lions evening. The opportunity to look back at the club’s 15 biggest actions of last year and all the aid allocated that followed. This evening, open to all, is a convivial moment between club members, advertisers, recipients and friends. Interview with Denis Guido, club treasurer.
Denis Guido, what is the Lions Club association?
Lions Club International is a service organization founded in 1917 by Melvin Jones, a Chicago businessman. The main goal of the organization is to bring together community-minded businessmen and women to promote good works and humanitarian actions around the world. Today, Lions Club International is one of the largest service organizations in the world, with more than 1.4 million members in more than 200 countries. The organization continues to focus on initiatives such as combating blindness, disaster relief, health promotion and supporting young people and the elderly.
How is the Lions Club in Sens structured?
The Sens Lions Club today has 25 members under the presidency of Jean-Luc Barde. We are not an elitist service club, I want to make that clear. The club lives thanks to our contributions. “One euro collected is one euro redistributed”. Last year we proposed around thirty actions which made it possible to raise the sum of 30,000 euros. Like all Lions clubs, the Sens club focuses on supporting people in need, improving the quality of life, and promoting peace and international understanding.
What actions did you take last year and which are repeated from year to year?
We organize several annual events, such as:
- The chocolate salon at Easter
- The sale of yellow roses to benefit research against Alzheimer’s disease in September
- Chefs’ soup in front of the covered market in November
- The diabetes screening operation in May
- Vision and hearing screening days in May and June
- The Oyster dinner in February
Without forgetting our advertising brochure. This list is not exhaustive.
For which actions were the 30,000 euros of profits from your actions last year allocated?
The funds were used to:
- Purchase 10 tablets with translation software to help communication between hospital staff and patients, in collaboration with VMEH.
- Fund two Karaoke music terminals for the Alzheimer’s unit of EPADH Notre Dame de la Providence.
- Provide a ball launcher for the Maillot tennis club for disabled sports players.
- Contribute 1000 euros to Orlann Ombissa’s participation in the 2024 Olympics.
- Participate in the financing of a playground for the Villeneuve-sur-Yonne hospital, in collaboration with the Sens hospital.
- Reward Elisa Chateauroux, winner of the speech competition, with a bonus of 500 euros.
All our donations come from specific requests.
The young high school student Elisa Chateauroux received a bonus of 500 euros from the service club.
The Lions Club’s next action?
These are the yellow roses in September. The club buys yellow roses which we resell for 3 euros each to benefit Alzheimer’s research. This action allows you to free up around 3,000 euros in one day. It is jointly carried out with the Cœur de Ville de Sens merchants’ association, which promotes it to its members. We are present at the covered market, in Leclerc, Auchan and Carrefour.
This Honorary Lions evening was an opportunity to celebrate past successes and look forward to new challenges for the Sens Lions Club, always at the service of others.
Comments collected by Nathalie CHABOTEAU
