The last activity of my Presidential Year, was the street collection in Bolton, which we do at the same time of year, every year. So it was up at 8AM with the wonderful prospect of some inclement British weather to look forward to!
Arriving outside WH Smith at bang on 9AM (the town hall clock had just finished chiming), there were already 4 other Lions and a Lion's wife already assembled, this soon became the magnificent seven and a wife! After having our picture taken (see below), we set off to various locations in Bolton to entice people into putting money in our buckets, well when I say set off, that is not completely true in my case, as I stayed where I was outside WH Smith, as the liaison point for the morning.
To say it was slow going at first is an understatement, with my first donation not arriving until 9.48AM! I was soon cheered up, as the third donation was a ten pound note! A very nice gentleman gave me the tenner saying 'they say we don't need as much money', and if he ever reads this blog, please accept my sincere thanks, it kept me going through the morning!
I would have to say that the collection which finished at 1PM did drag on a bit, large period of inactivity would be ideal for real Lions, but for humans can get a bit boring! At least I had plenty of interesting things to watch on the town hall square, with many cars on show, as it was the Le Mans Motorsport Weekend, with cars also in the Market Place and on Churchgate. There was also interest from the Peregrine Falcons at the top of the Town Hall, with some very loud noises being heard at what I presume must have been feeding time.
When we reconvened at the end of the shift, we were all pretty much agreed that it has been a little quiet but as always still worthwhile doing. It was therefore a very pleasant surprise that the amount raised was over £260, and amounted to a record since I started keeping figures in 2005.
Part of the reason was that one of our Lions spent the morning dressed in a Lion costume (see below), and his bucket had almost £60 in it!
Thanks to all the Lions who gave up their time, and the people of Bolton who gave their money.
Lion John Crompton
19th June 2012
A very unmenacing Lion!
