NHS Health Fair

Royal Bolton Hospital Health Fair  - 22nd September 2012

The Lion is let loose!

When we were invited to the Royal Bolton Hospital Health Fair, it seemed to our club too good an opportunity to miss, as we could promote our hospital radio service and give out some of our 'message in a bottle' bottles.

We were situated on the Erskine Car Park at the hospital, with the canopy already erected, so we just needed to put up our hospital radio display, our roll up banners and our Bolton Lions Club banner, and then stock up the table with bottles and leaflets and then we were ready.

Our banner can be seen at the back of the stall on the photograph below, as all the canopies had no backs, this proved opportune as it was both a wind break and useful advertising as it could be seen in all it's glory from the stalls on the other side of the road.

We also had brought our newest piece of equipment, the block rocker, which is a large piece of sound equipment, amplifying music from a ipod. This allowed us to entertain the other stalls on the car park, when the music from the speakers of Tower FM let us, with some Frank Sinatra songs from my son's ipod.

One of our Lions, Tom Slattery, had agreed to don the Lions costume (see below) and achieved his first target of getting a picture with Dave Spikey very quickly, and then proceeded to roam around the venue (well he is a Lion), followed by his official photographer (me!). He brought a lot of pleasure to the young children who were there, with most of them having a high five and receiving a lions sticker in return. He also has a few tests done at the Hospital Canopies, and was pronounced in good health! (Unlike John Fairhurst, who seemed to fail them all.)

Back at the stall, we gave out a number of our bottles and make several good contacts, so we were happy with how the day developed.

Packing up time was by 3PM, which we achieved, this was just as well, as they starting taking the canopy down at 3.01PM. For myself and Tom, we were off to Brookfield in Westhoughton to set up for our own Charter later that day, but that is a different story!

Thanks to all Lions who attended and the Royal Bolton Hospital for putting on an excellent event.

Lion John Crompton
12th October 2012

Look at all those lovely bottles.

                                                 A Lion between two thorns?

Canopy - 08/09/12

Bolton Canopy  - 15th September 2012

There was a nice day in September!

I found out yet again, that there is a 7AM on a Saturday Morning, as we had to be at the Canopy at 8AM (not the normal 8.30AM) to unload the van, so that it was removed by 9AM.

Even half an hour earlier doesn't deter the people who always seem to be there before you are even set up, who are waiting to see the bargains as they are unpacked.

Once we were unpacked I was as normal, positioned at the 'front of house' selling our Bric-a-Braque, with a mixture of new pieces, and several old friends from previous canopies. We were also selling books, records & Cd's, clothes, curtains and some paintings, so hopefully something for everyone.

As usual the banter on the stall was first class, helped as usual by the jokes of John Fairhurst. This allied to a steady mix of customers helped the day pass very quickly, and as I noted in the title, it was a very nice day with the sun shining, rather than raining as it seemed to do for the rest of September. Not that you appreciated the sun under the canopy, we just got shade!

We always like to give (imaginary) prizes for Lions selling items, which we think are pretty much unsellable, and the first to get one today was Ray for selling 2 fairly garish flippers (probably useful due to all the rain) and later I also got one, as I sold the most hideous looking witch I think we had ever seen, to someone who wanted it for her shop (hope it doesn't scare the customers away).

The picture above is the front of house in action, although this is from March this year.

It turned out that it was one of our best days of the canopy for money received, so a big thank you to all our customers on the day, and thanks to all Lions who took part.

We will be back for our last Canopy of the year on Friday 19th October.

Lion John Crompton
5th October 2012

Asda Burnden Park - 25/08/12

Asda Burnden Park - 25th August 2012 

It's all about the Planning

You wouldn't have thought it is hard to coordinate a collection in a supermarket, we already had the date confirmed, Jim Wells had the buckets, stickers and roll-ups, and a full sheet of Lions who would be collecting in 2 hour shifts, from 9AM to 5PM. What could go wrong?

Well the first problem was a phone call from Jim Wells at 9.15AM, he was on his own, as the other Lion hadn't turned up, I had asked him to call me if there was a problem as I could not get hold of the Lion to confirm he was still ok to do his bit.

I told Jim I would be there as soon as possible, and arrived at Asda at ten past ten, it was fairly busy at that time and we set to in giving out stickers to the kids in exchange for money, and getting money from anyone else who would be so obliging. We also has plenty of bottles from our message in a bottle scheme to hand out if we could (at no cost to the public).

I was down to do the second shift anyway, and was joined by Babu, so no problems in the period from 11AM to 1PM. I handed over to John Fairhurst and Dipanker for their slot, but asked a pertinent question. Was Steve Pendlebury alright to do his shift later, as John had been speaking to him last night on the phone from the hospital radio studio, and he was in bed at that time. John said that he hadn't mentioned his shift today, so we agreed that I would ring Steve, and if he was not up to it, then I would come back and do the first hour of the 3PM to 5PM shift, and John was available to do the second hour.

I am sure you can guess that Steve was still not well, so arrangements were made with John.

So after a brief break at home and some dinner, I returned to Asda, ready to take over, there was no sign yet of Tony Foster, so I was on my own. John said he could come back earlier if Tony did not turn up. Again I'm sure you can guess that he didn't (not surprisingly as I found out he was still in Sri Lanka!), so John would get back as soon as he could.

Next problem, John phoned to say he had a puncture, so would be back as soon as he could.

He did arrive fairly quickly anyway, but it had gone a little quiet anyway on getting donations since about 3.15PM.

We decided to call it a day at 4.30PM, and pack up all our troubles!

When our collection was counted, it had been a below average day, possibly due to the fact it was still in the holiday period, but it is still money we can use with our various good causes, so thanks to all those people who put money into our buckets on the day.

Thanks to those Lions who collected on the day, and next time you want me to coordinate an event, don't call me I will call you!

Lion John Crompton
5th October 2012

Bromley Cross

Bromley Cross Summer Fayre - 12th May 2012 

Who knew that there is a 7AM on a Saturday Morning? Well that's what time I got up, so that I could pick up Lion John Fairhurst and be at the Last Drop to set up for 8AM, I don't get up that early to go to work!

At least the weather was sunny although there was a strong cold wind, which greeted us as we walked up to the car park behind the last drop to meet Tony Foster and set up our stall.

On setting up, we discovered we had an excellent position, as we were sheltered from the cold wind mentioned above, which blew hard up the main thoroughfare of the last drop.

An immediate problem reared it's ugly head, poor planning by the organising committee, meant there were no bacon butties available, unless you wanted to spend over a tenner on a breakfast in the hotel. This was partially rectified by dinnertime, with the consumption of both pasties and ice cream, and in John Fairhurst's case, anything else that was on offer.

As you can see from the photograph's below, we had taken a variety of games, including the dice game and our key game to entice the punters, but we really needn't have bothered, as yet again the hook a duck game, proved to be a magnet for smaller children, and was in constant use all day.

As you can see below, due to the foresight of Tony Foster, we used blue noses in the pool rather than water, which was just as well, as the slope we were on would have seen all the water disappear towards the last drop.

An excellent day was had by all who attended, and I look forward to next year's event.

Lion John Crompton

24th September 2012

street collection 2012

Bolton Street Collection - 16th June 2012 


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

                                                           Ready for the off.

                                                   A very unmenacing Lion!

Tesco Middlebrook March 2012

Tesco Middlebrook Store Collection - 31st March/1st April 2012

We were kindly given 2 days collecting in store at Tesco Middlebrook over the weekend of 31st March and 1st April 2012, but as you can see from the photographs, collecting money is not the only thing that we did on those days.

You should be able to pick out both our message in a bottle pull-up, and also some of the bottles on the table behind our (cuddly) Lions. These bottles are always taken to our store collections, and given out for free (honest) to people who would benefit from them. For further information please go to the Message in a Bottle page of this website, in the activities section.

The money collection went very well with a total raised of 539.50, which has been calculated at £38.70 per hour on the Saturday and £38.13 on the Sunday.

Thanks go to everyone who swelled our buckets, and to those Lions who attended over the 2 days. We look forward to being invited back to Tesco, Middlebrook.

Lion John Crompton
3rd May 2012

Canopy

Bolton Canopy  - 10th March  2012 (Space Hoppers for Sale)

Before I start with the day itself, I cannot let this opportunity pass without giving some mention of the enormous effort that goes into a) getting all the canopy items to the canopy in the first place, and b) sorting through all the items we receive. With regards to point a) you can see from the photo at the side the large van we hired and all the trestle tables we used on the day. The van was completely full before the photo was taken, with books, clothes, records, pictures and assorted bric-a-brac, which all had to be sorted, washed and priced up once received, in advance of the day.

Thanks to those Lion members who help with this (you know who you are), it is a monumental effort.

Moving onto the day itself, the fact that everything is sorted and priced, means that the 'front of house' - see the picture to the right, can bring their advanced sales techniques to the fore!!! Seriously, it is much easier when negotiating with the customer when you have a price as a starting point, particularly if you are not sure what the item is!

Whilst the day was cold (not unusual as it was March) and the customers slightly thin on the ground, there were still plenty of opportunity for sales to be made and for bargains to be purchased.

One lady was looking for candle holders for her daughter's wedding, as she had been given an exhorbitant figure to hire them. She gladly purchase half a dozen of these from our stall, and was intending to give them all back to charity after the wedding, that's what I call the 'Circle of Life'.

I also made a purchase on the day, which explains the title of this piece, in the shape of a space hopper stress ball, which cost only £1 and resides on my desk at work, I think it has already paid for itself!

Thanks to all those Lions taking part, and the people of Bolton for buying our wares.

Lion John Crompton
24th April 2012