THE Port MacDonnell and District Lions Club has managed to donate more than $13,500 to community projects in the past financial year despite only retaining 10 members.
Club president Brian Collins OAM said he was proud of the achievement.
“That equals more than $1300 per member, which is pretty spectacular,” he said.
“As a Lions club, we obviously have to send some of our funds raised to our head office, but we try to put as much back into the Port MacDonnell and district community as we can.”
Projects supported this year have included the redevelopment of Allendale East Area School’s toilet blocks.
The governing board for the school highlighted the fact the blocks have not been updated in many years and decided it should be their next priority.
Mr Collins was informed of the project from community members and knew it was something the Lions should support.
“I have had a lot to do with the school during my time living in the district,” he said.
“All of my children have attended school here in addition to grandchildren.
“It is such an important part of our community, so it was fitting that we could donate to the project.”
The club managed to donate an impressive $5000, with the school’s principal Kylie Smith saying it was greatly appreciated.
“We can not thank the club enough for choosing our project to donate the funds to,” she said.
“We have a total of four blocks needing redeveloping and with each block costing upwards of $30,000, the money will go a long way.”
The project will not only benefit local children, but also local trades businesses which will be employed by the Department of Education to complete the job.
Although the club has had a successful fundraising year in 2017/18, the loss of a cattle reserve will impact future donations.
“Unfortunately council has leased our cattle reserve to a private business,” Mr Collins said.
“We had been using it for many years to raise cattle that we would then sell off with proceeds going towards community projects.
“As for the future, we are unsure what we will be putting in place of that project, but we still have our merry-go-round for hire, which is a great little fundraiser itself.”
