Northwood Lions Club was formed in 1987 at the instigation of Ruislip Lions Club who saw the opportunity to form a new club in Northwood to serve the local community. We had 21 members on formation drawn from all walks of life but in the beginning we had no ladies as members although we did have our wives and partners full support in everything we did in the community. Now the club has more ladies than men.
Our early activities included taking various fund raising stalls to various other Lions Clubs fetes to build up our Charity Account, running Car Boot sales in Northwood Station Car Park and developing links with the elderly and housebound through Social Services.
Lion Clubs are an International organisation and, recognising this, in 1990 Northwood Lions twinned with a Lions Club in South West Germany - Birkenfeld. Members of the club have travelled to Birkenfeld many times and similarly our colleagues from Germany have travelled over to spend time with us which gives us the opportunity to not only socialise with our fellow Lions members but also share ideas as well as no two Lions Clubs operate in the same way.
As with most Lions Clubs, after the initial enthusiasm members start to leave and Northwood was no different. We dropped to as low as 8 members by 1991, but with our strong social programme and a ‘not too taxing’ activities programme we managed to stabilise and now we have 20 members.
Over the years, certain activities have become annual events – our Fish and Chip Supper for the elderly and housebound which is held in November each Year. In 2000 our District organisation ran a very successful Senior Citizens party for over 1000 people – we took a party of people to the first one in 2000 and have been doing so every year since. But the youngsters are not forgotten. In 1997 the District organised a Kidz Day at Thorpe Park and brought together 2500 disabled and disadvantaged children from all over London for a day out at the Lions expense. We were there again and still are six years later; the only difference is that the venue is now Chessington World of Adventure.
1999 also saw the resurgence of a fun day for the people of Northwood held in the Northwood area – to be precise in the area of Northwood Football Club on August bank Holiday Monday. This event has grown year on year and is now our major Fundraising activity and has enabled us to donate thousands of pounds to local charities. Planning for the event starts in January each year and it has now got so big, that our ‘daughter’ club, Denham Lions Club, whom we formed in 2001, are partners with us in planning and managing the event. Woe betide any club member who is not around on August Bank Holiday Monday.
Lion Clubs are an International organisation and, recognising this, in 1990 Northwood Lions twinned with a Lions Club in South West Germany - Birkenfeld. Members of the club have travelled to Birkenfeld many times and similarly our colleagues from Germany have travelled over to spend time with us which gives us the opportunity to not only socialise with our fellow Lions members but also share ideas as well as no two Lions Clubs operate in the same way.
And so to the present. We now are now 20 members but in order to give an even better service to the community we need more members. If you are service minded, enjoy doing things for others and with others, then maybe you may wish to consider joining our organisation. We meet at Haste Hill Golf Club at 20.00 on the 1st and 3rd Wednesday of each month – the precise dates have been listed for the remainder of the year on the Events calendar part of this website. If you are interested, then get in touch with Andrew he will be delighted to tell you more about Lions and invite you, if you are interested, to one of our future meetings. Alternatively, if you see us out and about – perhaps at one of our regular Tin Shakes at Waitrose – come and talk to any of us, we would be delighted to talk to you.