Peterborough Lions were happy to be amongst several charities supporting the 5th annual Eye Open Spaces Fun Day, at Eye Community Centre, in - you guessed it by now - Eye. The Fun Day was opened by local MP Stuart Jackson, and it was nice to see a lot of people brave the rather damp weather forecast for what actually turned out to be a dry (if overcast) day. Peterborough Lions had several members present, allowing us to run several fundraisers, including Feed The Lions, a bric-a-brac stall, selling the ever popular punch balls, and our favourite Lions Cage.

Peterborough Lion President Erica Constable was pleased to induct her second new member to the club in almost as many days: Cllr David Over, Mayor of Peterborough. Cllr David's enthusiasm will be a great asset to the club and to the City of Peterborough. As a small cog in the giant wheel that is the largest service organisation in the world, Peterborough Lions are always proud to welcome the current mayor as an honorary Lion and Cllr David Over will be well received by the club and Lions International alike. In other news, Lion Mark Rogers, the club webmaster, showed off some new features of our Lions' Share website, if you haven't tried it yet check it out as it can raise money for the club without costing you a penny! Club Secretary Lion David Pope received a Certificate of Excellence from the International President, and Lion Erica announced that her project for her presidential year will be Peterborough Association for the Blind - all in all a productive and entertaining start to Erica's year as president.

Peterborough Lions are pleased to have the proprietor of Maharanis Restaurant in Hampton, Farooq Mohammed, as our latest member. Mr Farooq has been a supporter of Peterborough Lions for some time and has made substantial contributions to the club's fundraising efforts, for causes as diverse as the club's well used community minibus to the Haiyan Typhoon disaster. As well as being a supporter of Peterborough Lions for over five years, Mr Farooq also does a lot of work in the community, for example providing the funding to allow a local school to offer breakfast for their pupils through the "Magic Breakfast" scheme. It therefore gave several club members the perfect opportunity to visit Maharanis for a great meal and and for Lion President Erica Constable to present Mr Farooq with his membership certificate and pin.

Peterborough Lions were one of a number of Lions Clubs from Lions District 105EA (UK, East Anglia) who have provided sponsorship to children in Phuket since shortly after the Tsunami on 26th December 2004. The aim was to help the children come to terms with lost ones and to develop their own characters.  During this time the Phuket Sunshine Village was built. When the sponsorship started those clubs were supporting 16 children and the majority have now grown up and have jobs and better lives. During this period Peterborough Lions have supported two girls and one boy, one of whom, Supattra, remains at the village whilst the other two having received education at the village have moved on with their lives and now have jobs. Phuket Sunshine Village now has local volunteers who concentrate on the fundraising required to support children at the village, and with that in mind the directors of the project now feel that, as there are many different needs throughout the world, that the help can now cease so that the various Lions Clubs can concentrate on new projects. As an expression of their gratitude they sent Peterborough Lions the attached certificate of appreciation. Peterborough Lions are proud to have been able to provide support in the aftermath of the terrible events that devastated the area nearly ten years ago, and in particular to have been able to continue that support long after the events had ceased to be of interest to the news channels - work that would not have been possible without the support of the people of Peterborough.

A huge thank you to everyone who bought our 2013 quiz - a huge success and a credit to everyone who took part. We had 740 completed quiz sheets returned to us, six of which were 100% correct and a further 19 achieving 99/100. The results of the draw were:

1st Prize – D Blundell, Moulton. 2nd Prize – R Dawson, Peterborough. 3rd Prize – W Parsh, Ramsey. 4th Prize – M Bielby, Leeds. 5th Prize – C Pairman, Falkirk. 6th Prize – B Dawson, Peterborough. 7th Prize – D Mundin, Northampton. 8th Prize – J Heath-Brown, Market Deeping. 9th Prize – J Edwards, Brighton. 10th Prize – C Roper, Northumberland.

As always it's great to see winners from outside Peterborough - thank you to everyone who returned entries and kept our markers busy! If you didn't return your quiz and want to mark your own, or (and this probably applies to most of us) just want to find the answers to the questions you couldn't answer, the answers are available to download here: Peterborough Lions Quiz 2013 Answers (Adobe PDF format) So that's it for the 2013 quiz! Take the next six months off to relax and prepare yourself for the 2014 quiz, available from September.

We've had hundreds of completed quizes returned to us this year - thank you to everyone who bought a quiz leaflet for your support! The question now is how many of those completed quizes have the correct answers, and who will win the prizes? Marking is underway, and the answer list is growing as we discover the perfectly valid answers that people have come up with that we'd not thought of ourselves... As long as the answer is valid (on which the quiz organisers decision is final, of-course!) we will accept alternative answers so don't worry if your four letter answer to "small stream" is different from ours! Once the quizes have been marked and a final set of acceptable answers has been reached, we will have a draw for the winners and the prizes (and answer sheets) will be winging their way out to people. The draw will take place at the club's February business meeting on Tuesday 11th Feb. For anyone who sent us a stamped envelope for an answer sheet, we expect these to be posted out on Thursday 13th Feb so you should receive it shortly afterwards. If you missed the quiz this year, it is still available to buy online although of-course it's now too late to enter to win a prize. It is however still great fun and the £1.50 donation to charity will be put to great use.

In December Peterborough Lions Club members took time out to raise finds desperately needed for the Typhoon Haiyan disaster. Most of the funds raised by Peterborough Lions Club are spent on charitable and community causes within the Peterborough area, but a small proportion is held back to support International projects through the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) which is able to direct money raised around the world through Lions Clubs located in disaster areas, ensuring that it is put to good use by local Lions. The Lions Club Charity Dinner was held at Maharani’s Restaurant in Hampton Hargate (by kind permission of Mr M Farooq) and attended by local Lions and their partners and friends (including honorary Peterborough Lion the Mayor of Peterborough, Cllr June Stokes). On this occasion the sole aim was to raise money to help people affected by the super typhoon Haiyan, and through it and other fundraising efforts Peterborough Lions were able to present a cheque for £1,000 to the UK Lions' Haiyan Appeal, where it will be used to provide essential water filtration kits. UK Lions combined have pledged £200,000 to this cause, sufficient to purchase 1,000 filtration kits. Lions around the world have contributed $500,000 including funds raised by the Orient and South East Asia Lions and those contributed via LCIF. For more information about Lions, including donations to the Haiyan appeal or joing Peterborough Lions, please contact us.

Peterborough Lions prides itself on working hard within the local community, and that is where the vast majority of our fundraising is directed. However, Peterborough Lions is only one of the many many Lions clubs around the world, and sometimes events outside our community - and indeed outside the UK - have a major impact that require that Lions from around the world to work together. The recent Super Typhoon Haiyan is one such even, affecting many thousands in the Philippines. Peterborough Lions is a proud supporter of LCIF - Lions Clubs International Foundation - which amongst other things coordinates support from Lions around the world at times like these. LCIF has approved US$130,000 from the LCIF Disaster Relief Fund, to which the the Lions of the Orient and South East Asia have added US$370,000. LCIF does not simply send money overseas and hope for the best. Working with local Lions, LCIF is able to ensure that the hard raised funds - itself hard earned by those who donated them - deliver genuine benefits where they are desperately needed. If you would like to make a donation, you can do so via our BT Donate page. To ensure that it is used specifically to support LCIF's Disaster Relief Fund, please make the donation then contact us to let us know how you would like the donation to be used. Thank you.

The Mayor of Peterborough (and Peterborough Lion) Cllr June Stokes visited the Lions' stall in Tesco, Werrington on Saturday 14th September to get one of this year's Peterborough Lions Quiz leaflets. (Of-course she could have bought one online but that wouldn't have made for such a good photo opportunity!) The quiz has been one of our main fundraising activities for over 20 years (the club itself being over 40 years old, over which time it has collected and distributed half a million pounds to local charitable causes). Additionally, the quiz has helped several local charities and other voluntary groups raise over £50,000 by selling them on a 50/50 basis through charity shops, church halls, scouting venues, etc. As Mayor of Peterborough, “Lion June” is not able to attend many Lions' meetings or events but is keen to promote our efforts to raise funds, with the focus this year on a bladder scanner for Peterborough Hospital and amenities for Phoenix Special Needs School, alongside a myriad of smaller commitments, and Peterborough Lions Club is proud to have the current mayor as one of our members. The latest Lions Quiz entitled “Adam’s Ale” is on sale priced £1.50. Peterborough Lions Club thanks Tesco for their invitation, and also both Sainsbury and both Morrison supermarkets where quiz leaflet sales have or will take place. Sales venues will operate at Morrisons Lincoln Road (4th-6th October), Morrisons Cardea Stanground (19th-20th October) and Sainsbury Oxney Road (24th November). After that, Santa and his elves will be about with the annual Christmas Carol Float, where quiz leaflets are always available to anyone who asks (ideal for inserting into Christmas cards!)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="112"] Peterborough Lions Quiz 2013 "Adam's Ale"[/caption] For the first time ever, our Quiz is available to buy online! If you don't get chance to come and see us to buy one in person - or you bought one already but want more - you can now buy them directly from this website. The quiz costs £1.50 each, and as well as giving you several hours of entertainment and helping us raise funds for great causes around Peterborough and further afield, you also stand he chance of winning up to £100 in prize money! Simply click the Store link in the menu, and buy as many as you like for a fixed £1 delivery and handling charge. Payments (by credit or debit card) are taken on our behalf by PayPal so you can be sure your card details are safe.