Sligo Lions Club help for local charities

Sligo Lions club has been active with a number of charity fundraisers for several years.

It is part of Lions International, founded in 1917 in Chicago and is the largest voluntary humanitarian organisation in the world with 1.2 million members active across 40,000 clubs and communities around the world.

Lions are in 185 countries and there are 120 clubs throughout Ireland.

The principal objective of of Lions is to engage in humanitarian and community service projects on behalf of the needy in society as well as fundraising to help raise funds for other local voluntary groups such as North West Hospice, Sligo Cancer Support Centre, Alzheimers Society, Multiple Sclerous, Stroke group, The Heart Foundation, Diabetes Federation and the Council for the Blind.

One of the many successful service projects Lions are involved in is the annual Christmas food appeal which provides practical assistance to needy families and vulnerable individuals in Sligo town and the wider environs.

Pampering weekend retreats are held for family carers annually where Sligo Lions bring up to 80 full time family carers from Friday to Sunday where the receieve a full wellness package to help them cope with their 24/7 caring for their loved ones. Sligo Lions also work closely with Lions Clubs International by supporting large scale humanitarian projects such as Sight First which is a worldwide blindness prevention programme that aims to eliminate preventable and reversible blindness in developing countries. It also support measles eradication and diabetes screening programmes.

Michael Leydon PRO of Sligo paid tribute to everyone who donated to its annual Christmas Appeal and especially all those generous benefactors who contributed so generously to the recent Envelope drop appeal.

Anybody who would be interested in volunteering can attend one of their monthly meetings in the Glasshouse Hotel on the third Tuesday of every month at 8pm - sligolionsclub@gmail.