Like so many organizations, the Moultonborough Lions Club has been affected by the Pandemic. Since March we only met three times in person – all the rest of the decisions about activities and donations have been handled over Zoom. But we are a service organization and we did not want to give up any more of our service activities than we had to because of Covid regulations.
Therefore, we Lions needed to get creative about our service projects. Following the lead of some Clubs in the southern part of the state, we decided to collect empty pill bottles and send them to Matthew 25: Ministries in Cincinnati, Ohio. Once collected these pill bottles are included in shipments of medical supplies to developing countries (where often pills are just given in the patient’s hand) and for shredding and recycling. The program fulfills the dual needs of improving medical care and caring for our environments. Friends and neighbors of Lions have been saving their empty pill bottles and giving them to Lions. There is a collection box at both Moultonborough Academy and Moultonborough Central School, and Rev. Dr. Cathryn Turrentine has graciously provided a basket for pill bottle collection at the Center Harbor Congregational Church which has already been emptied several times. This is an ongoing project and we have already sent over 125 empty pill containers in the first box.
Since we could not have our Cookies and Caroling this December, we decided to try to spread a little Christmas cheer to the residents of three nursing homes in the area: Golden View, Forest View, and Mountain View. Several Lions personalized 245 Christmas cards to be given to the individuals, and some of the cards included some Christmas confetti for an added surprise.
And speaking of Christmas, the Moultonborough Lions also continued their past Christmas practice of donating money to each of the four towns we serve: Moultonborough, Center Harbor, Sandwich and Tuftonboro. These funds are used by each town to provide clothing, toys, gift cards, food and fuel gift certificates to those in need.
And rather than ring the Salvation Army Red Kettle bell, we sent a check to the Laconia Salvation Army in an amount that was more than we raised last year.
We also held the drawing for the Raffle winner at the virtual Moultonborough Central School on the PTA’s FaceBook page.
The winning ticket was drawn by a PTA member. And the $5,000 prize went to Murray Nickerson, a Moultonborough resident. Coincidentally, Murray’s father was King Lion of the Moultonborough Lions Club quite a long time ago.
And last, but not least, we had been buying and bringing toys to the CHAD wing at Dartmouth, but this year, because of the virus, no one was allowed in the hospital. So we did our shopping online and that Playopolis site and they delivered the over – $500 worth of toys and other items.
