Lions cakes ready for Christmas

North Lakes Lions Club are getting ready to sell their famous Christmas cakes as they count down to the end of the year and reflect on what has been a busy few months.

Here’s Lion Chris Doyle column …

Can you believe it’s November already? Where has 2022 gone? In the face of much adversity and great change, we’re moving forward again with most of us seeing a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Realistically, we’re not out of the woods just yet, with fuel, food, mortgages and just about everything we use every day, costing considerably more. For some of us it’s hard to project a positive spin under the circumstances, though I can tell you The North Lakes Lions Club members are, and have been for years, making a real difference to our community, and will continue.

In a few short weeks, we’ll be entering into the festive season for this year and hopefully we’ll all come through safely and welcome the new year with open arms, minds and hearts.

Guest Speakers

The monthly invitation of local businesspeople to join us as guest speakers in their fields of expertise, has been extremely well received again this year. I want to highlight three standouts who came along.

August: Chairman of the Board of Dolphins Leagues Club, Bob Jones gave us fantastic insight into the big picture of the club. Bob spoke of the huge plans for the future, including the development of junior players and being recognised as a new team in the NRL, and how important that is for the area.

September: Our members were addressed by local 16-year-old Boxer Aaron Grealey, who settled here in North Lakes five years ago with his parents from the UK. He’s won two Queensland State Championships, two Golden Glove National Championships, and was recently awarded best National youth male boxer. Aaron qualified to represent Australia in Spain this month at the World Youth Boxing Championships and was elected team captain. He is highly motivated, extremely fit and a very humble young man who realises that doing well in Spain is his pathway to the 2024 Olympics. Go Aaron.

October: We enjoyed an enlightening visit from Local Poet Mick Martin. Mick is extremely busy, judging poetry competitions, playing harmonica in the local Band “The 3 Legged Onion”, reciting as a featured artist at many events all over Queensland, in addition to working with Drought Angels and the farmer suicide prevention charity Are You Bogged Mate? Mick also arranges near new kitchens for farmers from luxury units and homes. Instead of being torn out and dumped as scrap, they are removed intact, and transported then reinstalled by a team of tradies in farmers’. Mick describes himself as just a bloke who’s in a position to give back to people, some of the kindness he’s been shown throughout his life.

Lions lending a helping hand 

Members of our club are still helping the chaplain at North Lakes State College, Chappy Brandon, to provide breakfast for Prep-Year 6 students on a Wednesday and Year 7-9 on a Friday. This is another sterling initiative brought to our club by Lion Greg Milne, who also organises the lawn mowing for people who are struggling with maintenance in North Lakes.

The Lions Christmas Cakes

This year Lion Glenda Beaulieu has arranged a roster of our members to be selling our Lions Christmas Cakes both 1kg and 1.5kg as well as Lions Christmas Puddings from Monday, November 14 to Friday, November 19 at a stand outside Chemist Warehouse at Westfield North Lakes from 9am-3pm. The cakes and puddings are sought after and of the highest quality, so please come and grab yours while they last.

Become a member

You can join the North Lakes Lions Club by phoning our membership officer Lion Greg on 0422 422 710. Greg will answer any initial questions and invite you to a dinner meeting. Joining our club, you’ll instantly experience our “many hands make light work-ethic”. New residents can make friends, integrate into our community, and help others with their individual skillset.