The City of Adelaide Lions Club has won international recognition for its pioneering community work through its Hear Me Roar! project.
The City of Adelaide club has been awarded the annual MD201 Kindness Matters Service Award which challenges Lions and Leos to develop exceptionally innovative and creative service projects with the aim of leaving a positive impact in their communities.
“The Hear Me Roar! Project was founded by our club in 2016 Hear Me Roar project coordinator Petrea Stacey said.
“It started by creating care packs and making multi-purpose heart shaped cushions for both adult and child patients in hospitals.
“It quickly grew to include making port pillows (small rectangular cushions that attach to seat belts to provide cushioning to the chest and/or abdominal area for people with port/incision/surgical/trauma sites),” Petrea said proudly.
“We added personality cushions (round cushions with different faces) for children in hospital going through cancer treatment or craniofacial surgeries.
“Our cushions were then also made for disadvantaged and vulnerable youth (0-18years) in various organisations and foster care.
“The project has expanded to include making scrunchies, baby bibs and more for these children also.”
In 2018, the project started another initiative, sorting and labelling children’s books, and packing them into age-appropriate book bags for distribution.
“Youth literacy is a big problem and every child should have access to books. So, these book bags are distributed to disadvantaged and vulnerable youth across South Australia,” Petrea said.
“Up until now, the project has supported over 7700 individuals across SA.”
Petrea said the project has developed into a true Lions team effort with at least six other clubs giving their support, including the Adelaide Hellenic Lions Club.
“This project brings Lions, families and friends together to work together in a social environment while being hands on, and making a difference to so many in the community,” Petrea said.
“The project is unique in that it doesn’t focus on one group or one initiative, and the support provided to the community is widespread.
“Since the project started, we have delivered 850 care packs, 1144 adult cushions, 1828 kids cushions, 840 port pillows, 2074 bags of books (four books in each), and 1011 misc. items (such as bibs, scrunchies, dressing gowns, sanitary items etc.), with hundreds more currently being made and/or about to be delivered,” she added.
“The quality and scope of the projects submitted was amazing, and I thank those Districts who submitted entries,” Delwyn Seebeck, Council Chairperson Multiple District 201, said.
Steve Fawcett, Lions MD 201 C1 Global Services Team Coordinator, praised the club’s success.
“It is a well-received acknowledgement of the pioneering work undertaken by the City of Adelaide Lions,” Steve said.
As well as the City of Adelaide Lions Club’s entry Hear me Roar, the Leo Club of Melbourne Next Gen was successful with its entry Next Gen for 1000 Hopes.
The two winning entries will now be forwarded to LCI for inclusion in the Global Judging, with the winning entries (maximum 30 with a minimum of three being for Leo Clubs) not expected to be announced until late January 2022.
FOOTNOTE:
The Kindness Matters Service Award is designed for clubs who create high-impact service projects within one of the Lions International and Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) cause areas, including diabetes, childhood cancer, environment, hunger, vision, disaster relief, youth or humanitarian.
Overall objectives include:
- Encouraging creativity and recognizing high-impact service projects
- Rewarding clubs for high-calibre service activities within each of Lions International’s causes.