PDG Ian Hughes presenting Lion David Brown with the 50 year certificate and pin.

During his years of service to Lions International & Nowra Lions Club, David has won the respect of all. In his early years, i.e. 1967 when was working in PNG, he was responsible for the formation of 3 new PNG clubs.

His work in supporting the Nowra Club commenced in 1969 when he returned to Australia from PNG, and his dedication continues to this day.

President Jim Callaghan and Bob Wright. 

Nowra Lions Club presents three seats to Shoalhaven Crematorium for use in the grounds. These seats were made by the Nowra Men's Shed. 

The culmination of a Nowra Lions fundraising activity which began over a year ago, finally came to a head on Thursday, November 26th.

Keeden was born with a clot in his brain that did not become evident until he was several months old. This unfortunate impairment has handicapped Keeden all his life, robbing him of the ability to stand, walk, talk, feed, bathe or clothe himself. Every task that we all take for granted has to be assisted by one of his parents.

To complicate matters, he also suffers as a result from Cerebral Palsy, Epilepsy, Anti-Thrombin Deficiency, Cortical Vision Impairment and Sensory Processing Disorder,

At 16, although not well developed physically, he is nevertheless no lightweight physical burden for his parents. For that reason they approached our club with a request for assistance in purchasing an apparatus that could support him while he exercised on a treadmill to help develop the hitherto unused muscles in his legs.

That request was finally met when the Lite Gait unit pictured was delivered to Keeden’s home on Thursday.

To make this dream a reality, $35,000 was needed to purchase the Lite Gait Unit and the accompanying treadmill. The Keeden family had already begun saving for the equipment but could see it would take too long if they continued trying to do this on their own, and that is why they approached us. In addition to the contribution raised from the first Annual Art Auction held earlier this year by our club, further donations were generously provided by The Variety Club of Australia ($10,000) and The Australian Lions Foundation ($15,000).

While the unit has now been delivered and installed, this is just the beginning. After 16 years of virtually no physical activity, Keeden’s muscles have been significantly under-used and it will take years of patience and hard work by Keeden, his parents and special heath care workers to hopefully help his body support itself and perhaps even reach the stage where he can stand and perhaps begin walking without losing his balance.

We take this opportunity to thank all those both within our club and outside it. You have all helped make this request a possibility for a local family who were presented with a difficult task from the outset and have bravely persevered and endured with what has been and is a challenging task. We hope the Lite Gait Walker will bring them some relief.

The photo above was taken by Ian Hughes and shows Keeden in the Lite Gait walker for the first time, apprehensively watched by his father Laurie and Physiotherapist Susie Locke

Most of us take our good health for granted but one local family has not been so fortunate. Their son Keeden was born having suffered a stroke in utero. Not surprisingly, his parents did not suspect that anything was wrong for the first few weeks of Keeden’s life. Most babies are pretty much inert for this period.

Sadly though, they soon discovered the awful truth and were told not to hold out high hopes for their new arrival. They were informed that it was highly unlikely that Keeden would even reach his teens but in any event he would be limited in his ability to do much for himself. All his basic body functions, including standing, sitting, talking, eating, bathing and toileting would have to be assisted for the rest of his life.

While it was a challenge for the parents, the love of a parent for their child overcomes many problems. However, defying the predictions of the medical specialists, Keeden is now 16 and is becoming more and more of a physical burden, day by day.

Since he cannot stand, when he needs to be moved and exercised, one parent has to physically grasp him from behind to take his weight and enable him to shuffle forward. As he continues to grow and gain weight, it is clearly not something that can continue indefinitely.

Some weeks ago, his parents wrote to the Nowra Lions Club to inquire whether there was anything they could do to help. At the core of the request is his need for a special piece of equipment that will enable him to be securely suspended over a treadmill that will provide the opportunity for him to practice walking and hopefully strengthen his leg muscles in the process.

Parents Debbie and Lawrence Waller have already saved over $20,000 toward this piece of equipment, but it will ultimately will cost over $35,000 and they are asking Nowra Lions to help them find the rest

To do so, the Lions arranged an Art Auction which was held on Friday, May 29th.

The event was held at Terara Riverside Gardens and featured a cocktail party and canapés for the token donation of just $5.00. The Entry Fee also covered the cost of the Catalogue and a Lucky Door Prize ticket.

The event was organised by Lion Bob Wright; himself an accomplished artist of some renown. Once the word got around, Bob says he was quite overwhelmed by the response. Paintings from several artists with international reputations were donated outright or handed over to Lions with token reserves in the low hundreds. This is all the more surprising considering these same artists often sell their work in the art capitals of the world for over $100,000!

Among those whose work was up for sale at the auction were names like W. Lister Lister, Robert Dickerson, Leslie Campbell, Eileen Napaltjarri, John Downton, Reg Campbell, John Cornwell and Alun Leach-Jones.

Essentially the Auction was broken into two groups; 25 paintings which were assessed by the Auctioneers as worthy of singling out. These paintings were not expected to sell for less than $10,000. The remaining 75 paintings were for sale by silent auction. This meant that they were hung on the wall accompanied by a ticket showing the name of the artist, the title and medium of the work and the reserve price, if any. Anyone wishing to buy one of the paintings in the silent auction made a note of the details of the work then place their bid in the folder at the entrance to the exhibition. At the end of the evening, if the painting had reached the reserve price, it became the property of the highest bidder on the sheet. The quality in this section alone was outstanding and provided opportunities for astute buyers to snap up some bargains.

Cocktails and Canapes were available from 6pm and the Auction started at 7pm.

This was the first of what is hoped will become an annual event in Nowra. 

This logo is the crest behind International President Joe Preston’s call to action.

We all know that the more Lions in our pride, the stronger we will be and the more we will be able to accomplish.

In Nowra, we are always looking for new members, particularly in the 45 and over age group. We all know people of this age and so we should try to remember to talk to them about becoming a Lion and bring them to a meeting.

Joe’s banner commands “Strengthen the Pride!”, and since we always tell people that being a member of Lions is fun, perhaps we could add the footnote to Joe’s slogan: “The more the merrier.”