At some point after the May Fair, and most probably after the autumn Charity Auction when our financial coffers would have been replenished, the Allendale Lions organised a photo-opportunity outside Allendale Bakery & Café down at Allen Mill, to present the big cheque to the Great North Air Ambulance Service.
I like the smiles on the faces of the folks in the photograph!
Everyone up on the high fellsides around Allendale knows how important the GNAA is. Our neighbour up there in Sparty Lea was airlifted to Hexham Hospital after an impatient beast pinned her against a gate and broke her hip. And similar stories abound throughout the East and West Allen valleys.
So it was a great pleasure to be able to proffer a little bit of what our philanthropic efforts could manage, to help keep the service flying. But the money always flows in to the Lions for disbursement from the very community the club seeks to serve. So it’s what people have called a ‘virtuous circle’ of goodness, and it’s one of the crucial underpinnings of goodwill that the community enjoys.
When the Lions tap into that goodwill, it seems that everybody benefits.