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Emergency Assistance

Recognition

From 201 V5 District Disaster Relief Trust meeting of Trustees, it was decided to rcognise those Lions Clubs in Australia who supported and donated to the Trust.

Bushfires - Urgent

Colleagues

Please see the Distrct communiqué below for volunteers to assist with the clean up. Conditions may be difficult; please read carefully then either advise me if you are able to participate or advise your VP who will be calling to make sure members have received the email as this contains all relevant information.

Please note that we need to respond by Sunday 22 Feb 09.

Thanks and regards

Sue

Bushfires - Latest

(Volunteers who went to Kinglake to assist the emergency services were Brian Harris, Lesley Picker,
Alan Smedley, Bill Berkeley, Herb Picker and Gaye Smedley all seen here taking a brief breather!)

kingLake2

(In such exalted company during a break!! are Herb Picker, Gaye Smedley, Lesley Picker,
Prime Minister Rt Hon Kevin Rudd MP, Bill Berkeley, Alan Smedley, Brian Harris and Chef Julie Carpenter.)

Communiqué from MD201V2 - 17 Feb 09

To: Club President, Secretary and members

After reading the following, it may be necessary to call an urgent Club meeting to ascertain the information required in this letter, or at least, contact every member in your club.

This letter is to ascertain the number of members in your club, and other volunteers associated with your club, who wish to donate their time to the cleanup process in the fire-ravaged areas. Initially it will be predominately within the Kinglake area.

Clean-up Commencement Date

The clean up-procedure will not commence until the fires are completely out and may not commence until 28 Feb 09 or later. We (V2 Lions) will be advised in due course.

When directed by the State Disaster District Recovery Officer requesting V2 Lions labour, clubs replying with volunteers, will be contacted and given all necessary information.

Required information from each club

Below are two (2) charts.

Volunteers
Assets available for cleanup

Chart 1 - VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers will be required to start onsite from:

1. Saturday 08:00 to Sunday 18:00 or

2. Monday 08:00 to Friday 20:00 (or days that suit within this period)

In filling out the form below, enter the name and the telephone number of the volunteer, clearly marking with 'x' in the day/s in which he/she can work.

CLUB: Lara Days available to volunteer

Volunteer Name	Contact Number	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri

Chart 2 - ASSETS

I request that you list below what assets members are able to provide during the cleanup process eg wire cutters, chainsaws, shovels, etc.

CLUB: Lara

Volunteer Name	Asset	Contact Number

NOTE:

It should be noted that this volunteerism may involve hard physical work and does not include catering.

ACCOMMODATION

Members should be aware that they be prepared to take with them, a sleeping bag, towel, personal toiletries and mobile phone charges.

Caterers at the scene will provide food and water.

At this stage, the catering teams that have been at Kinglake since last week, have been accommodated in various ways, from the back of a car to supplying their own tents, so accommodation of the volunteers is unknown. It is recommended that you make your own arrangements to be as independent as possible, preferably taking your own camping equipment eg. tent.

TRAVEL

Travel to and from the fire sites will be at the individual Lions expense, however we have been offered two buses to travel West to East along the Princes Highway to the fire areas but we have not scheduled in travel times at this stage. Once work parties have been arranged we will be able to give further details of this group travel arrangement.

CLOTHING

It will be expected that the volunteers will supply their own clothing and wear heavy duty/industrial steel capped footwear or similar, and workman’s gloves, including head wear, and dress appropriately according to the weather conditions as there is little or no shelter available in the cleanup areas.

It should be noted that Lions travelling to the scene of their own freewill may not be allowed entry to the fire cleanup area. As at this time, all Lions personnel are registered with V2 Lions Disaster Liaison Chairman (PDG Derek Challis) who in turn notifies the relevant authorities of the Lions personnel about to enter the designated area and their intended duties.

A summary of this information will be passed onto the relevant authority to allocate labour teams accordingly.

Due to the urgency of this information, it is requested that the above information be returned no later than Sunday 22 Feb 09 to Sue Eyton:

theeytons@optusnet.com.au or Fax: 5284-1471.

Thank you for your attention to this notification and I look forward to your replies. A nil return is still required so that I can register that accordingly. Not everyone is able to volunteer but those who do it, is greatly appreciated. Thank You.

Yours in Lionism
Stewart Pyers
Cabinet Secretary V2
CC DG Mary Harlow, DC PDG Derek Challis & Cabinet members

Victoria - Bushfire Appeal

The MD201V2 Cabinet put out a notice to all Club Secretaries regarding the recent bushfires:

BUSH FIRE RELIEF - VOLUNTEERS

PDG Derek Challis has been advised today (13 Feb 09) that manpower for cleanup of the fire areas may commence as early as 20 Feb 09 or the following week. Further details will be advised, as they become known.

Club members wishing to volunteer assistance to the Bush Fire Relief as Lions, must register their names through PDG Derek Challis, who is our District Disaster Liaison Chairman. Once Lions volunteers have been allocated tasks, the members must also register with their own Club.

Notification to PDG Derek is necessary not only for insurance purposes but it also identifies all V2 members working within the fire-affected areas from a District point of view.

It is asked that Clubs gather names of members that are available for

WEEKEND ONLY assistance,

WEEKDAY ONLY assistance, or

ANYTIME assistance.

These names are to be forwarded to PDG Derek so he can coordinate a V2 response list and allocate the Clubs accordingly.

It must be recognised that the cleanup and rebuilding in the affected areas will be an ongoing long-term situation.

As it stands at the moment discussions have taken place with V2 Clubs affected by fires and at this stage they are coping with their situation.

DG Mary Harlow has also been in contact with the other MD201V Governors and has offered our District members expertise and assistance where needed.

Although many members are ready, willing and able to assist in whatever they can, our District, through DG Mary & PDG Derek, are doing all they can.

When assistance is called upon, V2 members will be contacted immediately.

Lions Club Of Lara members; Herb Picker, Alan Smedley, Bill Berkeley and Brian Harris with partners and other volunteers set off on Sunday morning to assist with manpower at Kinglake West until Wednesday.

The Club wishes them all the best in their endeavours to help fellow Victorians in times of need.

Victoria - Bushfire Appeal

Throughout the past week, Lara Lions have been rattling the tin for a couple of hours a day raising funds for the Bushfire Appeal. In just under a week, over $4,000.00 was raised!!!

A super effort by Lions members!!

Tsunami Appeal

The world was shocked by this huge disaster that devastated a number of Asian countries and resulted in destruction, death and injury.

Lions Clubs in Australia have topped the $1m in funds raised from the public for tsunami relief.

Around $850,000 has come directly from initiatives which most of the 1,400 Lions Clubs throughout the country have organised in their own local communities. The balance has been contributed direct to special appeal bank accounts set up by Lions at NAB and Westpac.

"The generosity shown by Australians has simply been overwhelming" said Tony Roney, National Chairman of Lions Australia.

"However, money is only initial response to this tragedy. What will be needed is ongoing support in the countries devastated. That's why Lions, which has a long history of disaster relief and filling the gaps not covered by other relief agencies, is now moving to mobilise its 73,000 members in the hardest hit regions of India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. They are now becoming a significant resource to assist with local authorities."

stlaurencetsunami

The funds raised will be distributed to the affected countries by the charitable arm of Lions. Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF).

LCIF has pledged US$5m to tsunami relief. Half of this is coming from reserves and the other half is what is expected to come from Lions clubs around the world, including Australia. Lions organisations in other countries that have made large contributions include Ireland, Sweden and Japan.

Our Club responded to this tragedy by having a collection in the shopping centre, the response to this appeal was over whelming, and the appeal was also supported by the Lara Sporting Club, Lara Fire Brigade, St Laurence Residents Chapel Fund, St Laurence Staff, Lara Uniting Church, and by all these efforts we have forwarded $17,979.20 to Lions International.

To all those who helped achieve this huge sum many thanks, and this would have be our greatest achievement this year, well done every body. To date Lions money has already been spent on buildings, this has been achieved as a result of having established Lions Clubs in the affected areas.

Thank you Lara Residents