THE South Georgetown Lions Club collaborated with the Lions Club of East Brooklyn in New York, USA and the Heavenly Light Full Gospel Church of Cooper Street, Albouystown, Georgetown to bring joy to the hearts of some 250 children of the Albouystown community through a school supplies distribution exercise conducted in the church compound last Saturday.

Each child was presented with a back-pack and a snack. A similar exercise targeting approximately 150 children was planned for Plaisance, East Coast Demerara last Sunday. Distribution took place at the Plaisance Library, according to Lion Terrence Drayton of East Brooklyn, New York, who is the chief organiser of the outreach. Drayton is accompanied on the trip to Guyana by his wife, Pastor Wendy Collins.

Lion Drayton was born and bred in Barr Street, Albouystown, but has been residing in New York for over 50 years. He said that, two years ago, the idea of reaching out to the needy children of Albouystown was mooted by his eldest sister, Ms. Esme La Rose, a former head nurse at the Georgetown Public Hospital, who now resides in Florida.

“That idea grew in my head, and I started working on it,” Lion Drayton said. He readily took up the challenge, and began mobilising and galvanising to make it a reality. It was with great excitement that Esme La Rose and her three sisters — Melissa Calender, Cecily Fontinelle, and Joan Abrams (one of Guyana’s first women police ranks) — began working enthusiastically towards making a reality of the first activity. The four sisters also hail from Albouystown, and now all reside in the USA.

By 2012, they were ready for the inaugural activity. They travelled to Guyana and made their maiden presentation to the children of Albouystown, starting with 100 back-packs and snacks. It was such a huge success that it motivated them to expand.

This time around (the second donation), they have involved the Lions Club of East Brooklyn and have made it their club’s humanitarian project. “The Lions’ Motto is: ‘We Serve’, and our aim is to serve, so we’ve made it our project and (have) increased the numbers targeted to 250 this morning. But our aim is to do a lot more for the community,” Drayton said.

Included in the Brooklyn team is Mr. Volton Bagot, past president of the Lions, who hails from Bagotville, West Bank Demerara.

As part of the distribution exercise, the clubs have also involved the South Georgetown Lions, which helped with logistical arrangements and assisted with distribution of the packages; and the Heavenly Light Church, which provided the venue for distribution.

The donors are hoping, in the future, to venture out into other communities outside of Georgetown, since the East Brooklyn Club has members who are from other parts of Georgetown and its environs. Their plan is to make next year’s project bigger, and to involve more communities, Drayton said. (Shirley Thomas)