RAY Williams called it the most expensive sausage sandwich he’d ever eaten.
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But the NSW Government minister responsible for volunteering was still all smiles as he handed over a cheque for $1000 to Bathurst Macquarie Lions Club president Michael Ryan at the Bathurst City Community Club on Wednesday night.
The donation was a small recognition of the good work the Lions do in the Bathurst community, but also payment for them catering at a casual function organised by Bathurst MP Paul Toole to allow about 60 invited guests the chance to meet many of Mr Toole’s NSW cabinet colleagues during their visit to Bathurst.
Premier Gladys Berejiklian was among those to enjoy barefoot bowling on the club’s manicured greens – a first for the cabinet, she admitted – before enjoying a dinner of barbecued sausage sandwiches prepared by local Lions.
Bathurst Macquarie president Michael Ryan said he was “gobsmacked” not only by the oversized cheque presented to him, but also the warm praise heaped on his club by Mr Toole.
Mr Ryan has been a Lion for 17 years. He was initially drawn to the chance for a social outing and to meet new people, but has stayed for the chance to give back to the community.
He said the club meets twice a month – first for a “business” meeting and second for a “social” meeting and the chance to have some fun.
But there is also the serious work of raising thousands of dollars a year for worthy local and national causes, with their sausage sizzles still the major money spinner.
“We try to mix the work we do with a lot of fun because it’s no good if it’s all work,” he said.
“Probably the biggest project we’ve taken on in recent years was helping the Carenne School get a hydrotherapy pool. The Australian Lions Foundation will match local groups dollar-for-dollar for a worthy cause and Lions contributed a total of $35,000 to that project.
“We’re always looking to support local projects but we don’t hand out cash – we always look to buy equipment.
“There was a group of midwives from Bathurst hospital who were going over to Vanuatu and they came to us said what we really need is a neonatal oxygen monitor so we said, ‘beauty, get us a quote and we can do that’.
“We do raise a fair bit of dough and another initiative we put in place was going around to the local schools and saying, very discretely, if you’ve got kids that can’t afford a uniform, can’t afford to go an excursion, can’t afford a musical instrument or whatever, just let us know and we’ll see what we can do.
“We also send money to the Australian Lions Foundation to support their projects.”
Roger Thomas has been a Lion for 25 years and said he was impressed by the breadth of work the club does.
“I was working on a project with the Girl Guides to build a new hall and we had a building committee but as we looked around the place you would see so many plaques that read ‘This Lions Club project ...’,” he said.
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“So when we finished the Guides contract I just walked up to a friend I knew in Lions and said, ‘OK, I’m here’.”
While it was once a men’s only organisation, Lions has now opened its doors to women members as well, and they make up about 30 per cent of the Bathurst Macquarie membership.
Judy Ryan said she was introduced to Lions seven years ago and enjoyed the social side as much as the “work”. “I think it’s also important to point out that 100 per cent of the money we raise goes towards supporting community projects,” she said.
