By Barbara Rayner, Reporter
The Eastern Charlotte Lions Club has been helping needy families at Christmas time for a record 31 years and during that period an estimated $225,000 has been raised to help around 1,200 families.
Volunteers and spectators turned out in force again Saturday, Dec. 6 for the annual Christmas Telethon, which is televised by caband held at the Lions Club building in Pennfield. The total raised this year was about $16,000 and there were also donations of toys as well as other items such as home made mittens and blankets.
Secretary, Scott Tracy, who has been a club member since 1994, said he has never missed a telethon yet and his wife Karen has been helping at the event for 21 years. His late parents, Carl Jr. and Lucy, as well as brother Terry were also always involved in the annual event.
He estimates the club help about 40 families each year providing them with supplies for a Christmas dinner and gifts for the children. If there are no children in the family then the adults are given a gift.
“We get a list of families and we screen them with other groups. We always do the show which features school choirs and local personalities. We probably have kids singing now whose parents were here in 1994.
“After the donations are in, we do the shopping and add whatever toys have been donated then we pick a date and time for the family to come out – nobody else is here – and they pick up their meal and their gifts.”
Tracy said his wife gets the word out via social media or just word of mouth and then they contact Cable 10 to find a suitable date for the telethon. Anyone is welcome to perform regardless of age.
Some of those on the production side have also been working on the telethon for a long time such as Dixon Cho who started out helping at the first one with Fundy Cable just after graduating from high school and he said he has only missed two since then.
Nicky Eagles, who brought her seven-year-old daughter Noelle along to sing with the Blacks Harbour Elementary choir, remembers taking part in the telethon five or six times when she was about the same age as her daughter as a member of the Brownies, Sparks and the Circle of Friends.
“I was just telling Noelle that I used to come here and sing too. We always seemed to sing ‘The Cat Came Back’ and ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ and I remember one time we had maracas and I hit the little girl in front of me on the head,” she said. “We used to get all dressed up in big frilly dresses.”
It’s all hands on deck for the 21 members of the club for the event and many of them such as Chastity Seelye have quite a few telethons under their belt. This was her 11th telethon and she was helping to man the phones.
“Some people bring in gifts and sometimes people will take on a whole family,” she said. “Most people who call in to pledge don’t care whether their names are read out or not. I love doing this and it gets me in the Christmas spirit.”
Reading out the pledges this year were Eastern Charlotte Mayor John Craig and Fundy-The Isles- Saint John-Lornville MLA Ian Lee.
The Eastern Charlotte Lions Club was formed May 29 1974 with 28 members being inducted and September 26 was chosen as their charter night. This continues to be celebrated annually on the Saturday closest to the 26th.
First president was Bill Stewart and for the first year, meetings were held in the Anglican Church basement then the club moved to the basement at Pennfield School before building their own hall in Pennfield.
When the first New Year’s Eve dance was held there in 1979, they only had the walls insulated and covered with plastic but it was a sellout. From the beginning, the main hall was booked most of the time as it is now.
Over the years the club has held many fundraisers and donated to a lot of different organizations such as the Canadian Cancer Society to providing bursaries to the graduating class at Fundy Middle and High School.
