Licola push Nov 2020
Diamond Valley Lions bit the bullet and escaped from Melbourne for a Licola working bee on House 12, 18th to 22nd November. Eventually nine Club Members and Friends made the journey, Barry Backman, Daryl Schrader, Helen Chenall, Richard Keeling, David Way, joined by Lions friends, Chris Jankos, Margaret McKenzie, and Arthur Alexandra. One of the essential components of Lions is to have fun, so we all met for lunch at the recently refurbished Railway Hotel at Heyfield, catching up with ex Lion Doug Speedie. After lunch we enjoyed the beautiful drive up the Valley to Licola. We were welcomed with open arms , if you can call it that under the current restrictions, we all had the pleasure of meeting Trev as we made ourselves at home in our cabins, three guys in the famous House 12, the ladies in 11. The first night Wednesday was fun, laughter, the odd beers, a few reds, endless nibbles appeared. It was also great to catch up with all the Licola staff, Brooke, Casper, Cam, and Socks.
We got into the serious stuff on Thursday, painting, window frames, a short hallway, another bedroom, only one more to go for the next visit. Arthur and Chris arrived on the Thursday and spent all day Friday pulling the old front door and frame and replaced it with a new one, we discovered that carpentry can be a spectator sport. The door is now square, and opens and closes. Friday evening was another communal dinner, the ladies continued to surprises us with a seeming endless supply of nibbles and cheeses. Saturday was spent putting the finishing touches to our work, Helen and Marg found time to do some weeding around the Licola Chapel.
The Club has a big project on the go with the replacement of the main bathroom at the rear of the house, this will entail the integration of the substandard special needs facility at the rear of the house with the existing toilet area into a new shower area, with three toilets, three hand basins and two showers, the house has a second bathroom with a shower, bath and hand basins. House 12 is one of the larger houses at Licola and can accommodate up to 20 kids during Lions sponsored camps. The House roof was replaced in May 2019, both these major projects were done in conjunction with Licola and the Australian Lions Foundation. Diamond Valley Lions could not have done these projects with the brilliant work done by Doug Wilson and the Bunning’s Cake Project. The Club has been able to coordinate approximately $45,000 worth of work on the House, $15,000 being contributed by the Club.
Saturday evening the Club was invited to a BBQ organised by the Licola Board, followed by eggs and bacon on Sunday morning. We all returned the Melbourne on the Sunday, tired by extremely satisfied.
Lion Richard Keeling