Torquay Lions Club held their Changeover Dinner Thursday 26 June at the Lions Village. Ward Councillor Paul Barker, Incoming Torquay Rotary Club President Kelly Binyon as well as Installing Officer and Lions District 201V2 Leadership Team member Alan Davis were guests. Current President Colin Bellis handed over to Incoming President Ross Yapp and a new Board was installed. Stuart Miller was also inducted as a new member into the Club. Allen Osman was the recipient of the Club’s Lion of the Year Award and Ken Farrow was presented with a special award for his work as Secretary.

The Torquay Bowls Day was again the venue for the Billy Ryan Charity Bowls Day on Friday April 11. A full quota of bowlers had entered this popular event again and came ready to open their wallets to support the 3 raffles and the silent auctions. Torquay businesses had once again generously donated the prizes to be raffled and other businesses had given cash donations. In all, the event raised $12,000 for the VICSES Torquay Unit.

The Lions Youth of the Year Victorian State Final was held in Torquay on Saturday, March 29th at Kithbrooke Country Club.
The overall winner was Sebastian Lunn, from Melbourne and he will go onto the National Final – 2025 at Traralgon on May 5th.
Amelia Hulonce from Portland won the award for public speaking.
Other finalists competing included Grace Boehnke from Dromana, Olivia Woodhouse from Waverley and Oakley Tarrant from Rochester.
There were 80 Lions, judges, contestants and friends at the state final, and all enjoyed a thoroughly entertaining evening.
The standard of these young adults was incredibly high.
The contest is open to students entering their final years(yrs10-12) of schooling.
The final had students from 5 districts within Victoria, each of whom had won their district final.
The journey for the finalists was worthwhile and fulfilling with many friendships made over the last few months.
For 61 years students have been participating in the Lions Youth of the Year program, the aim of which is to provide an opportunity for young people to achieve success.
Students who participate invariably find the experience rewarding and develop their skills associated with interview technique, personal interaction, and public speaking.
The judges were Danny Vriens, Robyn O’Loughlin, Pam Hacking, Emma Jones and Stewart Miller. Theirs was a difficult task.
Sebastian received a medal, a plaque and $1,000 as winner, as well as a wonderful experience.

Surf Coast’s local Good Friday Appeal (GFA) ambassador Belle Strahan and her Mum Karen recently (27/2) joined the Torquay Lions Club dinner meeting to encourage its members to donate to the Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH) annual appeal.
Lion Brian Keane facilitated a question-and-answer interview of 16-year-old Belle and her mother. Their story stunned the attentive audience.
Belle’s relationship with the RCH began before she was born and has continued all her life. (A full story of Belle’s medical history is attached).
Because of the life-saving support of the RCH and its staff over the years, Belle has grown to be an active, competitive sportsperson and student.
She is in Year 11 at Geelong Lutheran College. Belle and leads a physically active life and enjoys taekwondo and swimming. She’s also a volunteer lifeguard patroller with Torquay Surf Lifesaving Club (after being Bronze Medallion certified in 2023).
Belle and her family are forever thankful to the Children’s Hospital and each year get involved in fundraising for the Good Friday Appeal.
Belle has fundraised more than $20,000 for the Royal Children’s Hospital’s Good Friday Appeal and HeartKids Australia over the past 15 years, including $2,139 for the 2024 Good Friday Appeal.
Her fundraising campaign page can be found in the GFA website under the Find a Fundraiser tab or https://fundraise.goodfridayappeal.com.au/fundraisers/Torquay

Torquay Lions held their second caravan park meat tray raffle on Saturday 11 January on a balmy Summer's evening. A big thank you to all the campers who supported the raffle. It is quite amazing how generous members of our community are.

Torquay Lions were up early on New Year's Day to clean up the grassed areas at the local surf beach after the previous night's celebrations. The ten local Lions were joined by a visiting Lion and family at 6:30am to make the area clean and safe for early morning beach goers. The good news is that the amount of rubbish left behind was considerably less than in previous years.

Members of the Torquay Lions Club and their partners held their annual Christmas Party on Monday 16th December at the Lions Village in Torquay. We came together to celebrate another successful year of serving our community. To add to the festivities we had a visit from Santa.

Sunday saw the second Cowrie Market for this season. It was a lovely day with brilliant weather and terrific crowds. The Lions Club were there as usual with our BBQ Trailer and Children's Train. We also had a display of the Lions Peace Poster Competition entries from the local Primary Schools. The BBQ crew were nearly run off their feet serving our delicious sausage and onion offerings. And the Train crew was keep busy all day with a constant stream of excited children wanting a ride around the Elephant Walk area. Thank you to all our sausage sizzle customers and to our train passengers for supporting us. We managed to raise an amazing $2864 for the day. As usual every dollar and cent we raised will be donated back to the community.

At the Lions V2 District Change Over Dinner in Warrnambool on Saturday 29 June the Lions Club of Torquay received two awards.
The Club received the District Website/Social Media Award and the Bank of Ideas Award.
The Website/Social Media Award was in recognition of the positive way in which Lions is being promoted in our community. The Bank of Ideas Award is in recognition of the Club's 3 year $12,750 sponsorship of the Art of the Minds Song Contest, supporting Mental Health in our Community.