Lions Club packs up hundreds of care packages for needy families

A blanket of snow was not enough to dampen the efforts of the amateur Santas from the Lions Club of Maidenhead.

Sunday saw volunteers cram into Claires Court School, in Ray Mill Road East, despite the wintry weather, to put the finishing touches to hundreds of care packages for needy families.

It was the penultimate stage of two weeks of collections and deliveries, during which time the organisation was donated about 6,000 individual items.

The parcels contained everything from pasta, to tinned tuna, mince pies and even homemade cakes from the Windsor branch of the British Sugarcraft Guild.

And for John Slater, one of the campaign’s organisers, the generosity shown at collection points in Maidenhead and Taplow, was a hallmark of the event.

“We’ve been doing this for over 30 years and it’s got bigger and bigger,” he said.

“We started doing it for old people and now we go to more and more young families and single parents.

“But the incredible thing is that we get to deliver over 360 parcels and everything has been donated in the last two weeks by the people of Maidenhead and all our parcels will go to the people of Maidenhead.”

Visit www.maidenheadlions.org.uk to find out more.