Callington and District Lions recently held their version of BBC’s Dragon’s Den and with prize money exceeding £3,000 up for grabs, there were many charities and organisations who wish to face the Lions in their Den.

From all the applicants, Lions members had whittled the list down to six finalists: 1st Stoke Climsland Scout Group, Delaware Primary School, Rilla Mill Village Hall, East Cornwall Search and Rescue, Tamar Restoration and Engineering Group and Pensilva Preschool.

To ensure fairness, an elite judging panel had been chosen: Stuart Wood, Tesco manager; Darren Tait of Darren’s Cars, just back from Ukraine deliveries; Portreeve Mike Tagg; Lion Hayley Patton and Lion John Hanns as chair.

They had difficult decisions to make and, in the end, chose to split the award money rather than give one group a larger Lion’s share.

Lion John Hanns added the Scouts team seem to meet the Den’s aims best in that the money would be used for the wider community as well as their own group.

In addition, Callington Lions had decided to present a special Memorial Award. Lion Andy Burnard explained that the late Bernard Pridham had been a very good friend of Lions over many years.

All other finalists received £450. Derek Prickett, ‘Lion Ring Master’ for the night, said: “The event had been well received and it was good to see that money donated by many residents and organisations in the community being put to such good use.”

He added a special thanks to Tesco for their continued support of Lions over many events and to Darren Tait for attending after only just returning this week from a Ukraine donation delivery to Poland.

A raffle was held and the £210 raised was donated to SendingLovetoUkraine charity sendinglovetoukraine.org

If anyone would like to make a difference and have some fun whilst doing it, come along to Callington and District Lions — give the secretary Emma a call on 0345 833 7527 or see www.facebook.com/CallingtonLionsNews