Lions Club Donates Educational Materials, Others To 3,500 Pupils In Ogun

By ABIODUN JIMOH, ABEOKUTA
No fewer than 3,500 pupils of African Church Primary School, Owu located in Ita-Iyalode in Abeokuta North Local Government Area of Ogun State have benefitted from books and other educational materials donated by the Lions Club International.
The gestures being done on Thursday by Club District 404B1 Nigeria were to mark the World Lion Service Day/Children Service Day celebrated evey October 8th yearly.
Also, the club donated number of clothing materials to the pupils, as well planting 80 trees round the school
District Governor of the club, Lion Oluremi Lynda Odunmbaku in her welcome address recalled that the club was founded about 103 years ago in Chicago, United States of America (USA) by Melvin Jones with over 1.4 members across the globe as at now.
Odunmbaku explained that the club is non-religious group, non-political and not a secret cult, and it has been dedicated that every October 8th of the year was meant to celebrate the birth of the club worldwide.
‘The 8th day of October every year is world lion service day, is a day when lions are proud to show the world what lionism stands for. Here in District 404 B1 Nigeria, with the help of our students from African Church Primary School, Owu, Ita-Iyalode, Abeokuta, we plant a few trees alongside the fence of the school. We hope the plants will be properly nurtured,” she said.
While speaking on the plated tree round the four walls of the school, she said: “I am sure these pupils are looking forward to taking part in the tree planting activity as some of them may be doing it for the first time.
‘We urge the teachers to ensure pupils water and take care of their plants everyday before and after classes. Benefits of tree planting include:aesthetics helps beautify of the school and community, improve health by cleaning the air and protecting children from pollutants.”
The governor added other benefits as protecting school from flooding by intercepting runoffs thereby reducing severity of flood, trees also  improve soil water conservation by providing shade, regulating  temperature extremes.
Odunmbaku noted that trees improve  land’s capacity to adapt to climate change  and increase wide life habit, stressing that it is therefore without doubt that the choice of this particular activity was the perfect  and benefitting these children in no small measure                                       \
The Chairperson of the Committee, Lion Yemi Olanrewaju who is a retired Permanent Secretary enjoined all other members around the world to show by example the objectives of lionism and ethical practices which the club upholds, stressing the essence of the spirit which unite them together
“On this day, we show our community what lionism is all about. This is not just symbolic. It encompasses the many uncountable good works that Lions routinely do for others as we work,” Olanrewaju said.