Steve Lister is Chairman of
Littleborough Events and Associations Forum and a former President of
Littleborough Lions. He
works tirelessly to make Littleborough a better place to live and completely
voluntarily. He, along with the other members of Littleborough Events and
Association Forum, is responsible for bringing the highly successful Rushbearing
Festival to the village every year.
Steve moved to Littleborough in 1986 from Royton and he's never looked back.
He likes the fact that Littleborough has easy access to everything - he's just a
train ride to Manchester or Leeds and within minutes he can be walking through
beautiful countryside far away from the hustle and bustle.
The worst thing about Littleborough is the lack of space for development.
The village is becoming a 'commuter village' and with only one road in or out of
the village this causes major headaches during the rush-hour traffic.
Steve enjoys Tai Chi, music (he's a keen guitar and banjo player) and enjoys
painting.
LittleboroughLocal caught up with Steve at the Littleborough Lions annual
barbecue.
LittleboroughLocal: How did you get involved with Littleborough Lions?
Steve Lister: I was actually invited to this occasion. We had a friend
who was involved with the Lions and she said "We're having a barbecue do you
want to come along?" so we came along and met the people, and liked the people
we met and they seemed to like us. Then somebody said "Why don't you come and
see what we do?". So I went to a couple of meetings and I did get interested but
I was doing a course at college at the time. As soon as I finished studying I
joined up. That was 6 years ago.
LittleboroughLocal: How did you become President? Was it a nomination
process?
Steve Lister: Yes, it is a process of nomination by the club. The
outgoing President usually selects the Vice-President who can then be voted in
as President. It's not automatic that everybody will be voted in or even that
they wish to be President as it is quite a responsible task. You have to have
held another post within the Club beforehand - I was Secretary for 2-years
before being voted in as President 2-years ago.
LittleboroughLocal: How do the Lions decide which charities or projects
to support?
Steve Lister: It can work in 2 or 3 ways. First of all someone can come
to us with a project they need help with. We'll then debate it within the club,
take a vote and then if we agree to help we will decide how much we can afford
to help them with. For example, when we were collecting at Sainsbury's 2 years
ago we were talking to one of the girls on the checkout about what we did and
she asked if we could help her to set up a support group for parents of children
with aspergers syndrome and autism. We asked her to come to a meeting to tell us
all about her project and the lack of support available for parents of these
children. We asked her what she wanted and we gave her a sizeable amount of
money to help her get set up and then we introduced her to other people such as
an Autism Nurse. The support is not just financial, we offer practical help as
well as we helped this lady to complete the application form for a grant. Now
she's developing and offering support to parents of children with other
disabilities as well.
That's just one example, another was when Happy Jacks Nursery was burgled and
set on fire. This came up on the Littleborough Online forum and straight-away I
got on to the phone to the President at the time and saying that we should help.
Within the hour we went to them with a cheque for £120 so that they could get
cleaning materials and whatever they needed to get up and running again. Their
insurance money would have kicked in eventually but they needed the help
straight-away.
Another was when a family whose house was burnt out just before Christmas. In
conjunction with Rochdale Lions, we provided them with clothing and new toys for
their children for Christmas and a lot of other stuff as well, just to get them
back on their feet.
Apart from that, there are bigger projects. Our Canal Walk in September is in
support of the Laura Crane Trust which is a Leukemia charity and supports many
hospitals. It goes on up to the Sight First programme which has restored the
sight of millions of people around the world by provided cataract operations. I
could go on for ever.
LittleboroughLocal: You help in many ways
Steve Lister: Yes, individual, local, national and international. We're
the biggest and, last year voted the best by the Financial Times, service
organisation in terms of efficiency. None of our money, not a penny of the money
we collect goes into administration. All the money we raise for charity goes to
charity work.
LittleboroughLocal: How can young people get involved with the Lions?
Steve Lister: We have a youth programme called the Leos where young
people aged 13-18 can form their own group. We would love to get young people
over 18 involved in the Lions. They have more energy and more imagination. Like
a lot of organisations, we are an aging organisation as people these days seem
to be reluctant to get involved in the Community. The new President, Lyndsey is
going to be the youngest President for a long time. We desperately need young
people involved if only to keep the place going.
LittleboroughLocal: During your time at the Lions, what has been the
funniest, most dangerous or most unusual circumstance you've found yourself in?
Steve Lister: I couldn't pick a funniest as we're always laughing and
there's always something funny going on. Although at Christmas we were doing a
Toy Tombola and I'd brought our dog, Magnus, along as we always collect more
when he's with us. I'd tied him to the leg of the table with all the soft toys
on that we were raffling off. At one point he saw another dog across the road
that he'd decided to be friends with and he set off across Hare Hill Road
dragging the table behind him. There were soft toys flying everywhere.
LittleboroughLocal: How has being a Lion changed you?
Steve Lister: It's made me much more aware of what we, as individuals,
can do for people less fortunate than ourselves. It's given me the opportunity
to give something back because I've had a good life and it's good to be able to
return something back to the community and around the world. And there's a great
feeling of belonging as there are 1.5 million members in 42,000 clubs in 202
countries so it's like being part of a big family.
LittleboroughLocal: What next?
Steve Lister: I'm going to go back to the ranks and let someone else make
all the decisions. I'll be taking life a bit easier but I'll still have things
that I organise because we all have our own areas of expertise. My next thing is
the Swimarathon in November and the Primary School Music Concert next March
which is looking to take off into something quite considerable if everything
goes to plan.