In the spirit of Thanksgiving on the Wednesday before the big day, the Amesbury Lions Club delivered over three hundred cans of soup to Our Neighbors Table as part of their ongoing fall community collection of soup for those who are food insecure. The Amesbury Lions began their drive for soup in mid-October when they quickly kicked off their campaign by giving nearly one hundred cans of soup collected for the needy as part of the Massachusetts Lions District 33N Zone 3 Soup Challenge to see which Lions Club (Amesbury, Haverhill, Lawrence, Merrimac, Methuen, Newburyport, N. Andover, or Salisbury) could gather the most soup in a week to be brought to the Zone Meeting, being held at Joe Fish in N. Andover on October 13th, and subsequently brought to area food pantries.. The Amesbury Lions won the challenge!
Through December 24th, the Amesbury Lions will continue to gather canned and/or dry-packaged soup for the needy by asking the citizens of Amesbury to bring soup to one of four drop off locations; the donated soup will then be brought to ONT for proper distribution to the food insecure. Drop off bins are located at Gould Insurance Offices, 41 Sparhawk Street; Coco – Early and Associates, 87 Main Street; Phat Cats Bistro, 65 Market Street; and Amesbury City Hall, 62 Friend Street.
Additionally, the Amesbury Lions Club is once again leading Amesbury’s Anton’s Cleaners “COATS FOR KIDS AND FAMILIES” winter coats collection drive. The Lions are collecting from the community, gently used, warm winter coats (infants to adults, all sizes) to assist Anton’s Cleaners in reaching its goal to collect good, quality coats for the needy. Once donated, the coats will be cleaned by Anton’s and distributed through a network of distribution partners made up of local nonprofits, social service agencies and schools to ensure the coats are given, free of charge, to those who really need them.
Coats may be dropped off at the Amesbury City Hall located at 62 Friend Street or at Coco – Early & Associates located at 87 Main Street; or they may be taken directly to Anton’s Cleaners located at 23 Storey Ave, Newburyport (mention the Amesbury Lions Club when you drop them off).
In the words of Amesbury Lions Club Vice-president John Veilleux, “Nothing says love better than a warm coat and a hot bowl of soup.”
