Long-time Lion John Milne, pictured with fellow member Heidi Wehrle, is stepping back.
Two Lions who have given a fair chunk of their time to helping others are finally easing up.
After a decade behind the wheel of the Cambridge Lions Shed truck, Graham Wiseman is hanging up his keys. At the same time, he is stepping back from an initiative he inherited that linked the shed’s truck with Cambridge High School.
Each week for the past 12 years or so, the Lions Shed has hosted a couple of students for a few hours’ work experience, during which they help load and unload the truck, and tag along to help with any other tasks at hand.
“I would collect two or three students every Thursday,” said Graham. “We don’t have the capacity for any more than that. The students are selected by a teacher, and as long as they want to be involved, I’d find them things to do. It’s a great arrangement. Even after leaving school, some of the lads give up their Saturdays to help.”
Graham compiled a monthly report on the students’ shed activities and shared it with the school. Some of the students picked up ideas for careers, and even as he retires from the truck, he is keen to stay in touch with the school and follow the students’ progress.
Graham has also worked with Achievement House for the past two years and said he had enjoyed every minute with them and the Lions.
Graham Wiseman with two Year 10 Cambridge High students, Hayden Steen and Jed Vincent.
Another shed regular who is still around but easing up is Scotsman John Milne. Now 90, he made the front pages in 2010 when at age 78 he jumped in the back off his car as it was being driven off by a teenage thief who claimed to be looking at furniture at the Lions clubrooms. The story tells of the thief grabbling John’s keys and leaping into the driver’s seat of his car.
John jumped into the back seat and held on for dear life as the car sped off, then threatened to hit the thief on the head with a glass lamp conveniently at hand.
Remarkably, he persuaded the offender to return to the clubrooms, but a wary John refused to get out of the car for a full 30 minutes. Faced with an irate Scotsman clearly prepared to sit it out, the thief eventually gave up and left. Months later, the offender received his comeuppance when a judge slapped him with seven months’ home detention.
John joined the Alexandra Lions in 1968 and transferred to Cambridge when he arrived here to open his funeral business in 1976.
Ever the wag, his preferred turn of phrase was tied to his profession.
“People introduce me like this … ‘meet John Milne, he’ll be the last person to let you down’,” he grinned.
