- Lions Clubs District 410-A - The Lion of Lions Story

The photo story below is brought to you by DC Clive Fox. To understand just how the Lion of Lions became the Roaring Lion, also read this story.

: Our Lion was constructed from ten fibreglass moulded parts which were then assembled at a Diep River factory

: After polishing and dusting it was sprayed with its undercoat ready for despatch

DC Clive Fox handed over the 10kg Lion to internationally acclaimed artist Riaan van Zyl at his Kalk Bay studio:

: Unloading in Kalk Bay after an interesting journey which attracted much interest from tourists and locals alike

: Riaan bought the world maps from second hand book shops and markets, carefully cut out each country, applied glue and stuck them on the model

: Lion Llen Labuscagne records the process for the television documentary for CTTV

Riaan paints the Lion’s mane and then it is collected and delivered to Progressive Electronics in Goodwood. After a few days of planning the Lion of Lions is then converted to the ‘Roaring Lion” – an idea generated by DC Clive Fox to attract greater public interest.

: Riaan paints the Lion’s mane

: A relaxed Riaan at the V & A Waterfront after touching up his artwork. The other decorated Lion entries can be seen in the background

: Mounted on a three ply baseboard the Lion’s Lion is ready to go on display and Lion Judy young was there to give a hand

Our first technical hitch was resolved by fitting the Lion with a rechargeable small battery. But it could not cope with demand and was finally replaced with a 12 volt battery hidden under an upturned wine box supplied by Vaughan Johnson at the Wine Shop.

: On the way for public display at the Food Court entrance at the Waterfront

: In position but without the promised mains electricity

: Powering up

Then we needed the services of locally based Lions to empty the coin box and do any minor repairs so Lions Alan Abrahamson (Kirstenbosch) and Lion Janine (Sea Point) offered to assist.

On completion of the public display the Lion was moved to an interim storage area, tidied up and the coin unit removed prior to being auctioned at Moyo Restaurant. The auction took place during MD Convention so the event was only recorded for the television programme. The successful bidder Mr Deon Conradie CEO of RandTrust bought it for R10000 because both he and his children liked it so much.