A brand new Lions Club is being proposed for Wallaceburg and membership recruitment is already underway.
Bob Tanner, a member of the Lions Club in Petrolia, told the Sydenham Current five of their members were in downtown Wallaceburg on Monday talking to community members about starting a new club.
“We had a Wallaceburg club once before about 20 some odd years ago and we had been thinking about where we could put some new clubs,” Tanner said.
“It was on our radar and about two months ago our club here in Petrolia was having our home appraised for insurance. The insurance agent actual lives in Wallaceburg. So he was looking at the projects we do and the things we do and he was quite interested.”
Tanner said the interest led to scheduling a meeting in town, which is taking place tonight (April 25) at 7:10 p.m. in the meeting room above the Wallaceburg and District Museum. Anyone interested in welcome to attend.
“Lion’s clubs are the worlds largest service organization,” Tanner said.
“We do community service. We have 1.4 million members in 210 countries around the world and we are all volunteers. We operate our clubs on our administration money that comes from our own members. Every dollar we raise goes back into the public.”
Tanner said every club has male and female members and each club is autonomous.
“So they would develop their own programs, their own interests,” he said.
Tanner said some of the causes and programs the Lions support are:
– Vision screening in schools
– Sports teams
– Youth programs
– Environmental projects (park clean-up, tree planting)
– Youth cancer
– Diabetes
“As well, our international foundation is a humanitarian foundation,” Tanner said.
“So if there is a disaster anywhere around the world, including Wallceburg, our clubs will participate and help. In the case of a community here, if there was a tornado (for example) and 100 people were displaced from their homes, our district governor can have $10,000 in 24 hours for the use of that community by that Lions Club. So it is quite and advantage to have a Lions Club.”
Tanner said 20-25 members would be needed to start the club.
Membership fees are approximately $85 to $100 per year and there is an initiation fee of approximately $35 to $40.
Tanner said two members of the Petrolia club have volunteered to help the potential Wallaceburg club get off the ground and answer any questions they have while getting started.
“We are a traditional club where we have a dinner meeting. We have guest speakers and we have a business meeting where we deal with things that we need to do in our community,” he said, adding other clubs follow non-traditional formats as well.
He said another goal in Wallaceburg would be to start a Leo Club for the local youth.
“It is for the ages of 12 to 18 and they learn leadership skills,” Tanner said.
It is a really great thing and it is a great way for them to get their volunteer hours for school. They are learning how to give back. We are training leaders.”
Watch for more on this story.
