Archive

Orangeville Lions Club celebrating 70 years of community service

May 2, 2019   ·   0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

After seven decades of serving the community, Orangeville Lions Club members have a lot of notches in their collective belt when it comes to projects that have enhanced the town as well as many other not so well known endeavours that have helped the lives of families and individuals.

The local Club received its charter way back in 1949. 

Starting out with 21 members, they began their efforts with initiating school crossing guards in Orangeville and bussing youth to the Fergus swimming pool from 1951 to 1953.

In 1953, they constructed Orangeville’s first outdoor community pool. 

Over the years the Lions have been contributors to several major local projects including Tony Rose Memorial arena, the Town’s first BMX park, and most recently, the addition of the Orangeville Lions SportsPad.

The Orangeville Lions are one of 44,000 Lions Clubs that exist around the world with 1.4 million active members. 

Lions Clubs strive to better their community and also contribute to a larger world effort that assists with programs like SightFirst, which plays a key role in eye care services, disaster relief, humanitarian efforts, and supporting projects and initiatives aimed at supporting the quality of life for those with childhood cancers.

The Club holds its meetings twice each month at the Orangeville Seniors Centre on Bythia St., but for this special anniversary they stepped out for a special evening celebration at the Mill Creek Pub. 

Lions Club District Governor, Elaine Chalmers attended the event to congratulate the Orangeville chapter for their 70 years of service.

There are 44 chapters of the Club in the District  that covers an area from Tobermory to Goderich and Orangeville.

“Windsor was the first Canadian club,” Ms. Chalmers explained. “When that club started it made Lions international. From there it went from town to town as new chapters started.”

Orangeville Club president Bob Dickie said the group is a strong organization and is always seeking new members.

“Right now we have 50 members and five new ones came in last week wanting to be members – including the first female,” Mr. .Dickie said.

He explained that the Club is open to women, but in the early days when membership was available by invitation only, men had a tendency to invite other men. He said he’s glad to have a female member included in the ranks. 

“It started off with a bunch of guys, and they kept inviting more guys. It was never by design, it just happened that way,” he explained. “We decided to start advertising for members, so it’s starting. We do a lot of events. We do around 15 to 20 events every year. Tonight is a celebration of our Club’s 70th anniversary.”

Mr. Dickie said the Club’s current project is a 50 per cent sponsorship for an adventure playground at Island Lake. 

The Lions have many long-time members including former president Wally Pugh who joined the club in 1978.

“It gives me the opportunity to do things for the community that I couldn’t do by myself,” Mr. Pugh said of why he joined and remains a member of the Lions Club. “Everybody together working – it makes things happen. There’s a real feeling of satisfaction, especially with some of the stuff that we do that people don’t know about like the health and welfare issues we do. People need wheelchairs, people need braces for their legs.”

Mr. Pugh is also a former District Governor for the 44 clubs in the District. He held that position in 1989-90. 

“As a Club we meet twice each month. Then there is the executive – they meet for another night,” Mr. Pugh explained. “A lot of our future planning is done by the executive. Then you bring it to the Club and it is discussed there. We discuss how to raise funds, what we need it for, and we report on activities.”

He said there is a lot of satisfaction in seeing the Club’s projects come to fruition in the community.

“We’re finishing off the new sports park with the splash pad and the shelter that’s there now. My grandson is going to play soccer there all summer – it was just a field left there after the development.”

Dufferin-Caledon MP David Tilson recognized the efforts of the Orangeville Lions Club during a session of parliament on April 11.

“I rise today to pay tribute to the Orangeville lions Club as it celebrates its 70th anniversary on April 27,” Mr. Tilson told the House of Commons. “Its history of service to our community is exemplary and its accomplishments are numerous. Over the years, it has worked with many other groups in Orangeville and coordinated many activities. Some examples include the Canadian Cancer Society’s Relay for Life, The Salvation Army’s Christmas kettle campaign, the Orangeville Food Bank, Habitat for Humanity, the Boy Scouts, Choices Youth Shelter, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Headwaters Health Care Centre, Lions Sports Park, the Santa Claus Parade, the Northmen Lacrosse Club, the Wolves hockey team, the Orangeville Legion and Community Living Dufferin and so many more.” 

The Orangeville Lions Club continues to remain a vibrant and highly visible service club in the town while being part of a much larger global effort through their connection to other Lions Clubs around the world.


Readers Comments (0)





Please note: Comment moderation is enabled and may delay your comment. There is no need to resubmit your comment.