Three members of the Kindersley Centennial Lions Club branch are joined by members of the Eston 95 Lions Club at a meeting on Oct. 16 at the Kindersley & District Plains Museum. Left to right, Theresa Japp, Sharon Johnson, local member Allen McKinnon, branch club president Rheana Luimes, local member Michelle Conway, Karen Holmes and Marion Andrews.
Kenneth Brown
of The Clarion
Kindersley has a new Lions Club branch and the clubs current members are now serving the community and trying to grow the club to obtain its charter.
There are several ways to support a community, and joining a service club or fraternal organization is one way to give back. Membership is down for most service clubs, so people could help by joining their local clubs or organizations if they have any time to spare.
Service clubs have done a lot for communities and several smaller communities would not have different events or amenities without their clubs. Local clubs and organizations have been featured over a series of articles this year.
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The Kindersley Centennial Lions Club was first established in 2017 and it is a branch club of the Eston 95 Lions Club. A club needs a minimum of 20 members to apply for a full charter and the club in Kindersley only had a handful of members to start, so members had to form a branch club under a sponsor.
In its first year, the Kindersley branch club has started its fundraising efforts and helped with a couple of events in the community. Members are now selling tickets for their second annual Calgary Flames Ticket Raffle and Dec. 18 is the draw date.
The ticket raffle package includes four tickets to see the Calgary Flames and New York Rangers on March 15 at the Scotiabank Saddledome, $250 cash and $100 gift card for Boston Pizza. People could contact the Kindersley Centennial Lions using its Facebook page if they would like raffle tickets.
What’s more, the club is looking to grow and people who are interested to join or speak to current members to get more information could also contact the club on Facebook. The current members are younger members of the community.
According to a long-time Lions Club member, the clubs are groups of service-minded men and women that are interested in improving their communities. With more than 1.45 million members in 204 countries around the world, it is the world’s largest service organization. The service club was established in Chicago in 1917.
The clubs support youth through donations to recreational facilities and programs. The clubs also support a wide range of emergency and community groups and causes through donations in their areas. “We serve” is the club’s motto.
Lions Clubs have always been focused on vision care needs, but that focus has expanded over time. Lions Clubs across Saskatchewan support the CNIB, Lions Eye Bank of Saskatchewan, and the Saskatchewan Lions Foundation with its four primary goals to support STARS Air Ambulance, provide equipment to the Pediatric Ophthalmology Unit at the Children’s Hospital, provide bursaries to visually impaired post secondary students and finance special treatments.
There is also the Lions Foundation of Canada. The national foundation operates the Canada Dog Guides program and the organization provides dog guides to Canadians for free. The guides are for people who have visual and hearing impairments, diabetes, autism, epilepsy and other special needs.
Local clubs are part of zones and districts within provincial or regional boundaries. All clubs are a part of Lions Clubs International and the international foundation contributes to global disaster relief and humanitarian needs.
Rheana Luimes, current president of the new branch club in Kindersley, said the club’s members are brainstorming recruitment strategies as they try to grow. The club meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 6:30 p.m. The club has been meeting at the Kindersley & District Plains Museum, but the venue could change.
The president said membership is open to anyone willing to uphold the values of the Lions Club and help out with the club’s initiatives. The branch club is a unisex club, so both women and men are able to join.
People who join the club will not be expected to help with everything. Luimes said club officials realize people are busy with other commitments, so members are only asked to help when they have the time. The time commitments include a monthly meeting and volunteer efforts, but she recognized that more hands help to spread out the commitment.
Luimes said the club could do more to help the community with more members, but the club has to pick and choose its activities based on what is attainable with its numbers. Luimes has been a member of the club for about a year, and she joined to give back.
“I’m basically just more familiar with the Lions Club, itself, because it is so well established and in so many communities,” she said, recognizing she became aware of the club during last year’s Calgary Flames Ticket Raffle. “I was looking for a service club to join, so that was an easy one to reach out to.”
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