Lions mark 75 years

Special event planned in Chippawa for club that has served community for decades

The Chippawa Lions Club will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a full day of events at its Welland Street address Saturday.

One of the highlights will be a Heart Niagara bike-safety rodeo between 10:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Heart Niagara officials will go over the principles of bicycle safety, including the Highway Traffic Act, positioning on the roadway, safety equipment, signalling and turns.

Participants who bring their own bicycle can practice their bike-handling skills in a controlled parking-lot setting. Helmets are mandatory.

Other highlights include an indoor and outdoor craft show with more than 20 crafters between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.; a kids activity area with a bouncy house between 11:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.; live entertainment and skate-board demonstrations between noon and 4 p.m.; and a time capsule opening ceremony between 2 p.m. and 2:30 p.m.

There will be free hot dogs and french fries between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

The Chippawa Lions Club has a long legacy of service to the community.

It has helped people with special needs attend camp so families can attend vacations.

These camps include Camp Dorset (a dialysis camp), Camp Lake Joseph (a camp for the blind), Camp Trillium (a camp for people with cancer) and several others.

The club also supports Lion’s Quest, a school-based life-skills program for children from kindergarten to Grade 12.

The club also assists organizations and families in need by donating funds that help in project delivery.

Some of its greatest accomplishments include the establishment of the Chippawa Lions Park and the building of the Chippawa Lions Community Centre, located at 3970 Welland St.

In 1999, the club established the Chippawa Lions Fitness Pathway with Heart Niagara and the community.

Lions Club International will also be celebrating an anniversary this year — its 100th.

There are more than 46,000 Lions clubs in 207 countries or geographical areas in the world.

Members get involved in local projects such as maintaining parks, sponsoring local sports teams, helping a neighbour less fortunate and causes near and dear to their own local community.

Evan Keays, past president of the lions club and chairman of the 75th anniversary committee, said 75 years is a milestone for any service club.

“We don’t get any money from the government to help individuals. We have to raise money,” he said.

“Seventy-five years of raising money to help the community I think is quite the milestone.”

Keays said if it wasn’t for lions clubs, some people would have to pay for certain items or services out of their own pocket.

“We can’t afford to pay for everything, but we try to help everybody as best we can, based on their situation,” he said, adding Saturday’s schedule of events is a “thank you to the community.”

Keays said like any other service club, the lions club has members “who are getting older and younger guys don’t seem to have the time right now, with their families and everything, to put in that effort.

“Of course we’re losing members as they get older, but we’re always hopeful — we had a few new members this year that are younger, and we also started accepting women into the lions club the last few years, so we have a co-ed thing now with the husbands/wives, and stuff like that. It’s helping … but we could always use more help.”

Keays said the club has about 45 members on its roster, “but some of them are quite older, so I’d say there’s about 35 that are active.”