New Lions leader
The Warragul Lions Club held its annual changeover dinner at the Warragul Country Club recently.
The night was a great success and enjoyed by those that attended.
President Brian Grist was re-installed as president, as was secretary Geoff Anderson. New member Simon Rabl was installed as treasurer.
Brian thanked the many people and organisations who have assisted the Lions Club in having a successful year.
These included Andrew Werner and Duncan McNeil who provided wood for the firewood project, the committee of the Lardner Field Days, the businesses and organisations which supported the Lions Mints project, a local butcher for their continuing support and several other businesses and organisations who had assisted in many ways throughout the year.
Brian praised the members of the Lions Club for the manner in which they had gone about their duties throughout the year. His words “give a Lion a job and the job gets done” emphasised how important Lions are to the community.
“It is hard to put a figure on how much an hour it would cost for the achievements that are gained and how many fewer there would be if pay rates, workers compensation, penalty rates, holiday pay, sick leave to be made,” he said.
“Without Lions and other service clubs and organisations, how poorer our community would be.”
Allocations of funds have been made for the past year and the major donation was to the West Gippsland Health Group towards an ultrasound machine for the maternity ward. Other donations were made to Sonshine Toy Library, Scope, Baw Baw Food Relief, West Gippsland Eistedfodd and many more.
Twelve children were sent to camp at Licola in January and Warragul Lions has a house at the village for which it is responsible for the upkeep and maintaining it in a good condition.
Other youth programs included the junior public speaking awards and assistance to schools for various projects.
A new project taken on by the Lions Club this year was a book fair and this will continue in the years ahead.
Other new projects are envisaged and several of these are hands on involving the local community.
The Warragul Lions Club is the largest Lions Club in Gippsland, and president Brian spoke about the strength of a Lions Club being its membership.
“It is important that the club grows in numbers, particularly with young and energetic members,” he said.
“New members are most welcome and anyone who believes that they would enjoy Lions is welcome to come along to a meeting, which is held at the Warragul Country Club on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month.
“While fundraising is important, it is more important that the members enjoy coming to Lions and enjoying fellowship with the other members.”