What an amazingly busy year we have had in 2018/19. In this past year, we have had at least one member attend or participate in 103 events of some description – ranging from dinner, lunch and working meetings, ceremonies and awards, working bees, barbecues, Cubs Club meetings, to district meetings and other club handovers. So, to say that our club is a busy one, averaging almost 2 events per week for the year, is an obvious understatement.
This couldn’t be accomplished without an amazing group of members, partners, family support and friends of Lions, who although they may not want to join our club, they are willing to assist us when needed. I’d also like to acknowledge and thank members of other clubs such as Adelaide Hellenic, Prospect-Blair Athol and Paralowie, who have generously volunteered their time to assist us with our events from time to time.
So thank you everyone for your time and effort!
It has been a great honour to again lead this club as President and have your support and I’ll look back fondly at all that we have accomplished, especially by enjoying the ‘Year in Review’ published (make sure you have a look when you get a chance).
At this time last year, I wanted to aim at accomplishing two (2) goals – increasing our membership by ten (10), which we clearly exceeded as we inducted seventeen (17) new members; and, increasing our enjoyment of meetings.
I hope I’ve achieved this by trying some new things, such as quiz times (maybe with the odd incorrect/debatable answer or two (2)), speed charades, finals footy theme and the variety of guest speakers culminating in our largest attended dinner meeting in my short time as a Lion with fifty-one (51), and being entertained by Magician, Steve Presto, last month.
I’m a believe in doing things differently, taking a chance and seeing ourselves evolve because this is what we need to do to continue to be relevant and be a community of choice for people to want to be part of.
The new members inducted this year were: Amir, Bita, Lyn, David, Kristy, Nikki, Carla, Peter, Cathy, Dipson, Kristian, Stephanie, Jim, Jen, Rizwan, Josh and Tash. What a bunch of brave souls to join our chaos!
Unfortunately, we lost a few members this year for various reasons: Jess, Sangita, Chakra, Peter and Martin.
And, again, we pay our respects to Murray (Lynne) Skinner, who passed away a couple of months ago. I would like to thank these Lions for their time and effort in the club.
The exposure of the club is ever-expanding. As you flick through the ‘Year in Review’, you’ll see a sea of red, which is just marvelous. We are requested over and over again due to our presence on Facebook and the each of which people can find our website.
Our club finds itself being well represented throughout the district, both through our actions of doing things differently, and those having a positive effect, and 3 of our members are now on District Cabinet – myself, Petrea and Tony. I love what our club is doing and being a district leader in many ways.
Our other achievements have made a huge impact on our community. Allow me to share them, in no particular order:
- Expansion of the Hear Me Roar! Project – expanding our reach of where our care packs and cushions go and the the addition of book bags to encourage and promote youth literacy amongst South Australia’s disadvantaged and vulnerable;
- Collaboration with Walford Girls School – where many students from years 3 to 10 volunteer their time to make our cushions. This has the potential for becoming a Leos Club for us in the future, and;
- The establishment of our Cubs Club – The Little Roarers Cubs Club. We have a lot of eyes in our district, nationally and internationally, watching us as to how we develop this program. We have already been approached by other clubs within our district to collaborate and work with our model to establish their own Cubs Clubs. Conversations that I have online with other international clubs to understand how we run this, is also increasing.
It’s really becoming spine-tingling as to the impact we can have on how to capture the minds of kids to want to serve as well as establishing more programs for clubs to include their children in their projects.
In just this year, we have fundraised across various methods, such as twenty-two (22) barbecues or breakfasts (thank you to Petrea for co-coordinating those events with me), selling of cakes, puddings, mints and wine (thank you to Dean, Greg and Beck for coordinating those).
We have donated our time and proceeds to five (5) working bees (thanks to Petrea for coordinating these), providing eight (8) dinners and breakfasts to the homeless (thanks to Warren and Alex for coordinating these), the Little Roarers Cubs Club (thanks to Petrea for coordinating these), and our awards for the Children of Courage and SAPOL Citizen of the Year (thanks to Petrea and Warren for coordinating these). All of these projects are going strong and they’ll continue to be strong in the coming years.
So, tonight begins a new and exciting chapter in the long history of our club, where the first female will be inducted as President, and it makes me so proud to pass the baton to Petrea for 2019/20. I know she’ll do an amazing job.
Thank you.
Andrew Stacey
President
2017-2019