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North Delta Lions Club celebrates 50 years of service

The club has been a community fixture for a half century building parks and supporting folks in need
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In August of 2015, North Delta Lions Club members John Hoefer, Rob Hebden, Al Clarke and Rob Jensen served up a tasty breakfast during an annual Show ‘n’ Shine Car Show at Sungod Recreation Centre. (Gord Goble/Surrey Now-Leader file photo)

By Gary Kingston, North Delta Lions Club

The first project undertaken by the newly formed group was the building of a bus stop bench at 88th Ave. and Scott Road.

A half century later, there isn’t a pocket of North Delta that hasn’t been impacted by the call to service, the financial generosity and the community spirit of the local Lions Club.

The North Delta Lions, who have helped fund new playgrounds at Sunbury and Annieville parks, got the ball rolling on the now heavily-utilized Kennedy Seniors Centre and who annually organize the Family Day parade and the Easter Egg Hunt, will hold their 50th Anniversary Charter Night dinner Friday (Nov. 17) at the Kennedy. Notably, two charter members, Gordon Jones and Marv Boyter, are still active in the club.

Over the years, the North Delta Lions have raised and distributed hundreds of thousands of dollars while supporting a wide cross-section of community organizations, hospitals and hospices, as well as hundreds of individuals in need.

While the major projects and community events afford the club some profile, a significant chunk of what the club does receives no publicity — the car donated to a struggling mother, financial help for a young adult who required a glass eye, $1,000 to the family of a youngster who needed to travel to New York for treatment of a rare disease, another $1,000 to a single father whose hearing-impaired son needed a special program for his computer.

It’s why immediate past-president Terry Rigby recently called the club one of North Delta’s “best-kept secrets.”

“I didn’t know anything about it until I was asked a few years ago to help at Ladies Diamond Night (a key club fundraiser) as a waiter.”

He was quickly hooked, drawn in by the opportunity to give back and the camaraderie of club members.

“I emigrated to Canada (from England) 50 years ago and it’s the greatest country in world. Both my kids were born here, grew up and went through the university system and I just wanted to make sure we gave something back. It’s as simple as that.

“It’s purely volunteer, you do as much or as little as you want. Nobody says you’ve got to do this or that. And you’re giving back to the community and get the satisfaction of putting a smile on somebody’s face.”

Says Jones: “We’ve proven to be successful. And I think it has to do with the fact that a lot of us are friends. Instead of becoming competitive … in terms of “I can run a better Family Day than you ever did’ or ‘give me the Easter Egg Hunt because you screwed it up last year,’ none of that ever happened to us.”

It was Lions Club International zone chairman John Fry of the Whalley Lions Club who suggested back in the fall of 1967 that North Delta should have a club. A group of 10 men, including Boyter and Jones, held the first organizational meeting Sept. 28. The charter night was held two months later.

By January, 1969, the club had 35 members. The Lions organized dances, casino nights and skate-a-thons, rewired an elderly couple’s home, sponsored an Air Cadet squadron and purchased equipment for community sport groups. The club has also been a long-time supporter of Lions’ Camp Horizon, which is just across the border in Whatcom County and provides recreational opportunities for individuals with developmental and physical disabilities.

“We do stuff that doesn’t sound like a lot at the moment,” said Jones, 83. “I don’t know what we do on an annual basis, but it’s in the thousands of dollars. So, over 50 years, it’s a lot of money.

“We’ve given I don’t know how many thousands of dollars in (high school) bursaries over the years, $500 (a year) to each of the high schools. The Christmas hampers, we’ve donated $1,000 a year for a long time now.”

Club members have also become experienced pancake and burger flippers, frequently utilizing the club’s grills and fryers to provide food at school carnivals as well as community barbecues and breakfasts.

For years, the Family Day parade finished up at Annieville Park, where the club was a key contributor in the building of the BBQ area and the kids water park which opened in 1991. This year, a natural climbing structure and zip line, funded by the club, the City of Delta and Otter Co-Op, was opened at the park.

Perhaps the club’s biggest achievement was Kennedy House, the original seniors’ drop-in centre operating out of a donated home on 88th Avenue. In the mid-70s, members and their wives put in hundreds of hours of work into renovations and upgrading. In the mid-80s, the club led a $275,000 funding drive to construct additional building space on the site for a hall, a cafeteria, a woodworking shop, a basement billiards room and storage space. Since then, the cafeteria at the renamed Kennedy Seniors Recreation Centre has served as the Lions’ regular meeting room.

Speaking of seniors, it’s a label that now accurately reflects the club’s membership and serves to highlight one of the challenges moving forward.

Jones, who remained with the club despite moving to Surrey some 40 years ago, says the average age of club members was between 30 and 35 back in the early days. Now, half the 30 currently active members — only one of whom is a women — are 75 or older, including six who are 82 or older. Only three members are younger than 50.

Rejuvenating the membership is an issue service clubs and legions around the world are struggling with. The Ladner Lions folded several years ago, with the few remaining members moving to the North Delta club. In 2014, the Peace Arch Monarchs Lions Club, which began in 1986 when the original White Rock Lions Club folded after 39 years, disbanded when it couldn’t attract any new people to help the eight members who remained.

“Our club is getting older,” says Tim Major, 69, and one of 11 active past-presidents. “They’ve been very dedicated, but we need younger members. We need to get people who want to be involved.”

The club meets on the second and fourth Monday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Kennedy Seniors’ Recreation Centre. Those interested in finding out more information can contact membership chairman Stephen Cant at stephenrcant@gmail.com or at 604-599-0307.