Lions have always been ready to help. Whether it’s during disasters, helping those who were down on their luck or just because the club saw a need in the community.
The club was chartered in May of 1964 and sponsored by the Lions Club of Mount Gambier. The first President was Doug Mitchell and since then the club has been proud to have a different President every year but one. It showed the commitment by club members to sharing the job around and some very conscientious Secretaries and Treasurers to back up the President.
Here are a few photos showing Lions at work.
Lions are good at building things. Here’s a few members pouring the concrete for the new clubrooms in the community area on Fifth Street, Millicent.
Lions have run the Lions Family Fun Day in George St for a few years (Covid has meant cancellation in 2020, 2021) and for one year we built go- carts (Lions are just bigger boys) and it was necessary to test them out.
One of the ongoing projects for a number of years was the alternate year fundraisers to Birdsville. The idea was to encourage other Lions Clubs to join us and fundraise prior and during the trip. Large sums of money were donated. Our club fundraising included dinner dances, raffles and barbeques.
The tractor in this photo (a 1950s Farmill) especially renovated for the trip is now located in the Millicent museum after being driven from Port MacDonnell to Birdsville almost non stop by a roster of club members.
The Road Traffic school build commenced in 1967 and took two years to complete. For many years the schools of the district received lessons from a trainer who visited from Adelaide’s Road Traffic Safety Centre. When this ceased in the late 90s a volunteer group took over the training of school children and Wattle Range Council took over management and maintenance. Many families now use it to provide bicycle safety training and as a nice place for birthday parties.
In 2019 the building was renovated using grants from 141 Forestry and the work of our Lions members and the then Mayor Peter Gandolfi.
Catering is an important part of the club’s revenue and the purchase of a new catering van was an important step. The van has all the facilities required to feed the community with hot dogs, steaks, donuts, chips, fish and whatever the cooks come up with.
Looking around the town in addition to those above, we can see Lions’ projects such as the cover on the courthouse, the barbeque area in Jubilee Park, the toilets in Jubilee Park, the cover over the train in the museum, and playgrounds (now removed for safety reasons)