Story:The District Governor from Lions International, Ken Grummett, was in Yorkton recently, to visit local Lions clubs and share the International President Wing Kun Tam's theme of "I Believe," and talk about the things happening throughout the district.
One of the focuses for the Lions in this district is helping the blind, and Grummett notes that this year they purchased vehicles for the CNIB, as well as continuing their long term support of service dogs. Grummett notes that the dogs can help many people, including the blind but also people, who are hearing impaired, need special skills, or autistic children. With the dogs for the autistic, it's a new project, he says it allows the parents to live normal lives, as while the kids might have a tendency to bolt normally, the dogs prevent that from happening, and effectively act as a way to make sure the parent knows where the child is at all times.
When the parent says stay, the dog sits down, and he won't move. It gives the parent a little bit of relief," Grummett says.
He also notes that one of the goals of the group involves the environment, specifically the planting of trees. While the president set a goal of planting one million trees worldwide, the Lions have exceeded that goal and have planted six million, and want to continue on that path and continue working to improve the environment.
There remain challenges for service clubs like the Lions, Grummett admits, and one of those is recruiting younger members.
"A lot of the younger members don't want to go to structured meetings. We might have to have a Lions meeting as an internet club, we have them in the states, we have campus clubs and we're trying to start some in Saskatchewan... A lot of younger folks don't have the money if they're going to University, but they will come out and help on service projects."
He says that the challenge is to get youth interested from an early age, and also points out the Pelly Leos Club, which sees youth from 12-28 do their own project as part of the larger Lions organization. He sees it as a way to get youth involved and continue to be interested as they get older. Grummett says that keeping people involved in the club and the many projects they do is the only way to keep them interested in the future and continuing the work the Lions do.
Grummett was impressed by the turnout during his visit, and says that visiting clubs is one of the highlights of his year.
