In this day and age with shrinking populations and competing interests from various sources, service clubs everywhere are facing many challenges including the need to attract new members to help them carry out their work.
This is the place in which the Liverpool Lions Club finds itself these days. The club, which received its charter in 1964, has been around some 55 years and once had dozens of members carrying out its many projects in the community.
Today, the Liverpool club has 16 members, but even with a smaller membership, president Gordon O’Hearn says they still manage to do a great deal of work and have a huge impact on the community.
“Problem is, there are no new young members coming in to take our place and to help do the work,” O’Hearn says. “But even though we are small in numbers, we still manage to get a lot done and support a lot of causes.”
However, he adds, the Liverpool club and others like them, understand that at some point their organizations will face an uncertain future because of this membership decline.
“The need for new members is not unique to any one club,” he says. “But there is only so much a club can do with shrinking membership. We serve; we give to the community but we need members to do that.”
The need for money is another issue facing many organizations and O’Hearn says the Lions are no different.
“We do a lot of great things in our communities,” he says, “but a lot of what we do requires funds.”
On the South Shore, seven Lions clubs have come together to undertake a major fundraising project in which they share the work and the proceeds they raise. The Lions radio bingo held on CKBW every Wednesday nights from 7 to 8 p.m. is a major fundraising effort for clubs in Lockeport, New Germany, Riverport, New Ross, Mahone Bay, Bridgewater and Liverpool.
O’Hearn explains the money they raise through the bingo is used in various ways including, for example, to purchase glasses for seniors and anyone who needs assistance. They also use the money to purchase groceries, wood fuel for families that have fallen on hard times.
“The bingo is a great project,” he says. “The clubs share the work and we all get a share of the profits. It a good example of cooperation.”
The Liverpool Lions Club, like every other club in their own community, has done so much over the past five and a half decades, to help the community that it would be a major blow if the organization were to cease operations.
For example, the club is a major sponsor of the Privateer Days festival and this past Christmas, the Lions provided 200 gift bags for the nursing home residents in Queens County. The club supports the Hospital Hustle and Queens Place Emera Centre and each year, they give money to the South Shore Health Foundation’s Radiothon.
Recently, they donated funds to the World Junior Curling Championships held in Liverpool in February.
There’s so much that they do, O’Hearn says, pointing out their support of the Salvation Army’s Christmas Kettles and Christmas cheer boxes, the Legion poppy sales and the local food bank. As well, they award three high school bursaries of $1000 each.
“That’s just a small sampling,” he says. “Our mandate is to help wherever there is a need and we will continue to do that. We just hope more people would take an interest.”
If someone wants to join Lions they should call O’Hearn at 902-350-3500.