By Hollie Harris
Lions are members of the world’s largest and most active service organisation. This is a group of volunteer men and women who give their time and skills to help the community.
When Tewantin Noosa Lions Club began, members were seen in the public arena helping locals in need with services such as mowing lawns, house painting, tidying yards and adding onto our local facilities in public parks, such as the Noosaville Lions Park.
In a changing world, the services of the Lions have evolved with what the community needs.
Back in 1990, Lions launched SightFirst whereby Lions were able to restore sight and prevent blindness on a global scale by raising more than $415 million.
Closer to home here, Tewantin Noosa Lions have been impacting the lives of hundreds of families throughout our community.
In the late 1970s members constructed a raised area in the area we now call the Lions Park. It was to serve as a stage for concerts and the annual Country Music Festival.
Over the years, the area evolved into what it is today, with Lion John Crossley being project chairman to oversee the long and difficult task of working with council and benefactors to revamp the stage area into a permanent stage and roof.
In 1975, the club purchased its very first catering van. It was an old relic which needed plenty of work to fit it out with cupboards and a kitchen, as well as a good paint job to transform it into Tewantin Noosa Lions Club’s first mobile kitchen.
In 1992, the Lions club received a letter from Meals on Wheels asking for help. They were in great need of a kitchen to prepare the 120 meals a day and so John Crossley offered to investigate options on behalf of the club. After extensive research and stages of construction, a new building was started a year later.
John was able to raise funds and with the help of an interest free loan, lots of volunteers and plenty of local builders, plumbers, bricklayers and other tradespeople, the project was finished.
Meals on Wheels was able to continue their important work of delivering over one hundred meals a day to those in need.
The club has changed a lot over the last 50 years, yet the foundations laid down by members in the beginning have made a solid base for so many of today’s projects.
