Sidney Lions Club members welcome their district counterparts this weekend, to a convention marking 100 years since the international service club was founded.
Local Lion Bob Orchard says Club members from Vancouver Island and northern Washington State — in fact all Clubs in their District 19-I — have been invited to the convention, being held April 21 to 23 at the Mary Winspear Centre and SHOAL Centre in Sidney.
Orchard said members have been invited to dress in period costume, based on the Lions Club founding year of 1917.
While in Sidney, the Lions will be engaged in forums and workshops, as well as an awards and activities evening. Club annual reports will be presented Saturday with special lunchtime speaker Bob McDonald, host of the CBC’s Quirks and Quarks program. The main banquet that evening will feature guest speaker Patti Hill, a past-president of Lions International who is from Edmonton.
Sunday’s finale, Orchard said, is a celebration of life for Lions who had dies in the past year. That celebration will take place at the SHOAL Centre.
Since 1917, the Lions Club has worked and raised money to support a variety of local, national and international humanitarian works. As of April this year, there were 1.4 million club members in 210 countries and locations world-wide.