Brooklin District Lions Club

Lions International - District A-16 - Zone 18 East

President Brian Irvine — Secretary-Treasurer Neil Wick

The Brooklin District club was begun in 1986 joining over 1.4 million other members in over 180 countries worldwide, thanks to the work of our sponsor, the Whitby Lions Club. Through the combined efforts of all of the members of our club, Brooklin District Lions have contributed over $220,000 and many hours of service for the betterment of our local, regional, national, and worldwide communities. We share the Town of Whitby with the Whitby club, and generally restrict our local activities to Brooklin, Ashburn, Myrtle and the surrounding area. The following paragraphs give just a few highlights of our major projects.

We Serve in our local community:

through sponsorship of local children's sports teams in Brooklin and Ashburn, planting of bulbs along major roadways, and much more, like our own Assistive Devices Maintenance Program, which helps local residents maintain expensive mobility equipment such as motorized wheelchairs. In conjunction with the Town of Whitby, we've purchased an elevator for the Brooklin Community Centre and a ramp at the entrance to the Brooklin library.

We Serve in our regional community:

· Brooklin District Lions is proud to have been the driving force that got the Lions/Quest skills programs going in the Durham District School Board. These programs teach young students important life skills, like dealing with peer pressure.
· Together with other clubs in the area, we've done many other projects like Lions Clubs Camp Kirk in Kirkfield, which provides wonderful development opportunities for Children with Learning Disabilities.
· We've been contributing towards the purchase of additional dogs for the Durham Regional Police Canine Unit for the last couple of years. There is a picture on our site of one of the police dogs "marching" with the Lions in the Brooklin Spring Fair parade.
· We've also given major support to organ donor awareness by way of Through Cooperation Organ Donor Awareness Program of Ontario. Brooklin District Lions members have been actively involved in transporting donated eyes to the Ontario Eye Bank in Toronto.

We Serve in our national community:

through the Lions Foundation of Canada (LFC). The major project of the LFC is the Dog Guide training school of Canine Vision Canada in Oakville, Ontario. Brooklin District Lions has fully sponsored five Dog Guides for blind people through LFC.

We Serve in the world community:

With our brother Lions from around the world, we contribute to the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF). Taking up Helen Keller's challenge of many years ago, Lions International has begun an ambitious program to eliminate all preventable blindness worldwide in a program called SightFirst. Brooklin District Lions provided major funds to initiate this program, contributing more per member than any other club in our zone.

Fund-raising activities

Our principal fund-raising activity is a monthly bingo held at the Hideaway Bingo Hall in Whitby. We have also run a popular Crown and Anchor wheel (or in our case, a Lion and Anchor wheel) at the Brooklin Spring Fair, and we do various other fund-raising activities from time to time.

Meetings

Meetings are called by the persident. Join us! For information, call Brian at 905-655-8754.

Any questions? Contact the webmaster, Lion Neil Wick (neil@wick.net).