Garrick Moritz, Gazette
Is there interest in starting a Lions Club in Garretson? That’s the question being posed by Dennis Olson of the Brandon area Lions Club.
“I’ve been a member of the Lions for forty-five years,” Olson said. “I came to Brandon in 1986 as the city finance officer. The Lions Club in Brandon started back in 1964, before the town even became incorporated. You’ll have seen many of the projects we’ve done or had a hand in over the years. McHardy Park, our veterans park, these are just some of the many local projects we’ve had a hand in helping out over the years.”
Olson said that about fifteen years ago, they tried to start a Lions Club in Garretson, but it failed to launch.
“But talking with our district supervisor out of Sioux Falls, there is another option, which is starting a branch club,” he said. “You need twenty members to start a new Lions club, but with a branch club, you only need five members. We already operate club activities in Garretson, and most recently doing eye and hearing tests at the Garretson School, I was told we did tests for 250 students. Several people, some school staff and some community members and business people expressed an interest in the Lions Club. All we need is five new dues-paying members and we can get the Garretson Branch Club going. They would have their own meetings, handle their own finances and do everything a club does, we would just partner on bigger fundraising and community projects together, which would honestly be a good thing for both communities. For the purposes of membership totals and fundraising totals, both clubs would simply be counted together. There have already been ideas proposed by Garretson community members to me that would make great projects for the Garretson Lions Branch Club or for both groups to coordinate with in community partnership. I like the idea of neighbors looking out for each other and working to help improve our communities where we can.”
With this in mind, the Brandon Area Lions Club plans to meet at the Brandon Pizza Ranch on Thursday, Jan. 18th at 6:30 p.m. and will set an agenda for a meeting in Garretson. They plan to host a community meeting in Garretson for the purposes of forming the Garretson Area Lions Branch Club on Monday, Jan. 22 at 6:30 p.m. at the American Legion Post #23 dugout and are inviting any interested community members who are passionate about serving their community to attend and join the Lions, to form the core membership of a new branch club.
“There are many good projects we could do together, and there is a lot of potential here that we should be capitalizing on,” he said. “I’m extremely proud of my 45 years in the Lions, and have seen it make a real difference for the lives of my friends and neighbors. I want that legacy to continue and for Garretson to be a more direct part of that. We will still maintain the things that we do, but I know we can do more and I think we have a lot to offer each other.”
