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CLUB HISTORY

Our  Lions Club was chartered in October 1998, with a membership of 21 men and women with Mahone Bay Area lions Club as sponsor. We serve the communities of Chester, Chester Basin and New Ross and their surrounding communities. With a current membership of 23, we have a balanced representation from the three main areas we serve.  Although a relatively new club, we are very active and take part in many service activities which better the communities we serve.

While attempting to form a club in the spring of 1998, the Mahone Bay & Area Lions Club, including a number of our prospective Lions, held two service projects. A Barney the Dinosaur concert was held at Chester District School to raise money for specialized equipment for a hearing impaired child at that school. This was a very successful project. We also held a shop-free at the Chester Save Easy that raised money for service activities. These two projects of our sponsoring club helped increase public awareness about the work of Lions Clubs.

Our active involvement at all levels of Lionism has resulted in our club receiving  some major awards. Lion Frank Meister was awarded the runner-up best secretary award for 1999-2000 and the best secretary in 2005-06. In 2001, 2003 and again in 2006, the club was awarded the Rose Bowl at the winter cabinet meeting. The Rose Bowl is based upon the number of members in attendance, distance per member, attendance of the president and secretary and percentage of club members in attendance.

Our club’s bulletin was  named best bulletin for four consecutive years 2000-04. For the 2001-02 Lions year, Lion Sandra Zwicker was named runner-up best president. We received the trophy for best public relations for the 2000-01 and 2003-04 years. Our club won the best club trophy in 2001-02, 2002-03 and again in 2005-06.  The visitation trophy was awarded to the CB/NR/C Lions Club for the 2002-03 year.  PDG  Charles Uhlman  was awarded the individual visitation trophy for 2005-06. A hearing ear dog plaque, that is based on the largest per member contributions to Lions Foundation of Canada's hearing ear dog program, was also presented to our club for the 2002-03 Lion's year. The diabetes award for 2007-08 was presented to our club.

At the  Fall Cabinet  Meeting  in  2010   our  club  received the Best Website award and the Walk for Dog Guides Trophy.  A photo submitted by Lion Jim Barkhouse came in second in the environmental photo contest.

Two major projects  were the Lions Park at Shoreham Village Home for Special Care in Chester and the New Ross Lions Park across from the school in New Ross.  The club was a model club for Campaign SightFirst II, having donated $(US)9,200.  We have sponsored two hearing ear dogs, a Canine Vision  Canada  dog and a special skills dog. We donated $5,000 to the Chester Rink Complex and pledged $5,000 each to the New Ross Sports Complex and donated  $5,000 to the SSRH towards the purchase of a cancer detecting stainer. Our club continues to support many community service projects, the CNIB, VON , Walk for Dog Guides (over $30,000 raised in ten years)  and Relay for Life.