History

The Victoria Lions Club was chartered September 28, 1966 with 24 members. The first regular membership meeting was held at the Victoria Cafe at 6:30pm.  With only booths for seating, and the small cafe open for regular business this proved to be difficult at best.  Lion Secretary Kenneth (Whitey) Wellens, single and employed only a half block from the new city hall, decided that to save our club from failure he would try a plan where we would set our own tables, prepare our own meals and do our own dishes.  Lion Whitey would at his noon hour break put a rolled beef roast (Whitey's secret recipe) along with potatoes into the oven at the hall kitchen.  It would be ready by meeting time.  Other lion members would often introduce their dinners with the help of their wives to give us some variety.  It would be the President and Officer's responsibility to set up and have things ready for the dinner meeting.  Clean up was a joint effort with all members assisting and washing dishes.

Original 24 Charter Members:

Pat Aretz, Jim Fink, Milton Fink, Larry Hanson, Curt Hardy, Erwin Holtmeier, Jerome Kirsch, Tom Kirsch, Walter Kroening, George Moore, Henry Newman, John Noterman, E.B. Plocher, Wilfred Plocher, Gary Schiltz, Floyd Schmid, Gerald Schmieg, Leo Schneider, Tom Schneider, Leonard Schrempp, Paul Stans, Florian Tschimperle, Sylvester Vogel, Ken Wellens

Charter Officers: