Second from the left, Westport Lion Jim Scala presenting a donation to Athens Lions President Todd Evans and Kevin and George Tackaberry from the Westport Lions’ Reuse and Recycle Centre.
Lion Jim McGlade represented Wayne Bent as Zone 30 South Chair presented the Athens club with a plaque commemorating their 60 years anniversary as a club from District A4.
Chris Hagan and his team of horses graciously offered to transport Santa at the Westport Lions Santa Claus parade.
Westport Lions Roar
By Lion Bob Reddick
On Tuesday, November 22, eight Lions from Westport attended the Athens Lions Appreciation Night. Lion Jim McGlade represented Wayne Bent as Zone 30 South Chair presented the Athens club with a plaque commemorating their 60 years anniversary as a club from District A4.
Later in the evening, Westport Lion Jim Scala presented President Todd Evans of the Athens Club with a cheque in appreciation of the generous support of Kevin & George Tackaberry. Kevin and George allow the Westport Lions to use their building at 5229 Salem Road free of charge for the club’s Reuse and Recycle Centre. Knowing that the Tackaberry family would not personally accept a donation, the club decided to donate to the Athens’ club to show its appreciation.
The highlight of the general meeting on Wednesday, November 23 was the induction of new Lions Peter Minnelli and Bruce Paterson. Both are recent residents to the area and have already proven that they have a keen interest in serving our community in various ways. There will be an introductory bio on each of these Lions in future articles.
On Friday, November 25 at Westport’s WAC Christmas market, a team of Lions served free hot chocolate, sold Christmas cakes, and collected money for the Westport food bank.
Later that night, 14 Lions attended a great junior hockey game between Westport Rideaus and the South Grenville Rangers. At the game, the club collected non-perishable food and money for the local food bank.
When the Lions arrived at the rink, there was already a heaping table of food donated by the South Grenville Rangers. What a generous gesture!
During the parade, the Lions collected food, money, and toys for the toy drive. The total raised at all three Lion food bank events this past weekend was $1,608.50. Another $936.40 was donated to the toy drive, plus a significant number of toys.
This year Lion Marty created a brochure listing the parade participants, highlighting our sponsors, and giving a short bio on our parade judges. Marty numbered all brochures and told the children he would give a $50 bill to the child with the winning brochure number. Lion Marty called a friend and asked him to give him a number between 1 and 200. His friend said, “173.” Emerson McNaul held the winning brochure.
Scheuermann Vineyard and Winery won the top prize for the float that best displayed the theme – Old Country Western Christmas. The Opinicon received honourary mention, and the best overall float went to Edward and Taggart Farms.
The Westport Lions thank all participants, volunteers and sponsors that helped to make the parade successful. A special thank you to the young people that volunteered to help with the parade; one of the youngest being Issac Araujo, grandson of Lions Barb Fritz and George Jones.
“Theo Pedherney and Haiden Bresee started helping at 9:00 a.m. and didn’t finish until the end of the parade,” says Marty Hawkins, “It was tremendous that you could trust these two young men. You ask them to do something, and it was done.”
Also, the club appreciates Clermont Venture Corp. that allowed us to use the Circle K/Esso parking lot as a staging area and Rikki’s Repairs lot for additional parking. Of course, we cannot forget Santa that took time from his busy schedule to come to Westport.
With nearly 50 different units in the parade, chief organizer Lion Marty Hawkins said, “I was blown away, the parade far exceeded my expectations.”
It was indeed a great team effort, but without Marty’s leadership and his ability to rally the troops, it wouldn’t have been such a success. What a wonderful week of activities to start the Christmas season!
Westport Lions Club 