Kenbridge-Victoria Lions Club - Lions e-Clubhouse

Mac Edmondson

The Victoria Lions Club was organized in 1954 with twenty-five (25) members. Our first president was Courtney Hamlett with three (3) vice presidents, a secretary, a treasurer and several committee chairman.

We met twice monthly and a Board of Directors monthly. Our fund raising consisted of selling Benson Fruit cakes, selling brooms and light bulbs. We met at several different restaurants in Victoria.

In our later years, as many clubs and organization had experienced a drop in membership, we merged with the Lions Club of Kenbridge. We alternated our meetings one month in Kenbridge and one month in Victoria. Our State Conventions alternated from Richmond and Roanoke.

Since 1954, I have served as Zone Chairman, Deputy District Governor, and District Governor in 1960-61. I have attended six (6) State Conventions and three (3) International Conventions (Florida –Melvin Jones, New York – Waldorf Astoria, and Chicago).

Ann and I were married between the State Convention and the International Convention.

I have met and made many new friends over the years and have enjoyed the many years as a club whose motto is “We Serve.”

I would like to mention the highlights and low lights of my years:

As was the custom to visit your Home Club first and then the other clubs in the District.

Did okay with the first club. However, my second visit was with Chatham – well on this particular day, I was visiting my family in Clover and never thought of my official visit to Chatham until we left Clover headed to Victoria. It hit me I’m supposed to be at Chatham at 6:30 and it was 6:00 then. I caught a lot of ribbing.

The highlight of my membership was a few years ago when I was called up and the president presented me with the Melvin Jones Award.

Lions International recognizes outstanding individuals by bestowing on them an award that is named for its founder, Melvin Jones. This Fellowship Award (LCIF) is the highest form of recognition and embodies humanitarian ideas consistent with the nature and purpose of Lionism. The recipient of this award becomes a model because of the exemplary service to his club and the community for which it serves.

Ken Saunders

I was born in Bermuda. They found out I had a sight problem when I was two years old. At two years old I was at my aunt’s house who was babysitting me and other children. She prepared lunch for all the kids to eat; we said grace and she told us to go ahead and eat. And that’s when she noticed I was circling the table with my hands trying to find food. They took me to the doctor and I have been wearing glasses thick as the old fashion coke bottles ever since.

I have had 15 operations on my eyes.

I attended pre-school in Bermuda and middle school and high school in Connecticut. I received a Bachelor’s Degree from Warrick Academy in Bermuda in graphic arts. My second Bachelors degree was in computer technology and I received that from Fairfield University.

I worked as a graphic artist/printer and manager for 19 years in Boston, MA until I lost my sight and then I was forced to retire. I moved to Victoria, VA so I could be closer to my parents.

I also attended the rehab center as a student to learn how to take care of myself as a visually impaired person, and there I met my wife who was teaching at the time.

I have had two guide dogs. The first dog was Baehr who reluctantly I had to retire. My current guide dog is Casper. (The friendly ghost!)

I have been a member of the Kenbridge/Victoria Lions Club since 2001. I started the annual walkathon for the Lions Club; this past November was my 10th anniversary. I am also the tail twister for the club.

During the year I love to work in my vegetable garden; I plant it twice a year. I use to have 4 boys to help me with this but now they are all grown up and moved away. So now I have to do it all myself. I have chickens which I provide eggs for the Salvation Army food bank. I tinker with lawn mowers, chain saws, blowers and all small engines.

I am the cook and my wife does the cleaning.

Marlene Saunders

I was born in New London, WI. the youngest of three children, I have a brother Dennis O'Connell and a sister Janice Robley. I was raised on a small farm and went to a one room country school for 7 years. I really enjoyed that because when you got your work done you could listen to the older children up front while they were getting instructed. At an early age, I was trying to hide my visual problem. I would play base ball and anti anti over and get my glasses broken each time. Finally my Dad said no more ball games because it was becoming too costly. I made some really good friends in grade school that I am still in contact with.

After leaving my one room country school house, I moved to the big city and went to Lincoln School for one year. We had some really nice teachers there one of whom was a Mr. Sheahan who I always thought was so strict. I graduated from New London Senior High. Once again while I was there I tried to hide my visual problem. Kids would speak to me and I did not answer because I thought they were talking to someone else. Finally my favorite teacher asked my sister if I had a visual problem and she told her yes. I was always in her class because I took typing and shorthand, and other business classes.

After graduating high school, I attended Appleton Technical Institute and took more business classes. I graduated in 9 months and at this point I was typing 80 wpm and 120 wpm in shorthand. Not bad for a person who has a visual problem.

I thought it was time for me to go and get a guide dog because I wanted to become more independent. Everywhere I went I had to hold someone's arm and I did not want to do that anymore, so I obtained my first Leader Dog in 1974.

I mentioned Mr. Sheahan previously. He was the principal of the middle school. I went back to New London to visit my Mom and I happened to see him. At this point I did not have a dog, so his Lions Club sponsored me to get a dog.

I moved to Richmond, VA. When I went back the next year, I spoke to their club about dog guides and how beneficial they are. Throughout my career I was on radio and television talking about dog guides. I have had six Leader Dogs in my life and I had to put my last one to sleep due to old age in August 2015. I have not gotten a new dog but I am thinking about it.

I went to the Rehabilitation Center for the Blind. Once you lose your sight, you have to be re-trained to learn how to do different things. Such as cleaning, identifying money, cooking, Braille and anything else that a sighted person does except drive, lol!!!!

Once I was there, I realized what I wanted to do and that was to help other people become independent. So, I went to Virginia Commonwealth University and received my Bachelors in Rehabilitation. After that, I moved to Little Rock Arkansas and obtained my Master's Degree in Rehabilitation Teaching.

I moved back to Richmond and got a job as a Rehabilitation teacher for the blind. When I started teaching I met this student who was assigned to me and of course, it was Ken!! He was charming and witty and won my heart! When I met Ken I left Richmond and moved to Victoria, VA. I was back in the country. It was a nice place to raise our four boys.

I joined the Kenbridge/Victoria Lions Club in November 2003.

For hobbies, I like to do blind bowling, play games on the computer (I have a talking computer) and I love to read books.

Sean Au

I was born and raised in northern Ohio where my family bought and opened a boarding and training facility for dogs before I was even born, my earliest memories are of my mother taking me to work in the kennel, to ensure my safety she would lock me in a crate so she could tend to the animals without worrying about me. I literally remember my neighbors being all of a four legged variety, as soon as I could pull a cart, it was my job to empty and fill the food and water bowls in the kennel every morning,
I was training and showing dogs professionally by the time I was four, while other kids had little league and football trophies my room was full of dog show trophies.

As young man I made my way out into the world and took to wearing many hats, I spent many years as an educator with the Jamestown-Yorkktown Foundation, a volunteer tutor with Peninsula Marine Institute,and have always concentrated my free time in the area of public service with numerous organizations. I believe that if one has the opportunity to help then they have an obligation to help.
I transferred to Thomas Nelson Community College where I took a position as Senior Carpenter for several years until in 2010 I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis during a bad exaserbation, due to the disease burden my job was taken from me and I found myself struggling with some of the most simple of tasks, this is when I turned to my training as a young man and started to train and use my own dog to augment the problems caused by my MS.

As others saw the benefits my Service Dogs had, in helping me maintian the freedom in my own life, I was approached to help others train Service Dogs for them or family members for a wide range of both physical and physiological conditions.

In 2014 I purchased a small respite home in Victoria which I open to people in need of a safe place to recover from some of life's unexpected turns and a chance to regroup so they can get solid footing underneath them. Victoria and its residents have been overwhelmingly supportive in welcoming me and my family of twenty years into the community and have been very helpful in supporting the efforts we have been trying to make improveing the quality of life for so many people in need.

In 2015 I was asked to sit on the board of the Brunswick Literacy Council and shortly after we established a Paws for Literacy program that is currently running in the Brunswick county library system. It allows young at risk readers to improve their reading skills by following a reading list and as they are comfortable they can schedule a time to come to the library and practice their reading skills while one of my dogs sits and listens in a quiet and non judgmental atmosphere.

I am very excited to have joined the Lions Club and look forward, with your help in briniging similar literacy programs to the Kenbridge, Victoria area so we can help even more young people improve their lives through our joint efforts.

Walk remembers Saunders

The wife of the late Ken Saunders, participated in the Sept. 9, 2017 walk held in his memory.

The 11th annual Ken Saunders White Cane Walk to benefit the Kenbridge-Victoria Lions Club brought memories of the walk’s founder to the forefront and united members of the community recently.

The Sept. 9 event began at 7:30 a.m. on a crisp and sunny morning, where participants walked from the Food Lion located in Victoria to the Shoppers Value in Kenbridge — a distance of approximately five miles.

Drivers were on site to transport participants back to their vehicles after the walk, according to Club Leader and Organizer Bonnie Alston.

People brought donations to a table during the walk.

Victoria resident Ken Saunders organized the walk 11 years ago, and this was the first year members of the community and of the Kenbridge-Victoria Lions Club walked in his memory, as Saunders passed away Feb. 28.

He was born in Hamilton, Bermuda on Nov. 11, 1955, according to his obituary, and attended a school for the Blind in Richmond.

It was in school that Saunders met his wife, Marlene O’Connell, who also participated in this year’s White Cane Walk in Saunders’ honor.

Saunders had been a member of the Kenbridge-Victoria Lions Club since 2001, which supports efforts for preventative care and awareness for visual impairment.

In past years, Saunders would participate in the walk with his guide dog, Casper, according to the Kenbridge-Victoria Lions Club.

According to the obituary, Saunders was a notable painter and could “fix just about anything.”

By Emily Hollingsworth