KINGSTOWN SVG LIONS CLUB is the result of a merger of the Lions Club of St. Vincent and the Lions Club of St. Vincent West. The Lions Club of St. Vincent received its International Charter in 1964 thus making it the very first Lions Club on the island. The sponsoring Club was the Lions Club of Bridgetown. The idea of a Lions Club for St. Vincent was initiated by Mr. Herb "Herbs" Davis, a Barbadian Lion who was transferred to St. Vincent to work at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. He got a group of businessmen interested in becoming Lions and ultimately the Club was born.
The Club’s first meeting place was the Blue Caribbean Hotel situated at South River Road in Kingstown. A parcel of land at Frenches Gate was later donated to the Club by the Government in early 1970s upon which the Lions Den was built. This Den still exists today as the Headquarters of Lions Club Kingstown-SVG.
Over the years the Club has sponsored the following organizations: Lions Club South (1971), Lioness Club of St. Vincent (1985), Lions Club of St. Vincent West (1992) and Leo Club of St. Vincent (1985).
It should be noted that the Kingstown-SVG Lions Club was responsible for the inauguration of the Glen Community Centre, formerly the Fountain Workshop, where boys and girls learnt carpentry and joinery. The Club also established the first operating theatre at the then Colonial Hospital located in the capital city Kingstown.
The Liberty Lodge School for Boys, which provides a home as well as schooling for underprivileged orphans, was also one of the Club’s major accomplishments. Moreover, the versatility and dynamism of the Kingstown-SVG Lions Club was evident by its involvement in the construction of several community baths, and the relocation/ resettlement of hundreds of displaced rural people during the eruption of the La Soufriere volcano in 1979.
In 1992, following a proclamation of Lions International that women can become Lions, the Lioness Club took the decision to form a new Lions Club called the Lions Club St. Vincent West. Membership in this new Club was later extended to males. The Lions Club of St. Vincent and the Lions Club of St. Vincent West merged in 2002. This entity is now renamed Lions Club of Kingstown-SVG and would be celebrating fifty years of Lionism in St. Vincent in 2014.
LIONS CLUB ST. VINCENT WEST
In October 1991 the International Board of Directors of the International Association of Lions Clubs took the historic decision to encourage existing Lioness Clubs to join with counterpart Lions or to establish entirely new clubs. This was primarily to avoid gender conflicts.
The Lioness Club of St. Vincent at their General Meeting in May 1992 agreed to start a new club, and formally ended their operations on 30th June, 1992.
With a total of over 20 perspective members, the Club applied for and received its charter on 20th July, 1992. The approved name of the Club was Lions Club St. Vincent West, and its boundaries and area of operation extends from Campden Park to the Falls of Balleine on the northwest of the island of St. Vincent.
The Lions Club of St. Vincent West was sponsored by the then Lions Club of St. Vincent.
The Club held an impressive charter ceremony at Jaycees Headquarters, Stoney Grounds on Saturday 12th September, 1992.
Lioness Club of St. Vincent (now extinct)
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