History
The idea of forming a Lioness Club at the Lake of the Woods began in the fall of 1987 with a gathering of about 30 women. The consensus was that such a club could fill a need at the Lake. A dinner meeting was scheduled for October with women from Charlottesville Host Lioness Club attending to share their knowledge and experience with interested women. In November, the Lake of the Woods Lions Club agreed to sponsor us. At the organizational meeting, it was decided to adopt the name Lake of the Woods Lioness Club with Wilderness Lioness Club running a close second choice. The first officers with Barbara A. Story, as Charter President were elected to serve through the following fiscal year (1988-89)
The club held its charter night on January 16, 1988, with 72 members, the largest Lioness Club ever to be chartered in Virginia. The main purpose of the club was to explore and meet needs within our community, which could be met with our volunteer service. Some of the needs at that time were: Food service to Fire and Rescue personnel; after school program at LOW Church; Sponsor a health fair; Sight testing at the elementary schools with the Lions. Many other ideas were discussed, but these were chosen for our focus at that time: SAFE HOUSE and Germanna scholarships followed within the next few years. The first fund raising projects were a cookbook; Bacova door mats; bake and yard sale; and selling golf ball chances at the Lions Golf Tournament. In the next few years, the Card Party, White Cane Days, the book sale, and mint sales were added.
In 1992 Lions Clubs International decided to encourage all Lioness Clubs to become chartered Lions Clubs and voted to discontinue supporting separate Lioness clubs and, as a result, we debated our future. We voted to remain a Lioness Club and our District 24-C and the Lions of Virginia continued to be supportive of the Lioness Program. All through the years, we supported the focus programs of Lions Clubs International such as the Lions Leader Dog, Lions Service Dogs, Lions Ram Project and the Lions Hearing Foundation, to name a few.
In June 2017, faced with the realization that additional administrative supports were needed, the membership under the leadership of President Donalda Lovelace elected to request full certification with Lions Clubs International. Our charter application was approved July 27, 2017, and our charter was presented September 14, 2017. Our name was changed to Lake of the Woods Lioness Lions Club. Since 1987 our officers and club have won many awards. We have continued to grow – from a start of 72 to over 86 members today. In 2018 we incorporated our club and developed a separate corporate foundation with an application submitted to IRS for 501 c3 status. Our fund raising has increased from $2,300.0 in 1988-89 to over $40,000 today. As we enter our next chapter, we can be proud of our history and look forward to upholding the tradition of the Lion motto: “WE SERVE”.
