Parksville Lions Club history
The first organizational meeting took place at the Tartan Inn restaurant on Oct 21st 1969.
The restaurant has now been renamed as the Bamboo Gardens here in Parksville. There were 21 prospective members present, all signing application cards at the end of the meeting. Intern president Bud Shelly was elected, charter night was set Jan 24th 1969 with 31 members. Sponsoring Lions clubs were Campbell River and Saltspring Island . Charter night location was in the old community hall down in the park.
Fund raisers
As the club started many fund raiser ideas were brought forward.
* Slave auction where Lion members were actually auctioned to the highest bidder, these lion or lions had to do work at the successful bidders residence or work place.
* Name board signs made from red cedar for residence with name and street address.
* Painting residence houses.
* May 24th Golf tournament in Qualicum.
* Sponsored New year's dances, with sell out crowds.
* New Years Calendars were made up and sold ,they listed family birthdays and anniversaries.
* Lions light bulb sales.
* Beer Gardens during Pageant days, always entered a float for the parade.
* Gold Rush days and casino.
* Community auction at the old community Hall.
* Flea market table rentals every Sunday morning at Wembley mall which averaged $400.00 weekly.
* Lions Bingo's.
* BS manure sales started when a members gravel dump truck full of seasoned cow manure would be parked on main street across from the dairy queen , empty cement bags were used and filled then sold to whoever liked that type of fertilizer. Many laughs were had as few can recall Lion Eric Parsley with dirty hands and all, came back from the dairy queen with four ice cream cones for the boys. Lions Eric couldn't find any takers and apparently tried to eat all four before they melted.
Under visitations
The Parksville club did a lot of visitations when it first started. The deal was you needed 5 lions to visit before you could actually claim the lion gong –no other paraphernalia was permitted to be taken. At one of the general meetings there were four lion gongs at the head table, including the clubs own gong. There was one stolen from Qualicum Bay lions, Port Alberni lions and also Salt spring lions. Talk about con- artists.
Club Projects
* The old community hall was offered to the lions club for a $1.00 just to take it over and manage it. The club at that time declined as no one wanted to be in charge. The Parksville Lions instead offered to help repair it by rebuilding the cloak room, repaired and painted the bathrooms, checked and repaired the footings , redone the dance floor , rebuilt the kitchen replacing the old stove, installed new drapes for the front stage and built a new front entrance.
* Held annual Christmas parties for the under privileged children (12 & under) in the community along with Santa and personalized gifts for everyone.
* Done a joint project with the Kinsmen repaving the tennis courts
* Held annual blind fishing derby's at Beachcomber
* Purchased a shuffle board game for Arrowsmith lodge
* In 1975 the lions club took over the Golden age housing complex, the society directors sold it to the lions for one dollar.
* In 1977 the lions bought purchased a Easter seal bus from the BC Lions society
* In 1978 we chartered the Nanoose Lions club.
* In May of 1978 the lions spearheaded a large beach cleanup, using chain saws , dump trucks, and backhoes, logs that were washed up on the beach were cut up into lengths and hauled to the dump. There was no actual sitting area as we have now , the whole bay was like a log dump with logs that were washed ashore and laying every which way. The same year the lions built a mobile kitchen which was used in the community park as a food concession.
* In 1980 the lions built and donated 24 banquet table to the community hall.
* In 1983 the lions housing Society built the lions Pioneer Village on Moilliet Street. (Where we hold our meetings).
* In 1984 the lions chartered the Parksville Lioness club.
* Paid for 1/2 the cost of the new zamboni that was used for cleaning ice when the hockey arena was built.
* In 1985 the lions took over the old playground in the community park and renamed it Ventureland.
* In 1989 the two story housing extension was added to Pioneer Village.
* In 1990 Gillingham Estates was built on Morrison Str.
* In 1992 we added the waterspray park.
* In 1998 we assisted the skateboarders and the city building the skateboard park.
* In 2004 Breakfast with Santa project started, being very successful in the community.
* In 2009 Family free skate every Sunday noon at the Oceanside arena again another successful event, which started with a couple dozen kids, now have families out totaling over 200.
(Updated September 2012)
