History and Achievements of the St. Maarten Lions Club
The Sint Maarten Lions Club was founded on December 12th 1970.
The 22 founding members of the community are: Ben Vlaun , Frank Arnell, Ing. Fred Baptist, Ing. Will Barendsen, Leslie Cannegieter, Jack Cooper, Walt Dietl, Victor de Tulio, Samuel Hazel, Carl Heineman, Ronchie Van Grieken, Rudy Dovale, Johannes Arrindell, Franck Jansen, Rudolf de Kort, Rush Little, Gunter Muller, Ing. Henk Nahar, Alphonse O’Connor and Don Pointer. The first president of our club – was the late Ben Vlaun.
Over the years, the St. Maarten Lions Club has grown and has now over 45 members. Its first female President was Lisandra Havertong for the year 2000/2001 and was also the president for a second term for the year 2010 / 2011.The Sint Maarten Lions Club, however, now can boast of 4 female past presidents.
The Lions Club of St. Maarten is known for their many projects and fund raising events such as the Lions Christmas Bingo Spectacular, Lion Nelson Van de Nilde Senior Citizen Party, Grand Car Raffle, Lion Rudy Hoeve Health & Wellness Fair and the Quest program. The colorful signs of the St. Maarten Lions Club are visible across the island indicating the various districts. The ongoing project of the Thought of the Month billboards inspire motorists with various slogans such as “Be Patient”, “Be Attentive”…etc.
Several officers of the Sint Maarten Lions Club have received the Melvin Jones Fellow (MJF) award for their hard work and dedication in the community. They are Lisandra
Havertong, Carl Thomas, DG Claudius Buncamper, Chantal Schaminee-Ringeling, PDG Wally Havertong, Melinda Hoeve, Paul Marshall, Melvin James, PDG Maxime Larmonie, Horace Griffith, Frank Elstak, George Larmonie and both the late Charles Garrin and Rudy Hoeve. Past District Governor Lion Wally Havertong recently received Progressive Melvin Jones.
Our past District Governors are : Lion PDG Wally Havertong, PMJF and Lion PDG Maxime Larmonie, MJF and Lion PDG Claudius Buncamper, MJF.
Lions Clubs International is the world's largest service club organization with more than 1.3 million members in approximately 45,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world.
