Year end wrap up 2025
By James Letourneau
The Wetaskiwin Lion's Club held thier year end wrap up last night at the Wetaskiwin Lion's R.V. Campground last night. Hamburgers and hot dogs with a potluck buffet was served to all. PDG's Suzanne and Dave Leshchyshyn from Blind MAn Lion's club Zone Chairperson Trish Sullivan Lion Gary Humphrees from the Millet Lion's club all attended the party .
We had some awards handed out last night :
Lion Nancy Aikman was named Lion of the Year for 2024-25
Lions Inez Dryer and Anone Chair Trish Sullivan recieved President's Appreciation for their work
Lion Glen Zahara also got appreciated for his work in selling 2025 Meat raffle tickets.
Zone Chair Trish Sullivan was named an Honorary Member in the Wetaskiwin Lion's Club
We inducted three new members as well last night the ceromony was lead was shared between PDG Suzanne Leshchyshyn and Zone Chair Trish Sullivan.
We also installed the roster of new excutives for the 2025-26 year.
Good food and friends were the main take aways from last night . Next Year how many of you will join us as new members?
Wetaskiwiin Multicultural Heritage Festival 2025
By James LetourneauSullivan
Wednesday June 18th 2025
The Wetaskiwin Lion's Club attended the Wetaskiwiin Multicultural Festival this year June 13th-15th 2025. We were there to provide information on Lion's Clubs and to sell some raffle tickets on a Meat raffle and a Hoverboard. The Meat raffle is to help renovate the Wetaskiwin Lion's Campground playground the Hoverboard is to raise funds for DIabetes Canada and is a from the STRIDES event we held earlier last month. We even handed out coloring books for free to the childern that came through .
We sold 136 tickets for the Meat raffle and 13 for the Hoverboard over the weekend.
The festival organizers waived this years fee because we are a non-profit.
Due to Lion's Clubs International being the size it is we are multicultural by our very nature and we promote inclusive activities, meetings and membership.
STRIDES Walk for Diabetes Awareness
by James Letourneau
Thursday June 12th 2025
Both the Wetaskiwin and Millet Lion's Clubs held a fundraiser event on May31st 2025 under the STRIDES banner. This was a walk for diabetes awareness in which funds are raised and information is displayed . The event was held at By The Lake Park nature reserve in Wetaskiwin. It is beatifull park where you can see Mule deer feeding in the wooded area see and hear variouis birds. All wildlife in the park is wild so use caution when approaching.
Funds raised this year to date is $1,333.00 a final total will be available after July 01st when we draw for a donated hoverboard.
Both Wetaskiwin and Millet Lion's clubs will start planning for next years event in March so stay tuned for details.
$10,000 Donation in Sight
by Barry McDonald
Thursday, February 09, 2012
Branin Thompson, Murray Warnke, Larry Fowell, Bern Hankinson, Jim Taylor, Cliff Reed,Glen Zahara and Cheryl Deckert
An oversized cheque was presented to representatives of the Wetaskiwin Hospital and Health Foundation during a photo op just outside the operating room in the Wetaskiwin Hospital on February 1st . Lion, Larry Fowell announced, “We are donating $10,000.00 to the Wetaskiwin Health Foundation to help purchase cataract surgical trays.” That was all he had to say to bring smiles of gratitude to the faces of the Wetaskiwin Hospital staff and representatives of the Wetaskiwin Health Foundation.
“The Lions are doing a wonderful thing by supporting cataract surgery,” said a grateful Cheryl Deckert, Wetaskiwin Hospital Manager. “You have just made three smiling ophthalmologists out there and one smiling Operating Room Manager as we have another important item off our want and need list. The fact that the donation came in today couldn’t be any better timing.” She laughingly added, “When the cheque came in it was only good for 5 minutes and I spent it. We bought sterilization trays so the fragile instruments can be easily cleaned without damaging them in the high pressure sterilization unit.”
Cheryl talked about the importance of the donation and how this community has been so supportive. “A set of cataract instruments to do one case is $8000 and we need 24 of them. The microscope they use to do the surgery cost $175,000 and we just got a new one from Alberta Health Services. The support from Alberta Health Services has been wonderful but they can’t do everything so it’s so important for the (Wetaskiwin) Health Foundation, the community and you (the Lions) to step forward like this.”
Cataract surgery is the removal of the natural lens of the eye (also called "crystalline lens") that has developed an opacification, which is referred to as a cataract. Metabolic changes of the crystalline lens fibers over time lead to the development of the cataract and loss of transparency, causing impairment or loss of vision. Many patients' first symptoms are strong glare from lights and small light sources at night, along with reduced acuity (sharpness) at low light levels. During cataract surgery, a patient's cloudy natural lens is removed and replaced with a synthetic lens to restore the lens's transparency.
Cataract surgery is generally performed by an ophthalmologist (eye surgeon) in an ambulatory (rather than inpatient) setting, in a surgical center or hospital, using local anesthesia usually causing little or no discomfort to the patient. Well over 90% of operations are successful in restoring useful vision, with a low complication rate. Source en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cataract_surgery
Equipment purchased by funding from donations made to the Wetaskiwin Health Foundation provides top notch healthcare that exceeds what can be offered using only government funding. Cheryl describes it by saying, “80-90% of the people having cataract surgery are from the Wetaskiwin region. Given the demographics of Wetaskiwin and the aging population, we are thankful we can purchase medical equipment and provide them with health services in their own community. This year alone we will be performing 900 cataract operations on 450 patients right here in Wetaskiwin.”
The Hospital prides itself on the convenience that can be offered, the personalized care and maintaining a low infections rate. “We get wonderful feedback from the citizens. It’s a smooth operation (cataract) and often we see them down in the cafeteria the same day as the operation. We have been doing this since 1993 so we know the process very well.”
The Wetaskiwin Lions Club has donated $119,390 to the Wetaskiwin Health Foundation over the years. Larry commented, “There are many contributions made by the Wetaskiwin Lions that have assisted with making Our City a better place to live.” And of course Cheryl wasn’t exactly kidding when she invitingly said “Whenever you want to come back, we will be here.”
The Wetaskiwin Health Foundation is the essential link for creating and managing partnerships and alliances between healthcare representatives and individuals, service clubs, foundations, corporate representatives, and government. The correct mix of partners and resources are matched to satisfy the values of the donor and the needs of healthcare. For more information contact Foundation Executive Director, Lillian Dykes at 780-361-4130.
Canada Day 2025 Events
By James Letourneau
July 07th 2025
On Canada Day July 01st 2025 the Wetaskiwin Lion's Club held thier annual Pancake Breakfast located in the Legion's courtyard form 8am to 11 am. Panccakes, sausages , coffee and juice were served. Last minute sales of our meat raffle and hoverboard raffle tickets were sold as well.
In evening our club ws at Edmonton International Raceway to sell 50/50 tickets from 7pm to 10:45pm.
Just before the fireworks show we drew for those tickets and Daniel Miller was the winner of $175 .
After the show we drew for both raffles. The winners are as follows:
Hoverboard ... Dawn Berg
$150 meat package ... Rob Brietzke
$150 meat package ... Kala Pham-Le
$200 meat package... David Reed
$300 meat package ... Jack Belliveau
Congratulations to all of our winners and thank you to all who supported the Lion's Club in helping to serve the community. All of the winners will be notified as to when and where to pick up thier prizes.