Community support was the theme on Tuesday night, as the Estevan Lions Club lived up to their charitable reputation and spread generous helpings of cash to various local organizations. 

"We've gotten into the habit over the last few years of doing a night like this. We have a number of projects throughout the year, and we find that we spend the bulk of the proceeds from those here," explained President Jim Vermeersch.

"It's always difficult to know who's going to get the money and how much, but we do have a committee that does some work on that. They come back to the club with a proposal and we hash it out from there."

He expressed his pride in the accomplishments that the local chapter has made.

Tyler Stead and Kayc Schroeder accept a cheque for the Estevan Scouts.

 

 "Estevan Lions Club is a very strong, dedicated club. Not that we can't always use new members, because we certainly can, but this is a good group  and we do a lot of good for the community."

 In addition to the donations, a longstanding member of the organization was honored. Vermeersch shared his thoughts on John Johnson.

 "He's a very close friend of mine, and we've worked together quite closely in the last few years. He does a tremendous amount of work, a lot of it is  behind the scenes. We're very lucky to have him, he can tell us what we're doing right and what we're doing wrong. He's a great help to have in the  club."

 $20,000 in total was given out in donations during the night, and although not all the recipients were on hand to accept the cheques, the President  was pleased with the results.

 "There's nothing better to celebrate the 50 years of the club, and 100 years of the organization by giving away some money. That's exactly what we  did."

 Among those who benefited from the group's sharing spirit was the local Boy Scouts, and Kayc Schroeder revealed how the funds will be used.

 "It's going to help the youth do their outdoor adventures. Our 5-7 year olds want to do tenting in the spring without their parents, that was their goal at  the end of last year. Our Cubs will gladly take some money as they want to go tenting, and our Scouts do a tenting camp every year."

 "We're always a grateful organization to have money come to us from another group, and one of our mandates is to do service with other service  organizations. We're very grateful, it'll help us get some programming for the youth," she added.

The list of all the recipients and the amounts donated to them are listed below:

  • Estevan Box Lacrosse League....................$1,000
  • Envision Counselling and Support Center...$1,000
  • Estevan Family Center................................$1,000
  • Estevan Diversified Services......................$1,000
  • Estevan Food Bank....................................$3,000
  • STARS.......................................................$2,500
  • Lions Eye Bank.............................................$500
  • Women's Health Center at St. Joseph's Hospital.....$3,000
  • Choose Life Women's Shelter....................$1,500
  • Southeast College Scholarship.....................$500
  • Habitat for Humanity..................................$2,500
  • Camp Easter Seal.....................................$1,500
  • Lions International.....................................$1,000
  • Scouts..........................................................$500

One donation was a Southeast College scholarship, here being accepted on behalf of the College by Dave Harazny.