Lake City Lions Club Holds Important Meeting
Photos and Story by Kayla Shown
Approximately forty Lake City Lions and out of town Lions guests gathered at Prosser’s Restaurant on Thursday, July 28, 2005. The sweltering heat just outside the windows was juxtaposed with the cool, calm chatter inside during the dinner.
President John Graham began with the pledge and dedicated the moment of silence to honor John Greene who boasted a 50-year Perfect Attendance Award. He then introduced Zone Chairman Joe Woodbury. Woodbury highlighted the power of e-mail by introducing Craig Floyd, who recently moved from Massachusetts and sent requests to join a local Lions Club via e-mail. He was quickly snagged by the Olanta Lions Club.
Joe Woodbury stressed the importance of the notorious Four P’s formulated by Steve Webber: Projects, Progress, Participation, and Publicity and the newly added Fifth P by Matt Jones: People. He then introduced the guest speaker and newly elected District Governor, Matt Jones.
After recognizing his staff that consists of Ian Smith, District Retention Chairperson; Steve Webber, Immediate Past District Governor; Randy Croon, Vice District Governor; Jim Page, Past District Governor; Ruth Smith; Past District Governor, Louis Drucker, Past District Governor; Joe Woodbury, Zone Chairperson; and John Graham, Lake City Lions Club President, Jones entertained his listeners with a few moral, if not humorous anecdotes.
He then proceeded to discuss the Passion to Excel. Jones stressed the importance of service, growth, leadership, promotion, and performance for Lionism to excel. He then described the new program called the Power of One. This business proposition entails each club achieving a net gain of one member and each district to achieve a net gain of one club. John Graham gave his word to a requested commitment to achieve this all-important net gain of one member for the Lake City based Lion’s Club..
Jones then posed the question, “Does anyone know what the significance of February 6, 1946 is?” Unsurprisingly, James Vernon Epps answered correctly stating that this was the date of the first Lake City Lions Club meeting. Fifty-nine years later, this club is still helping the world to be a better place. The Lake City Lions Club has the privilege of having two charter members, Harry Whitlock and George Thomy, still “alive and kicking” as Jones would like to put it.
Jones closed with the analysis and importance of the word HEART: Humble, Ethics, Attitude, Respect, and Teamwork. He left the spotlight expressing his gratitude to all of the Lions. Perfect Attendance awards were then given to Lions Joe Woodbury, George Thomy, Beverly Donnelly, John Graham, Harry Whitlock, Barbara Miles, Margaret Cantey, Luis Flenagan, Marian Page, Joe Richardson, James Vernon Epps, Jean Moore, Harold Stokes, Ronald Langley, EC Keith, Hal Stuckey, Bob Johnston, and the award for twenty years of perfect attendance to Vardell Cook. Special recognition was given to John Greene for his character as well as Lionism, and Joe Woodbury was awarded for his dedication to the Lions Club as last year’s president.
The highest award in Lionism was then presented by Steve Webber to James Vernon Epps, whom Jones nicknamed The Godfather. He was presented with the International Leadership Award for his significant leadership contributions to Lionism. As the bell was dinged and the meeting closed, there were no better words than the ones District Governor Matt Jones used: “Lions are ordinary people doing amazing things.”
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