Westminster Lions Club announces spring activities

The Westminster Lions are ready to swing into spring after a successful winter season because while the weather was cold, snowy, and dreary, the Lions brought sunshine to the local community through their annual Christmas tree sale, food basket distribution, and pancake breakfasts.

The Club's Christmas tree sales netted almost $4,000 and will help support many of the group's community, national and international endeavors. The Club thanks many for their efforts such as Lion Mike Dauphinais and Bruce Vincent, the owner of Vincent's Country Store, who helped ensure that 22 families received food baskets for the holidays.

The Club's third Sunday of the month pancake breakfasts continued and helped support Oakmont basketball and the Overlook Middle School SOAR program.

In a joint effort with the Ashburnham Lions Club, a donation of $1,000 was made to Overlook to help defray the cost of the "Soaring Eagles" banquet that honors eighth grade students who have earned straight A's (Highest Honors) on their report card for five terms and B's or better (Honor Roll) for the remaining five terms.

In addition, members of both Clubs met with Oakmont Principal Dave Uminski to discuss the possibility of starting a Leo Club at Oakmont. The Leo Club introduces high school students to the tenets of Lionism and supports the community service activities that the Leo Club undertakes. The clubs hope to offer this program to Oakmont students in the fall of 2008.

The highlight of the Westminster Lions' winter activity season was the St. Patrick's Dinner celebration held at O'Connor's Restaurant in West Boylston. Lion Bill Wyman was instrumental in planning this enjoyable event. Thirty-six Lions and their spouses met at O'Connor's on March 26 to enjoy a traditional St. Patrick's Day dinner. The dinner also gave the Lions an opportunity to honor deceased Lion Doug Connors and his family. The Lions presented Connors' wife, Jill, and her children, Shevaun, Patrick, and Steven, with a $1,000 donation to the Lions' Sight II campaign.

As the Lionistic year winds down, the Westminster Lions are planning to hold their annual auction at the Westminster VFW field on Saturday, May 31, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dauphinais is looking for donations for the auction. He can be reached at (978) 874-0487 to schedule pickups of donations. Please be aware that the Club can no longer accept appliances such as stoves, refrigerators, and washers for the auction along with televisions, computer monitors and CPUs. The auction is one of the group's major fundraisers each year.

As spring brings in the warmer weather, the Westminster Lions are preparing for another season of tent rentals. The Westminster Lions have several tent sizes available to the public for graduations, weddings, fairs and other functions. Lion Pete Yraola is in charge of the tent rental program. His phone number is (978) 874-0489.

The Lions will once again be offering scholarships to deserving graduating Oakmont Regional High and Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical school seniors from Westminster. Lion John Aalto is in charge of the scholarship program and applications are available in the guidance offices of both schools.

The Club's last event of the year is the annual golf tournament sponsored jointly by the Ashburnham and Westminster Lions. This year's tournament will be held at the Westminster Country Club on Friday, July 11. The tournament is a scramble format with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. and registration, coffee and donuts begin at 8:30 a.m. Lions Pete Romano, (978) 874-0478, Dennis St. Jean, (978) 874-2835, and Ron Reed, (978) 827-6696, are the tournament directors. Please call one of them to receive registration materials.

One final note, as drivers traveling down Main Street and Route 2A towards Gardner should be aware that they may see some Lions along the roadside picking up litter. Don't call the animal control officer just toot your horn and wave.

For those who are interested in becoming a member, please contact Mike Sunderland at (978) 874-0825.