Town quick to see benefits

LIONS clubs began in the United States of America in 1917 when a group of independent clubs responded to a call from Melvin Jones, a young Chicago insurance agent, to launch a club which had community service as its primary aim.
The first Lions Club in Australia was formed in Lismore NSW in 1947.
Early in 1961, Bill Lauder, a teller at the Healesville ANZ Bank, started the ball rolling in Healesville.
He had moved from Donald in country Victoria where he had seen the great work done by the Lions Club there.
Bill and then Healesville ANZ Bank manager Alex Barron called a meeting of Healesville business men and others to discuss starting a Lions Club in Healesville.
A meeting was held on 21 March with the Lions Club of Camberwell whose members left no doubt as to what a great asset a Lions Club would be to the Healesville community.
Convinced, the meeting decided to form the Lions Club of Healesville, with Edwin Robert (Bill) Frogley as President.
A hectic period of weekly meetings followed to get the 25 committed community members needed to charter a Lions Club.
The numbers were in by April and the Lions Club of Healesville was registered with Lions Clubs International in June.
The official Club Charter was handed to the club on 12 August 1961 at a charter dinner held at the Healesville RSL Hall.
The dinner was attended by almost 200 people who witnessed the then Lions District Governor Dr Howard Waters present Healesville Charter President Bill Frogley with the Club Charter, and Camberwell Lions Club President Neil Malloy hand him the club gong and gavel.
That was 50 years ago. From those humble beginnings the Lions Club of Healesville has become a highly successful and integral part of the community and has played many substantive roles, in fundraising, especially for the Healesville Hospital, in building local infrastructure, in park redevelopment and in welfare and other community service projects.
In dollars alone the Lions Club of Healesville has returned more than $1.2 million back to the community over the past half century.
Society has changed enormously in the past 50 years but one thing that doesn’t change is that somewhere, at some time, people and communities will need help.
Lions will be there, will you?