Sequim Valley Lions’ 60th Charter Anniversary
5-6 p.m. — Social hour; music by Buck Ellard
6 p.m. — Call to Order
• Welcome, Sequim mayor Candace Pratt
• President’s remarks, Chris Simmons
• Introduction of emcee Scooter Chapman, national anthems, invocation
6:45 p.m. — Call Back to Order
• Toasts
• Guest speaker, Ron Webber
• Honor life member, Glenn Greathouse
• Awards and recognition
• Closing remarks
More info: E-mail sequimvalleylions@gmail.com or call 360-674-8403
by MICHAEL DASHIELL
Sequim Gazette
Sequim’s Lions are celebrating a little early. After nearly 60 years of service, who can blame them?
The Sequim Valley Lions celebrate the 60th anniversary of their charter with an evening of festivities on Saturday, Sept. 25, at 7 Cedars Casino.
The event kicks off at 5 p.m. with a social hour, followed by pageantry and honors from and to local Lions club members. The event is open to the public.
Sequim Valley Lion Jack Napiontek, one of the Lions organizing the festivities, says the group moved up the date from its original charter anniversary — Dec. 19, 1955 — so that those who didn’t want to travel too much in the colder months could participate.
Since Sequim’s club is part of a district that covers Vancouver Island, B.C., Napiontek figures they’ll see plenty of Canadian Lions on the peninsula.
“We’re definitely international,” Napiontek says.
No kidding. Known as The International Association of Lions Clubs — or, more familiarly, Lions Clubs International — the group is now the largest international service club by membership (Rotary International is second). The Lions have 1.4 million members worldwide serving in 46,000 clubs in 185 countries/geographical areas.
Here on the peninsula, the Lions have been active in numerous projects, from raffles and cutting and selling of firewood to sponsorship of community events such as the Irrigation Festival’s Loggers Breakfast and Logging Show, community barbecues to poker runs, health screenings and Halloween candy give-aways. Lions have donated funds to various community organizations and projects and completed several building projects, including the bleachers at the Irrigation Festival Logging Show site. They’ve provided dinner to veterans, given eye glasses and hearing aids to low-income residents, participated in student exchanges and more.
“One of our great accomplishments,” notes Napiontek, “was the building of Guy Cole Convention Center and the development of Carrie Blake Park.”
Dream fulfilled
What began in 1974 as a dream for a community park has grown into a 14-acre public park and garden. But it wasn’t a simple project.
The park is named for Carrie Blake, niece of city planning commissioner Charles Blake Jr., who spent hours on the property planting flowers and relaxing in the years before her death in 1969 at the age of 77.
Guy Cole, a jeweler, member of the Lions Club and chairman of the city’s park board, joined up with Charles Blake to develop the park as a Bicentennial project. The original plan, notes Lions club member Kit Stewart in her history of the park, included sports areas for baseball, soccer and tennis, band and picnic sites, children’s playground, meeting hall and walking/jogging paths among the ponds.
A “Sequim park for the people by Sequim people,” is the way Cole described it to the city council, Stewart noted.
“It,” Napiontek says, referring to the Guy Cole center, “took us a long time to build.”
Estimates vary, but the Lions figure between 3,000-5,000 volunteer labor hours and an undetermined number of donated equipment hours went into building the 160-foot-long building and its additions. The Lions Club raised a reported $45,000 toward the initial project through benefit dances, game nights, food sales, raffles, donation jars and other gifts from local groups, and the city chipped in $35,000.
Eight years after the park proposal, the Guy Cole building opened in 1982.
But the Guy Cole center is only part of the Lions efforts at Carrie Blake Park. Following the City of Sequim’s purchase from Washington state of nine acres in 1974 and an additional five acres in 1976, Lions club members began the initial work of draining swamp water, filling in sinkholes, landscaping, sodding, planting trees, shaping a pond, building bridges, constructing benches and playground equipment, installing fences and more.
In preceding years, Lions have purchased playground equipment and picnic tables, made a $30,000 donation for ballfields, built the Moon Bridge at the Friendship Garden and more.
The Lions signed a 25-year lease with the city to use the building for meetings and bingo games, but in 2007 the two entities were unable to reach an agreement.
The club now hosts meetings at 6:30 p.m. on the second and fourth Thursdays at Paradise Cafe, 703 N. Sequim Ave. (E-mail sequimvalley
lions@gmail.com or call 674-8403 for more information.)
About the event
Saturday’s celebration features guest speaker Ronald Webber, a past Lions District Governor and a 48-year veteran of the Comox Valley Lions Club. Born and raised in Courtenay, B.C., Webber served for 12 years as mayor and 18 as alderman in his hometown. In his time on Courtenay council, he was involved with the construction of the River Walkway, a library and fire hall, the Sid Williams Theatre, a sports center and the Florence Filberg Centre. He also was named a Freeman of the City, one of the highest honors Canadian communities can give its citizens.
The event also honors longtime Sequim resident Glenn Greathouse. Born in Blaine in 1931, Greathouse moved to Sequim in 1955. He taught for 30 years in Sequim middle school and high school, 18 of those as shop teacher at Sequim High School. He also coached football, tennis and junior varsity baseball. Apart from his career in education, Greathouse served for five years on the Sequim City Council.
He and his wife Jacquelyn, who died in 2010, bought the Triangle Motel and renamed it the Greathouse Motel. They operated it for 18 years.
A Lion since 1957, Greathouse, was named Lion of the Year in 1986 and a Sequim honorary Pioneer in the 2014 Irrigation Festival Parade.
Napiontek, who has been a Lion for 47 years and a Sequim Valley Lions club member since 1987, says the group is putting together a “memory book” detailing the 60 years of service, similar to one they constructed for the Lions’ 50th charter anniversary. He adds that they’ll be handing out 60th charter anniversary pins that also feature a crab, similar in design to the pin from the original charter.
A bit of Lions history
The International Association of Lions Clubs got its start nearly a century ago. Led by Melvin Nones, a group of one dozen Chicago business men started the Chicago Central Lions Club on June 7, 1917. Their objective: to “provide service to others for the betterment of humanity, rather than self-serving business pursuits.”
Membership is open to men and women of legal age and “good reputation in the community,” according to the club website; membership is by invitation only.
The movement spurring hundreds of similar chapters in the following years as the Lions became an international group within three years.
On the Olympic Peninsula, Port Angeles chartered a club in 1942, Forks in 1947 and Clallam Bay-Sekiu in 1951 before Sequim got its group.
Following his father’s footsteps who was a longtime Lions Club member in Bremerton, Chris Simmons serves as the president of the Sequim Valley Lions Club and has been a member of the club for 13 years.
“I do it because it’s a good way to give back to the community,” Simmons said. “Everything we do goes back to the community.”
Although the primary efforts of the club are centered on vision and hearing assistance and services, Simmons admits he enjoys all the projects the club pursues.
“The Lions take it very seriously to ensure all the funds raised stay within the Sequim-Dungeness area,” he said.
About Lions Club International
Stands for: Liberty, Intelligence, Our Nation’s Safety
Motto: “We Serve”
Colors: Purple and gold (purple for loyalty and integrity; gold for sincerity, liberality, purity and generosity)
First charter: June 7, 1917 — Chicago Central Lions Club
On the web: www.lionsclubs.org
Sequim club website: e-clubhouse.org/sites/sequim_valley/ or www.facebook.com/SequimValleyLions
