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| 9/23/2009 1:00:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | Walcott Lions reach milestone
Club nears $300,000 in aid to community
By: Phil Roberts
of the NSP
WALCOTT - The Walcott Lions Club is fast approaching a giant milestone: $300,000 raised and donated to the Walcott community.
Since 1973, Lions members have donated $298,000, and that doesn't even count another $38,000 or so in scholarships that have been awarded to 86 recipients.
The funds have gone to more than 20 good causes, everything from the Angel Tree to public safety agencies to the library to flood relief and youth camps. The latest donation, according to vice president Jacob Puck, is a $5,000 gift over the next three years to the proposed Walcott Recreational Trail and Park.
But compared to the first Lions Club in Iowa, the Sioux City Host Club formed in 1918, members of the Walcott club are new kids on the block.
Sponsored by the Davenport Evening Lions Club, the Walcott group came to life at a charter night banquet held April 7, 1973, at the Walcott Coliseum.
According to a program from that affair, during dinner "stereo music" was provided by Lion Karl Arp. Then Lion Keith Meyer, Walcott's mayor at the time, welcomed Walcott Lions president Leon Downing and the 31 other charter members. They included Marvin Puck, Jacob Puck's grandfather.
After the presentation that night of the Walcott Lions' charter, Adrian Johnson of Forest City, Iowa, a past district governor of Lions International, gave the keynote address.
Today, Loren Claussen, who was just 16 in 1973 when the Walcott Lions Club was formed, presides over the group.
"I was in the 10th grade, a sophomore at West High School, when the club was chartered," says Claussen. "However, I did not join the club until 1979, six years later, when I was 22."
Rudy Arp is the secretary, and John Kostichek is the membership chairman. Thirty-three members, both men and women, are listed on the group's Web site, http://walcottia.lionwap.org.
Puck, 23, a substitute teacher, has been a Lion for five years and is the youngest member. Others range in age all the way to their 80s.
Claussen. a farmer, says he joined at the invitation of Bernie Brus.
"At that time I was looking for a club to join as I had exhausted my eligibility in 4-H," he says. "My first impression of the Lions Club was that of an extended 4-H club. They did many projects like 4-H, but they did them together, and it was more fun doing them with a group."
Claussen says he later began to appreciate the Lions' goals of "helping people in need of our assistance."
The Walcott group meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 7 p.m. at the Walcott Coliseum. Puck says most members spend four to five hours a month on Lions activities.
"You give what time you have," he says, noting that "we have some members who are gone all winter."
The Lions' projects are many and varied. Some, like building a float for the annual Walcott Day Parade, are fun. Others raise money to be donated to good causes.
For example, a first-ever trivia night held last January raised $1,500 for Iowa flood relief, says Puck. Additional trivia nights are planned for this November and next January.
Each March, the Walcott Lions host a fish fry, which is their main fundraiser. This year was their 35th annual feed.
"We serve almost a thousand people in four hours," says Puck.
Upcoming is the Walcott Lions' 27th annual Pancake Breakfast which takes place from 7-11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 25, at the Walcott Coliseum. Puck says they'll serve 600 to 700 people that morning.
The money raised will go toward many good causes, but eyesight is the main focus of Lions Clubs.
"We screen children's eyes in preschool all the way through eighth grade," says Puck. Lions also help needy people get the eyeglasses they need and accept donations of used glasses.
In addition, Walcott Lions build wheelchair ramps for those in need and have done nearly a dozen in the Walcott area.
"We donate the labor and the materials," Puck says. "We have a couple different members who are carpenters."
Puck says new members are always welcome to join the Walcott Lions Club, and anyone age 18 or over is eligible. They can phone him at (563) 940-4036 or contact any other member listed on the Web site for more details.
Claussen says membership brings rewards.
"The satisfaction that you feel as a Lion when you are able to help someone who needs glasses, cataract surgery or help getting back on their feet gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling all through your body," he says. "That fuzzy feeling that brings a tear to your eye when you have done the best you can to help make a person's life just a little better."
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