CANORA – An informational meeting for the proposed new Canora Lions Club was held at the Curling Rink on June 15.
Lions District Extension Chair Beryl Bauer welcomed those in attendance and praised the “excellent work” done by the Canora Lions Club and the Lioness Club in the past. While he was unable to find documentation of Lions Club activities, he did draw attention to the work done by the Lioness Club, including that they raised over $250,000 over the course of their existence.
Local and area causes supported included:
- Exchange student sponsorships;
- Local citizen’s aid;
- Gateway Lodge;
- Canora Hospital;
- Canora & District Health Foundation;
- Canora Arts Council;
- Canora Public Library;
- Canora branch of the Royal Canadian Legion; and many others.
“The Canora Lions Club and the Lioness Club did fantastic service in Canora, and we are hoping to start a club which will once again be active in the community and district,” said Bauer. “Times have changed. Lions were originally a men’s club back at the start in 1917, but today both women and men are part of Lions clubs. Interestingly, women now make up 42 per cent of all Lions, as of 2025. That number is likely higher by now.”
“Because this will be a reactivated club that only recently ceased to operate, all we need to do is have interested people fill in one of the membership applications we have here tonight, you will be a member of the reactivated club. Three people have already signed application forms so the club has been registered with Lions International and has been activated.
“Two of the people here tonight are from other Lions clubs, current District 5SKN Governor Brian Starkell from Nipawin, and myself, a past district governor and current District 5SKN Extension Chair.
“We’re here to show our support for a Lions Club being back doing service in Canora. Feel free to chat with us any time.”
The information provided by Bauer included answering the question, “What is a Lion?”
“Lions work to improve health and wellbeing, strengthen our communities, and support those in need.”
In addition to the work of local clubs in local communities, Lions Club International Foundation also supports a number of significant initiatives worldwide:
• Improving the outcomes for children with cancer
• Combatting hunger by supporting school-based feeding programs, food banks and feeding centres
• Supporting eye care to save vision
• Fighting diabetes by expanding prevention, education and screenings
• Supporting youth through Lions Quest, a program which provides access to quality education and vital health services
• Relief efforts to help with recovery from natural disasters, wherever they strike
• Humanitarian support addressing needs of at-risk, vulnerable populations
• Supporting efforts to create positive environmental change
Bauer shared the Lions Code of Ethics:
• To show my faith in the worthiness of my vocation by industrious application to the end that I may merit a reputation for quality of service.
• To seek success and to demand all fair remuneration or profit as my just due, but to accept no profit or success at the price of my own self-respect lost because of unfair advantage taken or because of questionable acts on my part.
• To remember that in building up my business it is not necessary to tear down another's; to be loyal to my clients or customers and true to myself.
• Whenever a doubt arises as to the right or ethics of my position or action towards others, to resolve such doubt against myself.
• To hold friendship as an end and not a means. To hold that true friendship exists not on account of the service performed by one to another, but that true friendship demands nothing but accepts service in the spirit in which it is given.
• Always to bear in mind my obligations as a citizen to my nation, my state and my community, and to give them my unswerving loyalty in word, act and deed. To give them freely of my time, labor, and means.
• To aid others by giving my sympathy to those in distress, my aid to the weak, and my substance to the needy.
• To be careful with my criticism and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.
Bauer said Lions is the largest service club in the world, with over 1.4 million members.
Even though it is a worldwide organization, “all Lions clubs are autonomous clubs,” he continued. “You decide how often you meet, the direction of your club, and what to do with the money you raise. The role of Lions International is to support the local clubs, not manage them.”
When Bauer asked those interested to sign up, 10 individuals responded.
“We have a club,” he said with a smile, “pat yourselves on the back.”
Amanda Daku agreed to serve as acting treasurer, and Devan Tasa as acting secretary, until formal elections are held. A number of the 10 founding members indicated that they would pursue the possibility of signing up people they know prior to the Canora Lions Club organizational meeting, scheduled for Monday, Aug. 10.
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