By Margaret Houben
The Barriere Lions are a very active group in their community, and celebrated 50 years as an area service organization in 2017.
Every year the local Lions host annual events such as the Easter Egg Hunt and Pancake Breakfast, the Breakfast with Santa, and the ever popular Fall Used Book Sale. They also help with the Christian Life Assembly Community Christmas Dinner, and the Christmas dinner for the students at the high school, and most recently, over the past two years they have supported the Barriere and Area Chamber of Commerce’s Community Christmas Day Dinner.
The main fundraisers for the Lions in Barriere are their pancake breakfasts at the annual Labour Day Fall Fair and Rodeo, firewood sales every fall and winter, hosting bar services for various community and hall events, and more recently providing catering services mostly for events held at their hall. The proceeds from these activities are used primarily to fund needs, events and projects in the community which align with the values of Lionism.
“It seems that most springs we take on one construction project,” states Dennis Farquharson, current secretary of the group. “Last year it was building the two shelters at the Barriere Ridge, and the year before we installed the covered wheelchair ramp at the Lions Hall. This year we plan to install a 40 foot container as an addition to the Lions Hall. Once in place, the container will be used for storage, replacing the old shed which is scheduled to be torn down sometime in the spring.”
The Lions also delight in supporting projects and events that involve kids, and as part of Lions International, they also focus on vision, diabetes, and childhood cancer. On Apr. 29, members of the Barriere Lions will be assisting with vision testing at Barriere Elementary.
“While we do a number of projects on our own in the community,” said Farquharson, “We enjoy partnering with a variety of other community groups, working with them to put on an event that is larger than either group alone could have achieved.”
During 2019, members volunteered a total of 1,727.5 hours supporting the Barriere community – quite the achievement for a group with only 24 members.
For more information about the activities of the Lions Club, please contact Dennis Farquharson at 250-319-3908, or any of the Barriere Lions members. If you would like to rent the hall for an activity, please contact the hall chairperson – Antoon Houben at 250-852-8123. Also, if you have any old and unused glasses, please drop them in the Lions collection boxes at the Health Services building in the doctors’ waiting room, or on the Lab side, as well as at the Interior Savings Insurance Office.
