Paula McWha, left, and current Lions president Glenice Troth.
Te Awamutu’s Rosetown Lions are flush with success following a good showing at last month’s District 202L Convention in Tokoroa.
The group’s immediate past president, Paula McWha, received the ‘Power of a Dream’ President’s Trophy and was presented with the Certificate of Appreciation from 2020-2021 International President, Dr Jung-Yul Choi.
It is the second successive year the club has been awarded the district’s ‘Power of a Dream’ President’s Trophy. Last year’s award went to Rosetown’s past president Jenny Elers.
The club also received a Publicity/Communication Trophy. That is something particularly close to Paula’s heart, as the trophy’s glass globe contains a seed-head she sees as being a good fit for that award.
“The way I see it, when a seed-head falls, you never know how far the seeds will fall or be spread. That is, in essence, what we do with communication.”
The International President’s Certificate of Appreciation was awarded in recognition of Paula’s ‘distinguished achievements in fulfilling the mission of Lions Clubs International’. One of Paula’s main projects during her year in office had been to co-ordinate the fundraising of some $30,000 which went towards securing and fitting out Te Awamutu’s new health shuttle.
Rosetown Lions’ current president Glenice Troth hopes to keep the momentum going. She wants to concentrate on youth under her own mantra, ‘attitude is everything’, and intends adopting as her project for the year the promotion of the school-based programme and workbook, ‘Being My Best’, which focuses on developing reliance and confidence in children.
The programme and workbook is the brainchild of Cambridge teacher and resilience programme facilitator, Sue Lyon.
Rosetown Lions are active in supporting the Te Awamutu Youth Development Trust in its running of the Te Awamutu Boxing Academy, they run a high school speech competition, and raise funds for youngsters through a coin collection that sees old coins collected and either melted down or held in collections.
Club members – there are currently around 40 – also run a Santa Grotto each year and last year raised $1500 for child cancer through red-labelled messages hung on white Christmas trees.
They also get involved in the international Peace Poster initiative, collect old spectacles and support foodbanks and women’s refuge.
The annual craft fair in Te Awamutu is a major club fundraiser.
“We have a lot of strings to our bow,” said Glenice. “We also benefit from having some of our members in other organisations, which means we can connect better with what the community needs.
