Celebrating 60 Years Service to the Community
February 1966 was a different time and place in New Zealand. Country Calendar first aired. You could watch C’mon! Aucklanders could listen to Radio Hauraki, and a loaf of bread cost 4 pence.
In Martinborough S.H. Ussher was the mayor. You could buy a house for £2,800 (roughly $160,000 today), Haddon Donald was the local MP and Fonterra was still 35 years in the future!
60 years ago, a small group of men got together with some blokes from Masterton and inaugurated the Lions Club of Martinborough.
“The first Lions’ meeting was held on 15 February 1966,” says Max Stevens, current president. “The club was sponsored by the Masterton Club and later that year on the 13th August 1966 a Charter Presentation was held hosting a gathering of 160 guests,” adds Max. “It was a big deal.”
The moto of Lions Clubs International is “We Serve” and the Martinborough club has worked assiduously to bring that motto to life within our community and district. “We have initiated hundreds of fundraising projects and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years,” says Max. “This has been accomplished through fellowship, friendship, cooperation and commitment.”
One of the Club’s significant projects was the purchase of the Odd Fellows Hall in 1977. This provided a Den for meetings and a shared community facility which has allowed the club to lease the adjoining land at a very generous rate to the Ruamahanga Medical Trust. The Medical Centre provides an essential service for our wider community.
The Club has been, and continues to be, an integral part of the Martinborough community. Major fundraising events have included: “Raft A Rama”, The Mammoth Auction (selling machinery, appliances, household goods and timber), Toast Martinborough event support for 34 years, the Skyline Challenge Ride, Run, Walk, the Pump Track and Fire Brigade Medical Support. “Lions spend our time thinking of ways to raise funds for all sectors of our community, from youth to the oldies,” says Max. “We’ve cut a million pieces of firewood, sold for funds or given to those in need. We’ve had countless barbecues, moved hundreds, if not thousands, of trestle tables at the Fairs, run events, laid paths in parks and cleaned up flood damaged fences,” adds Max. “We’ve even taken over running the Lion’s Café at the Fairs from the Lionesses who are no longer an organisation.”
Martinborough Lions have a range of ongoing activities and projects such as Christmas Lunch for over-65 singles, fortnightly coastal trapping at Aorangi, building and distributing penguin boxes, marshalling for the Christmas Parade, signage for walking tracks as well as installing, maintaining and updating the two town map Kiosks. Lions donated $50,000 to the new playground development.
The club meets twice each month. The first meeting is a speaker’s night. The second meeting is for business to organise fundraising, projects, events and activities as well as deciding how, and where we will donate funds.
As Max says “The club can be very proud of what it has achieved in its 60-year history. We estimate we have raised and donated about $20,000 annually, helping the community thrive and grow, and that’s something worth celebrating.”
