Lions
1946-47 Maurice Douglass
1947-48 Ralph R. Smith
1948-49 E.B. Greig
• Dr. Samuel Park, a charter member, is lost at sea when his ship is torpedoed in the North Atlantic.
1942
1949-50 Wilbert C. Drury
1960s
• The Club adopts a 12-year-old British boy, Charlie Bird, whose parents were casualties of the Second World War.
1943
1960-61 Clive Williams
1961-62 Merv Patterson
1962-63 Ernie Evans
1963-64 David Kozinets
1964-65 William Goulding
1965-66 Roy Dixon
1966-67 D. Campbell/Ken Mann
1967-68 Bill Pride
1968-69 J. Stoddart
• The Club is asked to form a local Navy League to send supplies (“ditty bags”) to sailors at sea. Sponsored by the Arthur Lions Club, charter member Carman Greig and his wife form the local league. Later that year, Arthur received a certifcate stating the village contributed more per capita than any other community in Ontario.
1969-70 Len Kerr
• Ten new members join, and the Club sponsors juvenile hockey
• The Lions host a broomball game challenge and send parcels overseas to local servicemen, including Pat Coughlin, a POW in Germany.
1980s
Post-War Era
1980-81 Ron Gould
1981-82 Jim Alexander
• The Club shifts focus to recreational activities, especially minor sports.
1958-1959
1982-83 Laird More
1983-84 Lloyd MacArthur
1984-85 Ron Guest
1985-86 Brent Barnes
• The Club runs a “Suit of the Month” fundraiser.
1961
1986-87 Glenn Dixon
1987-88 Dave Munn
1988-89 Ross Densmore
• Fundraising begins for a concrete foor in the arena.
1989-90 Ken Dixon
1963-1964
• The Club organizes a school safety patrol with help from Arthur Fire Deptartment and wins awards for best club secretary and bulletin.
2000s
1966-1967
1999-2000 Ralph Roelofsen
2000-01 Barry Long
2001-02 Norm Staples
2002-03 Roy Hillis
• The Arthur Lions Pool is constructed, and the Club organizes Centennial celebrations in town. Before the pool’s construction in 1967, the Club bused children to the Fergus swimming pool.
2003-04 Doug Sharpe
2004-05 Tom Ristov
2005-06 Ralph Roelofsen
2006-07 Mike Marshall
• Club members canvass the town to sell Centennial fags and decorations to beautify the town for celebrations planned for May, June and July and other events for the rest of the year.
1970-1971
2007-08 Al Rawlins
2008-09 Ken Dixon
• Arthur Lions Club member Frank Barnes becomes District Governor of A9, attending various conventions.
1972
2020s
2019-21 Al Rawlins*
2021-23 Phil Wilman
2023-25 Mike Marshall
• The Club helps organize Arthur’s 100th anniversary, offering camping, food services, and events like a soapbox derby.
1975
• The Club receives property from Anglican Church on Smith St. that becomes Arthur Lions Park.
1976
• The Arthur Lioness Club is formed.
1977-1978
• The club grows to 62 members.
• The Club establishes a Leo Club, engaging local youth in Lions activities.
• The Club pledges $25,000 for the new arena and holds barbecue fundraisers.
• The constitution of Lions Clubs International was amended to allow for women to become members.
1950s
1988
1950-51 G. Hutton/P. McTavish
1951-52 Peter C. McTavish
• The Club continues its Christmas Hamper Fund with 26 families receiving hampers.
1952-53 Archie R. McLean
1953-54 H. Allan McCulloch
1989
1954-55 K. McPherson/D. Black
1955-56 Don Black
• The Club celebrates its 50th charter anniversary.
1956-57 Ken Elliott
1957-58 Grant McEwen
1992
1958-59 John Walsh
1959-60 Dr. J. Gomph
• The Arthur Lioness Club disbands, and women begin to join the Club.
1993-1995
1970s
• The Club organizes the frst annual golf tournament, with 53 golfers participating.
1970-71 Cliff Colwill
1971-72 Frank Barnes
• The 15th Annual Lions Paw Weekend is held, an event that included a dance, horseshoes and various ball tournaments.
1972-73 Harvey McConnell
1996
1973-74 Bill Burnett
1974-75 John F. Smith
1975-76 William McClennan
• The frst annual Christmas Craft Sale and Duck Race are held.
1976-77 Mel Jamieson
1977-78 Gus Hostrawser
2006-2008
1978-79 Dr. Jim Joyce
1979-80 Ken Dixon
• The Club operates their food booth at local events and raises funds through several annual events, incl. the 2007 duck race which sells 1,875 tickets.
• They contribute to community causes, such as donating lifejackets to the pool and raising funds for Heart & Stroke.
1990s
• The Lions golf tournament continues to be a success.
1989-90 Ken Dixon
2012-2013
1990-91 Laird More
1991-92 Jim Alexander
1992-93 Paul Nielsen
1993-94 Stan Woods
1994-95 Jim Joyce
• The revamped Arthur Lions Park is offcially opened, and the Club donates $10,000 for upgrades that included new playground equipment, signage, and a fence surrounding it.
1995-96 Brian Cooper
1996-97 Jerry Paul
1997-98 Mike Marshall
• The club receives a grant from the Ministry of the Environment to assist with the Arthur Community Trail Committee and development of the trail.
1998-99 Bill Elliott
• The Club builds one of the bridges for the new Arthur Walking Trail and the new trail is offcially opened on Sept. 14, 2013.
2014-2015
2010s
• The Club receives $3,000 to extend the rail trail into Arthur.
2009-10 Ian Turner
2010-11 Norm Staples
• A tree-planting initiative sees 600 trees added along the trail.
2011-12 Al Rawlins
2012-13 Mike Marshall
2017-2019
2013-14 Glen Cheyne
2014-15 Laird More
2015-16 Phil Wilman
2016-17 Wayne Horton
2017-18 Brent Barnes
2018-19 Glen Cheyne
• The Club joined “Lions for Groves,” a coalition of nine Lions clubs dedicated to raising $240,000 to support the Diabetes and Patient Education program at the new Groves Hospital. The group raised $240,000 between May 2017 and October 2019, surpassing their $200,000 pledge.
2022
• The Brent Barnes Memorial Skate Park offcially opens after almost three years of fundraising, coinciding with Arthur’s 150th celebrations.
*moved to a two year term
• The Club passes ownership of the annual golf tournament to the Arthur Optimist Club.
2024
• The Club makes a $25,000, fve-year pledge to the establishment of the Aboyne Rural Hospice.
• A second $25,000, fve-year pledge is made to the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides’ The Difference Campaign, a vital initiative that aims to fund a new facility that will enhance the operations of seven guide dog programs and signifcantly reduce wait times for a guide dog.
• A $5,000 donation is made to the Palmerston Hospital MRI+ Campaign.
• The Club celebrates its 85th anniversary on November 14.
Supporting minor sports – Arthur Minor Hockey player Ben Boggs helps Lions Laird More and Mike Marshall load chicken dinners into waiting cars. Submitted photo
New members – The Arthur Lions Club welcomed two new members to the Lions family this year: Stu and Joy Bartels. From left are: Stu Bartels, Lions vice president Glen Cheyne, Joy Bartels and Lions president Mike Marshall. Submitted photo
‘Wherever there’s a need’ Arthur Lions Club is there
GEORGIA YORK REPORTER
WELLINGTON NORTH
– The Arthur Lions Club may seem small with just 20 members, but that just makes the success of their initiatives all the more impressive.
Lions Clubs are known for helping wherever they’re needed in a community, which appropriately suits the club motto: “We Serve.”
The Arthur club began in 1939 with an endeavour that has grown and evolved into what it is today: the Christmas Hampers program.
“It started initially just providing gifts for kids that weren’t going to get anything [for Christmas] … and now it is a full Christmas dinner plus provisions for a week or two for most families,” said club treasurer Laird More, who has been an Arthur Lion for 50-plus years.
During the first Christmas hamper event, club officials spent a total of $25 for all the kids – and today the program raises thousands of dollars, stated Lions officials.
Each year the club teams up with local schools, business, churches and community members to prepare Christmas hampers for families in need.
The program used to focus on helping families with kids but it has now expanded to “adult individuals that have no support”, More explained.
The hampers include food, gifts and provisions for those in need.
“The biggest part that I like is helping the people,” More said emotionally. “Some are just so grateful that it’s moments like that you know why you are a Lion.”
That’s why the hamper program is one of his favourites and also one of the club’s “more” important programs, More added.
“It’s very gratifying to be able to provide that service and humbling to help people that are really struggling.”
Last year the Arthur Lions Club handed out around 60 hampers, with a lot of the families in need having three or four children.
A newer, more recently completed project was the Brent Barnes Memorial Skatepark, which was finished in the summer of 2022.
The idea was proposed in 2017-18 by late Arthur resident and longtime club member Brent Barnes, who died in December of 2018. The park was then named in Barnes’ memory.
“It’s one that was very much needed for the youths in town and it gets a lot of use,” More said of the park.
With the help of an anonymous $100,000 donation, the idea was put into motion. The park can be found at 461 Eliza Street, behind the Arthur Optimist Pavilion.
Over the years the club has heavily supported various sports teams, including Arthur minor hockey and lacrosse.
“We helped get those organizations started and we spon-
Many initiatives – TOP LEFT: Long-serving Arthur Lions members operated the grill at the 2022 duck race. From left are: Tom Ernikoglou, Wayne Horton and Al Rawlins. TOP RIGHT: Members of the Arthur Lions Club donated $5,000 to the Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation’s MRI+ Campaign. ABOVE: The Brent Barnes Memorial Skate Park offcially opened in July 2022 following almost three years of fundraising by the Arthur Lions Club. Submitted photos
sored teams along the way, provided them with uniforms and equipment,” More said.
Another project the club has supported is The Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides’ “The Difference” campaign.
The campaign aims to build a new 89,000-squarefoot national dog guide training school. To date Lions Clubs have helped raise $40 million of
the $50-million goal.
“It is still a big project for the Lions; we have one lady here in town who has just gotten a new [guide] dog,” noted More.
Currently the club is also focused on helping local schools purchase new playground equipment, which is not covered by the government or school boards.
“Wherever there’s a need
What it means to be an Arthur Lion
GEORGIA YORK REPORTER
WELLINGTON NORTH – To be a Lion is to be a community member willing to lend a hand where it’s needed.
An active volunteer, friend and a leader are just a few of the roles filled by Lions Club members.
“To be a Lion you just got to have some type of sense of community where you care,” said Arthur Lions Club president Mike Marshall.
Lions Clubs International is an international service organization with over 1.4 million members serving, 49,000 lions clubs in 200 countries and regions.
It is a community of people who volunteer their time to improve their communities, from feeding the hungry to cleaning up local parks to helping rebuild after a disaster.
For 85 years the Arthur Lions Club has been making a noticeable difference in Arthur and the surrounding area now known as Wellington North.
Marshall, who became a Lion in 1992, has seen many changes over the years.
“Since I joined it’s been a lot of blue-collar family guys in town,” he said.
He explained when the club was first formed, the majority of its members were people “high-up” in status and business owners in town. Now a member can be almost anyone willing to donate their time.
Marshall said one problem the club has had to deal with in
the last 30 years is a decrease in members.
He believes it has to do with an incorrect assumption people make regarding the amount of time required of members.
“People are under the assumption that when you join, you have to give 110 per cent; all we ask is that you give us the time you can,” he stated.
When Marshall joined the club he had two kids involved in sports, which he helped with from time to time – and he still had time for the Lions.
Marshall said his late best friend Brent Barnes, a former Arthur Lion, gave the community 110 per cent of himself –but that was the exception, not the rule.
As membership declined over the years, so too did the club’s ability to host an abundance of events.
“We went from roughly 46 members when I joined to roughly 20,” Marshall explained.
The decreasing numbers became such a concern that the Lions board changed the process for becoming a member.
“It used to be, years ago, you had to be asked by a current member if you wanted to become a member and then you would come and meet the club,” said treasurer Laird More.
“The club would then decide if you were a good can-
didate and then you would be accepted. Now that is not the case.”
Because it became “too difficult” to join, all prospective members have to do now is go to a meeting and experience what the club is all about or ask an existing member.
More also noted that many years ago, members would take part in every single Lions Club endeavour.
“Now, with time constraints and family … whenever you can assist you’re encouraged to, but there’s no actual commitment,” he said.
Those interested in joining the Arthur Lions Club can ask a member or email the club at arthurlionsclub@gmail.com.
we’re there – mostly on a group basis, but sometimes on an individual basis, too,” said More.
Some of the Arthur Lions Club’s most popular local fundraisers are its chicken barbecue nights, which regularly sell over 800 meals, he stated.
This year, to celebrate its 85th anniversary, the club will host a chicken and roast beef dinner on Nov. 16 at the Royal
Canadian Legion in Arthur, with DJ Steve Leask to follow.
“In the late 90s we started our chicken barbecues and they are still going strong,” added More.
Doors open at 6pm with dinner served at 7pm.
Anyone interested in becoming an Arthur Lions Club member can ask a current member or email arthurlionsclub@gmail.com.
Longtime members look back on decades of
Arthur Lions Club history
GEORGIA YORK REPORTER
WELLINGTON NORTH –
This year marks the 85th anniversary for the Arthur Lions Club and its ongoing dedication to the community. War efforts
Lions International was formed in 1917 by a Chicago business leader, Melvin Jones, in response to social problems created by the First World War and industrialization, noted Lions officials.
The Arthur club started in 1939 for similar reasons tied to the Second World War. The group assisted the war effort greatly and Arthur was recognized as Canada’s most patriotic village.
“That’s where a lot of the effort went for all of the clubs not just ours,” Arthur Lions Club treasurer Laird More told the Community News
During this time the lions began sending kits overseas for soldiers that were filled with gloves, cigarettes and candy.
“Just the little things that soldiers were really happy to get because it was something from home,” noted More.
The club also contributed towards war bonds and began collecting them from area residents.
In the following decades the Lions participated in and organized hundreds of fundraisers,
rallies, dances and initiatives to better their community.
In recent years the club has had 20 active members with a few hinting at joining soon, added More.
“I tell people I’m a lifer,” stated More, who’s been a member for 50-plus years. He grew up watching his father become a charter member for the Lions Club in Jarvis, a small community in Haldimand County.
“I grew up seeing what they do and how they come together to make things happen,” he said.
Ever since More was a child, he knew he was going to be a Lion, “there was just no question.”
“I’ve benefited so much from that club [Jarvis Lions] it was just a natural that I had to give back,” he added.
More moved to Arthur in 1976 and continued his journey as a lion by transferring his membership.
“Whatever the need is, you try to fill it,” he noted.
After 50 years, More’s dedication to his community and to the club hasn’t wavered.
“It’s been an honour to be a member this long … it’s a great organization,” he said. President of the lions Lion Mike Marshall, who has been serving as club president for the last two years, has
Shared passion – Arthur Lions Club president Mike Marshall, left, and club treasurer Laird More at the Arthur skate park dedicated to late Lion Brent Barnes on Oct. 28. Photo by Georgia York
ARTHUR LIONS
Arthur Lions Club honours charter member, fallen lieutenant with banner
ROBIN GEORGE REPORTER
ARTHUR – Dr. Samuel Park
was a charter member of the Arthur Lions Club, a Jewish immigrant from Russia, one of just a handful of doctors in Arthur’s community in the late 1930s, and a lieutenant in the Second World War.
On Oct. 25, the Arthur Lions Club honoured Park with a small ceremony at the cenotaph and by hanging a banner on Arthur’s main street.
“His dedication to both community and country made a lasting impression,” said Lions Club president Mike Marshall.
Park was the first Arthur Lions Club member “to make the ultimate sacrifice during World War II,” he said.
“Let the banner remind us all of the profound impacts that one person, one club and one community can have.”
Wellington North councillor Steve McCabe and PerthWellington MP John Nater also spoke during the event.
“The motto of the Lions Club is ‘We serve,’ and no one embodies that more than Dr. Samuel Park,” Nater said.
It’s because of the “courage and sacrifice of people like Dr. Samuel Park” that Arthur is known as Canada’s most patriotic village, he said.
And it’s important for people to remember “each person who served was a real person who had a family, had loved ones, and had a life,” he added.
Park’s background Park was born in Bobroisk, Russia in April 1907 to Max and Margaret Parkovnick, according to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial. He and his family immigrated to Québec while Park was a child, and
he attended Earl Grey School, Montreal High School and McGill University, according to the Canadian Jewish Congress.
His brother, Israel Parkovnick, also served in the army, states David Rome in Canadian Jews in World War II, a memorial book compiled for the Canadian Jewish Congress.
McGill’s records show Park graduated with a medical degree in 1934. After graduating, he worked as an Arthur-area doctor for about three years.
Original Arthur Lions
On Nov. 21, 1939, less than three months after the onset of the Second World War, 46 men, including Park, joined together to launch the Arthur Lions Club.
Marshall described the club’s charter members as “visionary.”
They were “a professional bunch,” Arthur historian Jeff McKee told the Community News, including business owners, teachers, a high school principal, a post master, a newspaper editor, doctors and politicians.
Six were First World War veterans, and seven went on to serve in the Second World War.
The Mount Forest Lions Club launched the year before Arthur’s, and sponsored the Arthur club, Marshall said.
“The early focus of the club and all of its charter members was the war effort,” Arthur Lions
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lived in Arthur since his high school days.
“It was probably my best friend Brent Barnes who got me into the Lions,” Marshall told the Community New s. Barnes was a committed Lion for many years before he died in December of 2018. He now has a skate park
ARTHUR LIONS CLUB Lions often
named after him in honour of his time with the club.
Marshall joined in 1992 and watched as the club changed and evolved.
“[Being] president is probably one of the easiest jobs being in the Lions Club,” Marshall said.
“You’ve got all these people bringing you ideas and you just sit there and listen.” He explained when he first joined the club there was “hardly” ever a repeat in presidency. Because there were 46 charter members in the beginning, a lineup to the top began making it hard for others to have more than one term.
Club secretary and second vice president Jen McDougall told the Community News. “They played an instrumental role in our village’s designation as Canada’s Most Patriotic Village.” Park’s service Park volunteered for active service early in the war and was posted to Military District No. 1 (renamed Canadian Forces Base London) in London, Ontario on Sept. 10, 1940, according to Arthur Lions officials.
He was appointed to the Canadian Active Service Force as a conducting medical officer in September 1940, states a May 1941 clipping from the Owen Sound Sun Times.
The same clipping states Park was “believed lost at sea due to enemy action.”
The Department of National Defence announced Park was reported missing and presumed dead on May 5, 1941, after the troopship S.S. Nerissa sank, McGill archives state.
According to the Maritime Museum of British Columbia, (MMBC) German submarine U-552 sank S.S. Nerissa on April 30, 1941.
According to MMBC, 207 men died when the Nerissa sank, including 83 Canadian military personnel; there were 84 survivors.
Park was 34 years old when he died, and the voyage was his fifth trip overseas, the Canadian Jewish Congress states.
After Park’s death, he was promoted from lieutenant to captain, according to McGill archives. His name is inscribed on the Arthur cenotaph as well as the Halifax Memorial in Nova Scotia, the Jewish Canadian Veterans Memorial in Toronto’s Mount Sinai Memorial Park and the War Monument in Baron De Hirsch Cemetery, a Jewish cemetery in Montréal.
1939-40s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s
DR. SAMUEL PARK
Dr. Samuel Park – From left: Arthur Lions Laird More, Gail Richardson, Joan Gainer, Mike Marshall and Wayne Horton; MP John Nater; Lions Jennifer McDougall and Alan Rawlins; and Wellington North councillor Steve McCabe were among those who gathered on Oct. 25 to honour Dr. Samuel Park, a charter club member and lieutenant who died while serving in the Second World War. Photos by Robin George
Dr. Samuel Park – LEFT: Troy Weberm from Wellington North Power, installed the banner honouring Dr. Samuel Park on a George Street lamp post. RIGHT: Arthur Lions Club secretary and second vice president Jen McDougall, left, and club president Mike Marshall, hold the club’s original charter, signed in 1939.
