District Governor John Ebanks (left) hands over Club Charter to new President Nellie Walker. - Contributed
The Lions Club of Port Antonio was launched at a dinner at Bay View Villas in Port Antonio, Portland, recently.
The new president is Nellie Walker, bank manager at FirstCaribbean International Bank. Other officers of the club will be Fr Arokiadas Arumainathan, first vice-president; Edison Taylor, treasurer and Valrose McKennon, secretary.
This club is part of Lions Clubs International which is the world's largest service club organisation with 1.3 million members in 45,000 clubs in 202 countries and geographic areas. It was founded in 1917 and its motto is 'We Serve'. Lions clubs build stronger communities through a variety of projects and activities that address unmet needs, reduce blindness, conduct hearing projects, preserve water, air and land and provide disaster relief.
Health Fair
Their first activity was a health fair in Fruitful Vale, near Hope Bay in Portland, on Friday, May 23, on Labour Day. This project included sight screening, blood pressure and blood sugar checks, distribution of eye glasses, immunisation, cholesterol tests and Pap smears. There were also displays on mental health, diabetes, hypertension, gastro-enteritis, leptospirosis, food safety and waste segregation. More than 100 patients benefited from the health fair.
Some of the other programmes proposed for the next three months are assisting with rehabilitation of the homeless, mentoring of the youth, a reading project and assisting the elderly.
The club was sponsored by the Lions Club of New Kingston. Persons present at the charter function included District Governor, John Ebanks, past Council Chairman Karl Francis, past district governors Milton Pinnock and Dennis Montague, Region Chairman Ena Nosworthy-Cohen, Elaine Robinson, master of ceremonies; Jennifer Tomlinson, former Minister Aloun Assamba, Angela Patterson, zone chairmen Kailyn Burnett and Colin Titus, Superintendent Dudley Scott and, the mayor, Lt Com Floyd Patterson.
