Noon Lions ‘pass torch’ to new officers

The Gonzales Noon Lions Club celebrated the end of their fiscal year this week by celebrating all of the clubs’ accomplishments and projects throughout the year, announcing new officers and giving away year-end awards.

The Lions Club announced they had 60 members, including the addition of 13 new members. Club President Cynthia Green also announced the youth group, the Leo Club, was “the largest ever.” The Lions have also logged in officially 133 service activities, although Green admitted that there may have been other service activities not logged on by other club members.

The club went over their various projects throughout the year which include the Splash Pad, hurricane disaster relief, the soup kitchen, donations to GCAM and much more.

After, Kermit Thiele was honored for his 50 years of service to the Lions. Thiele was given a special pocket knife for his efforts.

Loretta Shirley was given the Melvin Jones Fellow award for her work throughout the year. Shirley “as a member of the Gonzales NLC has shown all the great qualities of leadership and determined volunteerism. Away from this club [she] led by example in a lot of other areas and shared her talents throughout the district.”

Frank Weisser was named the Gonzales Noon Lion of the Year for his efforts toward diabetes screening. His plaque read, “In grateful appreciation and recognition of your extra effort and untiring service to Gonzales Noon Lions and especially for your forward thinking ideas to launch diabetes screening in schools and creating a new Lions program that’s possibly going to launch across our state.”

Near the end of the ceremony, Green passed a ceremonial “torch” to Britney Jones-Caka, the new club president.