IT’S a big year for the Inverloch Lions Club, which has been rewarded with the Gippsland ‘Lions of the Year’ award, selected out of sixty-five clubs from Mallacoota to the Mornington Peninsula including the Latrobe Valley, East, West and South Gippsland.
Inverloch Lions has raised three-quarters of a million dollars for local charitable projects and events since the club began twenty-four years ago and has almost completed an eighty thousand extension to their Inverloch storage shed.
“We raised twenty-one thousand dollars last year for distribution to thirty-two clubs including scouts and schools,” said committeeman Terry Hall.
The extended storage shed at the Inverloch Recreation Reserve will allow trailers and equipment currently garaged in member’s homes to be stored in a single location.
Club stalwart Dawn Rasmussen was honoured as a ‘Melvin Jones Fellow’ acknowledging thirty years of voluntary service as a member of Lions, Senior Citizens and Leongatha Daffodil Festival.
The Inverloch Lions Club’s major fundraiser is the Inverloch Community Farmers Markets at ‘The Glade’ on the last Sunday of each month.
Continuing to grow from strength to strength the market boasts sixty sites in summer and a regular thirty to forty stallholders over winter.
“Market day starts with signs around town then the marking out of sights on Saturday,” said volunteer market manager Ian Rasmussen.
“Then it’s up at seven the next morning to greet the stallholders.”
Over summer the market can attract between two and half thousand and three thousand people every weekend in January.
Twilight markets from 3pm to 8pm over the summer assist with fundraising for the Inverloch RSL, Historical Society, Bass Coast Health and South Coast FM.
Even in the depth of winter, the Inverloch market can attract fifteen hundred visitors.
The Inverloch Lions Club is now looking for a generous plumber with time to spare to assist their on-site builder and electrician in finishing the wash area and toilets in their new extension.
Financial contributions towards purchasing materials and equipment needed for the installation of a disabled toilet can be made through the Inverloch Lions Club website at inverlochlions.au/den