The Magrath Lions Club was founded in May 1938 with Gladstone Balderson as the first president and soon had 35 active members. One major accomplishment for the club back then was the construction of the original Magrath Swimming Pool (now long gone) and the Magrath Lions Playground. For the past 8 decades we have been working and serving here in Magrath with many taking several turns serving as club president over the years including: Charlie Matkin, Norm Hillmer, Johnny Bourne, Ken Balderson, Bob Clifton, Warren Wilde, Lawerence Papworth, Devar Dahl, Shauna Davies, Roger Davies, Alex White.
Today, we are a small but active club with about a dozen official club members with focus on Magrath and area. Our numbers may be small, but there are great local leadership opportunities here, and it is only thanks to so many willing local volunteers are we able to implement so many important projects here. Current Lions Club projects include the Annual Community Food Drive in early spring (2019 was our 14th annual drive with 100-150 church volunteers collecting food items from the entire town with 5000 lbs of food collected), our Annual Lions Garage Sale in late spring (we receive donations from all across town from people with too much stuff so they can come back and pay us to acquire different stuff), ongoing Lions Park Playground Upgrades as needed, an annual Community No Cost Clothing Event at summer end (with clothing donations from all across town and needing up to 100 volunteers to run it), and our Community Christmas Box Collections drive (for past 15 years we have served as collection point for boxes from community and from the club).
Current club membership includes Lions Alex (club president) and Laurie Ann White, Lions Glen and Christine (club secretary*) Bly, Lions Roger (club treasurer) and Shauna Davies, and Lions Mike and Kelly Duff, Lion Elizabeth Olsen, Lion Lawrence Papworth, Lion Deanna Friday, Lion Catherine Cai, Lion Larry Murray. *Sadly, in 2020 Lion Christine passed away after an extended illness. Lion Roger is currently the longest serving lion (since 1995). Lion Shauna has the distinction of having been our first female club president (4 terms starting in 2010). Lion Elizabeth is our oldest living club member (she being 5 years old when our club was founded).
We serve! We serve better with your help. Please see our website for current information on club projects, club membership and local volunteering opportunities.