In honor of Veteran’s Day, the Santa Monica Pacific Palisades Lions Club had an entire program dedicated to US Veterans. We kicked off with a presentation by Lisa Dykes from the Fisher House, located at the West Los Angeles VA Center. Created by real estate developer Zachary Fisher, he wanted to provide “comfort homes for families of hospitalized military personnel.” Currently there are 67 Houses around the world, with six in California. The WLA House is only operating at 50 percent capacity right now because of the pandemic, however, the ten families that are there are very appreciative to have a home away from home while receiving medical treatment from a variety of LA area hospitals.
Following Lisa, Co-President Kingsley Fife shared his story of serving in the US Air Force as and ob/gyn when he was stationed in Turkey. Because of his area of specialty, he not only attended to female service personnel, but also the wives and female civilian military support staff. Always a great storyteller, he had several wonderful stories to share.
Immediately following his presentation, Co-President Susan DeRemer, passed the gavel to Kingsley for him to begin his four months leading the SMPP Lions Club. He then introduced Kanda Kandasamy, the past Pacific Palisades Lions Club president, as our new vice president. This was met with cheers and roars from all the Lions present.
To close out the meeting, Kingsley called the other Lions veterans to come up for our annual veterans’ picture (seen above).
If you are interested in learning more or becoming a Lion, we welcome you to join us on Wednesday, November 8th at the Elks Lodge at 6:00 pm, when we will be joined by the Salvation Army. To attend the dinner, please RSVP by contacting Yoriko Fisher, at santamonicalion@gmail.com, orKingsley Fife at 310-454-2960. Please remember, due to reinstated health guidelines, masks are required for all indoor events.
