The Santa Monica Pacific Palisades Lions have been busy this month with tree planting, working with young children, leadership training and having elections.
Enjoying the sparkling California sunshine, Lions and potential Lions joined with the SM Urban Forrest team in celebrating Arbor Day. This year we planted two trees at the SM Airport Park on Thursday, April 25. Making the event even more fun was seeing fellow service club members from the Kiwanis, Women’s Breakfast Club and Rotary.
A few days later, on Saturday, we participated in the annual SM Arts & Literacy Festival hosted at the Virginia Avenue Park. This year’s theme, "The Robots Are Here," was a big hit with children and adults alike. We had a steady stream of families helping create their own colorful robots at our booth and it was fun watching each child be so creative. The other booths were filled with more creative projects, children were walking around in robot costumes, there was a train families could ride circling the event and the story stage drew a large crowd. We were in the perfect spot with a robot racing track on one side of us, Curbie, the SM Recycling robot on the other side, and Coco the food delivery robot zipping around across from us.
One of our co-president elects, Derrick Beerensteyn, attended a District Leadership Conference a couple of weeks ago and shared at one of our meetings his experience and the inspiration he received from meeting such a diverse group of Lions from all over California. They shared challenges, successes and their love of serving their communities. Derrick took full advantage of it and is excited to bring some new ideas to the Club as one of our new leaders.
To bring as many new ideas to our Club as possible, we will have four co-presidents next year. While Kathy Boole and Susan DeRemer will continue for another year, Derrick and Pam Andrews will be joining the quartet. A full list of officers can be found on our website.
If you are looking for new ways to become a part of the Santa Monica and Pacific Palisades communities, come join us for a meeting or at one of our volunteer events. Our next dinner meeting is Wednesday, May 22 at 6pm at the SM Elks Lodge. If you are interested in possibly becoming a member or joining any of our community activities, please contact Kingsley at 310-454-2960 or email smpplionsclub@gmail.com. You can also learn more about us from our website.
Submitted by Susan DeRemer
