Extra! Extra! Read All About It! There is a new Fall Fest for kids ages 3-12 at the Lions Club Park, Waynesburg on September 28. The fun starts at 6pm with stations for pumpkin painting, face painting, cider and s’mores, coloring contests, carnival games and a bake sale. But wait—there’s more! “Bring your chairs and blankets for a movie in the park at 8 pm: Spookley the Square Pumpkin.”
I met up with Mandie Ague at Lions Club Park on Saturday, September 7 to get her hot off–the-press flyer for the brand new Fall Fest for this story. “It’s our first one and we’re excited!” She and fellow Lion Emily Shultz are in charge of what will hopefully bring out huge great bunches of kids to a free festival just for them. The fun, games and a movie will be held while it’s still warm enough to snuggle outdoors at dusk with blankets and get in the spooky mood for what October will bring—piles of leaves to jump in, chilly evenings to bundle up for and making just the right costume for trick or treating on Halloween.
When Waynesburg Lions Club & Community Park posted on Facebook that its traditional Halloween Parade on High Street Waynesburg was cancelled due to low attendance “over the last few years” the sense of loss was palpable. Memories of costuming up and parading down High Street, back when it was a stand-alone event, were shared. Others hinted at the obvious: There’s a lot more stuff going on when it comes to Halloween than there used to be.
Never fear – kids will be kids when costumes and candy are involved, so trick or treating, trunk or treating, and other parades will still happen all over Greene County. Local trick or treat days are already in the works for the spooky set to go door to door, usually after school and during daylight hours, depending on the weather. Halloween has become a monster mash of pop-cultural proportion, a mask ‘em up reason to do everything everywhere on Halloween for kids and adults alike. (So get out there and become your best crazy costumed uber-ego!)
But there’s more to being a Lion than throwing a good party, car show, or event. The first Lions Club was born in 1917 when Chicago entrepreneur Melvin Jones asked his local business club to reach beyond business and help the community. Similar clubs around the country were soon part of the pride, and when a club formed in Windsor Canada in 1920, Lions became international. Over the years, Lions International has taken on many health and environmental issues that affect young and old alike that have made it the largest service organization in the world.
Here in Greene County, Lions Clubs collect prescription glasses for reuse, sell brooms to support the mission, give scholarships through all the school districts, and sometimes get their good deeds published in the paper for all to see. But the real story lies in the many acts of kindness that are under the radar, acts that tell the tale of a group of community minded volunteers caring for their own when the need arises.
Working with Lions Clubs in West Greene, Carmichaels, Jefferson and Mt. Morris is also always an option o nbigger projects, as well.
Environmentally friendly projects such as collecting plastic bags add up to tons of plastic being recycled into outdoor benches through a program sponsored by TREX Corp. It takes about a year for the club to gather the thousand pounds of filmy plastic pollution to donate for the bench. “We’ve done over eight so far and other groups do it too. The bench by Bowlby Library is one.”