What's newLions run booths to raise needed funds
Most people go to the Lodi Grape Festival and Harvest Fair for the typical fair experience — rides, petting zoo, wine tasting, grape murals, and, of course, food.
Other people are there for work — carnival employees, security personnel and festival supervisors.
But then there are some, like the members of the Lions Club, who simply volunteer their time in an attempt to raise money for community events.
This year, the club is expanding its role by taking over several wine pouring tables.
It’s the third year the Lions Club members have poured wine in the Wine Garden. This year, though, they’re also taking over several more locations, including the Beer Garden, said Mike McCay, a club member who also sits on the Grape Festival Board of Directors.
“We’re taking on bigger roles all the time. The problem, if there is one, is that we may be spread too thin,” said President George Barber.
It will take more than 100 volunteer hours for the club to accomplish everything it promised to do during the four-day festival, but members are confident they’ll pull it off.
The Lodi club has 74 members, and they often recruit spouses and friends to help staff the festival booths.
This will mark the second year in a row that the club has joined forces with the Mexican-American Lions Club, also based in Lodi, so that will definitely help, Barber said.
The organization, which has clubs around the world and in most cities in the United States, is dedicated to community service.
Members collect used eyeglasses for those who can’t afford eyewear, and the club is also working to help the needy get hearing aids. Many people on fixed incomes can’t afford $1,400 hearing aids, so the Lions Club enables people to purchase them for about $200 or $300, Barber said.
The club has also paid for renovations at Emerson Park on Hutchins Street, helped remodel the women’s shelter, redo the garden at the Loel Senior Center and fund a heliport at the hospital.
One way for the club to raise funds is through the annual Grape Festival.
Every year, Lions Club members spend hours at the pitch-to-win booth, a bingo-like game played with baseballs.
Last year, the game made about $4,000 in profits for the club, Barber said.
Each shift at the booth lasts three hours, and wine-pouring shifts are four hours, he said.
Most members serve at least two shifts, and Barber said he’s already signed up for two and will probably wind up working more.
Working at the booth can get tiring, especially when temperatures are near triple-digits. But some years, Barber has seen it rain, instead.
For Barber, who joined the Lions Club in 1976, helping at the Grape Festival is just another way of serving.
“That’s the Lions motto: ‘We serve.’ And we do,” he said.
Contact reporter Layla Bohm at layla@lodinews.com.
