The Cottage Grove Lions hosted a tri-county Community Service Saturday on Saturday, April 6 at the historic John P. Furber Farm in Old Cottage Grove. Held in the Wedding & Events barn from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Lions groups from Dakota, Ramsey, and Washington counties came together to provide various DIY volunteer service projects for attendees to help their communities. The event was open to the public for participation and was well-attended by hundreds of people from the surrounding area to volunteer their time to help others.
Themed tables were set up throughout the main event space, with provided supplies laid out for attendees to create products and care packages for the various community outreach causes.
Some of the projects presented for volunteers to help with included packing up after-school food packs, laundry supplies, diabetes kits, fleece blankets for kids, custom placemats for Meals On Wheels, activity bags for children fighting cancer, “Save the Bees” seed balls, bird houses, and bags of hygiene products. Lions Club Kidsight vision screening was on-site, as well as a table for attendees to create custom dog toys for pet owners.
Dozens of Lions members from the surrounding area supervised the event, helping local volunteers put together the packages and products for distribution to the greater community. Lunch was provided for those who registered for the event in advance. All visitors were welcome to assist in the various service projects provided by the participating Lions Clubs of District 5M6, comprising 33 clubs in the tri-county area.
“Many Clubs do this individually within their own communities, but this is the first time we’ve done it as a tri-community big event,” said Lions District 5M6 Gov. Judy Zewers. She said that the goal was “to engage people in the community to volunteer as well,” and that this event brought together about ten different projects which will benefit organizations in the local community.
“We have things here that address our global concerns as Lions, like hunger, the environment, youth, diabetes, childhood cancer, and more,” said Zewers. “We are so happy to see everybody here.”
