Standing with our club president (to my left, centre, somewhere far back) Dr Devadas in a photo to remember our club – Lions Club of KK Host – winning an outstanding club award at the recent (April 2 MD308 Lions Convention in Melaka.
By C C Pung
Justice of Peace
THIS was our monthly fellowship, and we decided to talk about a knowing that we’re an ageing club.
We have 51 members with more than half of them over 65 years old.
There are some (let’s not reveal this) in their 80s at a few knocking on the octogenarian door.
We are a miniature version of countries like Japan and Korea with declining birthrate and old people increasing in their population.
I haven’t read about any magical formula dealing with an ageing population or a service club dealing with more and more members struggling with osteoarthritis or some form of knee issues.
So we got our younger members in the discussion.
It wasn’t fruitful. I think they were stumped by the many laments of old blokes and their ‘once upon a time …’ stories of forgotten glories.
What changed? Perhaps more googling and AI can yield some answers.
Why did guys my age gelled better in our earlier years in the Lions movement?
How do we go about bridging the gap between the ages? Many of us have grown children.
The chasm between old and younger members and the related problems are not unlike the situation between us and our children. Duhh …
Our club, KK Host, is 59 years old. It’s the oldest club in Sabah.
We therefore have nobody to learn from in terms of the inevitable issue of ageing.
Last night (April 27) was a good start to grabbing the bull by the horns.
Let’s hope that our younger set of members have the staying power of us old hags, and along the way inspire fresh, young and service-minded men and women to join our ranks and continue the services that the club provided to the community.
I joined Lions in 1987. I grew and learnt through it. I made and kept many friends.
I learnt to appreciate the joy and gladness of being a benefactor in our service activities, that little tingling in my soul when, say, a villager laughs and says thank you when our gravity-feed water supply project brought water into his kitchen for the first time.
Many a time I was more happy than the beneficiaries of our services, charity or kindness.
It is one of those indescribable feeling of ‘high’ that touched the part of our being known to some as the ‘soul’.
I hope more people find this worthy.
