The Lions Club of Land O’ Lakes Roar

Nawar El Khouri Hage | Oct 09, 2024

And when we end, we actually start.

At our last club meeting I noticed our agenda was one that was filled with endings, closures, and yet it was also packed with starts, beginnings. Reports were given on the fundraising breakfast that was geared to the MRI machine in Napanee, the final speaker of The Land O’ Lakes Speakers’ Forum and the winning of the Catch the Ace Lottery.

Three successful events ended giving time and place for three more to appear on our agenda; a Pumpkin Coloring event for kids, The First Emergency Preparedness Plan training sessions for our club members and the Lions Club of Land O’ Lakes Santa Claus Parade.

Of those endings and beginnings I want to stop at just two. The Ace of Spade has been won, and at some point in the, relatively near future, Santa Claus is coming to town!

13 weeks marked the end of the journey of finding the Ace, with a lucky woman, visiting her family and deciding to support the Lions Club with the purchase of a ticket, won the lottery. The story ends there. Or does it? A sudden surge in the income for a person who might need it. A sure increase in happiness for a family who can use it. A larger belief in the process of the Catch the Ace for a community who is asking to renew it.

13 weeks mark Christmas. Of course, our Santa will arrive slightly earlier to spread the cheer while avoiding the “air-traffic jams” of Christmas Eve; but in reality, as I write this Roar, number 13 seems to prevail in my thoughts. Forever I heard stories of the number. Horror movies were built around the number. Yet, here I am, recalling a happy winner, and the one-and-only Jolly Old Man and linking the ending of one and the beginning of the other to the number 13.

And While I can go on to talk about how the number caught its fame on either side of the coin of luck, I will stop right here and state instead, in one last stance of the number 13:

Till we meet again in a Roar, celebrate every new beginning in your lives and cherish every end, watch out for veterans banners as they line up our streets and join us on the 13th of Oct as we celebrate Thanksgiving with a free meal for all.