Fort High students soon will have the chance to be a member of a community-based service club at the school–and rack up some required volunteer hours needed to graduate–when the Fort Frances Lions Club starts up a LEO club there next month.
Students who join the LEO Club (which stands for Leadership, Experience, and Opportunity) would elect their own executive, schedule meetings, choose their own project and fundraising initiatives, and work as a separate entity from the larger parent group, noted local Lions president Jim Martindale, who also chairs the club’s youth outreach program.
He expected the club would go over well with students.
“They would learn leadership skills, how to run meetings, and it would give them the opportunity to work with [others],” he said Monday.
“They would be able to work on any project that they felt they’d like to be involved in,” he added.
Projects could include visiting the elderly, tutoring students, cleanup campaigns, and planting trees.
“[The LEO Club] would be really, really valuable for the Lions Club as well because many of our members don’t have much contact with teens [any more],” Martindale said.
“Fort High is the ideal vehicle because it has the age group who are at school, who need the [volunteer] service time, and it would work well for us,” he remarked.
Once the Fort Frances LEO Club has been chartered, it will be only the third of its kind within the Lions’ 5M-10 District, with the others in Kenora and Duluth.
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
