Every year the Apex Lions Club hosts a joint meeting with the Fuquay-Varina Lions Club because we sponsored them many (over 75, actually) years ago. This past year we also sponsored the Wake Southwest Centennial (Holly Springs) Lions Club as well. So we invited them to the joint meeting, too. And we were “prowled” by some members of the Cary Lions Club on top of that. So we had quite a crowd at our meeting this month! It’s always fun to get together, share ideas and see how other clubs do things.
Our guest speaker this evening was Fred D’Ignazio from the Simple Gifts Community Garden in Apex. It’s hard to believe, but the Simple Gifts Community Garden was started 10 years ago. Fred is originally from Pennsylvania and is a children’s book author and was a teacher. Simple Gifts Community Garden is an outreach mission of Apex United Methodist Church which aims to work together to share the harvest and feed the hungry and those in need. It’s also a great way to share knowledge and enthusiasm about gardening and provides an opportunity for many people to learn and get involved at any level of commitment they are comfortable with. There are people of all ages and backgrounds who participate in and contribute to the garden. Everyone can share experiences and learn from each other. And, in turn each family has the opportunity to reap the harvest from the garden. The remaining produce is donated to missions such as Western Wake Crisis Ministry, and food banks and missions such as St. Mary’s and The Pointe Church. In fact, over the past 10 years of operation more than 10,000 lbs of produce have been donated to such causes! Jeanne Hack (wife of a former Apex Lion) hosts the community garden on her land near the Walmart in Apex. The membership fee is very inexpensive (only $15 per year per family) and that entitles the family to participate in the gardening as well as the harvest. And the garden even has some bee hives which produce honey! This Saturday (March 2nd) from 8am to noon is the first day the garden will be open this year. It will remain open on Saturdays (and Tuesday evenings from 5-7 pm) until December during Daylight Savings Time, beginning March 11th. Please plan to visit some Saturday or Tuesday evening and join. You can get more information at their web site: www.simplegiftsgarden.org or by contacting Fred by email at fred.dignazio@gmail.com or by phone at 919-244-7601
We also like to have some fun at our meetings – especially when we have guests in town! So our Tail Twister (self proclaimed World’s Greatest Tail Twister) Lion John Potts had a bunny hop contest for the visiting clubs to compete for gift cards. It was fun to watch and probably even more fun to participate (that’s my story and I am sticking to it!). Here are some photos of the contest. The Fuquay-Varina club won the contest this year, so I suppose that gives them bragging rights.