If there’s a community event going on in the Ashcroft-Cache Creek area — from Canada Day to Graffiti Days, drag races, the Fall Fair, Mother’s Day at the Ashcroft Farmers’ Market, and much more — there’s a good chance that volunteers from the Ashcroft and District Lions Club will be there in their distinctive gold vests, ready to help out (and often serve up some great food into the bargain).
They’re certainly not afraid to get their hands dirty: quite literally, in the case of the Cache Creek “Adopt a Planter” program, where club volunteers have been happy to take over one of the downtown planters every year since 2022 and create cheerful displays. In 2023, when they were dealing with too much water (disastrous flooding in May) and not enough water (the planter they were assigned had no line for watering), club members decorated it with debris flotsam and artificial flowers, earning them the award for “Most Creative” planter.
It’s this “can do” spirit that has animated the club and its volunteers over the years. When Mark and Diana Boutillier of the BC Draggit Challenge were looking for a volunteer organization to help with security during drag racing at Campbell Hill on the weekend of June 23, the Ashcroft and District Lions Club answered the call, and received $1,395 as the recipient of the event’s 50/50 draw. They were also at the drag races on the weekend of June 7 selling their own 50/50 draw tickets, raising more than $1,600 for the club.
Almost every year since 2017, the Ashcroft and District Lions have taken part in the Tim Hortons Smile Cookie campaign, with club members volunteering their time to sell cookies at the Timmies at the Ashcroft Travel Centre for the week of the campaign. Over the years they have raised thousands of dollars for a variety of great causes in the area, from minor sports groups to community organizations such as The Equality Project, the South Cariboo Elizabeth Fry Society Food Bank, and the Community Resource Society’s Christmas Hamper program.
In 2011 the club began an annual run called Skip’s Run, in honour of longtime Ashcroft and District Lions Club member Skip Stuart, who passed away in 2010. Although the run was not held this year, the club honoured Stuart via the Skip Stuart Vocational Bursary, given annually to a graduating student at Desert Sands Community School. This year’s recipient was Talon Close, while fellow grad Rachel Sam received the club's Lions Academic Bursary. Each bursary was worth $1,000.
The annual bursaries are far from the only way the club gives back to the community. The funds they raise — through 50/50 draws, a Christmas raffle, volunteering at events like the Draggit Challenge, monthly bingos, and their mobile concession — go to help “top up” the amounts raised through the Smile Cookie campaign, as well as purchase items for other organizations. In 2024 the club purchased an automated external defibrillator (AED) unit for the Cache Creek Volunteer Fire Department, whose AED has reached the end of its life, while in 2017, following the Elephant Hill wildfire, the Ashcroft and District Lions donated nearly $5,000 to the fire departments in Ashcroft, Cache Creek, and Loon Lake.
The club was chartered in 1951, and while it has had its ups and downs in terms of membership, longtime local Lion Sue Peters of Cache Creek calls the club “small but mighty,” adding that they do a lot for a little club. They were instrumental in bringing the Better at Home program to the Ashcroft-Cache Creek area in 2014, and have supported the program — which helps seniors continue to live independently in their own homes — financially over the years.
And the Ashcroft and District Lions — along with members of the Rotary Club of Ashcroft-Cache Creek — were instrumental in helping to reclaim Ashcroft’s historic Chinese Cemetery, when the site had fallen into dereliction. Members of the club were at the site in March 2017, when the Province of BC unveiled an altar there, and then-MLA Jackie Tegart acknowledged the work of the two clubs in restoring the cemetery: “[They] took this project on, and now people can feel pride in the cemetery.”
Lions International has a slogan: “Where there’s a need, there’s a Lion.” Since 1951, volunteers with the Ashcroft and District Lions Club have been the living embodiment of that slogan, and with an infusion of new members last year looks set to continue serving the area for a long time to come. However, the small but mighty club is always looking for new members; if you are interested in learning more, contact Peters at sjpeters14@gmail.com.
