While the community’s leading service club has always been the Bellbrook Lions Club, along with the Lioness Club for women, Mike Bevis, president of the Centerville Noon Optimists, said “I’m sure there’s room for more than one club.”
The Optimists club’s president-elect Kelly Eggers, is leading the expansion initiative and would head up the club until a president and board could be elected. So far, Sharon Bisterk, owner of Amelia’s restaurant in Bellbrook, is the only person to submit her application, though others have shown some interest, Eggers and Bisterk said.
“They help a lot of different organizations in the communities they’re in,” Bisterk said. “Everyone gets together and helps out, especially when it’s for children.”
She said she did not join the Lions Club because “it’s mostly men and if there are women, it’s their wives and I’m not married,” she said. Other people she has spoken to have said they might be interested, “but I think they just want to wait to see what happens.”
Bevis said the club’s goal is to support local youth and help improve the quality of life in the community. If the new club is chartered by spring, it could be part of a joint Youth Safety/Bike Rodeo venture at Miami Valley South Hospital in May. They hope also to partner with the Bellbrook Lions Club on community projects, Bevis said.
George Simmons, president of the Bellbrook Lions Club, invited Optimists members to come to their Pancake Breakfast at Stephen Bell School from 7 to 11:30 a.m. Feb. 26. He also exchanged cards and invited them to come to a Lions Club meeting to talk about their plans. “I think it’s wonderful that people want to help out,” he said.
The Bellbrook Lions Club has 75 members, the Lioness Club 32, he said.
Twenty-five members are needed to officially charter the Bellbrook club, Eggers said.
Anyone interested in joining can call Eggers at (927) 604-6015 or visit the club’s website at www.centervillenoon optimist.com.
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