FOR YEARS Guyra women have manned raffle tables across town to raise funds for the community, and for the first time the Guyra Lions Club has opened its doors to them.
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Bernadette Simpson and Margaret Werelow are the newest additions to the club and President Peter King believes its important for women in the town to be able to contribute to the community.
“It's going to bring in a different view, it's diversity.
I'm new to the club and I've been here three years, what I'm seeing is that guys that have been there many years can be set in their ways and it's easy to be innovative and include new ideas if you've got new blood and new thoughts,” he said.
King met Simpson in Brisbane when he rented a home from her before the two moved to Guyra where he now works as her carer.
Simpson is legally blind and has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and said her welcome to the club has been a blessing.
“Without Lions I would be trapped in my home.
Even if other women don’t want to join Lions I encourage them to get out in the community, to meet community groups and ask how you can help.
In Guyra there’s always something you can do and getting out you get to meet others and your own life is enriched through it,” she said.
The Guyra Lions Club has been responsible for numerous improvements around town, they installed a picnic table and shelter at Thunderbolt’s Cave, they run the Driver Reviver in Guyra and raffles to raise money for community groups.
Simpson and Werelow have helped out with club events for years and Simpson believes this has made the process to join easier.
“Access by females in small communities can sometimes be like disability access, it’s like when you try to go to the shops in town and they’ve all got steps out the front.
The doors have been easy to open for Margaret and I because we’ve known the boys for a couple of years and we’re friends.
We go on all the trips and we’ve always worked the raffle table anyway,” she said.
The Rotary Club of Guyra accepted female members more than five years ago and President of the Lions Club Peter King believes it has been a credit to them.
“It was my idea to recruit new members, we had struggled to find younger members and Rotary went female about six years ago.
Since then we’ve seen Aileen MacDonald and Wendy Mulligan both do a fantastic job.
The Lions Club would love to have more female members, we just have to overcome some of the wives as they were happy to send their old men off for one night a week!” he said.
