This History was specifically written to celebrate our Club’s 20^th Anniversary, June 1999.

Lindsay Stewart

History Update from 2000 to 2004

Since 1999 the club has continued under the guidance of the presidents listed below. We have continued the good work that has been characteristic of the club with our membership remaining steady at about 26. We continue to support the community through sponsorship, working bees and club participation. The PDR (Pony Riding for the Disabled) continues to get our support were needed although we have moved our major fund raising event from the Garden Expo to an annual bike ride out of Ipswich. We are involved in the sponsorship of the Leos club at Kenmore High School, school debating between Pullenvale and Moggill Primary Schools and various youth facilities such as Guides, Scouts and sports clubs and events.

Our major month to monthly endeavor is the Karana Trails project which is now well advanced and often enjoyed by the local community as a picnic area, and for bush walking or horse riding.

2005 will see us complete a walking bridge toward the western end of the trail.

In the year 2000 we had our first bike ride. There are a number of the club members that enjoy cycling. Faced with the need to come up with a major annual fundraising event a bike ride was agreed to and has existed ever since. The city of Ipswich holds a festival week around April each year. Our club will be running a bike ride for the 5^th time on the 17 of April next year. The first and second years the ride was promoted as “The Ride with the Pride” and had 3 routes to suite various riders up to a distance of 50kms. The year 2000 was pretty successful for a first go. 2001 not so good and 2003 even worse. The problem was competition from the local Federal political member who, without any discussion with us, planned a Mall to Mall ride on the Sunday before our. The crunch came in 2004 when we found out that the festival committee had agreed to the politicians ride being the day before ours. We had to lift our game or give up. The later not being a choice we changed our approach, gained major sponsorship from Boeing and marketed our ride strongly through the media and directly to prospective riders. About 300 riders on the day which meant a $10000 donation to our major beneficiary Zoe’s Place. We expect an equally tough time from our competition but will be giving the event our best shot in 2005.

Lion Keith Matheson (Melvin Jones Fellow) past away September 2001 & club founding member.

Lion Peter Smith passed away April 2004.

Both Keith and Peter are sadly missed by the club and are remembered for their service to the community.

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