Salt Spring’s Lions Club has been around since 1958, and has done a huge amount of good since its inception, as described in our March/April 2026 Aqua story written by club member Val Neaves. Some high-profile activities are the fundraising Lions Directory, published each year, the Friday-Saturday garage sale at Lions Hall on Bonnet Avenue and barbecues held at community events. Funds raised are then disbursed to a wide range of projects in the community, such as Portlock Park, the Centennial Park playground, Kanaka Skate Park, bike park in Mouat Park, Santa Ship and many more. The following story is part of our Stepping Up volunteer profile series to encourage islanders to donate some time to a group that could use some extra helping hands.
Sandy Harkema has been a member of the Lions Club of Salt Spring Island for about 11 years now, but she also belonged to the “Leos” — the junior equivalent — when she was a young person on the island.
Harkema worked at Island Savings for part of her working life, and did the books for her husband’s Harold Harkema Repairs automotive repair shop before he retired, so having the treasurer role for the club is a natural fit. She has also been the secretary in the past.
Harkema enjoys seeing familiar faces at community events, like the recent Ruckle Heritage Farm Day barbecue the club held there. Having lived on the island for 59 years and raising five daughters here, she knows a ton of people.
“Volunteering with the Lions is good,” she said. “I like doing it. It gives me purpose.”
Harkema appreciates that the club consists of a diverse group of people and is not a special interest group with a singular focus. Everything they do is geared to raising money for the broader community, or supporting events by providing food and beverages and/or volunteer labour.
Global projects like sending water purification tablets to Guatemala or providing disaster relief throughout the world are also supported through Lions Club International, which interests Harkema. The local club has even bought vision scanners to check children’s eyes in Mexico, with island members going to that country to facilitate. A Lions vision scanner is also used to check students’ eyes in School District 64.
Another aspect of volunteering with the Lions Harkema appreciates is that “you give whatever time you have.”
“Some people come to meetings. Some people don’t. They might want to only help out at the garage sale, or with these cooking events where they actually get out in the community. It’s kind of pick and choose, and nobody’s there saying, ‘You didn’t come to a meeting.’”
With such a wide variety of activities to choose from, there’s likely something of interest for almost everyone.
Like all Salt Spring groups that rely on volunteers, the average age of members seems to keep getting older.
“It would be nice if there were younger people involved in it, but that’s a little hard, because younger people with families are already usually busy supporting all the different groups that kids have at that age, which is what I did.”
Harkema’s favourite annual Lions activity is probably the Seniors Christmas Dinner, where club members cook dinner for seniors who are on their own and Valdy comes by and sings.
“It’s probably the most feel-good event that I do. There’s 20 of us volunteering, we’re all together, it’s Christmas, and some of the people don’t have family, so they look forward to getting together because it might be the only time of the year they see each other.”
To learn more from Harkema about her volunteer experience with the Lions and to consider joining the club — at whatever level might work for you — email treasurersaltspringlions@gmail.com.