Organizing Market Days

If you’ve been to Market Days, the organization of the hundreds of vendors and visitors is something to be envied, with everyone having a good time. Lion volunteers are everywhere to help to make customers have a good experience.

The Lions Club does a great job and have for decades.

Market Days is a huge undertaking with all the activity going on and it is very successful. Organization is what makes it a success. The main reason for that organization is Lion Lee Gibson. Lee has made the Market Days the enjoyable experience that it is.

She also volunteers for other organizations, such as EmilyAnn, and the Chamber of Commerce. She became a “professional volunteer” after she retired at 53 years old. She seems all business when seen at functions. But being a volunteer, she’s warm, funny, and a human dynamo with a very lovable dry sense of humor.

Born in Refugio, she has a twin sister, and not just a twin, but also a mirror twin. A mirror twin is what it sounds like. Her sister, five minutes older is right handed while Lee is left. Hair color is different as Lee has red, while her sister is brown.

This is a good thing to know as her sister has attended Market Days and is often mistaken for Lee.

Lee was in Wimberley at Rocky River Ranch as a kid and when she married Cecil. They visited again to see Cecil’s college teammate and they loved the place. At the time they were living in Houston with Cecil at NASA for forty years while she worked at Tenneco for twenty-five.

When they both retired they moved to Wimberley. Not one to be retired she lived up to her “professional volunteer” name. “I enjoy being busy. I like being busy.” Her first stop was at the Chamber of Commerce.

“I was recruited and volunteered one time a week, and I loved it. I was on their board for ten years. I was also on the board for WSCAI (Wimberley Senior Center Activities, Inc.) with M.F. Johnson for 10 years.”

She soon was on the board of the Chamber of Commerce and also served as president. Next was the Lions Club.

“I was the third woman in Lions and have been there 18 years…women can now join and do all the work,” Lee continued. “I was the first female director, for fourteen years, the first female president and various boards, every board there is,” she continued.

“We serve, that’s important to me, that’s what I do.” The proof of serving is the Wimberley Lion Club scholarships and grants total over $3 million over the years, mainly from Market Day profits.

She ran the Concession Stand with Dave Slider. “I wanted to run Myers Concession #1, the big one with 25 people working. Then I became Market Day Administration, in charge of concessions, administration, the Market Managers Team.” Her profession doesn’t stop there.

“My new passion is EmilyAnn.” One of her friends from Lions recruited her. “I need you to come see what we are about. All of a sudden I’m on the Board. I said, let me run concessions, we made $30,000 in my first Trail of lights, with hot dogs, smores, Frito pie. We received those nice donations for decent dressing rooms.” She continued about the community’s children.

“There’s a lot of talent in Wimberley, kids writing and producing their own productions. And this year there was over 3,000 entries (for butterfly art)… there’s so much good out there, there’s the Sensory Garden, but we need volunteers, even to just weed,” she said.

“This is the twentieth year of EmilyAnn and we’re still deciding on what will be done for the Twentieth Anniversary there are things to come.” But it doesn’t end there.

She is also active in her church and it shows in her words. “Everything we do, God is behind it. He always comes through.”

The next time you see her running around on Market Day, EmilyAnn or her other professional volunteering, say something nice and ask her “Hey, how can I can serve?”