New head of Lions Club

On Tuesday, July 17, Richard Newsum led his first Lions Club meeting as President to a positively responsive crowd. His orderly nature and affable manner will be effective tools in achieving his varied goals for the club, having a very short time to do so. His keen interest for his chosen community dates back to his childhood. Newsum said, “I was familiar with Wimberley as I had gone to camp here as a 5th and 6th grader. Over the years, we also had friends who had property in this area and would come back for weekends with them.”

Referring to the move from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Wimberley in 2003, Newsum said, “Our children were all in Texas so a move back to the Lone Star State seemed the right move to make as we readied for retirement. It’s a decision we have never regretted.”

In 2012, he was invited to become a Lions Club member. He recalled, “The club was on the hunt for a scholarship administrator, someone that would keep track of schedules and grades to ensure that the program parameters were being met. I went to my first meeting in January of 2012 and joined the next month, taking on the scholarship post right after joining.”

The next year, he became a club director. Two years later, In 2015, he was asked to be the incoming Third Vice-President. Newsum explained, “The club has an interesting and effective system in place that allows vice presidents to oversee each core committee on their way to becoming club president. By the time they have gone through the three levels of vice-presidential responsibility, a new president has been exposed to the processes and goals of each working committee.”

Over the past three years, on his way to the position of “Lion Boss,” Newsum has served on all of the club’s committees including the Texas Lions Camp, the Youth Exchange program, Grants, Scholarships, and Health programs. He described those particular programs as “what Lionism is all about, making a difference through service to others in your community.”

He continued, “As the 2018-19 Lion year unfolds, it is my goal that we continue to provide the Wimberley Valley with the model of service and care for which this club is known. In order to do that effectively, we will need to enlist new members who understand our mission and can work with us to increase our ability to make a difference. As a goal in that direction, I would like to see our membership rolls grow by at least 10 percent over the next year. It would take 17 new members to do that, and in a town like Wimberley, that should be well within reach.”

Detailing a second goal of his presidency, he said, “Lions International has for many years, focused on identifying sight related issues among our children. The Wimberley club has had a high degree of involvement in that through our Kids Sight Vision screening program. A new initiative in Lionism worldwide involves preserving sight through increasing the awareness of factors leading to diabetes. Over the next year, I would like to see our club start a program with this as a focus.”

During Newsum’s oneyear term, the Wimberley Lions Club will reach two important milestones. In January 2019, the club will celebrate its 50th year, and will have awarded an impressive four-million dollars through their many programs. He said, “It promises to be a time for each Lion to sit back for a minute and reflect on what this club and Lionism as a whole are all about, being a good neighbor, a good friend and an instrument to bring about the betterment of life in the Wimberley Valley.”