GMG Secondary Principal and Garwin Lions Club member Jaimie Gargas, right, pictured last July accepting his Lions Club new member certificate from Garwin Lions Secretary/Treasurer Keith Barloon. PHOTO COURTESY GARWIN LIONS CLUB/FACEBOOK

Sun Courier note: This article is reprinted with permission from the April edition of The Iowa Lion magazine, the official publication of the Lions Clubs of Iowa.

Lions Clubs International Foundation is committed to providing youth and young adults with opportunities to succeed. The Lions Quest program provides young people and their educators with tools to make positive choices, resist drugs and alcohol, learn through service and become healthy young men and women.

Through the work of the Garwin Lions Club, District 9MC, and the Green Mountain-Garwin (GMG) school district, an application to LCIF for a Lions Quest grant was granted. This is a first for Iowa.

Garwin Lion Jaimie Gargas explains, “One of the realities of modern education, combined with the benefits and detriments of our digital age, is the need to address social and emotional learning (SEL) for students. In many school districts, there are varied degrees of concern over curriculum used for SEL. As GMG Secondary School looked for curriculum that fit the needs of a rural Iowa district, it was able to combine citizenship and community service, as well as proven curriculum that community stakeholders would have confidence in: Lions Quest, which is a branch of Lions Club International.”

Gargas is the current principal of GMG Secondary Schools. He and Garwin Lions Club President Mark Polich, who was previously GMG Secondary School principal, thought the Lions Quest program fit the school’s needs well. The district pursued how to best adopt the curriculum.

“The second element needed for the school to make best use of a program would be cost,” said Gargas, especially with rural public school budgets under frequent reduction for a number of reasons. He located a grant opportunity, provided through Lions Club International Foundation, that would fund the entire endeavor for GMG Secondary School for a five-year period.

After applying for the grant, Polich and 9MC Past District Governor Judy Stone assisted in

the funding process, leading to GMG Secondary School receiving a $7,575 grant that paid for all of the program. It is also providing for professional development to help faculty learn to use its various components.

In keeping with the spirit of Lions Clubs International’s service-oriented goals, Lions Quest combines academic components with community service. This helps students value each other, their communities, and the world around them.

GMG Secondary School faculty will receive training on the program during the spring of 2023. Then the school will begin using the program during the 2023-24 school year. The added benefit of this program is the link with the Lions Club, which will help bring Garwin Lions into stronger influence with GMG students, strengthening bonds between adults and students. This adult bond is “another element of society that’s become increasingly important today,” said Gargas.

He added that the connection between Lions Club International and the school helps community members have confidence that the values represented by the program fit well with the GMG school district communities’ values.

As MD9 LCIF Coordinator, I would like to thank all that were involved in exploring all avenues that we Lions have at our disposal to serve our communities and applying. This is what LCIF is all about, filling a need to serve our community. LCIF helps Lions do larger service projects by providing funds and resources. All Lions need to have is the idea and to apply for the grant.

Youth are our future and the Garwin Lions are helping ensure a bright future.