Members with Brandon's Wheat City Lions Club are preparing for their annual potato sale taking place tomorrow on 18th Street North where members partner with the Brandon Correctional Centre to wash and bag hundreds of pounds of potatoes to sell.
"The potato project is something that's been going on for decades," shares Lions Club member Brian McVicar. "But over the years, the membership has changed and has gotten older, so the ability of the club to bag truckloads of potatoes for resale is getting harder and harder every year. So, we 've been looking at different ways to do this and we just managed to do it a different way in order to keep this annual potato event going for a long time."
"It's one of the major fundraisers we have for the Lions Club here in Brandon, but it's only one of several projects that we have."
Lately they've been selling the Grey Cup raffle tickets, and that's always a lot of fun for their group.
However, their biggest fundraiser is a weekly initiative where over a dozen of their members facilitate the WCGtv Bingo that they run every Wednesday at 3 o'clock on channel 12.
"So, it's the Westman TV Bingo run by the Brandon Wheat City Lions Club," he says. "So, that generates a weekly income."
All totaled, McVicar says they're able to give back between $25,000-$30,000 per year to their community and area by supporting projects and initiatives.
As every service club and volunteer organization recognizes the challenges of the need for more volunteers to join up as the current group ages out, so the Lions Club feels this same challenge.
Please listen to more with Brian McVicar below.