When Paget Lions Club members mark their 20th anniversary this September, they will be doing it with their first female president, Dessaline Waldron, making it a celebration of the past ? and the future.

Ms Waldron was a longstanding member of the Hamilton Lioness Club before starting the Somers Lioness Club in 1989. Unfortunately, after two years of struggling to charter the Somers Club, the decision was made to close Lioness Clubs in an effort to get their members to join the Lions Clubs.

This was a move filled with some controversy.

?It took a little while before women really decided to go to Lions,? said Ms Waldron. ?I always had dual membership. Some longstanding members of the Lioness clubs were afraid that they would lose their years of service when they moved to the Lions Club. Once it was known that the Lionesses wouldn?t lose their years, the women were more willing to become Lions.?

The Somers Club became the Somers Lioness Lions. Ms Waldron is an associate of the club, but had to step away because she couldn?t be a member of both clubs and climb the ladder of leadership.

For Ms Waldron the change has been a positive one. She became president of the Paget Lions Club last June and is in her second year. She said it has been also healthy for the club to have a wider leadership scope.

?I think having a woman as president has helped to break the barriers and encourage other women to step out,? she said. ?The one two years after this will probably also be female.?

She is no stranger to leadership. She is the leader of the National Liberal Party, and has been involved in Lions on an international level.

?My most proud moment was when I became the Lioness district president in 1991 and1992,? she said. ?I had to go to New York every month for a year. I had a secretary down here and a secretary up there. I was in charge of 21 clubs. There were people of all different races and nationalities.

?They accommodated me by having functions on the weekends. At that time flights were going out early morning from Bermuda. Sometimes I would go up early in the morning and come back late at night unless we had a banquet. In which case I would stay overnight. That was a highlight in my life, really.?

It was a friend who originally got Ms Waldron interested in the work of the Lions and Lionesses.

?She invited me to one of the meetings,? said Ms Waldron. ?I felt very impressed by their code of ethics to help the less fortunate. Our motto was ?we serve too?. The Lions was ?we serve?. You had to go to two meetings before you could say you wanted to sign up.?

As president of the Paget Lions, Ms Waldron often gets phone calls in the middle of the night from people needing assistance.

?Some person might need groceries or a child needs school clothes,? she said. ?Someone might need airfare to get treatment abroad. You would be surprised at the number of families in Bermuda who are in need. Even before I became a Lioness I believed in helping where I could.?

Ms Waldron enjoys assisting with Paget Lions Club?s numerous fundraising activities throughout the year, including packing groceries at Lindo?s and ?gas filler-uppers? to raise money for a scholarship fund. This year the Paget Lions will be helping one Bermudian student attend the Bermuda College.

?This is the first year we have helped local students,? said Ms Waldron. ?For a few years we didn?t do the scholarships.

?We decided we would stick strictly to our home students. And there are a few students who can?t afford to go the Bermuda College and the only way you can go is if someone approaches you and offers help.?

This year the Paget Lions Club also helped to send 18-year-old Patrick Phillips to an international youth camp in Montgomery, Alabama. It was a camp designed to bring out leadership skills in outstanding young men.

?I believe in giving back,? said Ms Waldron. ?That is one of my strong beliefs and something I have tried to instil in my son and in my nieces and nephews.?

Ms Waldron leads a busy life. She is also the founding member of the Lupus Association in Bermuda.

?I always tried to schedule my time accordingly, because if not you go bonkers,? she said. ?I formed the Lupus Association because my cousin had Lupus. Unfortunately, she passed away several years ago.

?Lupus was always thought to be a black female disease, but that is not always the case. I think we have achieved awareness in the community about Lupus.?

To honour their anniversary, the Paget Lions Club will be holding a number of activities between September 8 and 14.

There will be a special black tie banquet on September 9 at the Fairmont Hamilton Princess. Tickets are $125. It is open to the public. There will be cocktails at 7.15 p.m. and dinner will be at 8 p.m. sharp for dinner.

Lions Club International immediate past president Ashok Mehta from India will fly to Bermuda with his wife to help lead the festivities.

This was especially interesting to Ms Waldron, because she has done some volunteer work in India. She also assisted with a plan to fly three enormous dialysis machines that were no longer needed in Bermuda, to India where they were put to good use.

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