As 2025 draws closer to an end, the Holliston Lions Club has taken a few moments to reflect on what they have accomplished in the first six months of this Lions year. Here’s a brief recap of what we worked on.
In July, we kicked off the year with our annual Carnival. This is an opportunity for us to begin the year with strong financial footing to allow us to make donations and fund our scholarships for the year. As always, the community came out strongly to support our efforts. As has been our tradition, we also provided free meals and rides for families with special needs. On the final day of July, the Lions prepared and served hot dogs and burgers at the Country Day school, what has become an annual event.
August is often a quiet month for us as we prepare for a busy fall and this year was no exception. This is a time for us to prepare budgets, earmark funds for scholarships and get ready for some very busy times.
In September, we kicked off the month with our meat raffle (thank you to Casey’s for your hospitality and to Holliston Superette for helping us provide high quality food for this event!) Again, special thanks go to the Holliston community for their support. We also provided lunch for those living at Mission Springs — these luncheons have become a monthly event, rotating between Cole Court, Mission Springs and the Center. Lions also made their presence known at Celebrate Holliston.
October kicked off “Mental Health Awareness” month and we provided a series of mental health articles for the Holliston Reporter. We were also fortunate to have Zoe Moreau and Alegra Denehy join us at our dinner meeting during the month. The luncheon this month was held at Cole Court where we were joined by our Leo Club members and served lunch to nearly 30 residents.
November was an unusually busy month — we teamed up with the American Legion and the VFW to serve lunch (along with help from our very capable Leo Club members) at upper town hall. Lion Kathy McKenna did an outstanding job with our first ever car rally. We held our second meat raffle with the proceeds going to benefit the Holliston Pantry Shelf, we assembled SNAP Bags, and in conjunction with the Holliston Newcomers (and other community members) we provided lunch for 99 residents (all delivered to their homes). Lunch was served at the Center with the help once again of our Leo Club members.
December always kicks off with Breakfast with Santa at the Placentino School, a tradition for more than two decades. We were also proud to have taken first place in the Chili Contest held at the Holiday Stroll. Lion Kathy McKenna was also awarded the Holliston Humanitarian Award. On Christmas Eve, with lots of community help, the Lions delivered 125 meals to seniors, veterans and on-duty first responders.
As we are preparing to celebrate our 85 years of service, it is notable that we have accumulated nearly 1100 community service hours since July 1 and we won’t be slowing down any time soon!
For those who wish to learn more about the Holliston Lions, you are encouraged to visit our website and learn more about what we do. Over the next few months, you will hear about our Super Bowl Squares raffle (held in conjunction with HABA) and our annual “Winning of the Green” where the grand prize is $10,000.
Our sincere thanks to the residents of Holliston for all you have done over the years to ensure our success.
