History

The Curaçao Lions Club is the first (and therefore oldest) Lions club to be organized and chartered in the Kingdom of the Netherlands on February 27th, 1946. The club consisted of 50 prominent members of our community. The motto of Lions International “WE SERVE” was put into practice, reinforcing:

• the understanding amongst fellow-members;
• motivating and bringing people together;
• being a positive force in our community;
• creating enjoyable, safer and saner ways of living;
• planning and implementing Lionistic projects on behalf of and for the well-being of the community in need and distress.
• During this Lionistic year 2015 – 2016, we will celebrate our 70th anniversary, looking back at the many projects and initiatives our club was able to achieve.

President FL Alexis Daou’s inaugural speech

Tonight we start the celebration of 70 years community service and it’s an honor for me and the newly installed board members to chair this year.
By celebrating this installation night we have entered the 70th year of the existence of the club. This is not something to take lightly, many lion members of which some are not with us tonight have contributed to the success of the club.

With the support and teamwork of the installed board and membership for whom many are now my friends and successful leaders, I’m convinced that we will make it a great year.
All organizations go through change and many have their challenges and our club is not an exception, but it is the ability to continuously improve the way we as a club manage to handle the sum of needed necessities of our community that certifies our existence.

I’ve now taken the leadership of the club for the second time, and I’m proudly supported even pampered by many of my fellow Lions. I’m very great full that the membership during the nineties decided to allow females to join the club. Thank you for giving us the chance to experience what serving our community means. This year we have an all-female daily board!!!

The projects, donations or programs are a reflection of the most needed areas of our community. Our role is simple, WE SERVE as a link between many community sectors, where we raise funds from one part of the community and translate this into projects and programs giving it to our fellow citizens in need and distress.
As for us fellow Lions, in the constant change we are living in there has to be a different approach as to how the club will continue serving the community.
It is almost impossible to continue to exist if we do not discuss innovative, new ideas and implement them. This does not mean we have to give away all the traditional projects for which we are known for.

Look at us celebrating tonight in this beautiful location, who would have thought 70 years later we have a Lions Community center which was the former home of FLs Donny & Don Bakhuis. This center has a dual purpose: it serves as a location for many community projects and a meeting place for the Lions. We will offer certain amount time of this location to community projects which have difficulty paying for a location.

This year we will contribute to promote leadership in as many ways that we can. We already have a wonderful project called the Leo Club and we will also be organizing a motivational leadership event in November. Yes the famous John Maxwell will be presenting for the Lions club.
We also have a breakfast program called Dan Mucha un Man where we serve daily breakfast to 1700 children at school. Yesterday we had a haring-party to raise funds for this program.
Internally we will continue to fortify and motivate the team spirit and networking amongst our members and the community. We are Lions and we carry our name with pride.

The rest of the year’s projects will be presented during the first business meeting.
Finally I would like to take the opportunity to thank FL Don Hernandez and his board for a job well done.
As the new board’s leader and together with you all, we will continue the path to bring in innovative ways to fulfill our objects in an ethical way and continue to guarantee the club’s existence for many years to come.

I want to end with my speech with one of John Maxwell’s inspirational quotes:

Leaders must be close enough to others but far enough ahead to motivate them

Alexis Daou
President of the Curaçao Lions Club 2015 - 2016