New Service Club President Shares Vision

By Misty Cryer

A new Lions club, the third in Carlsbad, aims to include those who cannot attend lunchtime meetings during the work week. Newly chartered, the club will begin selecting its own service opportunities in the upcoming fiscal year.

The formation of the Carlsbad Community Lions began last year with a vision to accommodate people who want to serve the community but have barriers that keep them from committing to weekly lunchtime meetings during the work week.

Kat Davis, President of the Carlsbad Community Lions Club, said they started the process in 2024 to become a branch-off of the Carlsbad Downtown Lions Club.

In sharing the purpose of the formation of a new club, Kat said, “We want to target people like me, working adults who still want to give back and help serve.”

She said, “We are aware there are two other existing clubs within our community—the Carlsbad Downtown and the Carlsbad Heights Lions Club. Both are great, and they have their own mission and work that they do.

“A meeting schedule of every week at lunchtime wasn’t very conducive for people who can’t make those weekly meetings, but who still wanted to be a part of the organization,” said Kat. “That was really where the idea for forming what we called then a branch club. We are now a fully chartered and independent club,” she said.

During the District Convention held in Carlsbad in April of this year, the Carlsbad Community Lions Club was chartered and had a chartering party.

In recent years, Kat said, the clubs have been seeing younger people wanting to join the clubs and get involved. “They come get inducted, but then never really showed up to meetings,” she said, attributing that typically to life or work conflicts.

“Our other existing Lions Clubs in town definitely cater more towards retirees or people who could make daytime meetings work within their schedule. In the working life right now, it’s kind of difficult to have that commitment,” said Kat.

In comparison, Kat said, the other clubs have weekly speakers and go through prayer, pledge, and updates. “We don’t do that. We actually just get there and get right down to business, as we call it,” she said. “We meet in the evenings,” she added.

“We meet once a month in person, sometimes once a month virtually as well,” said Kat. “That’s kind of where we might talk more, you know, logistical stuff or just make sure that things are happening throughout the month. We’re not just touching base once a month,” she said.

Starting in August, Kat said, the Carlsbad Community Lions Club will meet on the first Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. She explained that the club is a service organization, as well as a social club. “We do meet at a brewery,” she said.

Over the past year, Kat said, the club has been meeting at Milton’s Brewing. Going forward, she said, they will be meeting at Nurvis Purvis Brewing Co., which just opened recently. “We also kind of want to not be at a continual space,” she said.

“The Heights meets at the Stevens, and the Downtown typically meets at Pizza Inn,” said Kat. Throughout the year, she said, the new club wants the opportunity to change places, like going to dinner at Guadalupe Mountain Brewery Company, without being tied to any specific meeting space.

Meeting in public places is the preference of the club, where people might see them and inquire, Kat said, noting they were able to engage more with the public when meeting after hours at Milton’s.

While building enough members to charter the club, Kat said that they were kind of “piggybacking” off of what other groups are already doing, looking for opportunities to assist them. “Going into August and forward is really where we’re going to be crafting projects for our club individually,” she said.

For more information about the Carlsbad Community Lions Club, interested parties can follow the club’s Facebook page, consult the website (https://www.carlsbadlions.org), or reach out through email (contact@carlsbadlions.org).

“Members of the public are more than welcome to attend our in-person meeting that we have. They can come meet us, sit out the meeting, try it out, and then go from there to see if it’s their fit or not,” said Kat.

Noting that members include a variety of ages at different career stages, including stay-at-home moms, she said, “We are open to anybody. If we are not the right fit, we have a laundry list of other community and civic organizations within the community. We’re always happy to help point them in the right direction or just have them come and meet some new friends,” she said.