Navan, Ontario, Canada
Our small but vigorous club has been serving the community of Navan, near Ottawa, since 1952.
This is where to find out about the services we can provide, including support to other community organisations.
Most of our activities involve fundraising and giving the money to individuals in need or to larger causes.
More than 1.4 million Lions in over 200 countries are responding to local and global challenges with kindness and care.
Navan Lions will again be providing parking services for the 2025 Navan Fair, with all proceeds going to charitable donations from our welfare fund. As before, we will be depending on community volunteers to help us with this major fundraising activity. Watch this space for an online sign-up coming soon.
Note that students can get high school volunteer credits and experience volunteering in a team environment.
We thank all our players , sponsors and the Pine View Golf Course for contributing to a very enjoyable day and enabling us to present the Make-a-Wish Foundation with a cheque for $4,000. This puts our total donation donations since 2016 to this great cause over $25,000.
To see the photo gallery from this year’s tournament, please visit our Google Drive
President: Tony Fiorentino
Secretarial Team: Mark O’Donoughue and Chris MacPherson
Treasurer: Bob Noakes
One of the interesting things about being a Lion is that we meet and listen to fascinating people and ideas. Murray Thorpe, guest speaker at our Apr. 29th meeting, certainly fits this category. Murray, a local resident, gave a thought-provoking presentation on the subject of gender and sexual diversity. Murray used some role playing to give members a feeling of what it could feel like to be transgender. Murray asked whether we had friends or relatives who had faced this issue – and it turned out that most members had. Murray explained that if we had been asked the same question 10 years ago the result would have been very different – society has changed. We learned that this condition is not something which is a matter of choice.
In order to explain more directly what the experience might be like he asked us to imagine being transgender and had to explain this convincingly to the person next to you. How would you do that? What would be your thoughts, feelings and fears? We tried – but found it extremely challenging. It is so challenging that it is almost unimaginable for most people. I think it generated a greater sense of respect for people who go through this. If you have an opportunity to hear Murray speak, take the opportunity. Murray has helped families deal with this situation – so if you are aware of a family going through this perhaps Murray could help.
As mentioned previously, Navan Lions has developed a reconciliation committee to explore what we can do to facilitate reconciliation with the indigenous population locally. We have tried various initiatives and discovered that there are more indigenous people in this area than we had been aware of. Our most recent activity was the presentation of an information table at the recent Lions 50th A4 District Convention April 25th to the 27th. The table summarized the initiatives undertaken so far and presented a number of useful publications. We also collected names of those Lions from other clubs who wish to be informed of future ideas and activities. There is no doubt that interest in this topic is growing – but it’s a slow process and will continue to demand the considerable effort on the part of those involved.
One of our important fundraisers continues to be our Golf Tournament. Started in 2016 by Lion Don Macartney, the tournament has enabled the club to donate more than $21,000 to Make-A-Wish Canada. This year, we plan to add to that sum. The Navan Lions Club owes much of its success from the support of local people and businesses. That support enables the NLC to help many organizations as outlined on our website at https://navanlions.ca/fundraising/
This year, over 70 local businesses have generously supported our golf tournament – to name a few, these include: Waste Connections of Canada, M.L. Bradley, Jonas Building Restoration Ltd., Tanner Insurance, Low Murcison Radnoff LLP, Navan AutoPro, Maverick`s Donut Company, Simpson Electric Ltd., Sam Dagg Snow Removal Services, The Physio Space and Ottawa Chiropractic Health Clinic & Physiotherapy. We also received the support of our City Councillor Catherine Kitts.
Now more than ever, Canadians understand the importance of local businesses. The Navan Lions Club encourages its members and the community to support them.
Special Thanks to the Friends of Mer Bleue for financial support in the design of this website.
Photo credits; Tom Devecseri, John Ladds & Alan White