Carmen Moon will no longer be the “odd woman out’’ at Rochester Lions Club meetings, with a sudden influx of female members soon to increase the count to five.
While not intentional, it was the passion and enthusiasm for the service club — part of the Australian culture for 76 years — that resulted in the membership boom.
Ms Moon and second vice district governor Geoff Turnbull, along with his wife Janice, from Wangaratta, had the idea of sending families to Licola.
Ms Moon picked up on the idea and instigated the move to give families respite from living in caravans and sheds.
All three new members and their families were part of the 77-strong Rochester contingent which attended a free four-night “holiday’’ at Licola Wilderness Village in January.
The village is on the fringe of the Alpine National Park in Gippsland, inland from Maffra and not far from the Victorian snowfields.
Rochester Lions Club has swelled from 17 members to 25 almost overnight, with three women — Lauren Coghill, Sam Scoble and Sonia Keenan — inducted into the club by Mr Turnbull last week.
The women were so inspired by their January dealings with Ms Moon and the club that they were inspired to join.
Ms Moon said the women joined the club because, among other reasons, they wanted to give back to the Lions and, by extension, the community.
“They were all on the trip. I probably asked 100 families personally to go and 18 all up went on the trip,” she said.
She was responsible for recruiting the participants and, despite only having short notice, there were 18 families from Rochester at the camp.
“Many had already organised holidays and several others were away because of the floods,” Ms Moon said.
A second camp, already with 33 Rochester participants, will be held at the village.
Ms Moon, who works at the veterinary clinic, said the camp enabled families to “unwind’’ and avoid draining issues such as insurance calls for a week.
The all-abilities facility also allowed Rochester families with special needs children to be involved.
Ms Moon’s husband Stacey and three of their four children also attended the camp.
“We needed some Lions club members there. It was amazing, my six, eight and 15-year-old loved it. The 18-year-old had to work,” she said
The camp supplied tree meals a day, plus morning and afternoon tea, then also offered full catering, bedding, toiletries and all other components of the event.
The camp has 16 cabins on site, perfect for a family environment.
The club will gain more members when Julia Butler and her husband Paul join next month and Sonia’s husband David Keenan will be another addition to the books.
Ms Moon said it was nice to have some girls in the group.
“We have such a wealth of knowledge within the club, from which we can build new ideas,” she said.
“We help a lot of people in the community without people knowing. We hope to increase our profile through social media and promote the work of the club.”
Bin Childs, who had retired to Rochester with his wife only two weeks before the floods, is another new recruit.
He is a former senior member of Lions Victoria and will also be joining the ranks of Rochester.
“He is a wealth of knowledge, an engineer and a highly intelligent man. We are very lucky,” Ms Moon said.
Ms Moon, who is assistant secretary of Rochester Lions, was praised heavily by long-time member and club secretary Hedley Moon.
“Carmen was the only female in the club before last Wednesday,” he said.
“It was her efforts that made the camp so successful. She did the recruiting.”
Mr Moon, one of five Rochester Lions members over 80 years of age, admitted several long-time members were past certain aspects of club activity.
“These seven new members have given the club a new lease on life. A majority of them are in their 40s and it is fantastic news for us,” he said.
“It has given everyone a real lift.”