Win still an active Lion, 40 years on

THE longest-serving member of the Lions Club of Ocean Grove-Barwon Heads is still playing her part, more than 40 years later.

Win Corless has been a member since 1979 and continues to be involved in the running of the club and its fundraising efforts.

She arrived in Victoria from Tasmania in 1968 with children, seven cases and a cat and dog. Her husband Ed arrived a little later with a trailer of belongings.

The couple set up several businesses in Ocean Grove over the years, including the hardware store in the main street, a nursery, the deer and wildlife park, a cake shop in the arcade, a bottle shop, Mitre 10 and the Wallington rural store.

Win said Ed, who passed away three years ago, had the philosophy of “taking over a struggling business, getting it up and running, then leaving so that someone else has an opportunity”.

Her first 18 years in the club were as a Lioness – the female-only branch of the Lions Club which was the convention of the time – but became a member of the Lions Club at the first opportunity, in 1996.

Win and Ed were unable to use their garage for many years as the Lions Foodbank Project was operated from there.

One of the members would bring a van back from Melbourne each week fully loaded with long-life food, which was packed into boxes and then were given to local churches to be handed out to those in need.

She said she had enjoyed many projects with the Lions over the years, particularly being involved in fundraising for local playgrounds and provided hearing devices for deaf people to use the telephone.

She said Australia Day was also a favorite, when the Lions set up on Main Beach to provide the materials and assistance for children to make and fly their own kites, and she especially loved the looks on the children’s faces when their kite actually worked.

Win believes her family has been supported by this community for many years and is determined to give back in any way she can.

The Corless family donated a block of land in 2010 so the Lions Club could establish the Barwon Grove Foundation, which was a massive boost for the foundation and supported its efforts to provide housing for aged or disabled people in the community.