HISTORY

Number of Clubs: 70 Leo Clubs (58 Alpha; 12 Omega )
Longest Active Club: Penguin Leo Club (1970)
Newest Club: Leo Club of New Norfolk T1, Dec 2007
Leo Districts: C1,N1,N2,N3,N5,Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4,T1,V1,V2,V3,V4,V5,V6,W1,W2
Leo Multiple District: 201

News & Events

2006-07 Leo of the Year Award recipient:

Hannah Bellwood. MD201 Q2

2005-06 Leo of the Year Award recipient:

Tanis Hinton, Middlemount Leo Club, MD 201 Q4

2004-05 Leo of the Year Award recipient:

Ashley Jade Neilsen, Ulladulla-Milton Leo Club, MD 201 N2

2003-04 Leo of the Year Award recipient:

Renee Lanphier, Twin Cities Leo Club, MD 201 Q2

2002-03 Leo Club Excellence Award recipients:

Bayside Leo Club, 201-Q1

Sacred Heart/St. Josephs College Leo Club, 201-V2

2002-03 Leo of the Year Award recipient:

          Jane Overington, Kemore State High School Leo Club 201 Q3

Lauren Hamilton, Sacred Heart/St, Josephs College Leo Club, MD 201 V2

2001-02 Leo of the Year Award recipient:

Glenn McKenzie, Gold Coast Central Community Leo Club, MD 201  Q1

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Forty-one years ago, Coach Jim Graver started the Leo ball rolling. Chances are, that ball was a baseball.

Back in 1957, Graver was the coach of the Abington High School, Pennsylvania, USA, baseball team. Graver was also an active member of the Glenside, Pennsylvania, Lions Club.

With fellow Lion, William Ernst, Graver talked about starting a service club for high school boys. "The Kiwanians had their Key Clubs and the Rotarians had their Wheel Club (since changed to Interact Clubs)," Ernst is quoted as saying in an October 7, 1976 newspaper article in The Evening Bulletin.

So they asked their fellow Lions for support. Without hesitation, the Glenside Lions agreed that a Lions youth group was a good idea. Graver and Ernst set to work.

"We needed a nucleus, a group of kids to start with," stated Ernst. "So we got Jim's son to come to the first meeting with his whole baseball team." Nine sophomore, junior and senior boys joined the group of 26 baseball players.

Together, the 35 teens formed a club. On December 5, 1957, the Glenside Lions presented a charter to the Abington High School Leo Club.

As the world's first Leo club, the group created the Leo acronym - Leadership, Equality, Opportunity (Equality was later changed to Experience.) And, the group chose maroon and gold - their school colors - to serve as the Leo club colors

Other Lions clubs soon began organizing youth service clubs and in 1967, Leo clubs were adopted as an official programme of Lions Clubs International. 

The first Leo club in Australia was formed at Ingham in 1968. There are now 70 Leo clubs in Australia with over 58 school-based clubs. The Leo Programme has grown to include more than 140,000 Leos in over 138 countries