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When Poulsbo resident Tracy Wall visited our board meeting in February 2000 to ask about updating some of the equipment at Lions Park so it would be safer for her children to play on, neither she nor the Poulsbo Lions Club knew what they were in for. Renovating the 30+ year old park has become the club's biggest project in years.
 The Poulsbo Lions scooped ice cream, served sausage, chips and sodas, sold raffle tickets, maintained and stocked vending machines, and much more to raise more than $7,000 toward the project, which had a $50,000 price tag on it. The city and Kitsap County donated $10,000 of that total amount to pay suppliers themselves.
Lions Park was originally built by the Poulsbo Lions in the late 1960s, then was handed over to the city. The latest improvements to Lions Park have been to the landscaping and the addition of a gold concrete Lion. There is also a
swing set, a new merry-go-round, tennis courts and, of course, the new playground equipment, which features numerous slides, climbing bars, a ship and much more.
 And then there was the labor. Led by Chairman Duane Kesti, who single-handedly painted the park's restrooms, the Poulsbo Lions hauled and raked woodchips that make up the playground "floor," brought their own tools and sweat to assemble the primary-colored equipment, kept track of the books (treasurer Dennis Tesch), and basically made up approximately 80 percent of the labor for each fund-raising project Wall and her fellow citizens could come up with.
The project brought together the North Kitsap Parks and Recreation office, Poulsbo City Council, Warren G. Harding Lodge, the Rotary Club, Kiwanians, North Kitsap Soroptimists, a Navy crew off the U.S.S. Michigan, and many community volunteers and family members. Additionally, there were the citizens who donated $25 apiece for tiles to decorate a cove at the park, and one woman who donated the full price of the merry-go-round.
 Today, Lions Park is a wonderful reminder of what one individual can do in a community where there are strong service clubs, such as the Poulsbo Lions.
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