An Apple a Day Helps Children with Diabetes
by The Lion
The Lions Apple Sale in Olympia, Washington, is a success fro many reason. Now in its eleventh year, the sale raises $10,000 to $15,000 each year, with much of the money going to support Camp Leo, a local summer camp for children with diabetes. The sale keeps the Lions in the news through both newspaper adn radio announcements. And when it is time to pack apples, Lions come from 10 clubs in three counties to help sort, polish and pack.
The apple sale began when a couple of Lions got thinking about what they could sell to boost sagging club revenues. Washington’s famous apples seemed ta natural choice, and the Olympia Host Lions Club ordered a few hundred boxes from an eastern Washington orchard.
The club tried a lot of sales approaches the first year and made a little money. They also gave 100 boxes of apples to two food banks, Thurston County and Mason County, beginning a tradition that continues today.
Financially, it wasn’t a great event, but we learned a lot, and we could see the potential if we made some changes, said Lloyd Sell, one of the project developers.
The first and most important change made the following year was moving to pre-order sales, eliminating the risk of over-ordering and losing profits. Now, Lions begin selling apples in August, selling about 2,000 boxes by harvest time in October. Club members also take on more of the work themselves. Apples are delivered in 4×4 foot bins and are hand sorted in to 40-pound boxes during a gigantict Saturday packing party. Sorting and packing invelves lots of bending adn a is hard on the back, but it is a favorite part of the project for many Lions. Last year alone Lions packed 84,000 pounds of apples.
Packing day brings out 50 to 75 Lions adn their families, as well as volunteers from Camp Leo, who spend a half day soring apples. Some of these folks only get together on this one day of the years so they have a good time working and catching up, project co-chair Jan Norman notes. Norman is also the director of Camp Leo
“We order several extra bins of apples so we can sort out any that aren’t first rate”, said Norman. By packing only the best apples, the Lions end up with boxes of culls for food banks, Headstart preschools, low incoming housing programs, church kitchens and community kitchens for the homeless.
A team of Lions work to assemble boxes — folding, stapling, stacking and moving them to the area where packers fill them up. Other Lions spend the afternoon delivering boxes of apples to customers.
“Absolutely fresh apples, straight from the orchard and delivered to your doorstep — that’s what we can offer our customers. And when we add that the apples are Fujis and we can sell fhtem for a great price because we do all the packing, the apples almost sell themselves,” project co-chair Jim Pitchford says.
And he should know. Pitchard sells about 300 boxes of apples himself each year.
Many companies in the community help make htis project a success. On packing day, local businesses supply plenty of coffee and snacks. Early in the sale, Weyerhauser Corporation became a partner by donating hundres of two-part apple boxes imprinted with the Lions Fundraising Logo. Puget Sound Freightlines donated transportation for many years until economic conditions recently forced them to start charging a minimal fee. The local county fair board provides low cost space for assembling the boxes adn packing the apples, and an Olympia rental company donates part of the costs of the equipment needed for offloading bins of apples.
A couple of other important changes also have been made over the years. The best move we made was to tie our apple sale to support for Camp Leo. Our Lions have a good reason for selling adn our customers have a good reason to buy. Everybody is happy. The community has been hugely supportive of our apple sale. We get folks who call us each August just to make sure they get their apples, Sell says
In an effort to boost donations to Camp Leo, other local Lions clubs and Camp Leo staff also help sell apples. The Olympia Host club continues to manage the sale, providing the boxed apples to any Lions club that wants to participate. “We want to encourage donatiosn to Camp Leo, and the apple sale is a good way for clubs to make the money they want to donate”, Sell explains. As a result of the sale, Camp Leo has doubled in size in recent years, now serving nearly 100 youngsters, ages eight to 13, in two sessions. Lions provide aobut half the annual budget for the camp, and they also provide sponsorships to nearly half the campers, ensuring no child with diabetes is turned away from Camp Leo due to financial need.
posted by Cambridge Lions Cambridge, Wisconsin