Unusual high school experience ultimately leads to joining the Lions Club in 1982

Larry Weiss remembers exactly when the Lions Club organization came onto his radar, but it would be a decade before he joined.

That’s because he first learned of the international service organization in 1972 when he was in high school. Today, he’s president of the Tri-Lakes Lions Club in the Columbia City area.

Weiss grew up in Michigan and worked at an evening supper club in his teens. The owner was involved in the Lions Club, and Weiss came to know members of the group when they came into the restaurant for meetings.

“I knew that they existed,” Weiss said. “My junior year in high school, I’d been working there a while, and they wanted to build a pavilion. I’d had several classes in industrial arts and they asked me to do a drawing.”

To make a long story short, the Lions Club not only liked the drawings Weiss made, but they ended up using them to build a pavilion. They also totally surprised him by paying him $50 for his efforts. He noted that $50 went further back then, and he was thrilled. The experience also solidified his loyalty to the group.

Fast forward to when he had moved to Indiana. He was an outside plant design engineer for the former United Telephone Company. The company charged its employees with a mission to be “community minded.” When Weiss heard a WOWO radio personality talk about his involvement in the Lions Club, Weiss found his way in, joining the Lions Club in 1982.

As a club member, he gradually became more involved, starting with becoming cotreasurer, then treasurer, and now he’s on his third term as president. He laughed about the time when he wanted to relinquish his treasurer duties, and his fellow Lions simply nudged him upward and onward to greater responsibilities in leadership.

Weiss is no stranger to responsibility in community service. He’s worked for years on the Columbia City Planning Commission, and dedicated himself to his church council for a decade off and on, too.

His family has been key in his life. He and wife of 26 years, DiAnna, have four adult children, one who lives fairly close. He enjoys the local impact the club has, among other things.

In addition to helping with various community activities and raising funds through four fish and tenderloin fries yearly, the Lions work closely with the school district.

If there is a health screening, such as for vision testing, they step forward if a family could use financial assistance getting glasses. The corporate goals support Leader Dogs and when a local individual recently needed a car carrier for a leader dog, the club helped out.

In 2022, efforts Weiss has made over the years were rewarded. He was presented with a W.P. Woods Fellowship award from the Indiana Lions organization.

When asked about his presidential duties, Weiss shifted to praising the secretary/treasurer of the club for taking a major role in managing the many activities. He simply said, “I make sure things are falling in place.”