By Lion Tony Barry
On Friday Nov 28, the Lions club of Damascus continued a 24 year tradition by hanging the Christmas wreaths on the lamp posts throughout Damascus. Six lions and five friends of Lions gathered at the Damascus Tom and Ray’s at 9am on Friday morning and after a hearty breakfast donated by Lion Gary Bellison of Tom and Rays and a brief “how to” clinic given by Lion Tony Barry, they split up into 4 teams and began hanging the wreaths.
This year Damascus has all new light poles which call for a new way of hanging the Christmas wreaths. The new poles are quite a bit taller than to old ones and instead of hanging the wreaths in the crook of the pole we hung then on the shaft of the pole using the electrical boxes for support. Lion Tony had tested the new hanging method prior to the Friday event and it proved to be a little easier than the old method.
The hard work of Lions Del Mayhew, Gary Rogers, Tony Barry, Jack Peters, Chris Fletcher and King Lion Barbara made short work of the 40 lamp posts and the team had completed the project by 11:00am. The friends of the Lions who helped were John Barry, Mike Bleinstein, Ryan Muise, CJ Muise and Nick Doan.
A special word of thanks to Lion Charlie Hertel who loaned his three step ladders to the Lions club for the execution of the project. Thanks also to Lion Gary Bellison of Tom & Rays who donated breakfast to all who helped hang the wreaths.
The Lions will take the Christmas wreaths down in early January