Ellwood City LEO Club Developing Leaders, Serving Community

Note: This is part one of a two part series featuring the Ellwood City LEOs Club. Part two will be published tomorrow. Part one is a summary of the club. [VIEW PART 2]

You’ve heard of the Lions but how about the Leos?

The Ellwood City LEO (Leadership Experience Opportunity) Club is a youth organization of the Ellwood City Lions Club and Lions International and promotes youth leadership and giving back to the community.

Since its December 2021 inception, the club has really taken off and is now 17 members strong and growing.

The group is always accepting new youth members in the Ellwood City area community aged 13 to 18–from all public schools, online schools, and home school students.

“I am so proud of them,” said Ellwood City Lions Club President and advisor to the Leos, Karrie DeMarco. “It’s going great. We started with 15 students and all of them are active in extracurriculars and have jobs, so the fact that they took the time to volunteer their time and join this organization is amazing.”

The group meets every other Sunday and the second Thursday of the month at 5 p.m. On Sundays they meet at the Community Church on the first floor of the radio station. The Thursday meetings are held at Mike’s Mainstreet. Most meetings last an hour and a half to two hours, and the club discusses current and upcoming service projects and fundraisers.

DeMarco said the club aims to complete one community project every month. One student chairs the event and large events require committees of the students.

DeMarco said the biggest challenge for the club isn’t the time and effort of volunteering but the fundraising part of it. She said they are ready to put in the work but need a little help in fundraising.

“They really need funds and donations to build a bank account to get them going,” she said. “They need purchase LEO shirts & signage to promote themselves and the club and they need funds to invest in other projects. The fundraising part is the biggest challenge for the group.”

So far, they’ve held two fundraisers where they’ve sold carnations for Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, and both fundraisers were successful.

Regardless of challenges, the Leos are making their mark already. DeMarco said they have been doing projects and getting out into the community.

The Leos also have the opportunity to attend the Lions Club meetings to network and see the structures of the meetings, participate in Lions events, and give updates to the Lions. They have attended community events such as Earth Day. They have plans to help at the Ellwood City Festival and the Carpenter’s Project as well as the community gardens. The group will also be collecting plastic recyclables to trade in to obtain benches to stage around the community.

“The momentum is great and they know it,” DeMarco said. “They have goals they are focused on.”

Want to learn more about the group? Follow them on Facebook.