Sonya said the set tradition of not having female members had changed in recent years.

“The club has been wanting to change, and wanting to broaden its membership base,” she said.

“A discussion was held among the membership that it would be good to invite female members in.

“My husband’s been a member for a number of years now, and when he told me that the club was to increase its membership and was to bring female members in, I put my hand up and said ‘Someone’s got to be first and that will be me’.” 

Sonya was one of two inductions on Monday night, with Tim Robinson also becoming a Lion. Sonya said she thought Lions was a great organisation that did important work for the community.

“I know through the years, many of the women who were associated with the Lions Club through their husband’s membership have done a lot to help out with various projects,” Sonya said.

“So I’m another set of hands that will be available for helping.”

Selling raffles on a Friday night at the hotel, early mornings at the markets and manning the barbecues are all things Sonya expects to be helping with from time-to-time.

“All the members get in and help out, and I won’t be any different,” she said.

Sonya said she could not see any radical changes being made to the club because it had taken on a female member, and thought the club could use her technical skills to enable it to make better use of technology. 

“I can improve their use of social media and improve their ability to use computers to transmit their information which would be plus for the club,” she said.