Raasch wins Greenfield Lion of the Year award

GREENFIELD — Bill Raasch won the Greenfield Lions Club Lion of the Year Award recently, as voted on by the club’s membership.

Raasch has been attending meetings virtually and accepted via video chat on Feb. 8. A retired educator, Raasch joined the Greenfield Lions Club in 1988 while he was still elementary principal.

“I was very thankful for the award,” Raasch said. “I haven’t done as much this year, but I’ve been active for over 30 years and am currently the first vice president. I was very appreciative of it and thankful the rest of the club thought I was doing a good enough job to win that award.”

Raasch said he first decided to join the club at the prompting of Jack Brown, a retired banker in town.

“He’s the one who asked me to join. I went to the meeting and joined,” Raasch said. “It was a service organization, so that was [appealing to me]. Sight is their main international theme, but they do a lot locally. I just thought it would be an enjoyable thing to do.”

Raasch said that looking back, some of his favorite memories of being in the group include helping with the KidSight project that screens the vision of children in the area and making lemonade at area events like the county fair and town festivals.

Lions Club representative Jeff LaBarge said Raasch was found to be a good candidate for this award for many reasons.

“Lion Raasch is deserving of this award for his hard work, leadership and commitment to the Lions Club,” said LaBarge.