One of Sebastopol and District Lions Club's charter members has received one of the organisation's highest honours, the Melvin Jones Award, in recognition of almost 50 years of service to the Ballarat community.
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Ron Thomas has been a member of the Lions Club since joining on a whim after a trip to a hardware store 49 years ago.
In that time, he's held every executive position within the club and contributed to Lions programs on a national scale.
Mr Thomas previously served as district governor and has been involved with the Lions Youth of the Year program at every level, including terms as district, state and national chairman.
However, Mr Thomas said his legacy was the creation of an annual donation program stemming from his idea of a large-scale donation to the Ballarat Base Hospital on behalf of the entire district.
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During his term as district governor in the late 1990s, Mr Thomas decided more needed to be done by the clubs within the district and collected a donation to improve the then-Ballarat Base Hospital's dated outpatient oncology facility, collecting more than $14,000.
"At that time, our treasurer was going to the day oncology center at the base hospital to have procedures and he was telling me how archaic it was," he said.
"At the end of my term, I'd gathered $14,400 dollars. A couple of years after that, they were building a new hospital and they had a floor for oncology inpatients specifically and we had enough money to purchase all the furniture to go into that oncology department, all the chairs and some equipment and everything they really needed," he said.
"Another thing that came from that, every district governor after me had their special district governor's award which enabled them to do the same thing that I did, ask all the clubs for a contribution for something particular to them.
"That's my legacy, doing that, supplying all that stuff for the hospital and the outcome of every district governor having a major contribution to something in particular."
For his contribution, Mr Thomas was made a life governor of Ballarat Health Services.
Mr Thomas has also developed a passion for empowering Ballarat youth through the Youth of the Year program and initiating the annual School Bands Extravaganza.
Mr Thomas said working with youth to enhance their skills was 'an eye-opener'.
"I guess when you think about it, in years to come, these people will be running the place and I think the more opportunity we can give them to enhance their skills, the better it is for them," he said.
