A Lions Club Friendship

By Dana Willman-Leber

Attica, Ohio Lions Dick & Dana Leber attended the 2025 Lions Club International Convention in Orlando, FL. They discovered the WaterSafe idea while exploring at the Exhibit Hall. Representatives from Partners for Care, a 19 year old 501(c)3 non-profit for WaterSafe, had a booth which caught their attention.

Dana had been thinking of how to get water to those in need for several years,

actually waiting for an opportunity like this to appear. They spoke to the

representatives, meeting Connie Cheren for the first time. Being the advisor for the

LEO Club of Seneca East, Dana wondered if she could make this idea come to life, with a few bags being donated from our students eventually.

Dana & Dick were so excited about this project’s possibilities, that they bought a $10. WaterSafe bag to bring back to their Lions and LEO clubs to introduce the idea. Their LEO Club of Seneca East is co-sponsored by the Attica Lions Club and the Republic Lions Club, since students from both communities attend the combined Seneca East School district.

The Seneca East LEO Club voted to do a Bake Sale to benefit the WaterSafe Bag

project, after hearing about the two year drought happening in Kenya, Africa. They felt called to serve a humanitarian need for children who needed safe drinking water. They organized a Bake Sale on April 27th, 2026, at a school track meet, with many food items donated by community and club members. They simply asked for a monetary donation from the guests for the goodies. All profit was being described as going toward this LEO project. At the end of the day, they raised $384!

While doing this Bake Sale, the local community became aware of the specialness of the WaterSafe bags, and were quite generous. An additional $20 from the superintendent of the school pushed the total from the bake sale to over $400. And the members of the Republic Lions Club donated $200 that day toward the LEO project.

The total being gifted from our local clubs to Partners for Care toward WaterSafe

Bags was $1,000! Partners for Care then matched our donation, which meant $2,000 being generated by one simple dream to help children obtain safe drinking water in Kenya. We were overwhelmed by the success of this project, and thankful for all who helped contribute!