Frank and Sandy Ruane were all about the Lions Club.
They served the Seymour Noon Lions Club and community with true love and dedication, and they served in many club offices and on state and district boards.
Together, they worked to improve and support the community with everything they did.
Sadly, Sandy died Feb. 8, 2021, and Frank died July 7 of this year.
To keep their memory alive, the Noon Lions Club has established the Frank and Sandy Ruane Service Dedication Award.
On an annual basis, that will be given to a club member who shows a high level of dedication to the club, just as the Ruanes did.
“I thought personally, this would be probably one of the greatest ways that we could look to carry on the memory of what Frank and Sandy did,” Treasurer Brad Nolan told his fellow Lions during a recent meeting in the community room at First Financial Bank in Seymour. “To get all of the criteria of the things that they accomplished, you’ve got to show some dedication to Lions Club and the community in order to make that happen.”
Secretary Christy Nolan will track members’ attendance at weekly meetings, their volunteer hours, their visits with other Lions Clubs and their attendance at district and state conventions and meetings.
Brad said the more volunteer hours the club turns in to the Lions Club International Foundation, the more available some of the grants and other things.
“Right now, we don’t have a whole lot of attendance for the district and state conventions and meetings,” Brad said. “The number of club members and the number of volunteer hours help increase your number of delegates that you can send to vote on different items for those events.”
Award eligibility requirements were shared with club members, and they can submit nominations to the club president in the spring of 2023. Then the entire club will vote on the award recipient.
“It will be something that could be won more than one time,” Brad said.
The Ruanes were married Feb. 27, 1962.
Frank started as a Lion in 1981 and held the club roles of president, vice president, secretary, director and tail twister and also chaired many fundraising projects. That included serving as coordinator of the annual Special Olympics basketball tournament, county coordinator for vision screening and chairman of KidSight. He also was voted the club’s Lion of the Year twice.
Frank served many roles at the subdistrict and state levels, too. He organized three new Lions Clubs and assisted in organizing seven new clubs, and he was selected as the Ninth District Distinguished Lion.
At the international level, he was a Progressive Melvin Jones Fellow and received three presidential certificates, two presidential leadership medals and the 100% Governors Medal.
Sandy was a dedicated member of the Noon Lions Club and Indiana Lions Foundation. Over the years, she received many honors, including being the first female president of the local club and state foundation. She also was a Melvin Jones Fellow, was named Lion of the Year for the local club and Lion of the Year for the district and earned the Presidents Award for the Noon Lions.
Outside of the Lions Club, both Frank and Sandy received numerous honors and held various roles in community organizations.