JARVIS—As the Jarvis Lions Club wrapped up their 2024-25 season, they presented the Helen Keller Fellowship to Lion Bruce Van Der Molen.
This distinguished award recognizes those “who through untiring service has given light in the darkness, warmth in the cold, compassion in the hurt, and humanity in the suffering to their fellow being. They live their creed ‘service to others.’”
Helen Keller lost her sight and hearing following an illness when she was 19 months old. With the help of her teacher and companion, Anne Sullivan, she learned to communicate, read, and write. She became an author and political activist. Keller spoke at the 1925 Lions International Convention, inspiring the Lions to become “knights of the blind in a crusade against darkness.”
The Jarvis Lions honoured Van Der Molen with this award “for his dedication to helping others and for setting an example for others to follow.”
He is keenly aware of the challenges Helen Keller took on. He said, “Helen Keller did a lot to draw attention to the needs of the disabled.”
Van Der Molen joined the Jarvis Lions in 2016 to get more involved in community work.
The talented musician is part of the team that looks after music for the annual variety show. Three months of preparation and practice go in to the popular event. Once the music is selected, he explained, “I have to learn it, put the band together, and they have to learn everything, then we put it all together. We try to make it sound like it does on the radio…. The band is there to support the singing. We want the singers to do the best that they can.”
Another highlight he’s enjoyed since he becoming a Lion includes the walking trail in the Jarvis Lions Park: “Everybody worked hard at it,” he said. “That was a major accomplishment for the Lions.”
The annual food drive, support of local hospitals and the Norfolk Haldimand Community Hospice, and the vision screening program are activities he values. Of the latter he asserted, “It’s a good thing they do.”
Playing piano is one of the good things Van Der Molen does for the community. He plays at local churches, in the Haldimand-Norfolk Concert Band, and in a ‘garage’ band called Cheapside. One of his favourite things is to play for the Vacation Bible School program in Jarvis and for the residents at Parkview Meadows in Townsend.
“At the beginning of our life and at the end, we all tend to agree on things. The music brings us together,” he said.
Van Der Molen has observed that, for people in the later stages of life, “When they hear the hymns it’s a special thing for them. Thinking of the words set to that music, there is a real connection. It’s comforting for them.”
The Helen Keller Fellowship is fitting recognition for Van Der Molen’s contributions to the Jarvis Lions and the community, especially his music. Van Der Molen was honoured to receive this award and said, “The Lord give us all different gifts. Music is my gift, so to share the gift of music is the way I’m called to serve.”
