New Lions leader looks ahead

Since she became the first woman president of the Valley Stream Lions Club on July 29, Janet Mahabir made one of her priorities a reevaluation of which members served in which roles. She met with members individually, made a list of them and their strengths and weaknesses and moved people to committees that better reflected their expertise.

“I want to know them,” Mahabir said of the 33 members. “I want to know who they are. I want to engage them. I want to know what they’re passionate about so they can bring that part of their passion into the group.”

Her main goal as president, she said, is to facilitate an environment in which members feel empowered to bring their ideas to the table. If there’s anything she brings to the role as a woman, she said, it’s an instinct to nurture, and she said she hopes to use that to grow the club and increase its impact. Mahabir said she’s received a positive reception from the men in the club, and she hopes her experience will pave the way for other women in its ranks to take leadership roles.

“It’s just a barrier that needed to be broken,” she said, “And I happened to be that person.”

The local chapter of the Lions Club International, a nearly century-old nonprofit with clubs in 207 countries, was established 67 years ago. It was only eight years ago that women were allowed to join, during the presidency of Joe Scholl, whose friend Barbara Gunn asked why she couldn’t be a member. The membership was comfortable being a boys’ club, Scholl said, and no previous president had wanted to rock the boat, but Scholl thought the rule was limiting the club’s activities as well as its pool of potential members. He pushed the issue, and the membership voted to approve it.

“Other clubs were moving along better than we were, as far as raising money and things,” Scholl said. “I knew it had to be done. When you belong to organizations like the Lions, you’re not really doing anything for your personal satisfaction. You’re doing it for other people.”

Mahabir was nominated for president because of her willingness to lead and her consistent record of participation in club activities, according to Jose Pastrana, the previous president. Scholl noted her interest in the club’s mission, and said that he expects her to do well in the role based on the dedication she has shown since taking over.

Mahabir immigrated to Queens from Trinidad 26 years ago. She moved to Valley Stream 15 years ago. She worked as a Wall Street banker for 11 years before she took a local job as a real estate agent so she could spend more time with her two sons. She was raised to value giving to others, so she was looking for a medium to connect with the community when she found the Lions three years ago.

The Valley Stream Lions provide some of the largest donations to the food pantries at the Church of the Blessed Sacrament and the Holy Name of Mary parish outreach, with two food drives per year stocking their shelves enough to carry them through several of the slowest months for donations. In all, the club raises and dispenses nearly $30,000 in charitable donations each year, for a variety of local causes.

This year, the organization’s focuses are “vision, youth, hunger and the environment,” Mahabir said. To address those themes, she plans to continue her chapter’s fundraising traditions, like the cases of oranges the group orders and distributes around the holidays. “It’s important that we keep fundraisers like that alive,” she said.

She also has some fresh ideas, like starting a program to help residents dispose of toxic materials properly, and introducing new cleanup and beautification events to the village. One of her personal passions is reducing food waste. A prospective member proposed that the club try to interrupt the local food waste stream in some way. One item on Mahabir’s agenda is the organization of an event that would solicit enough potentially wasted food from local supermarkets and businesses to feed a large group of people. She said she wants to connect with other clubs to network and get inspired by what others are doing.

Mahabir also said she’s keen to involve young people, wanting to expose them to the fulfillment of serving others. One current initiative is an organization-wide poster contest that she’s trying to publicize, which is accepting submissions until the end of the month.

“The focus is how younger people see peace around the world, and their concepts — imagine you have 207 countries where people are saying, ‘What is your concept of peace?’” she said.

Mahabir said her approach moving forward would be more about collaborating with her fellow members than delegating tasks. Most of all, she said, she wants to stay in touch with the spirit of giving that her parents imbued in her. “If you’re gonna have a bad habit,” she said, “make this your bad habit.”