The Seal Beach Lions Club has chosen Scott Newton to be its 2000-2010 Lion of the Decade.
The club also bestowed a prestigious Melvin Jones Award upon Newton at its recent meeting to honor him for his accomplishment. Newton joined the Seal Beach Lions in 1988 and was sponsored by local realtor and Lion Jim Klisanin. Newton said that he always looked at Klisanin as his mentor.
“I saw Jim’s generosity, and I tried to emulate that,” Newton said.
Newton has served as president twice, secretary once and treasurer three times. He currently is serving as the membership director and is on several committees.
This year, Newton has been the lead Leo advisor, which is the teen division of the Lion’s Club; co-chaired the Fish Fry; chaired the Founder’ Day Parade and the local Chamber of Commerce’s Christmas Parade; chaired the Founder’s Day Dinner and the CASA Dinner
Newton has cooked at the Ronald McDonald House with his wife, Cathy (after repairing their barbeque); chaired Art Fest with the Leos; and hosted a pancake breakfast with the Long Beach Junior Crew.
As a Leo Advisor, Newton also just supervised the Leos in distributing “thank you” letters to veterans at the VA Hospital in Long Beach, and helped organized two beach cleanup days, the McGaugh Carnival and the McGaugh Reunion.
Newton says he looks forward to receiving letters at the end of every school year from parents who thank him for the work.
The head Leo advisor often hears parents say that the Leo’s Club made a difference in their child’s life, helping them to make the right choices and to pick the right friends.
“It touches me every year to read those letters,” Newton said. “It gives me validation that what I am doing is good.”
Newton also remembers an event the Lions sponsored in 1990 called Operation Disneyland when his own children, Grant and Teri, were four and two years old.
Thirty to 40 severely disabled children came to California from New Zealand for a trip to Disneyland. All were terminally ill.
Seal Beach Lions hosted a barbeque and a party in the park. Newton watched his own children playing with these terminally ill and disabled children and it touched his heart. He realized how short their lives were and was grateful for his own children’s health.
He realized then how important it was to teach children to give back and to teach them that there was always someone worse off than you were.
One of Newton’s favorite moments of the year is the Leo’s Community Support Night. This is the night that the Leos not only give out the money that they have earned during the year, but they receive scholarships and recognition for the work they have performed.
Newton always feels a huge sense of pride and gets choked up as he says good-bye to somewhere between 15 and 40 graduating seniors.
While Newton enjoys being a mentor to youth as a Leo advisor, he also enjoys being a Lion and working on Lions’ projects. He has a soft spot in his heart for the Pancake Breakfast, because this was the first project he took on as a Lion.
His favorite committee (along with many other Lions) is Fish Fry, which has become a huge community event. The bigger and more intense the Fish Fry becomes, the more Newton enjoys it.
One of Newton’s most special moments as a Lion was when he received the Lions Presidential Award from the Lions International President.
When asked if this means Newton will be moving up in the Lions organization, Newton says no.
“I consider myself a community Lion,” says Newton. “I would be willing to help others serve their community better, but I consider myself a grass roots community Lion.”
Newton is also involved with the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce and has been recognized as the Seal Beach Man of the Year. He was the Grand Marshall of the Christmas Parade in 2008. He was the Cypress College Citizen of the Year and now is on the Citizen of the Year Committee. Newton is also a past board member of the Los Alamitos Youth Center. He is a co-chair of the “Every 15 Minutes” program at Los Alamitos High School, which both the Lions and Leos sponsor.
Newton has been highly decorated as a Lion. He lived in West Covina until he was 13, and then moved to Claremont where he went to high school and on to Citrus Junior College. He then moved to University of Hawaii and received a BS Degree in Business and an MBA. Degree from Chaminade University in Honolulu, HA.
When Newton joined the club, it was limited to men only. While Scott was president in 1991-1992, there were two big changes. The first woman, Ruth Wentworth, was voted into the club. The second change was that smoking was banned at the meetings. This caused the club to gain and lose members.
As the Seal Beach Lion of the Decade, he has helped the Seal Beach Lions Club to grow and prosper and will now help to guide the club into a new decade of continued growth and prosperity.
Congratulations, Scott Newton, on an honor well deserved.
Allyn Mattox is president of the Seal Beach Host Lions Club.
