Situated in a quiet, suburban corner of northeastern New Jersey, the Saddle River Valley Lions Club has always believed that the pathway to service starts when a person is young. Now, the Lions have translated this core belief into action by bringing together three different Bergen County school districts – Northern Highlands Regional, Mahwah, and Upper Saddle River – to implement a program that gives students an opportunity to build leadership skills while learning the importance of serving those in need.
The vehicle for this collaboration is the LEO Club program, which was created in 1967 by Lions Clubs International. LEO stands for Leadership, Experience and Opportunity, and the clubs can be found both in schools and community organizations and are run under the joint auspices of local school officials and Lions Club members. LEO Club activities are popular with students, school officials and community leaders who see the clubs as supporting schools’ social health and wellness programs.
These extracurricular Leo Clubs have, until now, tended to operate as individual clubs. For example, a middle school student’s participation would end – unless their high school also has a LEO program.
Now, the Lions and its Bergen County school district partners have reimagined the program to provide local students with a 10-year, continuous service-learning opportunity that begins in elementary school, runs through middle school and continues in high school.
The Saddle River Valley Lions became involved with the LEO program in 2012. At the time, the club wanted to open a school-based LEO Club, but members knew it needed someone who understood the rules that govern school districts. As a retired superintendent and now a member of the Upper Saddle River Board of Education, I was inducted into the Lions that year and took on the task.
After presenting the concept to the Northern Highlands Board of Education and gaining its support, the Lions’ first LEO Club opened at the Northern Highlands Regional High School in Allendale in 2013. The club’s membership roster began with only a dozen charter members. According to the current faculty advisers, Kim Kender and Jen Simone, the club now numbers over 100 Leos..
In 2014, the Lions approached the Upper Saddle River Board of Education about opening a second LEO Club, this time at the Cavallini Middle School in Upper Saddle River. As the majority of the Cavallini students go on to Northern Highlands, arrangements were made for the membership to transfer upon their enrollment at the high school. As Cavallini’s club starts in grade six, this created an experiential opportunity upwards of seven years for LEOs who continue at Highlands. Under the leadership of faculty adviser Margaret Donnelly, a Cavallini guidance counselor, the middle school club has over 40 members.
In 2015, the Mahwah High School LEO Club became Saddle River Valley’s third school-based club. Under the leadership of Stacy Mandel, faculty adviser and guidance counselor, the club now has almost 50 members.
A major change came in 2024 when Lions International set aside its membership age requirement that said members had to be at least 12 years old age. Students younger than 12 became eligible to become part of the LEO Club program and are known as ‘LEO Cubs.’
The Lions’ immediate response to this rule change was to approach Dave Kaplan, principal of Upper Saddle River’s Bogert School, home to students in grades three to five. Working with Kaplan, the Saddle River Valley Lions sponsored its first Leo Cubs group, quickly capturing the attention of more than 50 students, age 9 to 12, according to the club’s faculty advisers, Leah Ann Weil and Kerry Murphy.
The addition of Bogert School’s Leo Cubs has expanded the local program’s service and leadership opportunities. In addition, ‘traveling membership’ means that the Leo Cubs program doesn’t end when they complete fifth grade. After leaving Bogert, they automatically become members of the Cavallini Middle School Leo Club. Again, the same holds true for these students when they finish eighth grade and move into high school. Thus, as students move through their years of schooling, club members are provided with a 10-year pathway of opportunities to serve others.
As a result of this effort, LEOs will now be able to make better use of the knowledge gained from their shared service experiences as well as from extensive leadership training.
The ultimate goal of this linkage of clubs is to demonstrate a model through which schools and school districts can offer students an opportunity for an uninterrupted experience lasting almost a decade.
The Saddle River Valley Lions Club was founded in 1958 and plans to continue its LEO program expansion into other schools in neighboring communities.
David C. Verducci, Ph.D. is a past president of the Saddle River Valley Lions Club and currently administers all four of its LEO Clubs. He is also a member of the Upper Saddle River Board of Education and can be contacted at DrVerducci@gmail.com
