Franklin Lakes, Wyckoff Lions Clubs Team Up for Summer Carnival Bash

Joining the Franklin Lakes Lions Club when he moved to the township was a natural evolution for Dr. Robert Warsak, a 31-year-member of the organization that’s part of a global network to raise money for charities that help the less fortunate and people with disabilities, particularly blind individuals and children with diabetes.

Warsak, a local chiropractor for the last three decades, recalls doing charity work as early as 9 years old. Two of his friends in the Hasbrouck Heights neighborhood he grew up in had muscular dystrophy and even at that young age he wanted to help raise money for the cause.
 
“I remember walking around the neighborhood with a coffee can with a slit in the top to collect money … I went door-to-door,” says Warsak, who worked with the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon for a number of years.

Eventually, Warsak moved up to working the phones for the telethon and later became a supervisor. Today, as a longtime member of the 19-member Franklin Lakes Lions Club, he helps amass up to $40,000 a year to benefit organizations for the blind, national health-related groups and the local community through fundraisers like the Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Lions Club Carnival, a festive, entertaining joint event between the townships slated to kick off next week.

This year’s carnival, which runs from Wednesday, July 13 to Sunday, July 17, is sure to be a raging success. The fun-filled fair will be held at McBride Field and feature about 16 rides, 13 games of chance (which Warsak says are the Boardwalk-style games similar to the one where you throw a ball at the clowns and win prize, for example) as well as food ranging from hot dogs to zeppoles, cotton candy and more.

The rides range from kiddie rides targeting children in the 4 to 5 age range to bigger rides for teenagers and their friends. Hours for the carnival are 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Warsak stresses that all cars should park on the field to keep the event as safe as possible and avoid having kids cross the street.

At least one night of the fair will be wristband night, which means parents can spend roughly $15 to get their kid a band that will allow them to enjoy unlimited rides all night. Individual rides range in price depending on the ride. 

The partnership marks the first time in more than a decade the two Lions Clubs will co-host the amusement-filled week. The 24-member Wyckoff Lions Club has hosted multiple carnivals in years past, but they’ve had to be run outside of the township because regulations do not permit events to include games of chance. Those Boardwalk-style diversions are a key component of carnivals and this year, Warsak and his brother-in-law, who happens to be a Wyckoff Lions Club member, came up with an idea to benefit both townships. 

“We put our heads together and came up with the idea to host a joint event and split the proceeds,” explained the married father of two.

Warsak hopes the partnership between the townships will make the 2011 carnival a massive success, luring people from surrounding towns like Mahwah and Ramsey.

“Both clubs work very very hard at raising money over the course of the year,” Warsak said of the Wyckoff and Franklin Lakes Lions Clubs. “The more we make, the more we have to give away.”

The carnival, as well as a slew of other fundraising events such as the wine tasting program and a circus the Franklin Lakes club hosted earlier this year, are geared to raise money for the causes the organization supports. In any given year, the Lions Club amasses between $30,000 and $40,000 that it donates to groups locally and across the country.

In the fall of each year, the Franklin Lakes Lions Club divvies up its assets at what is called “Distribution Night” – the evening club members get together and essentially get to write checks from the Lions Club to various groups. About a third of the funds usually go to sight-related organizations, a third goes back to the community in donations to groups such as the Franklin Lakes Library and fire department and a third of the funds raised goes to national organizations that may deal with conditions like heart disease or juvenile diabetes, for example, Warsak says.

Warsak describes the event as the club’s greatest night of the year. Being able to distribute tens of thousands of dollars to these organizations is incomparably rewarding, he says.

"The Distribution Night is the best day for our club where we are able to give out money to various groups and organizations that serve the sight impaired, the needy, and the less fortunate," Warsak said. "We are very lucky to be living in the country that we live in and the area that we live in. Those of us that have so much can give back to others who need our help."