Lions Club Carnival

Saturday, February 21st, 2026

Carnival History

Early on in the Grand Junction Lions Club history, the primary fundraiser was the Follies, which benefited then Grand Junction Junior College. The annual Follies starred Grand Junction Lions Club members as actors, some of which dressed as females to fill women’s parts. These were held at the Avalon Theatre.

In 1930, our club was approached to have a carnival. To most, especially at that time, the idea of a carnival conjured up the fly by night types that travel from one town to another. The idea was met with negativity and the idea was tweaked to a county fair feel event. The difference would be a twist where people would spin a wheel to win a prize specified at a booth.

The idea was a hit! Perter Carson’s bike shop donated the wheels, members approached stores and wholesale houses in the Grand Valley to collect items for the booths. The day of the event, always the Saturday after Valentine’s Day, prizes are displayed in booths and wheels are ready to spin to win! The first Carnival was a huge success, raising nearly $1,000.

Back to Valentine’s Day, the significance of this is that Posey Watson owned a flower shop in Grand Junction and he would donate any unpurchased flowers to the Flower Booth at the carnival. It’s been a long-standing booth since the beginning of the Carnival!

We now start our Carnival Day off with a Parade, costumes usually representing the theme the Club President has chosen for his or her year. Other costumes carry on the tradition of the early day follies or fun ways to celebrate our club.

The other part to the Carnival is our raffle ticket sales. These sales have become the staple of our fundraising activities and the entire Carnival evening is needed to pull all of the winners. At times we have had over 400 prizes to be given out with Grand Prizes ranging from a Harley Davidson motorcycle to ATV’s to diamond rings to hot tubs and more.

The Carnival continues to be a great success, a thank you back to the community for all they do to support our efforts.