Leo’s Club nears completion of life jacket kiosk along Cedar River in downtown Cedar Falls

The Cedar Falls’ local Leo’s Club is nearing wrapping up work to support the community by building a life jacket kiosk for water enthusiasts along the Cedar River.

The Leo’s Club is a student group that focuses on helping their community through volunteering opportunities, often partnering with the Cedar Falls Lions Club. The Lions Club is a National Organization consisting of 1.4 million members that all want to help better their community and the world around them. For the Leo’s Club, members will usually take on one big project for the year. For the project this year, the Leo’s Club mainly focused on a kiosk that will be located down by the Cedar River near downtown Cedar Falls.

As described in a previous article detailing summer activities around our local area, the city of Cedar Falls has been transforming the Cedar River into a place where water obsessed residents and tourists alike can enjoy. However, as Alex Goetsch, the president of the Leo’s Club, and other club members noticed, there wasn’t an area close by where people could purchase a life jacket. This became a huge concern to Goetsch as he remembers his elementary school teacher almost drowning in the Cedar River. 

“I had a teacher, in elementary school, that nearly drowned in the Cedar River a few years ago. This sparked the idea that, ‘Hey! They are building this white-water park and there isn’t a lifejacket or helmet stand. This could be a really great opportunity to build one,’” Goetsch said.

For this project, the Leo’s Club partnered with the city and engineers working on the Cedar River project. Although club members found themselves intimidated at first, the Leos found their footing, and Goetsch said the importance of realizing that city officials and other important figureheads are just like him. “It’s been really fun working with the city. They’re all really nice. I think a lot of the club members were intimidated at first, but throughout this whole project, the club members have realized that the city officials are people just like you and me. It’s been really fun seeing that.” 

During this project the Leo’s Club also learned how long these kinds of city projects can take. Goetsch said that it helped them learn the processes of city projects and helped them experience the leadership and coordination behind them. 

Previously, the project started by Goetsch and the former Leo’s Club treasurer Ivy Hemmer and secretary Cameron Davis in 2024. Now, the current members of the Leo’s Club have continued to carry out this project into 2025, hoping to finish it this summer for the Cedar River’s Grand Opening on June 7. 

“By building this stand, people have the opportunity to have life jackets and helmets who might be unable to buy one, which allows them to enjoy the new river to the max. This will hopefully save a lot of lives,” Goetsch said.

He also noted that the Leo’s Club is currently looking for more members. Those interested can email teacher adviser Zeb Nicholson(zeb.nicholson@cfschools.org) or Goestch (27andgoe@student.cfschools.org) for information regarding next year’s activities.