Lions Clubs of Multiple District 36, Oregon and Northern California

We Serve

Eugene, OR USA

541-484-0452

Lions of Oregon & Northern California are a part of an international network of 1.4 million men and women in 200 countries and geographic areas who work together to answer the needs that challenge communities around the world. Lions are best known for working to end preventable blindness, the giving of eyeglasses and hearing aids for the needy and local service projects.

 

Mission Statement of Lions Clubs International:

 

"To create and foster a spirit of understanding among all people for humanitarian needs by providing voluntary services through community involvement and international cooperation."

 

Friendship, It Changes Us, Makes Us Better People.

March 29, 2024  /  Leah Malcolm

     What is fascinating about meeting so many people in Club visits is the wonderful variety of different views about what it means to be a Lion.  Each person naturally started out with motives that likely have evolved over time.  Some never hold onto the ideals they started out with, yet choose a new path to motivate themselves.  I started out after my third son received another scholarship from the Lions and realized I really shouldn’t be taking their money without giving back. That only lasted as long as it took to make friends, and somehow our collective motivations meld into a new understanding as to what really is our Mission. That evolution of thinking and motive is what kind of inspires me to be a Lion today 15 years later.  Friendship, it changes us, makes us better people.

     Some ways to bring new folks into Lions is to bring in already established friends, people we already have done the work in creating a friendship. But what has to be done as a Club is to create an environment where others in the community have a fun, pleasurable time in doing a community service sponsored, planned and put on by the local Lions Club. We do these things to bring our friends into meet our other friends, but we also do the service projects to invite new people to our community, especially folks who have received our services.

      This brings us to community banquets and auctions.  Business owners, logging companies, factory workers, political leaders, educators -  whatever; all have a stake in the outcomes of the activities that we do. And from time to time, it is a smart event to not only raise money but to also expose our work as Lions to new people and extending a welcoming hand to join us.  In my club we do an annual Golf Tournament.  It’s a fundraiser, sure, but it is a community service to unite old friends, bring together the farmers and the towns people.  And people really like to know that they are giving sight to the visually impaired and hearing to the hearing impaired.  At Gresham Supper the Bowling event brings together business owners, their workers and families to just do something fun.  Community service is really Just Making Friends.  What is your Club doing to get the word out?  Is it time to make some new friends?  Happy Spring.

“Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you Lions, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?”
— Helen Keller's Speech at 1925 International Convention Cedar Point, Ohio, USA June 30, 1925