by Jim & Phyllis Wilkins
When establishing the Lions Clubs in 1917, Chicago business man Melvin Jones asked himself a simple question – what if people put their talents to work improving their community? So the Lions Clubs began with that thought of “We Serve” but in 1925 with another visionary, Helen Keller, pointed Lions around the world in a new and exciting direction As our current International President Barry Palmer recently stated in an article in the December Lions magazine “ We are Knights of the Blind and proud of it. We have taken on that mission since 1925 when Helen Keller spoke at our 9th International Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, and eloquently asked us to be the Knights of the Blind. True clubs complete all kinds of service projects, and some clubs don’t focus on sight. That’s perfectly fine. But our history and identity are rooted in helping the blind and preserving vision. It is a glorious, beautiful, magnificent mission, and every Lion can rightly take pride in what we do.” So with this holiday season in full swing and the Fairfield Bay Lions taking a winter break we ask our members to look forward to the new year of 2014 with a renewed resolve to be true “Knights of the Blind in the crusade against darkness.” Let us all try and step up where we can to be part of the “We” in “We Serve” when asked to help out with fund raising events such as pancake breakfasts, bingo, White Cane Day and others so we can be those “Bright Knights of Light”.
The Fairfield Bay Lions Club meets the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the month with dinner served at 5:30 p.m. followed by a speaker and regular meeting at 6 p.m. Our next scheduled meeting will be Thursday, February 13. For information on attending a meeting or becoming a Lion please contact our Membership Chair Lion Mary Meadows @ 884-6388.