My Lions Club Story

One Saturday afternoon around April of 2001, I stopped by a local Walmart to pick up some things. Little did I know, it would lead me to the Lions Club.

Just before I went into the store, I had bought myself a cold drink from a vending machine. Once I turned around, there was my friend Bertie from Toastmasters. She was wearing a yellow Lions Club vest and was holding a 5-gallon bucket. Her first question to me was, "Would you like to help the blind?", and I gladly dropped a 5-dollar bill into the bucket. It turned out that they were collecting money for "White Cane Day" to help the Georgia Lions Lighthouse provide eye surgeries to low-income uninsured Georgia residents.

Like a good Lions Club member, she asked me if I was interested in joining the Lions Club and she invited me to the local club in Tucker, Georgia. I told her "let me think about it".

A month later (May, 2001), I decided to pay them a visit. Just like my first-time experience with Toastmasters 11 years earlier, the folks in the Tucker Lions Club made me feel more than welcome. I even met a blind couple who turned out to be my neighbors from a few doors down. I'd usually see them walking through the neighborhood with their guide dogs, but never took the time to say "hey' to them. After I joined the Lions club, Lee and his wife Louisa became close friends and we'd spend a lot of time together both in and outside of Lions. Whenever Lee needed to pick up his prescriptions at a nearby pharmacy, he'd say that we needed to go on a "drug run" (LOL).

Two years later, my Toastmaster sweetie Mary and I got married and we consolidated households at our current location north of Atlanta. To make a long story short, I transferred my Lions Club membership to my current club, became their secretary and ultimately their president and I have been a member of my current Lions Club since. 

Again, just like Toastmasters, I climbed the Lions leadership ladder. It all started when our Lions vice district governor Vicki visited our club the first time I had served as president. Vicki was apparently so impressed with how I ran the meeting and the use of my Toastmasters skills (including a meeting agenda). She suggested I consider being zone chairperson (who oversees a small group of local Lions Clubs on behalf of a district). When Vicki became district governor for Northeast Georgia, she appointed me as the zone chairperson. After serving at least three terms as a zone chair, it was suggested to me that I seek a higher office within Lions, so I ran for second vice district governor... and won. In the next couple of years, I would advance to first vice district governor, and in 2019, I was elected the district governor for the Lions Clubs of Northeast Georgia (District 18-I).

As a Lions Club member (the most important position in Lions), I have been able to participate in various projects such as vision screening, hunger relief, collecting used eyeglasses, and building and maintaining a braille trail. 

After serving a one-year term as district governor, I currently continue to serve my local club as secretary/treasurer and the district and as a member of our district's Global Action Team.

Lions Clubs are looking for civic-minded individuals from all walks of life. The motto is two simple words... "WE SERVE".

To learn more about Lions Club and find (or start) a Lions Club near you, visit www.LionsClubs.org.