Is it charity? Or is it fun?
For Martinsville-Henry County Lions, it’s both, and that’s OK.
Jack Stewart and I were the Lions’ guest speakers during their meeting on Tuesday. As usual when I’m with the local Lions, I had a ball. Their meetings are full of cheer and laughter, even as they talk about their charitable endeavors.
The Lions Club works on projects to help people in need, especially (but not only) when it comes to vision and hearing.
Treasurer Eddie Fields said civic organizations such as the Lions Club fill in the gaps where there is no official or government-based way for people to get help. For 20 years he has gotten eyeglasses for people who couldn’t otherwise get them, and he’s also gotten people hearing aids. There is no greater feeling, he said, than seeing how much the recipients appreciate those things.
The group also recently raised “a couple hundred grand to build a playground for kids in wheelchairs,” he said. Lori Flood reported that the playground equipment is being purchased, and installation should be done around August.
The Lions talked easily and cheerfully together about those projects over dinner during their meeting at Pacific Bay restaurant.
“The fellowship is the thing, and being able to get out and meet the public,” said chapter president F. Woods Carter Jr. “You see some of the other needs that some of the other individuals in the area have.”
“The social contacts and business contacts you make” through civic organizations also is good, Fields added.
“In this community years ago, this was a big thing,” Carter agreed.
“The movers and the shakers get together” in civic and charitable groups, Fields said.
Then our conversation came to a stop because everyone had finished eating and it was time for Jack and me to talk about the MHC Heritage Museum, which is at 1 E. Main St. We were good and full as Jack had just finished a bacon cheeseburger, and I had some popcorn shrimp.
After our talks, the Lions got a little crazy (in a good way). Jenny Toney, a new member who recently moved here from Iowa – she particularly loves being near the Martinsville Speedway – did the Tail Twister. She held up a gold-colored coin bank in the shape of a lion and went about looking for ways to fine people 25 cents or a dollar.
Most of them had worn red, white and blue since it was near the Fourth of July, but Mack Evans didn’t, so “you have to pay me a quarter,” she told him. John Floyd nearly got fined a quarter too, until he showed a teeny tiny hat pin on his baseball cap which had those colors.
That hat pin which saved him 25 cents wasn’t John’s only luck of the night; he also won a whopping $3.50 in the 50/50 raffle. “Have I been fined $3 for anything lately?” he asked.
A few minutes later, he and Mack Evans were talking with each other when they were supposed to be listening to the club president talk at the podium. “You guys each owe us a quarter!” demanded Jenny, holding up the bank.
“Well, I’m already losing my money,” said John as he reached for the gold-toned lion, and it was laughter all around.
Jenny recently had been to the Lions Club eyeglasses recycling center in Roanoke, one of just three in the country. When loads of used eyeglasses are received, they are washed in one of the three Maytag dishwashers. Our local Lions go there every now and then to read the eyeglass prescriptions and mark and pack the glasses so they could be sent off on missions where needed.
Then she did a little show-and-tell with three pairs of unusual eyeglasses she had borrowed from that center. We had to guess what they were. The pair that was mostly solid black except for a little boxy part coming out in front of each eye was a special pair for plumbers to be able to see in awkward places. I tried them on: When I turned my head up to look at the ceiling, what I saw was my pile of papers on the table. There were two neat pairs that are meant to be used for putting on makeup: With one, you could flip each lens down. The other had just one lens, and you’d flip it to be in front of one eye and then the other.
A great time to get in the fun as well as to learn how you could participate in helping the community through the Lions is at their special membership recruitment dinner, to be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, July 24, at New College Institute, 191 Fayette St. It will be a social event over a big dinner prepared by Brenda’s Catering, and the Lions will talk a bit about their mission and projects.
RSVP to Lori Floyd at 276-252-3632 or floyd1632@yahoo.com so that she can let Brenda know to fix you a plate, too.
And remember: When you have a pair of glasses you don’t need anymore, drop them off in the Lions Club box near the entryway of the Martinsville Branch Library, and these fine folks will see that the glasses get to someone who really needs them.
