Lions are members of community service clubs, dedicated to the idea that the men and women who live in a community are in the best position to know who needs help and why. More than 44,500 strong, these local clubs are part of the world's largest service club organization, with 1,435,914 members serving in more than 180 countries and areas. The association is both non-political and non-sectarian. Lions are now best known for their sight-related programs, including SightFirst, the world's largest blindness prevention program.

PURPOSE OF MILFORD LIONISM

Milford Lions Club, following the lead of Lions Club International, is dedicated to eradicating preventable blindness and reversible blindness -- service to people who are blind and who are visually impaired has always been one of our most significant endeavors. We annually donate $8,000 to the Massachusetts Lions Eye Research Campaign. We recently donated over $10,000 to the Milford-Whitinsville Regional Hospital to support an Eye-treatment Room/Clinic in the new diagnosing center. We also donated $5,000 to the Milford Public Library for media equipment for the benefit of the visually impaired patrons.

In addition to our sight-related campaign, we make many community contributions. We make annual contributions to Milford School Drug Awareness (D.A.R.E.), we offer two Milford High School Scholarships, we annually donate to the Milford Housing Authority Children's Christmas, and to the Salvation Army Christmas fund raising. We also make a lot of unmentioned donations, including sizeable contributions to the Clara Barton Camp for Diabetes and the Jocelyn Diabetes Camp -- both of which are summer camps for young children who suffer diabetes.

Recently, based largely on the success of the Spring Carnival, the Milford Lions Club undertook a major community project. We built the Pavilion at the Plains Park at a cost of $40,000 (see below picture).

(Picture of the Lions' Pavilion at Plains Park, CLICK TO SEE LARGER VIEW)

MEMBERSHIP

Membership in the Milford Lions Club is open to persons of legal majority and of good moral character and good reputation in his community. We recently expanded the number of members to 70 -- and there are currently openings. Membership is by invitation: "Nominations shall be made on blanks provided by the Membership Committee and shall be signed by a Member in good standing who shall act as Sponsor."

MEETINGS AND DUES

We meet on the 2^nd and 4^th Tuesday of each month. We do not meet in July and August and we only meet once in December. We are currently meeting at Speroni’s, and the meetings usually last about 2 hours -- at the most, when we have guests, or speakers. The cost of each meal is $15.00. There is an annual $65.00 membership fee. Among the 19 meetings, we usually have a Christmas meeting, wherein we invite our wives or significant others. We also usually have a steak feed, a pizza feed, a porketta feed, and a clambake -- all as part of our regular meetings.

EVENTS

Our Club members work hard to raise this money. Our fund raising events include a Pancake Breakfast, a Classics Car Show, a 300 Club Raffle, and a Spring Carnival. As you know, we also annually participate in the Santa Clause Parade and we help raise money for the Salvation Army during the holidays by Ring the Bell (and we usually win that contest).

CONCLUSION

This may have been some of the more broad and generic information about the Milford Lions Club. But on a more personal note, we have a lot of fun doing what we do. And we make a lot of good friendships when we work side by side. We have members from many different areas -- and that broad spectrum offers a lot of versatility in all that we have to offer.