Wellsville Lions Club Care & Share

At a recent tag day to raise funds for the Wellsville Lions Club Care & Share program someone asked President Erin Roberts-Orr “what is Care & Share?” For us that are familiar with the Lions Club, their Care & Share program and all the good works they do for the community, it's easy to assume that it's common knowledge. Everyone knows about them, right? Guess not...

The Lions Club was founded in 1917 by Melvin Jones, a Chicago business man. Jones belief was “you can't get very far until you start doing something for somebody else”. Believing in the power of cooperative altruism, Jones helped shape Lions Clubs into the largest network of service clubs in the world. Their motto is simply “We Serve”. They are committed to assisting the visually impaired and seek to improve the lives of the needy. They offer young people the chance to catch the spirit of service.

The Lions Club went International in 1920. Today there are 44,500 clubs with over 1.3 million members in 206 countries. They are a secular service organization independent of any religious or government affiliation. Membership is by invitation only but those that volunteer to serve are rarely turned away according to their web site.

The Wellsville Lions Club was chartered in 1979 with Gary Malone serving as the first president. Other charter members still active today, in addition to Malone, is Tom Haugh, Tom DeJane, Jeff Weekley and Rick Gray. Today the Wellsville club has 28 members. Roberts-Orr serves as President, Doris Musselman, Secretary and Malone is the Treasurer. Their Board of Directors includes Randy Dillard, Malone & DeJane.

Carrying out the mission of the Lions Club, they conduct eye glass recycling, and raise money for eye exams and glasses for the needy. To this day eye glasses no longer needed can be dropped off at Center Pharmacy for the recycling program. Every year the Club conducts vision screening for Garfield Elementary 1st & 3rd Graders, recognizing the importance of correcting vision problems early on in a child's life. This year alone the Club has sponsored seven sight cases locally.

The Wellsville Lions Club has adopted Wells Avenue and yearly cuts grass, cleans up the litter and maintains the planter across from the American Legion Post. It's one of their ways to give back to the community.

For the past 27 years the Lions Club organizes and conducts their Care & Share program for the Christmas Season. Raising money throughout the year with tag days, some times in freezing weather, and having a breakfast with Santa, they also seek donations from local businesses and others to support the program. Wellsville's First Christian Church has a yearly creamed chicken & biscuit dinner to support this community service. The Riverside Presbyterian Church donates their facilities for the annual Breakfast with Santa. They held this year's breakfast this past Saturday from 8 to 11 AM. As of 10:30 they had 100 people come through the door. They had 12 National Honor Society students from WHS donating their time to act as servers at the breakfast. Pictures in the collage are from this year's breakfast.

In 2009 the Lions Care & Share program provided food baskets to 175 area families and two toys each for 150 children. Since starting the program they have given out over 5,400 food baskets averaging around 200 per year.

Applications for this year's Care & Share program are available at Center Pharmacy at 447 Main Street, Wellsville. To be eligible you must either have a Wellsville address or a “532” phone number. You do not have to reside within the Village limits to be eligible to apply. The deadline for applying is this Wednesday, December 15. The Lions Club's elves will be packing the food baskets and getting the toys ready on December 22, with deliveries scheduled for the next day, December 23.

President Erin Roberts-Orr said they are greatly appreciative of the many donations from area businesses, churches, organizations and individuals that support the Care & Share program. We would like to add our thanks to the dedicated members of the Lions Club that give so much of their time and efforts to provide a bit of the Christmas spirit to so many.

It's proof positive that Wellsville is indeed some place special...

ole nib