mattapoisettlionsclub.org

Mattapoisett Lions Club

Serving Our Community Since 1953

The Mattapoisett Lions Club, sponsored by the Fairhaven Lions Club, was chartered in 1953 with 30 charter members. Our first King Lion was Lester Texeira. Russell Tinkham was Treasurer and Arthur Baker, Secretary. Members of the Bradley, Briggs, Crampton, DeCoffe, Heuberger, Rodericks, Sherman, Sylvia families among others were charter members of the Mattapoisett Lions Club. Our Motto is: We Serve.

The Mattapoisett Lions Club is responsible for many projects in our community over the years. The Shipyard Park gazebo, the covered picnic table structures at Town Beach and at Ned’s Point, and the Tennis Courts adjacent to Center School. More recent projects include the shed at Dunford Park for use by the local Boy Scout troop and wheelchair ramps at private homes around town.

For years we have hosted an event for kids during the holidays, formally called The Candy Cane Fair, which is now part of Holiday in the Park. The annual Turkey Dinner is also a highlight for the more senior folks in our community. The Mattapoisett Lions Club holds an annual Peace Poster Contest for students at Old Hammondtown School as part of an International Lions Club initiative, and a speaking competition for High School students. We assist residents in need in various ways from outfitting them in eyeglasses and hearing aids to making donations to local food pantries and local service men and women serving overseas.

Today we’re a club with 75 members – one of the largest clubs in the area. Our major fundraising effort is the week-long Harbor Days event at Shipyard Park. This event has been operating for more than 20 years, but it would not be the success it is without the support and help from the Mattapoisett community, including Town Department heads, neighbors who put up the confusion, noise and traffic, the local boy scouts, girl scouts and other residents who pitch in and help.

Other fundraising events and community projects include: collecting used eyeglasses to be tagged, catalogued and shipped overseas to bring the gift of sight to those who cannot afford to buy eyeglasses; the Pennies for Sight canisters on display in many local businesses that fund eye research locally; the concession stand at the Mariners Youth Soccer League games; and aiding community residents in crisis by building handicap ramps or providing help wherever we can.

It is important to note that 100% of all monies donated go to the targeted need. All Club administrative costs are covered by member dues.

In 2004-2005, our Club was responsible for 40% of all funds raised in District 33S, which includes the Southcoast and Cape Cod. For that one year period, $165,000 was raised from all Massachusetts Clubs and 26% of the total came from our District. Last year, the Mattapoisett Lions Club received a special award from the Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF) for surpassing the $200,000 fundraising milestone in donations from our Club.

The Mattapoisett Lions Club was the first club in Massachusetts in 2006 to sign on as a Model Club for Campaign Sighfirst II, an International Lions Club initiative to end preventable blindness around the world.

The Mattapoisett Lions Club is a fine group of men and women who are community minded and who believe in reaching out to help those in need.

International Association of Lions Club

The genesis of the International Association of Lions Clubs has an interesting history.

In 1917, Mr. Melvin Jones, a Chicago insurance agent, convinced his luncheon club – the Business Circle of Chicago – that it should ally itself with other independent clubs to form a national organization that would be dedicated to networking for business and social purposes and the for the improvement of the community as a whole.

Among the groups invited to participate was the loosely knit association of Lions Clubs, headquartered in Indiana and led by Dr. W. P. Woods. At the time, there were a handful of Lions Clubs in existence in the mid-West.

Responding to the call from Melvin Jones, in October 1917, 36 delegates representing 22 independent clubs from nine states met in Dallas, Texas. These delegates agreed to come together as one organization under the banner of the Lions Club name. Dr. Woods was elected as the first president and founder Melvin Jones was named Secretary. This marked the beginning of Melvin Jones’ association with the Lions Club that continued until his death in 1961, a 44 year commitment of volunteerism.

The mission of the organization in the early days was to encourage high business ethics – to put service ahead of profit and to uphold the highest standards of conduct in business and the professions.

An interesting side note is that World War I had ended and the country was beginning an age of materialism – high rollers, swingers, the roaring twenties. Could Melvin Jones and other Club founders have been looking for a safe haven to counter less than ethical business practices that were developing? We will never know for sure, because there is nothing in the written history to support this theory.

Eight years later, the 1925 annual convention of the Lions Clubs was a monumental event. The club had became International with the inclusion of a club from Windsor, Ontario (which was charted in 1921) and the mission and vision was altered when a 45-year old blind and deaf woman asked to speak before the convention of delegates. This woman was Helen Keller, one of the most famous women in United States history and a role model for millions of people worldwide. Since that night in 1925, the major service commitment of the Lions organization is to eradicate preventable blindness and reversible blindness around the world.

Today, the Lions Club is made up of over 45,000 clubs with over 1.4 million members in 200 countries and geographical areas. In 1990 a club was charted in Moscow – once closed to voluntary clubs – and in 2001, the first Lions Club was charted in Communist China, the first organization of its type allowed to organize in China.

Our Motto is short and simple: We Serve

Our Slogan: “Liberty, Intelligence, our Nation’s safety.”

Our colors: Purple for loyalty to friends, integrity of mind and heart and Gold for sincerity of purpose, purity in life and generosity in mind and heart.

In 1968, the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) was created to help Lions serve the world. The Foundation accepts donations from Lions and non-Lions – and in turn, funds (in the form of grants) are made available to assist Lions Clubs with large scale humanitarian efforts that are too large for the local clubs to handle.

Examples of the good work done by LCIF:

When the Tsunami hit Indonesia a couple of years ago, clubs worldwide contributed monies to assist those in need – a total of $20 MILLION was made available to local clubs in the affected areas – and the first house rebuild in Indonesia was built by a local Lions Club with funds provided by other Lions Clubs through LCIF.
Shortly following the Hurricane Katrina disaster in the United States, $5 million was forwarded to local clubs in the affected areas – another example of Lions helping Lions help others.

More than $600 million has been awarded through LCIF since 1968 worldwide to provide support and resources to those in need. This community outreach work done by Lions Club members throughout the global community is in addition to the many millions of dollars given over the years to build and equip eye hospitals and clinics; to fund research to prevent blindness, and to combat diabetes (a major cause of blindness); to raise awareness of eye disease; to operate our EyeMobile – the list goes on.

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