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Palestine Lions giving Park President Waldrop 701 dollars raise First Friday after Thankgiving lighing of the park bean dinner
WELCOME TO THE PALESTINE
LIONS CLUB
"Serving the Communities surrounding
Palestine, Illinois ....." for 84 years
The Oldest Lion's Club in District 1E
A group of Palestine's business and professional men met with a representative of Lions International on December 18, 1924 and applied to charter a new club, the 74th Lions Club in Illinois. It was approved, and a Charter signed by Melvin Jones, founder and then secretary of Lions International, bears the names of the 24 charter members. It now hangs on the wall at the club's regular meeting place, having been officially presented on April 1,1925
From its beginning the club has been extremely active. Its first project was to assist Postmaster E. C. Nethery in securing mail delivery in Palestine. Another endeavor was promoting the widening of the highway from Gordon to Palestine, later working to get the Lincoln memorial Highway routed through Palestine.
Through the years many projects have been aimed toward making Leaverton Park more useful or more beautiful, Some, believed at the time to be beneficial, have since been eliminated, but some remain, such as the tennis court and a dining pavilion.
As one of the oldest clubs in Illinois, and the oldest in District 1E, the Palestine club has always been active in affairs at International, State, and District levels. From our membership have come three District Governors, several members of the Governors Cabinet, and at least seven Zone Chairperson. We are proud of our club, and point to the many other projects for community betterment in which we have participated, but are not enumerated here. Truly, "WE SERVE"
What is a Lions
A Chicago businessman named Melvin Jones created the International Association of Lions Clubs in 1917. The International Association of Lions Clubs is today the largest service organization in the world with over 1.5 million members in more than 43,000 clubs in 701 Districts covering 182 countries and geographic areas (Palestine Lions Club is in District 1-E, Region 4, Zone 42). Lions Clubs are not social clubs, although there are social benefits to membership. Lions Club members give their time, skills and resources to raise funds for charitable giving both in their communities and internationally.
The major focus of Lions fund raising activities is sight conservation, although other projects are pursued such as drug awareness programs in high schools, diabetes awareness programs, and other programs that are specific to individual Clubs and Districts. Lions took up sight conservations their major goal after a speech given by Helen Keller at the International Convention held at Cedar Point, Ohio, in 1925. At that time, Helen Keller challenged the Lions to become her "Knights of the Blind", a challenge that has become a rallying cry for Lions projects around the world. Lion’s work in the area of sight conservation is carried out at many levels. Individual Clubs sponsor free eye screening programs using mobile eye clinics. In many countries, Clubs sponsor eye surgery camps where cataract surgeries are performed at no charge for those that can't afford this medical care. Many Clubs collect old eyeglasses for distribution to the needy in other countries.
The International Association of Lions Clubs is the largest non-governmental organization with the United Nations and was called upon by the United Nations and the World Health Organization to raise funds for an international program of sight conservation. It has been estimated that 40 million cases of curable and preventable blindness exist on this planet today. Without intervention, this is projected to become 80 million by the end of the decade. The International Association of Lions Clubs began a program of fund raising that they called "Campaign Sight First" in order to cure/prevent 40 million cases of blindness worldwide. Lions have raised over $148,600,000 all over the world for this program. Eye hospitals are being built in the places that most need them. In India alone, over 300,000 cataract surgeries have been performed and that number is rapidly growing. Lion’s services to humanity range from purchasing eyeglasses for a child whose parents can't afford them to multimillion-dollar programs to cure blindness on a worldwide scale.
Palestine Lions Club Member's
JOHN COULTER
DONALD DUGAN
WENDEL GOODWIN
JIM GOODWINE
SCOTT GRAY
Gina Heggie
Wm. "BERRY" KITE
DOROTHY A LAUGHARY
JOHN MADDOX
DOYNE REINBOLD
MARK SHAW
RONALD TOHILL
OTIS TUTTLE
Officer's for 06/07
President--- William Kite
1st Vice---- Otis Tuttle
Treasurer---Scott Gray
Secretary---Dorothy A Laughary
Tail Twister--- Ronald Tohill
Lion Tamer---
Membership---William Kite
Directors
Wendel Goodwin..John Maddox..Otie Tuttle
Chaplains
John Maddox
Palestine Lions Club 75th YEAR PIN
Palestine, Illinois 62451
Crawford County
Located: 52 miles. East of Effingham, IL 45 miles.South of Terre Haute, IN.
26 miles. North of Vincennes, IN
Population 1400
Established 1811
Historical Register
State & National Listings
Historic Shopping District
Historic Fife Opera House
Dates for 08-09
Labor Day weekend August 29 to September. 1
Friday after Thanksgiving Lighting of the park bean dinner
Christmas Dinner with Robinson Lions
Memorial Day Fish Fry May 29th 2008