By RHEA-FRANCES TETLEY
Staff Writer
The Crestline Lions Club supports many local groups and vision projects internationally. The motto of Lions International is “We Serve,” and the Crestline Club takes that to heart. The members spend much of their time volunteering for community events such as Jamboree Days and distributing water at every Corks & Hops this and last season. They also distribute a free hot dog lunch each summer and collected for White Cane Day for the blind last weekend.
To meet their financial goals to fund the many local groups and worthy projects they support, they are constantly offering money-making projects and opportunities.
The new first Friday of the month bingo games at Leisure Shores in conjunction with the Crest Forest Senior Citizens Club is their newest venture. They have offered two public sessions already and are happy to continue these monthly events through at least the end of the year. This offers an evening of fun and an opportunity to win big for community members.
Recently one of their members, Lion Tom Parker, a former musician who had loaned his sound system to the announcers of Jamboree Days for the past two years, had a sale. One of his hobbies over the years has been to restore guitars and other stringed instruments. He decided he had too many repaired guitars mostly collecting dust, with no real opportunities to play them anymore. He chose to hold a sale of his some of his repaired instruments to benefit the Lions Club, which set up a pop-up booth in the parking lot of Encompass Antiques and made more than $700 in one day, which went directly to the Lions Club for their service fund.
The Lions Club recently had a drawing for a summer basket of fun and now are just starting sales for their annual firewood opportunity drawing. This is always a popular way to raise funds, as tickets are only $1 each with a prize of a cord of wood. Since so many locals heat their homes with firewood up here, this is a popular prize; many tickets are sold and the wood is donated. This year, the prize has doubled to two cords of wood. The winner may choose to get a cord delivered for themselves and, if they feel generous, have the other one delivered to a friend. The tickets are on sale already, at Leisure Shores Bingo, around town or from any Lions member for a December delivery date.
Also, beginning in November, the Lions Club will be taking pre-orders for boxes of See’s Candy, with a mid-December delivery date. They will also have several days of public sales of the See’s Candy; the location will be announced later and determined by the weather.
During November, the club will again involved in the annual Thanksgiving Day community free dinner at the San Moritz Lodge. They are just one of several groups stepping up and pitching in to give the community this annual free dinner.
The Crestline Lions Club supports The Braille Institute, Canine Companions, Friends in Sight, Guide Dogs of the Desert, Lighthouse for the Blind, local Boy Scouts, Boys & Girls Club of the Mountain Communities, City of Hope, Crest Forest Senior Citizens Club, D.O.V.E.S., Kid’s Sight, Mountain Meals on Wheels, Hearts & Lives, Rebuilding Together, Rim of the World Scholarship Council, Ronald McDonald House, Crestline’s community Thanksgiving dinner, Camp Paivika, Mountain History Museum, Mountain Pregnancy Center, Lions International Foundation and the Crestline Food Bank.
They are currently collecting aluminum soda can pull tabs for the Loma Linda Ronald McDonald house. If any community members want to save pull tabs and donate them to the club, they will be gladly accepted. The Lions are also hosting a contest between the various classrooms at VOE School; the classroom that collects the most pull tabs will receive an ice cream party. These pull tabs are donated to the Ronald McDonald House, which offers free living accommodations for the families of children in the hospital. The Ronald McDonald House sells the tabs, which are melted down and made into hypodermic needles for hospital use. The club also recently donated $200 to Valley of Enchantment Elementary School for feed and supplies.
The club is also collecting the fronts of all sorts of greeting cards such as birthday cards, anniversary, Christmas cards, all occasion and others. These card fronts will be to sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, where they will be recycled into new cards for a second life to support the hospital.
Since sight and preventing blindness is a major area of Lions’ service, the Crestline Lions are always collecting old eyeglasses. They have collection locations at numerous stores in town, including Goodwin’s Market. They also offer free eye exams for those who are not seeing well, especially students and those that need eye glasses. Contact the club for more information on this program.
The club does more than just raise money and donate it, although that is very satisfying. This month, they will be riding on the metro train to Los Angeles to visit Olvera Street; next month they will be attending a live theater performance of the play Wait Until Dark. The Riverside Community Players Theater is a performance “in the round,” which is not often experienced these days. Last month, they held a barbecue picnic dinner for their club members. The award-winning Crestline Lions Club is fun for its members and beneficial to the community. There has been a Lions or Lioness Club doing positive things for Crestline since 1939.
The Crestline Lions meet the fourth Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at Leisure Shores, on the east shore of Lake Gregory. If this sounds interesting to you and you want more information about becoming a Lion, contact Lion President Dann Lahr at dnlhr@gmail.com.
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