Clarksville Lions club: they serve

Have you ever heard of the Lions Club? Do you know that it is their mission to serve the community? Do you know that the Lions Club is an international organization and that they have clubs just about everywhere?  Do you know the impact that each of those clubs has? 

     The Lions Club originated in 1917 and became an international organization in 1920. Now in 2022, the Lions Club International inhabits clubs in “over 200 countries and geographic areas,” and their “48,000 clubs and 1.4 million members are helping others and making communities better.”
The Lions Club values several pillars that they hone in on when serving, but one of their biggest pillars is vision. This pillar dates back to 1925 when Helen Keller addressed the “Lions at the International Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, USA. She famously challenges Lions to become ‘knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.’ This begins a century-long mission—impacting hundreds of millions of lives through vision-related work.”
    As the beginning stages of the Lions Club International developed over the years, they established a Leo program in 1957 as a way for kids to become involved in the community and serve. 
    When discussing local Leo programs, Tracy Price said, “we sponsored one in Elkins and I was fortunate enough to be able to go to their inaugural meeting as the District Governor. The inaugural meeting was the installation of all of the members and there were 30 children there. It was just great. The Leos start with 10th-12th graders, and it’s a great opportunity for them to learn, and when they’re ready, step right into the Lions Club.”

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Rita and Tracy Price screening K-1st graders at Clarksville Elementary

    Looking at the Lions Club International and the number of clubs/members they have, it is easy to spot the leaps and bounds this organization has made, but even zooming in on a smaller scale to just the Clarksville Lions Club, proves the impact this organization continues to make. I got the chance to sit down with Rita and Tracy Price, who are both involved in the Clarksville Lions Club, to discuss how their Lions Club serves and how they are able to serve the community. 
    Tracy Price has been a member of the Lions Club since 1974 when he joined the organization in Dardanelle. Since 1974, Tracy has been involved in the Lions Club in most of the cities he has lived in, and he has served as Zone Chairperson, District Governer, Council of Governors Chairperson (the leader of all of the Lions Clubs in Arkansas), and he currently serves as the District Service Chairperson. Rita Price has been involved with the Lions Club for about 4-5 years, has served as Club Secretary, and currently serves as Zone Chairperson and District Secretary. The passion that these individuals have for serving the community and being a part of all of the work that the Lions Club is able to do just radiates off of them.

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2022-2023 Clarksville Lions Officers

    When asked what made him want to become a Lion and why he has been a part of this organization for as long as he has, Tracy said, “Service. Service to the community.” 
    As previously mentioned, the Lions Club’s main pillar of service is vision, and just in this year alone, they have been able to do about 750 vision screenings in Johnson County, Ozark, and Paris. The vision screenings that the Lions Club is able to do was made possible with the help of Dr. Becky King from Clarksville Family Eye Care. Dr. King is a former club president and was able to aid the Clarksville Lions Club in choosing a vision screener that generates a printout with almost all of the information needed to prescribe glasses to someone. She aids the Lions Club in seeing patients that they send her from their screenings, while also aiding in keeping the cost of glasses as low as she can for those people. In 2021, the Clarksville Lions Club has approved 8 applications to get help with obtaining glasses, and they have approved 22 applications in 2022 to help individuals with obtaining glasses. Most of the applications they have approved have been for adults because Our Kids helps with children's glasses. The Lions Club primarily screens young children but will also screen adults.

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Lion Brad Baker from Mid-South Sight and Hearing presenting long time Clarksville Lions Club member Jim Graham with the Dalstrom Award for his support of Mid-South

    The Clarksville Lions Club works closely with Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service out of Memphis for people that are in need of specific treatment and/or surgery for any vision or hearing issues one may have. One story that Rita and Tracy shared was about an individual that lost an eye, and between the Clarksville Lions Club and Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service, they were able to help her get a prosthetic eye.           The Clarksville Lions Club also works closely with the Arkansas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired to aid individuals that could benefit from their services. More often than not, the Clarksville Lions Club is able to help pay for things like treatment at Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service, glasses, or anything of the sort for as many individuals as they can. 
    Rita shared the story about the individual that lost their eye and said, “In conjunction with the Mid-South Lions Sight and Hearing Service, we were able to get that person an eye, and then that person came and spoke at one of the Lions district conventions to share their story.”

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Lion Tracy Price presenting Lion Philip Taylor a check to support Childhood Cancer

    Not only does the Lions Club work to help people and serve the community, but they also give those that may feel outcasted or shadowed a voice. They take impairments, ailments, or disadvantages in life and walk alongside those people to help them. 
Outside of vision, Rita and Tracy shared the four other pillars that the Clarksville Lions Club values are hunger, diabetes, enviornment, childhood cancer, and disaster relief. For hunger, they often collect canned food and dry good items that they can donate to various blessing boxes for the Clarksville community. Along with the vision screenings, they also do free diabetes screenings for anyone in the community at the Johnson County Senior Citizens Center. As far as the environment goes, the Clarksville Lions Club has adopted a mile along the highway to pick up trash, and they have planted trees in the area, and so on. They also have a member that has a child with cancer, which is why they started to raise money and collect donations to support those with childhood cancer. The Clarksville Lions Club aids in disaster relief by donating to the Lions Club International Foundation. This foundation is one that will donate money to cities/communities during disaster situations. 

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Clarksville Lions gearing up for a pulled pork dinner fundraiser

    Rita said, “One of the things that we’d like to say is that Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, not Civic, but service organization in the world…Our motto is that ‘we serve,’ and that’s what I love about this organization.” 
    In order to do all of the service projects that they do, the Clarksville Lions Club also does several fundraisers throughout the year. All of the money raised during these fundraisers goes directly to the account they have for service projects only. The fundraisers that they typically host are pulled pork dinners, smoked chicken dinners, pancake breakfasts, days where they set up at Walmart to collect donations, etc.

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    Rita said, “One of the things that we’d like to say is that Lions Club is the largest service organization in the world, not Civic, but service organization in the world…Our motto is that ‘we serve,’ and that’s what I love about this organization.” 
    In order to do all of the service projects that they do, the Clarksville Lions Club also does several fundraisers throughout the year. All of the money raised during these fundraisers goes directly to the account they have for service projects only. The fundraisers that they typically host are pulled pork dinners, smoked chicken dinners, pancake breakfasts, days where they set up at Walmart to collect donations, etc. 
    For those interested in supporting the Clarksville Lions Club, you can find all of their fundraisers and donation collection events that they are hosting through their Facebook page, Clarksville Lions Club. For anyone interested in joining the Clarksville Lions Club, you can reach out to one of their members or message them through their Facebook page. To see what the Lions are all about, they meet every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month at the Falcon’s Nest at noon. They are always looking for new members of any age to join and become part of their serving community. ​