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THE HISTORY OF LIONISM

The International Association of Lions Clubs started in the mind of a young Chicago insurance agent, Melvin Jones. His dream was to consolidate several existing, independent clubs, into one strong influential unit in service to humanity.

This dream was presented to the leaders of the various independent groups at a meeting in Chicago, Illinois, on June 7, 1917, at which time the Lions organization was officially established. From that meeting came a call for the association’s first annual convention held on October 8-10, 1917, in Dallas, Texas, with 22 clubs attending. Thus the conception and founding of the world’s largest, most active and most representative service club organization began.

The association did not become international, in fact, until 1920, when the first Lions Club was organized in Canada. The 3rd, 4th, and 5ht countries to join were China, Mexico, and Cuba in 1926 and 1927. Eight years later, Central America entered the fold and in 1936, the first South American clubs were established in Columbia.

In 1945, Lions Clubs International was already an established world-wide service organization; Founder Melvin Jones and Past Intl. Presidents Fred W. Smith and D.A. Skeen were asked to help develop the non-governmental organization (NGO) charter for a new global organization known as the United Nations. In the years following both organizations cooperated on many humanitarian ventures such as UNICEF (the U.N. Children’s Fund), WHO (World Health Organization), and UNESCO (U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).

The first Lions Club in Europe was organized in Stockholm, Sweden, on March 24, 1948. Major international expansion continued as clubs were established throughout Asia and Africa during the 1950’s and 1960’s.

Although the largest by far, the Lions are the youngest of the major service club organizations. For many years there has been chartered an average of more than two clubs per day.

Perhaps the single event having the greatest impact on the association’s service commitment occurred in 1925 when Helen Keller addressed the Lions at the International Convention in Cedar Point, Ohio. It was there that she challenged Lions to become “Knights of the Blind in the crusade against darkness.”

In 1990, Lions launched their most aggressive sight preservation effort to date--”Campaign Sight First.” The more than $145 million-plus program strives to rid the world of preventable and reversible blindness by closing the gap between existing health care services and those that remain desperately needed.

As we move into the next century, our focus is on our youth. Leo Clubs, Lions-Quest, Youth Outreach will all help develop our Lions of the future.

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