Lions Club International is the largest service organization with over 1 million members and 47,000 clubs throughout the world.
“We’re about service. We go out in the community, and where there’s a need that’s not being met, we come together and make that happen,” said Ray Harper, new club development consultant for Lions Club International.
He’s based in Temple, Texas, but is in West Virginia this week, helping to set up a new club.
The Lions Club recently hit its 100th year. In 1925 Helen Keller challenged the Lions to be “knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness,” and since then the Lions have spent much of their time offering vision services and even providing glasses for those who cannot afford the care.
Harper said the new club — and others like it — will have a different mission.
“We’re going to gear our activity to start with addressing the opioid problem in this state, and addressing the juvenile diabetes issues,” he said.
Harper hopes that this new chapter will work with the local school system, as well as law enforcement and reach kids in the community who would have otherwise fallen through the cracks. The hope is to help kids whose families may have had drug problems or children removed from their homes because of drugs.
“We’re wanting to figure out a way to partner a mentoring Lion with that child to help them transition through the problem they just experienced,” he said.
He also said going into schools and teaching kids at a young age is important because education of addiction and drugs can prevent children from being on the wrong side of the problem.
With this club comes new vision as well. Harper is looking toward the future and how it shapes what being a Lion entails.
“As an organization, we are trying to get to the next 100 years and in doing that we have got to change the way we do things to meet the needs of change in society,” he said.
There are other Lions clubs in the Morgantown area, but Harper said attracting younger members will also help give insight into service that was not previously explored.
“There’s actually six clubs in Mon County, and they’re all backing us. They know they cannot address this issue alone,” said Jordan Glass, a member of the Cheat Lake club.
Glass’ club is the sponsor club for the new club. She said the Lions Club has worked with some sororities and fraternities at WVU on service projects. This is beneficial to getting word out on campus and to a younger crowd that could be potential Lions members.
Harper said as Lions, it’s about working together and serving the community, even if every club is working on something different.
“We’re brothers and sisters and Lions and we’re here to work together,” he said.
The opioid problem is important to the Lions because it impacts a lot of people and is on everyone’s radar right now. Harper said he’s seen Lions with friends and family who have had it touch their lives and he believes the Lions are up to address the issue.
“Our motto is, ‘We Serve’, and that’s what we’re going to do,” he said. “It’s all over the country, but it seems like West Virginia is getting smart and recognizing it, and first and foremost they’re talking about and trying to figure out, ‘what can we do?’ ” he said.
