Idaho and Eastern Oregon Lions: Sight and Hearing Foundation. "From darkness to light through site."
Lions Clubs of District 39W
Serving Southwestern Idaho & Eastern Oregon
Visit our Website at www.Lions39W.org!
District 39W Lions
District 39W is located in rural southwest Idaho and eastern Oregon which is made up of more than 50 clubs from the Boise metropolitan area and many small farming and ranching communities. "We Serve" communities from the scenic Treasure Valley, through the steep mountains, valleys and rivers that Lewis and Clark traveled. The area that District 39W spans includes the Snake River Plain and mountains along the old Oregon, Mormon and California trails.
The Lions Club has a long and successful history in service to our communities around the world. At the present time, there are 1,404,755 Lions Club members, both men and women, in 44,759 clubs from 186 countries around the world. How did the Lions Club grow to be such a large and diverse group of individuals all serving for the greater good and health of their communities?
It all started with an idea of a man named Melvin Jones who belonged to a social business club who yearned to do more for the local community. Melvin Jones's idea was that local social business clubs could expand their outlook from purely social and business endeavors to charitable and service oriented activities in making their communities and the world a better place to live. He brought this idea to his business club, the Business Circle of Chicago. The Business Circle of Chicago liked and approved his idea and asked Melvin Jones to explore the possibilities with other like-minded business clubs throughout the United States.
Melvin Jones was very convincing to other social business groups. A group of 12 men met at a Chicago hotel on June 7, 1917 and voted into existence the "Association of Lions Clubs". The creation of Lions Clubs spread like wildfire across the United States. At the first national convention in Dallas, Texas in October 1917 there were 22 clubs in 9 states. From the convention, Dr. William P. Woods of Indiana became the first Lions Club President with Melvin Jones as his secretary.
From the beginning, the Lions Club has prided itself on its selfless service to their local and national communities and also on one of its main code of beliefs for Lionism is in that "No Club shall hold out the financial betterment of its members as its objective."
In 1925, at Cedar Point, Ohio, Helen Keller gave a speech to the Lions Club International Convention. She concluded her speech with the following:
"The opportunity I bring to you, Lions, is this: To foster and sponsor the work of the American Foundation for the Blind. Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you Lions, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?"
The Lions Club took Helen Keller's challenge and started sight and hearing conservation as one of its main service goals and objectives. Today, the Lions Club does this through many activities such as sight and hearing screenings, eyeglass recycling, diabetes and glaucoma awareness and screenings, providing guide dogs for the blind through the Leader Dogs program and many more activities.
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