Lions District 13-DWelcome to our Website!!!
Welcome to our place on the web. The counties of Northeastern Ohio that make up our Lions District include Columbiana, Mahoning, Portage, Stark and Trumbull. This is our newly designed site that we hope you enjoy reading and using. Site is still under construction!!!
What are Lions?
Lions Clubs are the largest service organization in the world with over 1.35 million members world-wide in 206 countries and geographic regions. We are volunteer individuals that make up the Clubs in our communities. Clubs make up a Zone area and Zones combine to make up the District. There are 53 clubs in our District. Districts make up Multiple Districts the whole of Lions Clubs International.
Our main goal is to help with preventable blindness in our communities and around the world. That means we collect used glasses and raise funds for eye exams and glasses for those that cannot afford it. More serious eye sight problems are referred to our District Eye Care Foundation, guided by a Board with a surgical advisor, that provides further funds for surgeries for cataracts, etc. This is the only one in the State of Ohio!
Guide dogs are also funded by many clubs in the District for individuals that have already lost their sight. Special dogs are bred, raised and trained by professionals at Pilot Dogs of Ohio, Inc. Sight impaired individuals are given round trip transportation to the training facility and training with their new dog.
Various other community projects are done by Lions Clubs as determined by each Club's ability. These can range from painting community buildings, road side cleanup, building playgrounds or whatever the need may be.
Helen Keller - A Challenge
1925 International Convention
Cedar Point, Ohio, USA
June 30, 1925
“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?”
History
Melvin Jones – Founder of Lions Clubs International
Melvin Jones was born on January 13, 1879 in Fort Thomas,
Arizona, the son of a United States Army captain who commanded a
troop of scouts. Later, his father was transferred and the family
moved east. As a young man, Melvin Jones made his home in Chicago,
Illinois, became associated with an insurance firm and in 1913
formed his own agency.
He soon joined the Business Circle, a businessmen's luncheon group,
and was shortly elected secretary. This group was one of many at
that time devoted solely to promoting the financial interests of
their membership. Because of their limited appeal, they were
destined to disappear. Melvin Jones, however, had other plans.
"What if these men," he asked, "who are successful because of
their drive, intelligence and ambition, were to put their talents to
work improving their communities?" Thus, at his invitation,
delegates from men's clubs met in Chicago to lay the groundwork for
such an organization and on June 7, 1917, Lions Clubs International
was born.
Melvin Jones eventually abandoned his insurance agency to devote
himself full time to Lions at International Headquarters in Chicago.
It was under his dynamic leadership that Lions clubs earned the
prestige necessary to attract civic-minded members.
The association's founder was also recognized as a leader by those
outside the association. One of his greatest honors was in 1945 when
he represented Lions Clubs International as a consultant in San
Francisco, California, at the organization of the United Nations.
Melvin Jones, the man whose personal code – "You can't get very far
until you start doing something for somebody else" – became a
guiding principle for public-spirited people the world over, died
June 1, 1961 at 82 years of age.