As I write this short blog from my Florida vacation spot, my fellow Freeport Illinois Lions prepare for their first meeting of the new year tonight and another winter snowstorm. Although separated temporarily by 1300 miles and 30 degree temperature differences (today anyway), we are never far apart from sharing our goals of preventing blindness and improving quality of life without prejudice.
When my January 2014 monthly Lion Magazine arrived, I read the article about former President and Lion Jimmy Carter's victory over river blindness. Through the large efforts of Lions Club International Foundation and The Carter Center, in 2013 the country of Columbia became "the first country in the world to be verified by the World Health Organization to have eliminated river blindness." GREAT JOB! You can read the online version of this and other articles at the Lions International website: http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/news-and-events/lion-magazine/index.php
Last summer I had the privilege of attending a local community health fair and setting up our Club's display on a card table for local patrons to browse and stimulate conversation. I was surprised at the number of people who asked, "What do Lions do?", and were either too shy to ask someone before or never had an opportunity to find out. Would you be surprised by this too?
It is important for Lions, individually and as a group, to not only serve the needs of the public but to also share the success stories of what we do. One simple thing we could do is show people a copy of Lions Magazine and point to any of a number of published success stories. The next time that person sees a member wearing their yellow vest asking for donations, they will have a better grasp of the big picture outside their own community. Perhaps they will tell someone else.
In this month's message from Lions International President Barry Palmer, he reminded us: "Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much," insisted the great Helen Keller.
It doesn't matter how far apart Lions live, work and play, nor in what part of the world we live. We all share a common goal in our hearts.
Happy New Year.
Lion Rich Montgomery
Freeport IL Lions Club
January 14, 2014
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