DECEMBER 15, 2011 ISSUE
Boone Area Lions Celebrates 75th Anniversary
The Boone Area Lions Club has three current members who have received The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, which is awarded by the governor of North Carolina. From left—Will Burgin, Susan Cole, Bob Cole.On Tuesday night, the Boone Area Lions Club celebrated its 75th anniversary at the Boone Golf Club with dinner, awards and laughter. According to members of the Boone Area Lions Club, it is the oldest civic group in Watauga County.
Since 1936, the club has always gathered around a meal to socialize and prioritize needs in the community. For a few decades, the Boone Area Lions Club met at the Daniel Boone Hotel until it closed down, and at the anniversary dinner, Jim Jones, one of the longest standing members, reminisced about the good food and stories from years past.
“I think that’s why these old coots stayed in the club so long, they had a great place to eat,” quipped Jones, a Lion of 58 years.
Jokes aside, the Boone Area Lions Club has a serious mission. Its motto is “We Serve.” The club primarily helps the visually impaired, but it also serves the hearing impaired and needy youths. The group assists with vision screenings, collects and recycles eye glasses, hearing aids and canes and sponsors the visually impaired for trips to N.C. Lions Camp Dogwood at Lake Norman and the N.C. Lions VIP Fishing Tournament on the Outer Banks, among other projects.
The local club has three main fundraisers each year—the raisings of the flags on federal holidays in downtown Boone, an annual country breakfast and a raffle during the Valle Crucis Country Fair. The funds raised are used for charitable purposes, and administration and dinner costs are kept separate and paid for by members.
Lion Jeff Sutton, owner of Family Eye Care Center in Boone, said being an optometrist and a member of Boone Area Lions Club was a “natural fit.”
“It’s a win-win [situation]. The community has a place to go with the Lions Club, and the Lions Club verifies the need,” Sutton said. “We know they’ve been to an organization that has been screened, and we don’t mind jumping on that.”
Sutton is certain that the needs for Boone Area Lions Club clients will only increase—especially in light of the recession, budget cuts across the board at all levels—federal, state and local—and, in particular, Medicaid cuts to all vision benefits for anyone over 21.
“As insurance companies do less and state and federal agencies do less…community organizations are, whether they be Lions Club, churches or so forth, will be called to do more,” Sutton said. “This is where the [Lions] Clubs are going to shine.”
At the anniversary dinner, the Boone Area Lions Club awarded Susan Cole the The Order of the Long Leaf Pine, a prestigious award signed by Gov. Beverly Perdue for her years of outstanding public service in the state of North Carolina.
Cole began associating with the Boone Area Lions Club in 1983 when the organization sponsored a Lioness Club. In 1987, she became one of the first two female members to become a Boone Area Club Lion. Though the area’s Lioness Club and Lions Club did projects together, Cole was very happy when the group allowed women.
“Oh Yeah! I kept saying I want to vote,” Cole said.
The Boone Area Lions Club is a chapter of Lions Club International, which formed in 1917 in Chicago to serve the visually and hearing impaired and those in need. Currently, the Lions Club International is the largest civic organization in the world with 1.3 million members in more than 4,000 clubs in 209 different countries, according to Robert Sprinkle, a member of the Sparta Lions Club who presented Cole her award at the Boone Golf Club on Tuesday.
At one time, the Boone Area Club Lions had more than 50 members. Today, it has 19 members. At the 75th anniversary celebration, more than 50 people attended. Aside from the employees catering the dinner, only one person was under the age of 30—and she was a guest.
The lack of younger generations supporting the Boone Area Lions Club is of concern to the members. Sprinkle said that the Lions Club International has netted 4,000 new members since last July, but most of those were based in Europe.
“We need young people right now more than ever,” Sprinkle said. “See, if the young people don’t come on board, it’s a dying organization.”
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