Since its 60th anniversary five years ago, the Tri-Village Lions Club has experienced a
Lions Karen Shafer and Wayne Cocchi at the MCL Restaurant & Bakery at the Kingsdale Shopping Center for the "give your WRITE arm to a soldier" event on Veterans Day, 2014. Photos courtesy of the Tri-Village Lions Club
resurgence, growing from 57 to 86 members.
The membership increase has also helped the club attract a younger demographic.
Membership Director Jane Jarrow, involved with the club since 2007, says the average age of members has dropped by at least 15 years.
“We’re a different club,” Jarrow says.
Last year, the club averaged at least one project per month, Jarrow says. The club’s biggest focus has been on its Leap into Literacy campaign, set up in response to Lions Club International’s own literacy campaign a few years ago. The club set up a Reading Action Program during the 2012-13 year, and its efforts won the group an international honorable mention from Lions Club International in July 2013.
The club’s volunteer efforts include donating iPads to Upper Arlington and Grandview Heights
Lion Zack Harrison walks with mascot Danny the Lion and other members of the Tri-Village Lions Club in the 2015 Grandview Memorial Day parade.
Public Libraries, collecting books for nearly 1,400 giveaways to Boulevard Presbyterian Church, and collecting gently used books for Lutheran Social Services. Book giveaways were also done at local schools and homeless shelters.
The club has given away more than 16,000 gently used books in the last two years. Of that number, 12,000 were specifically selected by children or adults.
“That, to us, is a big thing,” Jarrow says.
The club has also strived to educate itself internally, introducing its older members to technology such as e-readers, cell phones and computers.
The Lions Club has also made sure to keep doing the service projects that have become staples to its long-time volunteers over the years, such as bell ringing for Salvation Army during the holidays.
“We haven’t lost anything, we’ve only added,” Jarrow says.
As part of its celebration, the Lions Club will hold a silent auction that features a statue by sculptor Renate Burgyan Fackler. Visit www.facebook.com/friendsoftrivillagelions for details.
