Each year, starting July 1, Lions Clubs International (LCI) begins a new year. Which is why each July the Santa Monica Pacific Palisades Lions Club has an installation of new officers. This past week we were honored to have our new District Governor Jennifer Cho perform our installation, as well as induct two new members to our club, Jane Birman and Nick Ramirez. District Governor Jennifer also shared her visions for the next year, which included working toward the LCI goal of 1.5 million members worldwide by 2027.
As we begin this year of increasing our membership, one thing has become very clear, when people ask what the Lions Club is and we respond with, "It’s a service club," no one seems to know what that is. When US service clubs began in the early the 1900s they were comprised of business and professional men that promoted fellowship among its members and is devotion to the principle of volunteer community service.
As society changed with the inclusion of women in the membership, jobs evolving from the traditional 9:00-5:00 model, and communications expanding to include emails, video and social media, the original definition of a service club no longer applies. While Lions are still considered a service club for tax purposes, we have become a diverse group of like-minded people, who get together in person or via Zoom to share our passions, ideas and desire to help others.
As the SMPP Lions start our new year we would like to challenge you to become part of the largest service club in the world, who last year awarded 20,000 grants worth $1.2 billion to serve 539 million people in 200 countries and regions around the world. Our work was centered on eight areas; vision, hunger, environment, humanitarian efforts, youth, diabetes, childhood cancer and disaster relief.
However, our SMPP Lions focus our efforts on our local neighborhoods, people we can help more immediately and directly. This past year we supported services for seniors, summer camp for children with disabilities, nutrition and food for young adults and veterans, scholarships for high school and college students, school supplies for elementary and middle school students, vision services, and planted trees.
If you are interested in accepting our challenge, where do you see a need?
We want to hear from you. Join our diverse group of friends, from ages 29 to 90, as we make the changes we want to see and explore new ways to have a direct impact helping others in our community.
Our next two dinner meetings are Wednesday, August 7, and September 4 at 6pm at the SM Elks Lodge. To be our guest, please RSVP to Kingsley at (310) 454-2960 or smpplionsclub@gmail.com. You can also learn more about the SMPP Lions Club from our Facebook, Instagram and website.
