This year, Lions International is celebrating 100 years of service including that of helping many million across the globe with preventing curable blindness. 
Each club, 45,000 around the world, has been asked to do a community project. The Stanford Lions have chosen to place a stone bench this spring at the Veterans Park near the Bill Fox Shelter and to also plant trees in recognition of their 73 years of service in Lincoln County.
Eleven members from the Stanford Club will travel to Chicago in late June with approximately 55,000 Lions from around the world to celebrate our 100 years of service. Founded in 1917 in Chicago, Lions will gather there to celebrate this milestone with parades, seminars, shows and a fun time.
The Stanford Lions Club is 37 members strong with about 22 of those serving as active members and the others are always there for support. The Lions are always looking for community members that might want to visit and possibly join in giving back to their community. 100 percent of the money that is raised on any project that is conducted by the Lions where the public is involved MUST be returned to the public. In the last ten years or so, the Stanford Lions have built the shelter at the Veterans Park, helped many folks with purchasing eyeglasses, purchased a camera to do eye screening – which has been used a whole lot, awarded many scholarships to graduating seniors, sent many students to different camps, made donations to many community events and programs, purchased food to help the food banks, gave many families a Christmas and the list goes on….
The Stanford Lions have a high-tech camera that screens vision as simply as taking a picture – detecting problems such as near-or-farsightedness, astigmatism and unequal power or incorrect focus. We are able to screen large numbers of people in a short amount of time. Through our KidSight program, we travel to day care centers and elementary schools to screen children from six months of age and older. One in four school age children have vision problems, and 95 percent of these issues can be corrected if detected early.  Our screenings are free of charge. For further information and/or to schedule a screening, please contact Lion Carrie McKenzie at (440) 552-2979.
The Club’s annual Radio Auction has been set for Saturday, April 22. We offer many thanks to WPBK -FM for partnering with us and helping make this event the success it has become. Yearly, club members collect around 200 items from businesses and individuals around the community to help make the live radio auction exciting. If you would like to make a donation for this year’s auction, please contact Lion Mary Friend at (606) 669-2099 or Lion Bob Swett at (207) 239-4766. Mid-February is when items start coming in, we will post each item on our facebook page so that you will be able to view all items. Please like us on the Stanford Lions page.
The Stanford Lions Club is also sponsoring the third annual Marching Ants 5K Race on Monday, May 29 in downtown Stanford. The race will begin at 8:30 a.m. Registration forms will be available soon (at various places around the county). Proceeds from the race will be given to a diabetes organization and also used to help fund local projects for the club. For more information about the race, contact Lion John David Friend (859) 583-7682.
The Stanford Lions meet the first and third Monday of the month at 6:30 p.m. at the Lincoln County Library. The first meeting of the month includes a meal and a guest speaker and our second meeting is a business meeting. If you would like to visit our meeting and maybe join our Lions family in giving back, contact one of our membership team Lion Karen Davis at (606) 669-2562, Lion Sharon Woods at (606) 669-2597 or Lion Bob Swett at (207) 239-4766. Our motto is “WE SERVE”. “Where there is a need, there is a Lion”