The Lions Club of Calgary

Our club, "The Lions Club of Calgary", is the oldest Lions Club in Alberta having been chartered on January 30, 1929 and have we proudly provided over 85 years of service to our community and to Lions projects around the world.

The picture above is where we meet; it's called "Lions Village" and it's located at the corner of Crowchild Trail and Kensington road in north west Calgary. It will be described a little later on our web page.

Our charter president, Lion Dr. Arthur Spankie was the first International Director to come from Canada.

Here’s a little bit of our history

Over the years we have been referred to as “The Downtown Lions Club” or “Calgary Main”or "Calgary Lions" among other names . At the present time we have adopted the informal nickname “Kensington Lions” to reflect the local community in Calgary that we serve and that our meeting location is in the new Lions Village located in the Kensington district of Calgary.

However, by our charter, we will always officially be “The Lions Club of Calgary”.

In 1958 we sponsored the charter of the Calgary South West Lions Club which was a very successful Club over the years. As our membership aged we saw a need to take action to keep the club viable and in 2007 we asked the South West Club to merge with us. The construction and operation of Lions Village, a seniors and low income housing project, is an indication of the success of that merger.

The Calgary South West Lions Club raised and donated several 10’s of thousands of dollars that they derived from their main source of income – a barbecue catering business – and that venture and expertise has been brought to the “new” Lions Club of Calgary. Funds from that activity and from sponsored casinos enable us to continue to serve our community’s needs.

Lions meet the needs of local communities and the world every day because they share a core belief - to serve their community.

Lions have a dynamic history. Founded in 1917, we are best known for fighting blindness, but we also volunteer for many different kinds of community projects - including caring for the environment, feeding the hungry and aiding seniors and the disabled.

For more about Lions Clubs here are some web pages that are of interest:

Our facebook page that Lion Sue Wright manages:

https://www.facebook.com/calgarylionsclub/

The Lions Club’s International web page has a piece about Melvin Jones under the Mission & History button:

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/who-we-are/index.php

and

Here’s a web page about Helen Keller and her June 30, 1925 keynote presentation to the Lions convention in Ohio.:

http://www.lionsclubs.org/EN/who-we-are/mission-and-history/helen-keller.php

For much additional information on Lions and Lionism go to www.lionsclubs.org