Welcome to the Cedar Valley Evening Lions

Thank you for visiting!

Join us on the first and thrid Mondays of each month at the 63 Diner in Waterloo!

The Cedar Valley Evening Lions Club had its earliest beginnings in a duck blind on a Saturday morning in October, 1981. Two friends discussed the fact that it was time for one of them to begin to repay the area for the greatness of the Cedar Valley and that the area needed another service organization to help the community. Within months, the club was formed and chartered.

The first member joined Lions Clubs International on November 4, 1981. Twenty members were needed to charter a new Lions Club. On January 25, 1982, Lions Clubs International recognized the Cedar Valley Evening Lions Club as a member of the international organization.

The charter night banquet for the new Lions Club was set for April 2, 1982 at the Ramada Inn in Waterloo, Iowa. At the event, thirty-three members had joined the Cedar Valley Lions Club. Guest speaker for the event was Past International Director Blaine Rusch from Kansas. Mayors from Cedar Falls and Waterloo attended the event as did many Lions Clubs from as far away as Calmar and Decorah.

The Cedar Falls Noon Club sponsored the Cedar Valley Lions Club. The charter gift presented to the Cedar Valley Lions was the gong and gavel, the traditional gift of a sponsoring club. Cedar Valley Lions continue to use the same gong and gavel today.

The earliest fund raising project occurred just two months after the charter banquet. With little time to prepare, the club had a "garage sale" at Sturgis Falls, and a profit was made. Today, Cedar Valley Lions are involved in the Sturgis Falls Celebration in a much greater way as well as scheduling other service projects in the area annually.

Lions Clubs International is the world's largest service club organization with more than 1.4 million members in approximately 46,000 clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas around the world.