Clarke County Lions Club proudly celebrated 77 years of serving our community on 21 April 2017
Clarke County Lions Club Celebrates 77 Years of Miracles Through Service.
On February 6th, 1941, 227 people gathered at the Community Center in Berryville to charter our Lions Club to serve our community – especially the blind, the deaf, and the youth, since Lions had been asked by Helen Keller to be the knights of the blind. The Community Center was located next to the park and in what is now the Dollar General store on South Church Street. The folks who met have continued to ask others to join, and those folks have asked others – so today, Clarke County Lions continues to build on the legacy those 19 charter members and today has 63 members.
When a new club is formed, it is hosted by an existing Club. As they were known in 1941, Winchester Lions Club helped to establish Clarke County Lions Club. Lion Chet Hobert was working in Berryville. Hobert and others decided Clarke County needed its own club and 19 men were recruited to become charter members. The Winchester Lions formed numerous clubs throughout the Shenandoah. On that Charter night, Lions came from Winchester, Purcellville, Charlestown, Warrenton, Leesburg, Woodstock, Front Royal, Martinsburg, Harrisonburg, and even Georgetown Delaware. Gas only cost 12 cents a gallon. The charter night roast chicken dinner was prepared and served for 75 cents a plate by the ladies of the Church but was priced at $1.25 for the attendees.
Lookng back to the year 1941 -- Elvis was 6. War was underway in Europe, we were not involved, and the Pentagon had not been thought of. Few if any knew about Korea or Viet Nam or the Middle East or the Islam religion. All airplanes had propellers and space travel was fiction. The first U.S. manned space flight would occur only 20 years after Clarke County Lions Club was founded. The ladies fragrance Chanel #5 was introduced 70 years ago. U S Savings Bonds had not been invented, the national debt was $48 billion. Credit cards would not be introduced for another 10 years. Glenn Miller sang Chattanooga Choo Choo, and the Andrews Sisters sang “I’ll be with you in Apple Blossom Time. Disney’s movie Dumbo had just been released.
