Crookston Dawn to Dusk Lions Club History

           by Lion PDG George Marx

 

Our Crookston Dawn to Dusk Lions Club was chartered on April 29, 1975 with 36 members. There are two original charter members in the club after 35 years; Lions Keith Magnuson and PDG George Marx. The club was sponsored by the Crookston noonday Lions Club with PDG Norm Arneson as the Guiding Lion. The name was arrived at by the time of the meetings; the first meeting of the month was at 6:30am and the second meeting of the month was at 6:30pm. This was mainly to accommodate farmer members and persons who were unable to meet at noon. Truman Tilleraas was our first president and Willard Kotts was elected secretary and made a good team as Lion Tilleraas was a former Lion in Blooming Prairie, MN and remained active until his retirement when he moved to Fargo, but has been back for a number of special occasions.

 

Our record of accomplishments over the years speaks for itself. We sponsored the Mid-Winter Convention in 1984 which was held here in Crookston. Most years our club has had more than 20% of our club attend the Mid-Winter Conventions. The club sponsored Lion George Marx for District Governor in 1987-88 and now is sponsoring Lion Joanne Swanson for District Governor in 2011-2012.  PDG George Marx was the first Governor to invite women to become members of Lions clubs.  One of our members Lion Charles Larson was Zone Chair for a number of years. We co-sponsored the Crookston Leo Club twenty years ago and this Leo Club has won 19 Unprecedented International Excellence Awards.  We also sponsored the Climax Lions club and recently co-sponsored the newly formed East Grand Forks Lions Club with Lion VDG Joanne Swanson as Guiding Lion.

 

The club has volunteered in many ways: A huge project was putting up and taking down horse stalls at the Red River Valley Winter Shows several times a year for many years. Our club took the leadership for the annual RRVWS Zone project with a booth at the shows.  We installed playground equipment at the Day Activity Center and took it down in the Fall and put it back up every Spring. The Lions shelter at the Carman Park playground was one of our projects. We deliver Meals on Wheels two weeks each year and clean 3.5 miles of road ditches on Co.Rd. #11. We sponsored the pull tabs gaming at the Irishman’s Shanty for many years resulting in thousand of dollars for various projects in the community and organization requests for monies every year. We were very active in the Lions Sight First Projects and one of our members, Lion John Vik was District Chairman and made over 15,000 miles throughout the District raising funds. Our club was recently recognized for achieving the #ONE top club in the 5M-11 District for the highest total per-capita contribution to the Campaign Sight First II Project. 

 

We were very active in the 1997 flood recovery effort. Lion PDG George Marx gave vouchers to 50 flood victims and as District Chair was successful in obtaining grants from LCIF for five flooded cities recovery projects amounting to $368,000.00 (Cities of Ada, Halstad, Moorhead and two grants to East Grand Forks). In a joint project with the Leo Club we raised $2,000 for the Tsunami victims in their disaster resulting in two Melvin Jones Awards given to two top Leo Club members and we helped earth quake victims through the Lions Clubs International Foundation programs. Each year we donate to the District Parade of Green which includes funding for the Minnesota Lions Eye Bank and Children’s Clinic, Macular Degeneration project, Hearing Foundation, Leader Dog, Diabetes Foundation, Spring Point Project, Can Do Canines, Youth Outreach and Exchange, Glenmore Recovery Center, LCIF (foundation), and others.

 

Our most recognized fund raiser is our spaghetti feeds held several times each year for families with medical or other needs and for Lions projects. One pancake breakfast raised over $10,000.00 for a Lions member’s grandson with multiple medical problems. Our club started the annual Brat/Corn feed held each year at the OxCart Days and has grown and now involves three other community service clubs along with our club. We also had a pop and popcorn stand down town and a food booth for many years at the OxCart activities in Central Park. A diabetes screening at the local hospital is probably responsible for saving one Lions member life by early detection.  One of our projects involved running a concession stand at the Ralph Englestad arena during the hockey season. We collect eye glasses and hearing aids for the needy in other countries. The annual golf tournament for the Crookston Hospice program was one of our projects. Other more recent projects we have been involved in include the annual Christmas Wreath Sales, Farmers Market Food Booth, Annual Lions family picnic, Mali well water project (one of our members Lion Harouna Maiga is from Mali) and our goal is to raise $25,000 for a well and water distribution in his African village. We work with the Leo club and the newly formed UMC Lions club on joint activities and invite them to help us when needed. Some attended our recent picnic. Our road ditch cleanup includes students from UMC and ends with a joint pizza party. 

 

We are proud of our Crookston Dawn to Dusk Lions Club and of the many contributions we have made to our community, region, and internationally to help others in need. We are always open to new members to help support our club and our activities.