Plant a Tree at the VFW/American Legion Post: Planted a beautiful 8' Crimson King Maple at our local VFW/American Legion Post. The tree was donated by Glacier Gardens.
Bicycle Safety Rodeo: This project brings together boys
and girls from the community, the Juneau Police Department, and a variety of representatives from various groups and organizations around town. Kids are given a safety course on riding their bike, a variety of obstacle courses to ride through to see how they manage their bikes in various situations, and some free decals for the handlebars! Lions Packs: This project came about after reading an editorial in our local paper about foster care children and how they are taken from their homes, often with nothing but the clothes on their backs. We instantly knew this was a project for us! With the help of the community, we collected over 100 "like new" or new backpacks and items of necessity (i.e., toothpaste, toothbrush, shampoo) and comfort (dolls, blankets) and delivered to the Office of Children's Services on December 3, 2013. Every new child that enters into the Foster Care Program will get a backpack of their own with a few items to help them through those first 12/24 hours.
Annual Barbecue: Held in November, this is one of our largest fundraiser of the 
year. All proceeds go directly to the American Diabetes Association. Volunteers and Lions get up before the crack of dawn to fire the smoker up and spend 6 or 7 hours smoking the ribs to perfection. Dinner consists of ribs, cole slaw, and baked beans. This event takes place at McGivney's Sports Bar at the Mendenhall Mall. It's an event Club members, the public, and volunteers look forward to every year and without their hard work it wouldn't be the success that it always is.
Light Flights: Some time just before Christmas, you'll find Lion members and volunteers huddlin
g around outside in the cold winter weather, trying to keep warm. It doesn't matter if the temps are in the low teens and the Taku Winds are blowing sideways, this annual fundraiser always brings a smile to the participants. With the cooperation of Coastal Helicopters who donate their time, copters, and fuel, we take passengers on a helicopter ride over the Mendenhall Valley to view Christmas lights. We average about 300 passengers a year, during a four-hour period. The proceeds from this event are shared with Coastal Helicopters whose chosen charity is the Children's Tumor Foundation and our share of the proceeds goes into other sight projects. For more information on exact date and time, contact the club at mendenhallflyinglions@gmail.com. They typically start the rides around 4:00/4:30 but this night's event is always contingent upon Juneau weather. You can find us at the Juneau Airport, near the small plane counters downstairs.
Vision Screening: Our most important service project is vision screening. We are asked by grade schools, the State of Alaska, Head Start, the City and Borough of Juneau, as well as outlying communities and other organizations to provide vision screening at elementary schools, health fairs, and other community events. Also, we have trained many public health nurses and other community members on the use of the PlusOptiX Vision Screener so they can take it to outlying communities for their health fairs. We have enthusiastic response whenever we contact an organization to provide vision screening.
We provide readers to the homeless through agencies serving them and at the annual Homeless Connect Fair
Food Drive: What group doesn't help collect food for 
the needy? Our Club is no different whether we're helping at the local food bank, or participating in a drive to collect donations for the Southeast Alaska food bank. We spend approximately 100 hours per month collecting, sorting, and distributing food for Helping Hands, the longest operating food bank in Juneau. This seems to be a never ending project. Because times can be tough everywhere, we also head a food drive to collect and distribute food to our outlying community, Hoonah.
Litter Pick Up: There's a stretch of road, two miles long, that takes you to the Mendenhall Glacier. It's a popular road with walkers, dog walkers, bicyclers, and tourists. As such, it accumulates trash. Our members gather three times a year to pick up trash and to keep our biggest tourist attractive beautiful! Come Spring, Summer, or Fall, you will find members of the Mendenhall Flying Lions along the road, picking up trash.
4th of July Vendor: If you ask anyone in Juneau if it'll be sunny for the 4th of July Parade, they will tell you, "yes!" This is a perfect time for Lions to provide a service and make a little money for our Sight Projects Fund as well. We provide coffee, donuts, sandwiches, chips, etc., all donated by local businesses, to those participating in the parade.
Helping Hands Foodbank: During Covid, this has become the biggest service that we do as a group. Many of the Helping Hands Foodbank volunteers are Lions. Helping Hands gives food out to needy families twice per week and it takes a steady group of volunteers to pick up the food from stores and get it out for people to come by and pick it up.
