FUNDRAISERS

Pancake Breakfast:  Lions are planning for Spring 2023. 

The old Raffle Room is now the amazing Historical Society Room. No plans to have a raffle room due to state license requirements.

In the spring and fall of each year, our club holds our primary fund raisers, a Pancake Breakfast where we serve pancakes, ham, eggs and all the trimmings.  We serve on average 1000 people at each breakfast.   Our Pancake Breakfast is held at the old Winchester Elementary School located at 5720 Ann Street in the town of Winchester.  Follow County II to Winchester then turn South on Steeple Hill Drive and then turn East on Ann Street.   

DEER HIDE COLLECTIONS

We have a  deer hide collection box near the corner of Winchester Road (II) and Hwy 76.  We participate along with the Wisconsin Lions Foundation and other Lions Clubs collecting Deer Hides for Lions Camp.  The deer hides generate funds to assist with camp projects.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO STATE AND INTERNATIONAL ORGAINIZATIONS

Used Eye Glass Collection

The Larsen-Winchester Lions Club, along with most other Lions Clubs, collect used eye glasses for those in need.  These eyeglasses are cleaned and placed on a "Lensometer" which reads the prescription of each lens.  The glasses are then placed in a plastic envelope with the prescription attached. The eye doctor will be able to select the proper pair of glasses, when distributed to the needy in less fortunate countries.  Our club contributes over 2000 pairs of glasses and glass cases per year.

Melvin Jones Fellowship Award

By making additional contributions to our International Organization, our club is able to honor one of our Lions Club members or community leader, who clearly demonstrates a life, lived with a commitment to our humanitarian ideals, by presenting the highest honor of Lions Clubs International, the Melvin Jones Fellowship Award.  The Larsen-Winchester Lions Club first presented this prestigious award to Lion Dannie G. Howman.  Each year we donate funds to Lions Clubs International Foundation to fund this award. 

Wisconsin Lions Camp

This fine camp located near Rosholt, Wisconsin is for children and adults who have vision or hearing impairments, or who are mentally handicapped. There is no cost to the campers for their stay or for transportation. The Camp was established in 1956, and has grown each year. It now covers 400 acres, and is valued at 2 million dollars. The camp hosts thousands of campers during the summer months, and still more throughout the year in heated cabins. The camp completely surrounds its own private lake, where campers may swim, fish, engage in water sports, or go boating, always under the watchful eye of the camp counselors. Lions Clubs throughout Wisconsin have financed all the projects at the Lions Camp with annual donations to the Wisconsin Lions Foundation, plus endowments from the families of individual Lion members. If you, or someone you know, would like to be a camper for a week or more, contact any Lions Club for a Camp Registration Form.  

Wisconsin Lions Eye Bank

An eye bank has been in existence in Milwaukee since 1952. The purpose of an eye bank is to provide doctors with healthy tissue for corneal transplants. The cornea transplants made possible by this project give new sight to many persons each year.  The Wisconsin Lions Foundation, Inc., the charitable non-profit arm of the Lions Clubs of Wisconsin, assumed sponsorship and support of the Eye Bank in 1964. It then became officially known as the Wisconsin Lions Eye Bank.  The Eye Bank's medical headquarters are located at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and at University Hospitals in Madison. Throughout the State of Wisconsin, regional and branch, eye banks have been established as collection centers.  Each is sponsored by local Lions Clubs. Donated eye tissue is transported to the Eye Bank Medical Headquarters at Madison or Milwaukee by members of local Lions Clubs who are on call 24 hours a day.  More than 30,000 Americans have corneal transplants each year and with this continued effort, many more will be treated in the future.  

Lions Eye Bank Research Laboratories

The Wisconsin Lions Foundation, with the support of all the local Lions Clubs, sponsored the Wisconsin Lions Eye Bank Research Laboratories at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Ophthalmology. The focus of the new Wisconsin Lions Club Eye Bank Research Laboratories is problems relating to corneal transplantation, corneal donor tissue, and corneal transplant rejection.  Tissue rejection is the biggest reason why corneal transplants fail to restore vision.  Research at this facility should lead to new methods of storing and treating tissue and thus prevent rejection. 

The Birch-Strum Fellow Award

The Birch-Strum Fellow Award is the highest award given by the 'Wisconsin Lions' organization.  It is named for two Wisconsin Lions who were Lions International Presidents and is presented to a Lion member or a community leader, who clearly demonstrates a life lived with a commitment to our humanitarian ideals.