Lord Baltimore Lions Club members have volunteered for many years in service projects to address the growing issue of food insecurity in the community. 

For 12 years, members have volunteered weekly to assist in the Feed My Sheep program at Mariners Bethel Church to prepare food both on site and deliver to many others in need at home in neighboring communities.

Over the past five years, a Lord Baltimore Lions team has also traveled to Milford to assist at the Food Bank of Delaware facility. The club staffs one afternoon volunteer shift and one morning shift every month.

Earlier this year, Lion President Karl Gude asked members if the club could do a more to fight food insecurity, and all agreed they could.

Since November 2021, Lord Baltimore Lions have participated to support the food distribution project led by Mariners Bethel Church in partnership with other churches in the Southeast Sussex Ministerium. The Frankford food distribution project is held every Tuesday afternoon to provide food for families. Lord Baltimore Lions have assisted by loading trailers and distributing food along with volunteers from participating churches.

Lions Club International has acknowledged hunger relief as one of five major causes of Lions service, along with vision, diabetes awareness, the environment and childhood cancer. According to Feeding America, almost 114,200 people in Delaware are facing food insecurity, and one in six of these may be children.

Concerned with the growing numbers of people in need in 2022, the Lord Baltimore Lions Board also voted to donate to both the Feed My Sheep program and to the Food Bank of Delaware, and these donation amounts were increased through a successful grant application award from the Delaware Lions Foundation.

“Partnerships are powerful,” Gude said. “They enable us to reach out and serve more people. We are grateful to the Delaware Lions Foundation for the added funding that will help in serving so many others.”

For more information about the Lord Baltimore Lions Club, go to lordbaltimorelionsclub.com or contact Secretary Janet Bauer at 302-537-5175.

LBLC Lions Raise Funds at Bethany Arts Festival to Support LCIF Disaster Relief
                                                                                                   

The 43^rd Annual Arts Festival was held on the Bethany Beach Boardwalk and in downtown Bethany Beach on Saturday, September 11, 2021. This nationally ranked event included over one hundred artists featuring paintings, woodwork, metal, clay, jewelry and more. Lord Baltimore Lions once again participated in this annual event only this year the service mission had a different fundraising cause.

In recent years, LBLC members have sold car raffle tickets at the Annual Arts Festival to support club charities in our service area and beyond. This year with all of the weather-related storms and natural disasters impacting so many millions within the United States and other areas, Lord Baltimore Lions Leadership decided to focus this fundraising event to support Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF) Relief efforts.
The Lord Baltimore Lions working the fundraising effort collected a total of $1,282.00 for LCIF Disaster Relief. Lions staffing the various shifts included Lions Karen Lucas, Helene Kirby, Debbie Willis, Don Sherwood, Scott Brannan, John Monahan, Jack Bauer, and KL PDG Karl Gude.

For additional information and to learn more about the service project please contact Lion Jack Bauer, LBLC Service Chair or LCIF Coordinator, KL Karl Gude.

LB Lions Clean the Beach

Recently, Lord Baltimore Lions Club Environmental Committee Chair Paul Hammond assembled a team to clean the club’s assigned section of Bethany Beach, removing any litter and other identifiable items that hinder the environmental health of the beach.

During this initial beach cleaning for 2021, the two-hour service project produced only four pounds of litter.

Participating Lions Jack Bauer, Jeff Hilovsky, Paul Bolton, Paul Hammond, and Pat and John Monahan collected bottle caps, wrappers, paper cups, cigarette butts, a few plastic bottles and other assorted items that were identified and cataloged in a report to DNREC.


Lord Baltimore Lions President Jack Bauer said, “The Lord Baltimore Lions will plan to clean the assigned section of Bethany Beach about two to three more times through the summer and again into fall 2021.”

The Adopt a Beach Project  was first introduced in 2019 by Lion Steve Straneva, previously Lord Baltimore Lions environmental chair.

LORD BALTIMORE LIONS PROVIDE OCEAN VIEW POLICE APPRECIATION LUNCH

On Monday, July 13^th the Lord Baltimore Lions Club showed its appreciation by providing lunch to the sworn and civilian staff of the Ocean View Police Department.  Mac’s Catering prepared the meal and the Lord Baltimore Lions Club members gladly donated the lunch..  Chief McLaughlin told the Lions that other community organizations have made similar gestures and that he and his personnel are very appreciative of the outpouring of support with the Lord Baltimore Lions.

There was some joy in Milford especially among Lord Baltimore Lions on Friday June 26, as a team of Lions reported for volunteer work at the Delaware Food Bank. Our LBLC team last volunteered some four months ago in February after our shift that day we had no idea that due to the health cautions and restrictions imposed in response to COVID-19 that we would be away and miss shifts in March, April and May 2020. Lions Paul Bolton, Jack Bauer, Joanne Withers, Pat Monahan, and John Monahan arrived for the shift to find an entirely different room configuration. Our worktables had more spacing between them. The barrels and large boxes containing food items that needed to be sorted were rearranged to insure social distancing and a larger work area for each volunteer. As we signed in, Volunteer Coordinator Aaron Stone welcomed us back. He also asked us some health-related questions and took our temperatures. All assessed, we pulled up our masks and began our shift with the support of Aaron and staff member Bianca. We all seemed to get back into a groove quickly and the 3 hours seemed to pass very quickly.

The Lord Baltimore Lions Club made a commitment in December 2016 to volunteer at the Delaware Food Bank and we have worked the Morning Shift at the Milford Facility the last Friday of almost every month consistently until the pandemic broke the streak. Even though our members were not able to appear at the DE Food Bank facility for 3 months, our club did partner with Mariners Bethel United Methodist Church on a Food Collection Drive that brought over 4700 pounds of food and over $8,000 in donations to combat hunger in Sussex and Kent Counties. For more information on the monthly LBLC Food Bank Volunteer Program please contact Lion John Monahan at john.monahan13@gmail.com.

LORD BALTIMORE LIONS THANK HEALTHCARE WORKERS

The Lord Baltimore Lions Club wants to thank all doctors, nurses, healthcare professionals, volunteers and the support staff of Beebe Healthcare for their courage, dedication, and willingness to comfort and care for the sick and dying during this pandemic.  We know there are significantly higher risks of being infected while caring for patients with the COVID-19 virus in addition to the fear of bringing the virus home to their family.  Working long hours, risk of being infected and being away from their families, the Beebe Healthcare personnel show what they are made of by providing services to their patients and the families in our community.      

Please continue doing what you do to help your patients, and know that our members and the community appreciate your sacrifices and service. The Lord Baltimore Lions will be making donations to support the COVID-19 relief efforts and will encourage other Lions Clubs in our area to also support this effort.  Anyone can donate and obtain additional information at www.beebehealthcare.org/donate-funds-covid-19-relief.

LBLC Members Learn About “Delaware Hearing Connection

                                 Submitted by Lion John Monahan

Lions attending the Member Meeting held on Wednesday, February 20, had the opportunity to learn of some new innovations and recent changes to help those in search of better hearing. Dr. Sara Conrad, a local audiologist at Bayside Audiology & Hearing Aids in Lewes and the Founder of the Delaware Hearing Connection was Guest Speaker for the meeting. Dr. Conrad, who earned her Clinical Doctorate in Audiology from James Madison University, gave a thoughtful talk on the issues facing people with hearing loss. Dr. Conrad shared that “Hearing loss affects about 10% of the overall population and approximately 1 in 3 over 60, 2 out of 3 over 70, and over 90% of those over 80 have hearing loss.” .Sara added that,” Only 1 in 5 people who could be benefitting from hearing aids are actually wearing them and studies cite that the cost of hearing aids as one of the prevalent reasons that people don’t pursue help”.

Dr. Conrad told members about the Delaware Hearing Connection that she founded as a 501©(3) Nonprofit Organization, that is dedicated to making sure all of our local residents have access to better hearing despite financial limitations. The DHC provides hearing evaluations, hearing aids and assistive learning devices. Sara will also assist patients where needed in finding which philanthropic organization may be best to use and assist in completing the application. She answered many questions about hearing aids and devices. Dr. Conrad encouraged the Lions to share information about the Delaware Hearing Connection with any interested individuals, family members or friends and to contact her to learn more about services offered.

For additional information about the Delaware Hearing Connection, please visit the website at www.dehearing.org or call (302) 313 6130 or email dehearing@gmail.com.