100 Years is a lot of history!!
We've been cleaning out storage closests, going through old records and sharing our favorite Lions stories as we prepare for our 100th Celebration. Here are just a few gems that we wanted to share with all of you!
Historical Highlight #4: Lion Donna Oiland Remembers White Cane Days
“I started working at the Lions EyeBank and working with Lions July 5, 1972. The Lions had started the Eye Bank, raised money to support the work and it was in the Department of Ophthalmology at the UW Medical School.
The way the Lions raised funds was on White Cane Days, usually the first Weekend in May was All the clubs in Washington and Northern Idaho would hand out lapel white canes with a label on them and ask for donations. It was amazing.
The local foundation, Lions Sight Conservation, was responsible for getting the plastic canes and labels from a national source, dividing up the supplies and sending them to clubs throughout the region. This was a huge project and the University Lions Club was right in the middle of the whole thing.
We had a member named Charlie Hancock, a character! Charlie had a business called Slope Indicator. The supply of canes would be sent to Charlie. He would store them and then a couple of months before White Cane Days Lions from clubs in our district would gather for a party at Slope Indicator and organize materials to go to clubs around the state and Northern Idaho.
A few months after I started working with the Lions I was invited to the party. There were seasoned veterans there, lots of them, and I was mostly observing and mixing drinks! I had never mixed drinks before so when people requested a rum and coke I made that for them. Unfortunately no one was monitoring my bar tending and I was mixing half and half rum and coke. Close to the end of the evening the party got a little wild and several Lions had to go home in cabs!”
Historical Highlight #3: Ballard Lions Club
Originally organized under the sponsorship of the University Lions Club, the Ballard Lions Club was launched in October 1925 with 43 charter members. It was the 3rd club to be chartered in Seattle after the Downtown Central and University Clubs. And this club hit the ground running!
Just a few examples of Ballard Lions projects from the early years include:
• Purchased a house in Warm Beach to provide shelter for needy families.
• Purchased a beach area north of Marysville, then cleared & developed a camp ground with cabin which was turned over to the Boy & Girl Scouts.
• Raised funds for the building of a new Ballard Hospital.
• Gifted the Ballard Swedish Hospital with a Neo-Natal Hearing Screening Machine.
Historical Highlight #2: Hawaii 2000
Bouncing forward in time quite a bit. Here’s a bit of Lions paraphernalia that we pulled out of the storage unit. Any local Lions out there remember the Hawaii 2000 convention?
Historical Highlight #1: University Lions Club
Founded in 1924, the University Lions Club was the 2nd Lions Club to be chartered in Seattle. Here’s a memory recorded in the 1964 University Lion’s newsletter about those early years:
“First meeting place as mezzanine of Rogers Candy store and restaurant, 4339 University Way. The 32 charter members filled the low-ceilinged small room to capacity. It was real chummy but club growth made advisable moving to the only other possible location in the 20s, the Wilsonian. Here we met until the Meany was built in 1931.
First community-service project was Easter Egg Hunt, April 1925 in Ravenna Park. It rained that morning but dried in time for hundreds of kids to turn out.
“Singingest Club” we were often called. Community singing led by Ray Eckmann was a must every meeting. On our songbook cover were the words “birds of prey never sing” and except for one or two perhaps, there were no buzzards in our club.”
