Special to the Progress
Lion President Vic Whadford opened the meeting and asked for recognition of special guests who were Cliff and Lucy Horton, Boots Burfoot, Lion Alicia Oliver, and Robbie Tosh.
Whadford passed around the newspaper for all Lions to see that our own Lion Bobby Tosh was named Citizen of the Year by the Rusk Chamber of Commerce. Rusk is certainly blessed to have a person such as Lion Bobby Tosh in our town.
Whadford also asked everyone to observe the nice “thank you” letter to the Rusk Lions Club from Wayne and Toni Guinn expressing appreciation for making the Christmas Dream Tree Project come true.
Their thanks was also extended to all the local business sponsors, churches and civic sponsors for their support.
Whadford and Lion Jim Cromwell attended the Lions District Meeting in Carthage last week. They learned that there are 16 districts in Texas with 969 clubs and a membership of 32,147 members.
Each district governor is the liaison with Lions Club International, which is headquartered in Chicago, Ill.
There are 745 districts with 45,865 Lions Clubs with a membership of 1,352,200 members in 193 countries andgeographical areas of the world.
They were made aware by Lions World Services for the Blind that over 50,000 Americans each year are blinded by accidents or disease. Because of L.W.S.B. many, blind individuals have been trained and are now employed with good paying jobs.
Lions International was founded in 1917 as a way for business leaders to provide services in their communities and has grown into the worlds largest service organization.
Melvin Jones, from Chicago, is considered the father of Lionism. In 1925, Helen Keller challenged the Lions to become “Knights for the Blind.”
Lion Jim Netters does a wonderful job of filing the paperwork for children from our area to participate in the Texas Lions Camp in Kerrville that gives children with physical disabilities, cancer and type 1 diabetes the chance to have fun like climb ropes, ride horses, fish, explore nature, pet animals, and even implement their own on-site radio show.
In short, it’s a chance to be a kid and the camp is free.
It is sponsored by the Lions Clubs across the state. The camp is made up of more than 500 acres in the Hill Country.
It offers nine sessions starting June 6 and ending Aug. 7. All sessions last one week with campers staying on-site, except for a three-day camp where children go home every evening.
The first sessions are for children 7 to 16 years with physical disabilities such as amputation of limbs, cerebral palsy, hearing, vision and speech impairments, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, spinal bifida and orthopedic conditions.
Anyone interested can contact the Rusk Lions Club.
The public is invited to cisit the Rusk Lions Club any Thursday at noon on Hwy. 84 W.
