• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Lions roar: Group hopes to establish new club in Clinton

CLINTON — In an age of “I’m too busy” and “I’m already overcommitted,” service clubs have struggled to survive. Daryl Porter, a 38-year member of the Lions Club in Beloit, plans to buck that trend, and he’s starting in Clinton.

Porter, who serves as first vice district governor of the local Lions district, invites men and women interested in forming a new Lions Club to an informational meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8, at the Brian Mark Funeral Home, 504 Milwaukee Street, Clinton.

The meeting is open to everyone. You don’t have to be a Clinton resident to attend.

“People could be from Clinton, the surrounding township and even into Illinois,” Porter said.

Why form a new club when Rock County is already home to five Lions clubs?

“We feel that every community deserves to have a Lions Club,” Porter said. “A club could benefit them and their community.”

Internationally, the Lions strive to eradicate all preventable blindness. To meet this goal, they collect eyeglasses, do vision screenings, maintain eye tissue banks and have sent eye doctors to the Third World to combat eye diseases.

Beloit’s club does eye screening regularly and reaches as many as 1,500 children a year.

“The Lions also build things in the community, work in parks, and some clubs give out scholarships,” Porter said. “They do all sorts of different kinds of service.”

Every club is autonomous. The members decide what projects to pursue, Porter said.

Lions Club members also decide how often they want to meet—from once a week to once a month.

Fellowship, too, has always been an important part of the Lions organization.

“People might join for social reasons, but then they find these other opportunities to serve their communities or their fellow man,” Porter said.