2024-02-25 01:02:39
North Salem Lions Club holds an annual Easter event for local youth, one of many community programs the nonprofit organizes each year. (Benjamin Allen / HudValley Photo)
Recently, I was at my younger brother’s North Salem Youth Basketball game at North Salem Middle / High School and heard some of the boys’ moms talking about the annual Easter Egg Basket event happening in North Salem on March 23. “Who even runs that?” one mom asked. “Not sure, maybe the Lions Club,” said another. Someone else asked,“What do the Lions actually do? I know they have events in town, but…what are they?”
Photo by Benjamin Allen, HudValley Photo
As the daughter of a dedicated Lions Club member, I have participated and helped in many fun Lions activities over the years, but what do I know about them really? Yes, they have a community center right in town on Rt. 116 and yes, they seem to pop up for the Memorial Day parade and have an annual golf outing to raise funds, both of which I’ve attended for some years, but what do they do, and how? I decided to interview some dedicated Lions members to understand exactly what the Lions Club is, does, and why the club has historically been such an important and successful part of North Salem’s traditions.
Let’s start with the Lions Club International motto, adopted in 1954 with just two words: “We Serve.” Town native Susan Lucas described the history of the club and explained what the motto has meant to her over the past fifteen years as a loyal member and current Club secretary.
“The Lions is a club that members of a community and neighbors join with the goal of helping others in need. The Lions Club has been in existence over one hundred years starting in 1917 with one man who had the idea to have other men join him in the same interest/goal. The idea was simple: the focus to serve others.”
Larry Devey, who joined the Club along with his wife Mary Kate during Covid, said, “I always thought of the Lions Club in North Salem as the folks who supply the hot dogs at the Memorial Day Parade. We do do that, and that is probably my favorite small town America event of the year. What the Lions Club does in the public eye is a great way to raise funds. But to me, what this group is about is stepping in to help the folks in our town who need it the most.”
The North Salem Lion, at the town’s Memorial Day Parade in 2023. (Benjamin Allen / HudValley Photo)
Mr. Devey recalled many years ago witnessing the Lions Club installing a furnace in the home of “the most desperate family I knew.” He was struck by the steps the Club took to maintain the family’s privacy. “Nobody knew that this family needed help, or knew that they got that help,” Mr. Devey shared, adding, “that is what the North Salem Lions Club does. They see a need and they fill it.”
In talking with Mr. Devey, I remembered that during Covid, he played one of two Santas, along with Enzo Molina. Both community members were able to bring so much joy to the kids in the town, their excited faces seeing Santa on Zoom and interacting with his elves.
According to Lions Club International, the nonprofit organization has 49,000 clubs in 200 countries around the globe. Over 1.4 million people are serving as Lions Club members. Last year, the organization served more than 530 million people worldwide.
Photo by Shauna Schuda, Lions Club International
“There is a guy like me in the Lions Club in South Korea who is trying to fight food insecurity,” Mr. Devey said. “The North Salem Lions Club does the same thing, in a town where few would think that was a problem.”
As Mr. Devey was speaking about food insecurity, a bell rang in my head. I remembered delivering food with my mom every Tuesday afternoon to the needy residents of our beautiful town. I wonder if people even knew the Lions & the North Salem Volunteer Ambulance Corps. worked together with local food banks to support our community for well over a year and a half during the height of the pandemic. The Lions are consistently stepping up to help community members in need.
Mrs. Lucas shared that the Club historically only allowed men to participate. It wasn’t until 1987, when the Club changed its bylaws, that women began to serve. She noted how much North Salem’s Club has grown and changed over the past couple decades as more women and spouses joined.
North Salem’s Tax Receiver, Karen Roach, has been a member for over 15 years. “Some of my friends and I who also worked with at the Boy Scout and Girl Scout Troops in town thought we could help more people by joining the North Salem Lions. The Lions gave us the opportunity to reach out and work alongside many different groups of people in town. So far it has been an interesting and rewarding journey.”
The Lions Club held an Easter Basket drive-by at the Keeler Library in North Salem during Covid.
For the past few years, Mrs. Roach has stood next to the Easter Bunny and the North Salem lion, handing out baskets of joy to local children. She has helped to raise tens of thousands of dollars for nonprofits that support people in need. “This club has been making our world better for over 50 years,” she said. “We give gift cards to help hungry families right here in town. We buy heating oil for families in need. This week we voted to fund AEDs, automated defibrillators, at Joe Bohrdrum and Volunteers Parks.”
Mrs. Lucas said that the Club’s members are neighbors who are interested in community service and helping others. “These members have become my friends and we have fun together, either at our monthly meetings or working on a community project.”
Mr. Devey has found being a Lions Club member to be personally rewarding. “I am with good people. Like every other organization of volunteers, we are getting older,” he said. “You can make a difference. It’s not flashy, or even a huge commitment. Maybe you can change a life for the better; maybe you can change your own. We are open to new members; this is your nudge.”
Community members who would like to learn more about the Lions Club are encouraged to contact new member ambassador Sal Pantezzi at [email protected].
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