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History of Our Club
In 1950 with the help of the Flagstaff
Lions Club a group of business leaders
in Cottonwood, Arizona, chartered the
Cottonwood Lions Club. Their objective
was to serve the community by initiating
and implementing various civic
projects--many of which involved
construction. Among them was the bridge
leading into Old Town Cottonwood, the
park next to the bridge, and water
piping over to the baseball diamond
behind the Community Center. They
also helped with the construction of the
building the Old Chamber
of Commerce at the intersection of
Highway 89A and Highway 260.
Our club has continued over the years to
evolve to include the objectives of our
international organization. (See the
history of Lions Clubs International on
this page.) For many years we raised
charity funds by recycling newspapers,
the bulk of which funds went to funding
eye exams and eyeglasses for those who
could not afford them. We still work on
recycling and collecting aluminum cans; and
we have made our services more efficient
and accessible through a free clinic
housed at the Old Town Mission in Old
Town Cottonwood.
(For more information
go to "Contact
Us")
In 2000 club members and dignitaries
from all over the state came to
celebrate our 50th Anniversary with us
at a gala dinner at the Quality Inn here
in Cottonwood.
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Lions Clubs International History
The International Association of Lions
Clubs began as the dream of Chicago
businessman Melvin Jones (who was born
right here in Arizona near Fort
Thomas). He believed that local
business clubs should expand their
horizons from purely professional
concerns to the betterment of their
communities and the world at large.
Jones' own group, the Business Circle of
Chicago, agreed. After contacting
similar groups around the country, an
organizational meeting was held on June
7, 1917, at the LaSalle Hotel in
Chicago. The new group took the name of
one of he groups invited, the
"Association of Lions Clubs," and a
national convention was held in Dallas
in October of that year. A
constitution, by-laws, objects and code
of ethics were approved.
Among the official objects adopted in
those early years was one which read,
"No club shall hold out the financial
betterment of its members as its
object." This object has remained one
of the association's main tenets ever
since.
Just three years after its formation,
the organization became international
when the first club in Canada was
established in 1920. Major
international expansion continued as
clubs were established, particularly
throughout Europe, Asia and Africa
during the 1950s and 60s.
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Perhaps the single event having
the greatest impact on the
association's service commitment
occurred in 1925 when Helen
Keller addressed the Lions at
their international convention
in Cedar Point, Ohio. It was
there that she challenged Lions
to become "knights of the blind
in the crusade against
darkness."
In 1990 Lions launched their
most aggressive sight
preservation effort to date,
Sight First. The more than $130
million-plus program strives to
rid the world of preventable and
reversible blindness by closing
the gap between existing health
care services and those that
remain desperately needed.
Broadening its role in
international understanding, the
association helped the United
Nations form the
Non-Governmental Organizations
sections in 1945, and continues
to hold consultative status
today. Each year, during the
Lions Day With The United
Nations ceremonies, an award is
presented to the grand prize
winner of the Lions
International Peace Poster
Contest.
Since those first years, the
association has grown to include
1.4 million men and women in
more than 43,000 clubs located
in approximately 180 countries
and geographical areas.
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