Butler Lions Club celebrates 100 year history of giving
The Lions Club motto is “We Serve,” and the Butler chapter celebrated 100 years of putting that credo into action Saturday night, June 24, at Tanglewood Center in Butler.
Club members showed up in their best Hawaiian shirts for the luau-themed celebration, which was teeming with history and fun.
Displays of the club’s accomplishments, food, and entertainment filled the space, as many members reflected on the organization’s mission.
According to Barry Flecken, the Lions International organization started in 1917. The Butler chapter was formed in 1923 after being sponsored by the New Castle club.
He added that ‘Lions’ stands for “liberty, intelligence, our nation’s safety.”
“The Lions will help any worthy cause,” Flecken said. “We focus on vision health, diabetes, food insecurity, pediatric cancer and the environment.”
Those initiatives are best reflected in the club’s accomplishments: starting the Butler High School band in the 1920s, the Butler Blind Association in the 1950s, and contributing to the creation of the Jean B. Purvis Community Health Center, to name a few.
The club continues its initiatives by helping serve food at Katie’s Kitchen in the city, offering eye exams and donating eyeglasses by the thousands, and operating an adopt-a-highway pickup crew.
Dick Schwab, who has been a Lion since 1968, said he joined the club for camaraderie with his coworkers.
He most enjoys being able to serve the unfortunate, specifically with initiatives through the Blind Association.
“Helen Keller admonished us to do that, to help people with eyesight maladies,” he said.
Rhonda Pilarcik said she joined the club nearly five years ago because of its community reach.
“It’s about serving the community and filling that void with philanthropy and service time or giving money,” she said. “It’s easy to give money, it’s harder to give time, and these people give time and talents.”
The Lions Club’s current projects include starting a LEO club, or young adult Lions Club, at Moniteau Junior/Senior High School, as well as donating to the school district to create a greenhouse classroom facility.
Produce from the greenhouse will contribute to local food banks, Flecken said.
Helping those with food insecurity is one reason Jeffrey Loudermilk, former district governor for the Lions Club, said he enjoys being a Lion.
He said a district governor oversees 36 clubs. Butler county is included in a district comprised of Armstrong, Beaver, Clarion and Lawrence counties.
He told a story of helping a LEO club in Beaver run a Thanksgiving food initiative, passing out materials for holiday dinners to families.
“When they’d pull up, we’d put the boxes in their cars and they’d say, ‘Thank you. Nobody’s ever done something like this for us..’ When you see their faces, that’s why you’re a Lion. And you want to do it again and again,” he said.
John Hertzog, president of the Butler Lions Club, said the club’s 68 members put all they have into the causes they support.
“My dad always said, ‘If you make it your business and take ownership of that, good things are going to come.’ These people have done that .. .just get up and go do it, we have to take care of each other,” he said.
