Andy Remington, Greg Hoffman, Sue Quitno, Leslie Bartlett and Wayne Reinert stand in front of the Lions Club banner a few years ago showing the service patches for all the years of service the club has provided Nevada.

Awhile back I wrote of my affiliation with the Freemasons and I thought I'd do the same for the other local service club I belong to, the Lions.

The Nevada Lions Club was organized on February 20, 1924, less than seven years after the founding of the original club in Chicago on June 7, 1917 and is one of the oldest Lions clubs in the United States.

At a speech given by Helen Keller at the Lions International Convention held at Cedar Point, Ohio, in 1925 she challenged the Lions to become "Knights of the Blind," a challenge that has become a rallying cry for Lions projects around the world. Lions collect used eyeglasses for distribution in third world countries as well as locally purchasing new glasses for needy children and adults. The Lions maintain an eye tissue bank for corneal transplants, and a leader dog program for the blind. The Mid South Lions Eye Research Foundation performs diagnostic and surgical procedures free of charge to needy children and adults.

The original Nevada club had a diverse group of men with backgrounds in education, banking, and retail markets predominating. The current group of people in the Nevada club also have varied backgrounds.

The International Lions' Clubs motto is "We Serve" and there are a lot of people in our local club who epitomize that saying. I sometimes feel like Groucho Marx, I don't want to belong to any club that would have me as a member. I am awed by the other members of the club and their dedication to helping others and I feel like a midget among giants.

One such giant is Greg Hoffman. Greg is involved in many organizations and bends his intellect and effort to making all of them better. If Nevada is a better place to live now than it used to be a lot of the thanks goes to Greg.

Another giant is Leslie Bartlett. Leslie seems to have an inexhaustible supply of creative energy and expends it in prodigious amounts on the projects she works on. She also frequently heads off to exotic locales to teach others or to learn some obscure skill or other that she manages to interest others in.

Wayne Reinert is another example of a multi-talented individual who donates his time to multiple groups making things better for others. Thanks to Wayne a lot of projects get excellent help with the financial affairs.

I could go on, there are a lot of good people in our local club and they all deserve the community's thanks for their service work. Dr. Ron Schowengerdt, Pastor Bill Platt, Realtor Monte Curtis and many others all deserve mention. However I would just simply say look at our membership list, if there is a name on there you can bet they are an asset to the community.

Like the Marines, we're always looking for a few good men, or women and if you would like to associate with some of the best people in Nevada come on by and see about joining us. We could always use another helper and you will find yourself having fun while doing it. The Nevada Lions Club meets at the Moore-Few Community Room each Tuesday at noon.