Lions Clubs are volunteer service oriented clubs that are committed to serving their local community and to the eradication of preventable blindness in our world.

WHO ARE WE?

The Russellville Lions Club was charted by Lions Club International on February 15, 1923.  It has proudly served the Russellville, Arkansas community for the past 86 years.  Currently the membership consists of 65 male and female individuals coming from a variety of occupations.  The current members represent the legal professionals (attorneys, judges, etc.), bankers, physicians, educators, technicians, small business owners and retired individuals.  Some of the members also serve as elected representatives of the people in the community as they serve as board members, on the local Chamber of Commerce, and other community organizations.  One commonality among all of the current members is a desire to serve our community and help preserve sight and hearing in the residents of this Arkansas River Valley region of the state.

Several of our members hold district offices in the Arkansas Lions Club, the state organization.  Three of our current members have served as District Governors.  The current Governor of District 7-I, of which our club is a member, is one of our members, Lion Earl Sears.  Other members of our club currently serve as district officers.


WHAT DO WE DO?
On an International level the Russellville Lions Club supports projects such as:
  • Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF)
  • Sight First and Sight First II (highly successful worldwide projects to eradicate preventable blindness in third world countries throughout the world.
  • International Youth Exchange Program (allowing students sponsored by local Lions Club to spend up to 6 weeks as the guest of a Lions Club in another country.  The Russellville Club has hosted students from Peru, Japan and Sweden in the past.

On a state level, the Russellville Lions Club supports projects such as:

  • Lions World Services for the Blind (LWSB: this organization in Little Rock, AR houses people from all over the world that have become blind and prepares them to return home to live a normal life and to gain marketable jobs skills in spite of their situation in a sightless environment.)
  • Mid-South Sight and Hearing Center in Memphis, TN (Mid-South provides medical care to people with sight or hearing disabilities without charge.  Surgeries, implants, etc. are provided to individuals that may otherwise never been able to afford this level of service.)
  • Lions of Arkansas Foundation (LOAF; this organization has provided emergency funds to different areas of the state following natural disasters)
  • Arkansas Lions Eye Bank & Laboratory

On a district level, the Russellville Lions Club supports the Diabetes Awareness and Treatment Center.

Locally, the Russellville Lions Club:

  •  Provides a scholarship to a deserving student at Arkansas Tech University;

  • Finances a trip for one girl and one boy to attend and take part in Girls State and Boys State Activities in the Little Rock;

  • Collects used eye glasses for recycling to individuals in third world countries;

  • Conducts a road side clean-up (a 2 mile stretch of roadway adjacent to Lake Dardanelle State Park) in Russellville;

  • Builds and gives away 50 new wooden bookcases each with a starter set of age appropriate books to children ages 4-5 through our  Building Young Readers in Russellville project.  This is to help jump start the enjoyment of reading by the youth in our community.

  • Screens pre-school children for sight problems in all child care facilities in the area; (Annually more than 6,000 children are screened each year.)  To date there has been a referral rate of about 19%.  This means that 19% of the children's parents/guardians are notified that their children need to be seen by an eye doctor for further examination.  By detecting problems early in children's' eyes, those problems can receive treatment or glasses can be prescribed and the child will not fall behind in their education as they enter school the following year.

HOW DO WE RAISE FUNDS TO SUPPORT ALL OF THESE PROGRAMS?
The Russellville Lions Clubs conducts fund raising projects throughout the year.  A small sample of the projects we have conducted include:

  • Annual Radio Auction
  •  Golf Tournament
  • Traditional Broom Sale
  • Raffle at the Pope County Fair