The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.

 We serve our local community and have plenty of fun doing it. Our members enjoy the camaraderie when we get together. That's why we have one of the largest Lions Clubs in Michigan with nearly 100 members.

Our club membership includes singles, married couples, young families and retirees. They not only reside in Lake Orion but all over Oakland County. We have different life and work experiences, different levels of volunteerism but all come together to better our community under our motto "We Serve."

You can find out who we are, what we do, and how we do it by attending one of our meetings or events or talking to our members.

Our meetings are held at 7:00 PM on the first and third Wednesday every month, except in July and August, at Johnny Black's Public House, 3575 S. Baldwin, Lake Orion. 

Members and guests can arrive prior to 7 PM to socialize and have dinner and/or beverages.  Food and beverages can continue to be consumed during the meetings. The meetings normally last an hour, and not more than two, depending on guest speakers.

There are numerous ways to support your Lake Orion Lions Club:  

• Become a member
• Become a sponsor
• Volunteer at events
• Attend Lion fundraisers 
• Donate to Lake Orion Lions Club
• Refer others you know to join
• Follow Lake Orion Lions on Facebook and like and share events with your friends
• Support our sponsors and charities
• Submit a testimony to us on how the Lion Club made a difference in your life or one of your family members.

The Lake Orion Lions club is in search of enthusiastic, energetic people who want to make a difference in our community. To become a member of the Lake Orion Lions Club you must be sponsored by a club member who is in good standing.  If you come in for a general informational meeting, not knowing any local members, there are many members willing to offer to sponsor you.

The membership process includes completing a short application, being interviewed for 5-10 minutes by the membership committee and then being approved by the club.

Upon approval and having attended a minimum of 2 meetings, or a meeting and event, you are eligible to be installed into the Lake Orion Lions Club.

The expectations once you become a member is to attend meetings or zoom into the meetings whenever possible and embrace our programs, assisting wherever possible, and to be ambassadors for our program by sharing your knowledge, experiences and ideas.

The membership dues for 2023/24 are set at $100 per year and runs from July 1 through June 30.

Membership dues are prorated depending on the month a new member is installed.  The breakdown is:

Lion Club International $46

MI Lions $11

11A2 $10

MI Mag $4.50

Lake Orion Lions $28.50

Membership benefits are numerous including meeting new people, networking, building new skills and the sense of satisfaction that comes from helping others.

New members have opportunities to learn about the club and how it serves the local community and our Lions projects. It includes the ability to attend the "Kick Off Dinners" for the charities we support at no cost to the member and partner in service in their first year of membership.  It includes:

• District 11-A2 Project Kidsight - Usually in September
• Penrickton Center for Blind Children-Usually in October
• Leader Dog for the Blind - Usually in December
• Lions Bear Lake Camp - Usually in February
• Beaumont Silent Children's Fund - Usually in May
• Madonna University Deaf and Hearing Program

Lake Orion Lions Club – 86 Years of Service

Beginning in June of 1938, meetings were held in the Lake Orion area to discuss and then form the Lake Orion Lions Club. The sponsoring club was the Pontiac Lions Club. On September 21, 1938, the charter from the International Association of Lions Clubs was presented to Albert Frank, the Club’s first President.
 

Other initial officers of the Club were:  Robert A Gehrig, Harry L Randall and Harry Hanson, Vice Presidents; H M Campbell, Secretary; Hoke Williams, Treasurer; Ernest R Crawford, Lion Tamer; Grover C Kelley, Tail Twister; William Russell Lepp, Russell W Porritt, Helmer G Stanback, and Clifford F Vennard, Directors. These men began the legacy of “We Serve”, which continues to direct the activities of the Lake Orion Lions Club. A major emphasis has always been to aid the blind and visually impaired, along with helping those in need in the community.
 

Looking back through records of past activities reveals a variety of Lions Club activities that were considered newsworthy. Those include the following:
 

August 25, 1944
Lake Orion Lions Club members are selling white pencils during the week of August 19 to 26.  Proceeds will be given to Leader Dogs to provide assistance for soldiers who have been blinded in service to their country.
 

January 1, 1953
The Goodfellows Newspaper Sale conducted by the Lake Orion Lions on December 13th raised $456.14. The money financed the filling of Christmas boxes and helped provide clothing for needy families. The Lions Club again hosted area children at the annual Christmas party at the State Theatre, and Santa Claus joined in by distributing 450 boxes of candy.
 

June 14, 1962
Members of the Lake Orion Lions Club sent an American flag and a Certificate of International Appreciation signed by all 48 members of the Club to 117 Lions Clubs all over the world. The Certificate read “The members of the Lake Orion, Michigan Lions Club extend their warmest greetings and sincere wishes to the members of ___________________ and present to them this flag of the United States of America as a token of our friendship and good faith in international understanding through Lionism.
 

March 17, 1982
The 120 members of the Lake Orion Lions Club received recognition as one of the Top Ten clubs from Lions Clubs International for its service project. Led by President Al Kassin, the Club provided free CPR training to over 1,700 people in the Orion area over a 5-year period.
 

1983
The Lake Orion Lions Club was again recognized by Lions Clubs International with a second Top Ten Award. This time the award was for the summer camp for blind youth. The kids spent two weeks at Franklin Settlement Camp at the end of August without charge to their families. These blind kids did all the things campers do – they went swimming, took nature hikes, and shot bow and arrows. Started by President Al Kassin, the camp was staffed with mostly volunteers. Supported from the outset by the Lake Orion Lions Club, Bear Lake Camp for blind and visually impaired youth has grown from a two-week camp to one that operates almost year-round with a full-time staff. The camp now has a permanent home on Bear Lake north of Lapeer.
 

Now Every Christmas
Providing baskets with food for families and gifts for children continues as a community project in the Orion area each Christmas season. Annually about 250 households receive these baskets.

The History of Lionism

A Chicago businessman named Melvin Jones wanted to expand the horizons of local business clubs from pure business to concerns for the community and the world.

His idea was shared by fellow members of his group, the Business Circle of Chicago, and was explored with similar organizations from around the United States of America. At an organizational meeting held at a local hotel on June 7, 1917. The "Association of Lions Clubs" was voted into existence. A national convention was then called in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. in October 1917.

At the national convention, 36 delegates representing 22 business clubs from 9 States approved the "Lions Clubs" designation. Dr. William P. Woods of Indiana, USA became the first President. The guiding force and founder, Melvin Jones, became the Secretary. The first convention also began to define what Lionism was to become.

Community leaders soon began to organize Clubs throughout USA. The Association became "international" with the formation of a Club in 1920 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Clubs were then formed in other countries such as Mexico, Cuba, Panama, Columbia, Sweden, Switzerland, and France. By 1952, the first Club in Japan was chartered. Since then, the Association has become fully global.

In 1925, Helen Keller addressed the Lions international convention in Cedar Point, Ohio, USA. She challenged Lions to become "knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness." From this time, Lions clubs have been actively involved in service to the blind and visually impaired.

As of 2018, Lions Clubs International has over 1.4 million members in 46,000 clubs in over 207 Countries and geographical areas of our world.

Objectives of Lionism

To create and foster a spirit of understanding among the peoples of the world.

To promote the principles of good government and good citizenship.

To take an active interest in the civic, cultural, social and moral welfare of the community.

To unite the clubs in the bonds of friendship, good fellowship and mutual understanding.

To provide a forum for the open discussion of all matters of public interest; provided, however, that partisan and sectarian religion shall not be debated by club members.

To encourage service-minded men to serve their community without personal financial reward, and to encourage efficiency and promote high ethical standards in commerce, industry, professions, public works and private endeavors. 

To show my faith in the worthiness of my vocation by industrious application to the end that I may merit a reputation for quality of service.

To seek success and to demand all fair remuneration or profit as my just due, but to accept no profit or success at the price of my own self respect lost because of unfair advantage taken or because of questionable acts on my part.

To remember that in building up my business it is not necessary to tear down anothers; to be loyal to my clients or customers and true to myself.

Whenever a doubt arises to the right or ethics of my position or action towards my fellow men, to resolve such doubt against myself.

To hold friendship as an end and not a means. To hold that true friendship exists not on account of the service performed by one to another, but that true friendship demands nothing but accepts service in the spirit in which it is given.

Always to bear in mind my obligations as a citizen to my nation, my state and my community, and to give to them my unswerving loyalty in word, act and deed. To give them freely of my time, labor and means.

To aid my fellow men by giving my sympathy to those in distress, my aid to the weak, and my substance to the needy.

To be careful with my criticisms and liberal with my praise; to build up and not destroy.