GRAVETTE -- The Gravette Lions Club recently completed its second year as a local service club and has made great strides since it was chartered on June 30, 2013.
The main focus of the Lions Club still remains its efforts to provide free eye tests for children and to secure eyeglasses and treatment for persons needing them. Members of the club will be assisting with eye tests at Glenn Duffy Elementary School on Oct. 7 and 8, beginning at 9 a.m. The club collects eyeglasses for recycling, and receptacles where they may be donated are located at Austin Drug, Teasley Drug, Arvest Bank, Bank of Gravett, Care and Share, Roberts-Philpott Eye Associates, Subway, the In Zone and the Gravette Public Library. One hundred and seventy-four pairs of eyeglasses were sent to the Lions recycling center in Texas this spring.
The big project for the Gravette Lions Club this year was the welcome mural on the south edge of town. The mural, painted by art students at Gravette High School, was completed in the spring and installed in late June on the front wall at the Mid-Continent Concrete plant. Dedication of the mural was held July 4, with art teacher Mollie Hendrick cutting the ribbon and the Gravette mayor and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce in attendance.
Other projects in which local Lions have been involved were handing out candy canes to children who came to Kindley Park after the Christmas parade, helping provide gift bags for participants in the third annual Great Lego Build-off at Imagine Before and After School Care and sponsorship of a Little League baseball team. They made a $100 contribution to the Missouri 340 race fundraiser for the library building fund. They will join with an existing program to help provide warm coats for kids this fall and will be working in the concession stand at the Gravette High School football game Sept. 25.
Gravette Lions Club lost a valued member when Lucia Greer died last year. She was honored at the state Lion convention in Searcy April 18, and the local club held a memorial service for her April 27 and presented her family with a small blown-glass rose.
Good communication between members has become a priority, with emails to members before and after each meeting and a bimonthly newsletter instituted by vice-president Jeff Davis. Davis also designed and printed personalized membership brochures and inquiry cards for the local club. The club's newsletters are posted on its website, www.e-clubhouse.org/site/gravette/index.php.
The club has several fundraisers helping finance its projects. Members sold smoked chicken dinners, with chicken, baked beans and chips, at the "First Saturday" event in June and again on Gravette Day, August 8. Club members plan to sell smoked turkey legs at the library's Renaissance fair Nov. 7. Receptacles are located in several businesses in town to collect pennies for the club. It is trying to accumulate a "Mile of Pennies." A mile of pennies would be $844.80. Members will hold a white cane fund drive Oct. 17 and sell nuts and candy during the fall.
Vice-president Davis recently stepped up to become president when Ron Theis gave up the office due to other commitments. Susan Holland was elected vice-president. Tina Crose is secretary-treasurer and Bill Mattler is Lion tamer. They were installed at the Sept. 1 meeting.
Four new members were inducted this spring but more are always needed. New members are being actively sought and anyone interested is invited to contact a current Lion or simply show up at a meeting. Meetings are held at 12 noon the first and third Tuesdays of each month at the In Zone restaurant on Highway 59, just north of Main Street.
Community on 09/02/2015