"Roscoe Lions Club Making a Comeback"

Your Humble, Faithful Blogster has a feature article in the Mon Valley section of today's Tribune-Review. It is not, however, on the newspaper's website. Here is the text as I had submitted it.

After nearing extinction, the Roscoe Lions Club is making a carefully cultivated comeback.

Chartered May 8, 1944, the club maintained a membership of around 30 Lions through the 1970s. By this year, though, their number had fallen to only seven.

“One of the biggest changes over the years,” explained Dick Webb, treasurer and a Lion since 1960, “is the diminishing population around here. That makes it harder to find new, younger members.”

Low membership put the Roscoe club’s charter at risk. President Bob Horan, a Lion since 1975, noted, “They let us know that if we didn’t have a least ten members, we would be put on stand-by status.”

Fellow Lions decided they couldn’t let that happen. Joe Palli, a member of the Fayette City-Washington Township Lions Club, is also the region chairperson with responsibility for 9 clubs extending from the Mon Valley area to the Canonsburg vicinity.

“My job,” he explained, “is to make sure each club is functioning as they should. And, in cases like Roscoe where it’s been falling off, to help them build up again.”

The challenge seemed formidable. “Sometimes I’ve felt like we’re banging our head against the wall,” Palli remarked. “People don’t even know we exist. ‘There’s no Lions Club in Roscoe,’ they say.”

So, the Roscoe Lions decided to adapt a strategy that Palli’s own club has been using. “Our club has been sending out a mass mailing for years, asking for donations. We get a list of names and addresses from the water authority for all the water meters.”

The Municipal Authority of Washington Township also covers the area of the Roscoe Lions Club, so that club could get a similar list from the same authority.

Palli said, “We went through the list, and picked out who we thought would make good Lions members. But,” he hastened to add, “I’m sure we missed a lot of people.”

Sixty or 70 letters went out in two batches this spring, to residents of Allenport, Elco, Roscoe, and Stockdale, inviting the recipients to consider joining the Roscoe Lions Club and to attend a meeting in the near future.

Lions Clubs International has 1.4 millions members in more than 46,000 clubs in 194 countries. Ed Gursky is district governor of District 14-M comprising Fayette, Greene, Somerset, and Washington counties. He summed up the Lions’ purpose.

“We serve. We’re there for anyone in need. Our specialty is sight, but we have many programs, including for diabetics and for youth. If someone is in need, we’re there to help.”

Helen Keller had addressed the Lions’ 1925 international convention, challenging them to become “Knights of the Blind,” thus leading to their primary focus on programs to help blind and sight-impaired individuals and for blindness prevention.

District 14-M has about 1,450 Lions in 50 clubs; it also has about 175 Lionesses in 10 clubs, and a number of Leos, fluctuating from school year to school year, in 14 high-school clubs.

“Roscoe is definitely one of our smaller clubs,” Gursky affirmed. “Some have 70 or 80 members. But some others are at the point now where they need a little spark, too. But clubs are like human beings: they have their ups and downs.”

Gursky and the immediate past district governor, Jack Bauer, have been keenly interested in the Roscoe club’s renewal.

“Roscoe has around 10 members – the bare minimum,” Gursky said. “But they’re rejuvenating. We’re very proud of the work they’re doing.”

About ten years ago, the Roscoe Lions provided funding for an eye operation and a prosthetic eye for a local woman. Mostly, though, their work has been to pay for eye exams and glasses. Just this year, Penny Gilmer of Allenport was the recipient of their help.

“I had had some help from them quite a few years ago, too,” she remembered. “I called the Red Cross and Catholic Charities. They routed me to the Lions. I greatly appreciate their help, because we don’t have any insurance to cover things like that.”

Roscoe’s canvassing netted two new Lions: Art Balieu and George Safin, both of Allenport, who were formally inducted into membership by District Governor Gursky at a recent meeting after a break for the summer.

For decades, the Roscoe Lions had met in church basements in town, alternating between the Presbyterian church and the Methodist church. More recently, they were conducting joint meetings with the Fallowfield Township Lions Club. When Roscoe decided they had to focus on recruitment efforts, however, Palli suggested they start to meet on their own again. Lorraine’s in Speers is now the place for their bi-weekly meetings, at 6:30 p.m. on first and third Tuesdays.

While the ceiling fan turned slowly overhead, the Lions gathered at two tables placed together in their usual corner. The conversation frequently turned into the gentle ribbing that accompanies discussion among old friends. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance: all seated at the Lions’ tables stood and turned to the little flag tucked into a fixture on the wall.

“We put that up there last year,” Palli mentioned, “and it’s still right were we put it.”

After the pledge, the Lions made their traditional toast: “Not above you, not beneath you, but with you.”

After the meal, a brief, informal business meeting ensued. Finally, the two new Lions were inducted. Gursky challenged them to merit the Proud Lion Award, by attending certain meetings and engaging in certain activities over the next year, and he challenged their sponsors to merit the Proud Sponsor Award by helping along the new Lions.

Balieu had attended his first meeting, Apr. 5. “I had a letter in the mail. And Bob Horan and I have been good friends for a long time. Well, he’s actually what got me to go.”

What appealed to him about the Lions? “It’s an organization that helps people. I’ve been in the union for 40 years, and it’s there to help people. This is a lot the same.”

For fund raising, the Lions conduct their familiar White Cane Days – for a donation, givers get a little white cane to pin on their clothing – and the sale of their famous brooms. Balieu participated in the Roscoe Lions’ White Cane Day and Broom Sale at the post offices in Roscoe and Stockdale in July.

“I sold brooms in Stockdale. We had brooms and white canes. I had to call for more brooms, in fact, because we ran out.”

According to Horan, the Roscoe Lions are considering a mass-mailing appeal for donations next month, and perhaps holding another White Cane Day, too, since October has traditionally been the month for that event.

In the meantime, Palli is confident about the future of the Roscoe Lions’ Club: “I think they’re going to make it.”

For more information, call Roscoe Lions’ President Bob Horan at 724-326-8805.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 09/18/05 02:05:25 PM
Categorized as E.L. Core @ The Tribune-Review.