Syracuse Host Lions Club promises the ‘party of parties’ at their 100th anniversary celebration

President of the Syracuse Host Lions Club, Douglas Russell, promises a “party of parties of the century” as the local service organization celebrates their 100th anniversary on Saturday night.
After losing their original venue after the abrupt sale of the Crowne Plaza hotel, their “wonderful, wonderful event” will take place at the event space at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo starting at 6 p.m.
Russell says that there will be a 17-piece dance band, appetizers, a choice of dinners, and guest speakers Jim and Juli Boeheim.
The celebration of Syracuse’s Lions Club is a well-deserved one.
The organization, Russell believes, is one of the oldest Lions Clubs in the United States, a group which could be counted on by this community and beyond.
“Our motto is wherever there is a need, there is a Lion,” Russell said.
Russell, who joined the Syracuse Lions in 1978 and has been president several times since 1983, came up with his own acronym for the organization. Lions, he said, are “Loving Individuals Offering Needed Services.”
It is a sentiment which echoes from the organization’s origins 100 years ago.
“Partisanship or sectarianism does not enter into the organization,” Professor Charles Gibson, then principal of Syracuse’s Franklin School, said at a luncheon on April 18, 1924. “The society works for those measures which will benefit the city, community, and home.”
There were 24 original members, 130 when Russell joined in 1978, and is down to 22 currently.
(Russell remembers his first meeting after his induction. Held at the Hotel Syracuse, he administered CPR to a man who had suffered a heart attack in a hallway on his way and was late. He was fined. They were a “tough group.”)
The Syracuse Lions Club’s “primary activity,” according to their website, has been assisting the blind and hearing impaired of the area.
“There is not a child that goes without a pair of eyeglasses in Syracuse if they need them,” Russell said.
He has “hundreds of pairs of eyeglasses” which people have donated in his garage. Some will go to their “sister clubs” in Medellin, Colombia and in Panama. The organization hopes to expand their missionary work to Puerto Rico in 2025.
In 1935, the Lions of Syracuse promoted the Seeing Eye Dog Program and encouraged the New York State Legislature to exempt the dogs from state license fees. They urged the passing of the “White Cane Law,” which asked drivers to “afford special consideration to handicapped individuals especially when these persons are observed at crosswalks and elsewhere.”
They helped to organize and sponsor the Central New York Eye Bank in 1955.
The group provided $6,000 for the construction of the Health Lodge at Camp Woodland in Constantia for the Boy Scouts in 1957. Members volunteered their time to help build it.
“Boy Scout executives rate this fully equipped health lodge one of the finest in the northeastern United States,” The Post-Standard reported. “They have come from all over New York State – and other states – to ask questions as to how they might duplicate such facilities in their own areas.”
For decades, they have purchased camera equipment which screen for eye issues.
In 1976, they teamed with the CNY Association of the Hearing Impaired which provided counseling services, sign language instruction, teletypewriter communications, and advocacy services to the deaf, hearing-impaired individuals, and their families.
The Syracuse Host Lions Club list of contributions to its community is too long to list fully but includes contributing to the United Way, Junior Achievement, the Cancer Fund, the International Student Exchange Program, the Central New York Association for the Hearing Impaired, the Ronald McDonald House, the American Diabetes Association, and camperships for inner-city children in Syracuse.
They purchased a lion for the city’s zoo in 1932, sponsored the Syracuse’s annual Soap Box Derby, a “Beep” baseball team, who played with a special ball that beeps for blind players to react to.
In recent years we have also been supportive of Blind Bowlers, Aurora, the Central New York Eye and Tissue Bank, Lions Club Camp Hickory, Lions Camp Badger, Freedom Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the Golisano Children’s Hospital.
“We have done a lot up there,” Russell said.
Russell added that the Lions are among “the first on the scene” whenever there is a natural disaster.
He said that membership to the Lions is by “invitation-only,” but makes it clear that is an old policy.
“If you are interested,” he said, “Bingo, you can become a Lion.”
“We look for people with big hearts,” Russell added.
If you are interested in attending the group’s 100th anniversary dinner, you still have a chance.
Russell says they have 10 spots left. Tickets are $55 per person.
If you call through Wednesday, Oct. 23, you can claim a seat.
Call Russell at (315) 952-2136, email him at [email protected], or click here.