Albany Lions Club – Continuing to make a difference in our community since 1942

Posted September 18, 2019 at 8:49 am


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The Albany Lions Club recently held its annual Pancake Breakfast at the Albany Elementary School Saturday morning and raised around $1,086.00 for the local chapter.

Tammie Conner, first grade teacher at AES, is the president of the local club.

She said the local chapter is a member of the national chapter called Lions Club International.

“The Lions Club is simply about showing kindness to one another, helping the community, targeting various things such as diabetes and vision,” Conner said. “We definitely target the vision part. Larger Lions Club who are a part of larger towns and are able to make more money, they sometimes travel and provide needs where hurricanes have hit.”

Other officers include, Kevin Marcum – Vice President, Mike Williams and Mindie Anderson – Secretaries, and Gary Little – Treasurer.

Certainly one of the oldest organizations in Albany and Clinton County, the Albany Lions Club original charter dates back to the World War II era, beginning here in 1942.

Conner said the local club hasn’t been able to do much traveling to help others, but has found a way to help those inside the borders of Clinton County.

“We have, with our pancake breakfast, been able to help adults buy glasses. People can go to Gary Little’s office and pick up an application. It’s a very simple application to fill out and return,” Conner said. “We will look at the application, discuss it, and vote on it depending on our funds available.”

During the year, the Albany Lions Club is responsible for a community project.

Last year, the Lions Club money was given to the AES, in which to purchase something the school is in desperate need for.

“In order to give back to the most people we could, we decided that we would give enough money to the Albany Elementary School to purchase six chromebooks,” Conner said. “That was huge. It took us a while to get to the point to where we were able to do that and we felt that would make the most impact. That will be in the hands of hundreds of little people and it will make a large impact on the teachers as well. We definitely have a lack of technology. We need more computers, we need more Chromebooks … we are desperate for those things.”

Conner said in the future, students will be required by the state to take standardized test via computer. With the lack of computers and Chromebooks at AES, the donation is well received.

“As a small town and community, sometimes the federal government doesn’t treat us quite as well as they should when it comes to funding,” Conner said.

“We have to put forth the extra effort,” Marcum added. “That’s one good thing about the Lions Club. It helps the community one way or another. Buying those Chromebooks was a big help and hopefully we are going to try and do it again.”

At any time the state can mandate a requirement that says every student has to perform their tests on a computer device. The state isn’t required to provide the necessary equipment to each of the schools.

“The Albany Elementary School has been good to us. They allow us to have our Pancake Breakfast here and we definitely appreciate the school, the school board for allowing us to continuing to do that,” Conner said. “We want to really give back to our community, but we want to make the biggest bang for that buck in order to benefit the most people.”

Conner said the Lions Club has been successful this year with a host of generous sponsors.

Those sponsors include; Dyer Drug, Haddix Funeral Home, Gary Little Attorney at Law, First & Farmers Bank, Monticello Banking Company, Clinton County Farm Bureau and Davis Insurance.

“For small community’s the small business get bombarded with fund raisers … we have never had any trouble,” Marcum said. “We have always had most of the supplies for the Pancake Breakfest donated. It’s amazing the support we have from our community partners.”

Believe it or not, the Lions Club hosting the Pancake Breakfast has been a staple for the Lions Club and has been its main source of fundraising for nearly 30 years.

“I didn’t understand, but had wondered about it,” Marcum said. “Back in the day, you could go in the side room at Dairy Queen and see the Lions Club banner in the corner. A few years later my boys were playing basketball and I saw the Lions Club folks were there.”

Marcum said pure curiosity is the main reason he got interested in the Lions Club and was determined to find out what its roll as an organization was.

“Ms. Tammie (Conner) invited me to come to a meeting and I was hooked,” Marcum said. “I’m all about kids anyways and that was a perfect storm for me.”

During the years, the Lions Club hasn’t just helped the children in the community, it has also helped many adults as well.

“We have helped purchase glasses for adults as well as children,” Conner said. “We accept eye glass donations. Those are sent into the Lions Club International and those are refurbished and distributed to the needy.”

Even though the Albany Lions Club is a member of a larger international organization, Conner said all the funds they raise with the Pancake Breakfast stays in Clinton County.

“It all stays in Clinton County and it is all spent in Clinton County,” Conner said. “I think that’s the most important thing of all because everyone who supports us, you are 100 percent supporting Clinton County.”

Conner said there are a lot of other organizations in the county whose funds go elsewhere.

“We are Clinton County and what we do stays in Clinton County,” Conner said.

“We are not the only group who is giving back to Clinton County by no stretch of the imagination, but that’s what we are about,” Marcum added.

As far as fundraising is concerned, the Pancake Breakfast is the primary fundraiser for the Lions Club, however, there are other things the club does throughout the year in order to help those in the county.

“We also provide eye screenings,” Marcum said. “There is a camera, if we can get it, takes a photo of the child’s eyes and it will tell the children if there are any issues with that child’s eyes or not.”

“That camera can detect if there is a vision problem,” Conner added. “It can even tell you what your prescription is and it can also tell you if there is any eye disease present.”

Conner said one of the club’s primary focuses is eye care and prevention of eye disease.

“This camera can do that,” Conner said. “If you have any kind of a problem it will automatically send a message to its printer. The printer then prints out a sheet and we give that sheet to the parents and they can take that sheet to their eye doctor. The eye doctor can then do a further exam. You would be surprised the people who have discovered there was something wrong.”

The vision screenings is a service provided by the Lions Club and is free of charge to the public.

Conner said they try to be apart of community events like the Clinton County Fair and the Foothills Festival in order to reach as many people in the county as they can.

For the remainder of the year, Conner said she is hopeful they can gain some new members.

“We need new members so we can get other people to help us and to get new ideas,” Conner said.

Members are required to pay annual dues, which are around $60 per year, but there is also a different rate for families as a whole.

As far as the Pancake Breakfast is concerned, it was deemed a success this year with around 218 people being fed for $5 each.

“It’s an enjoyable time,” Marcum said. “You get to see people you don’t normally see and I love doing the event.”

Little said the Lions Club is a service organization that is not business connected.

“We are also a Christian based organization,” Conner said. “We have prayer before our meetings and we have a good group of people who work with us and we are looking for more good people who would like to come on board and help us out.”

Marcum said the Lions Club doesn’t have one place they always meet, but they do pick a restaurant in town on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.

“We just try to spread the love,” Marcum said.

“We eat, we meet, we discus and vote on things,” Conner said. “We have a Lions Club page on Facebook and we post our meeting times and locations on there. We are a healthy, happy organization who wants to help take care of its community in a positive way.”