Youngstown Lions achieve 2024 'Summer of Service'

Press Release

Actively living out their motto, "We Serve," the Youngstown Lions Club invested a multitude of days and volunteer service hours in its 2024 “Summer of Service" initiative to help Western New York neighbors in nearby Youngstown-Porter-Ransomville communities.

In addition to service activities, Youngstown Lions also frequently raise funds to enable the club to make needed annual donations to over 40 area organizations and individual causes.

Key examples of 2024 summer activities have included, but were not limited to, the following:

•Sponsorship of the Youngstown Falkner Park summer concert series/MacKenzie Highlanders Pipes & Drums, along with distribution of free popcorn to all in attendance.

•New officer and board of directors' installation, with outgoing president Lois Kaminski handing over the gavel to incoming president Stu Comerford.

•Cooking and serving hundreds of clams and freshly shucked corn to raise funds for the annual Beatty Niagara Hospice Clambake at the Youngstown Yacht Club.

•White Cane Day fundraiser at Old Fort Niagara in recognition of one of Lions International's global causes – for the sight-impaired – as encouraged by disability activist Helen Keller.

•Youngstown Summer Street Dance booth, free popcorn helped by Scout Troop 829, along with free diabetic testing by the Lions Club diabetic coordinator, providing community health screening as another of Lions International's global causes.

•Staffing a major station at Fort Niagara State Park for hundreds of bikers at the Bikers Unite for Mercy Flight annual dice run fundraiser, assisted by Scout Troop 829.

•Cooking grilled food items at the annual Strawberry Festival in Youngstown at St. John Episcopal Church to help raise funds for needy community projects. 

•Working at the free pop-up eye clinic in Niagara Falls, along with Lions from other area clubs, where people received free eye exams by optometrists, plus frames and prescription glasses at no cost.

•Marching in Youngstown’s Labor Day Parade, plus planting of new trees in Lions Park.

•Formal appreciation to sponsored Scout Troop 829, with presentation of Lions International patches to each Scout for hours of service on multiple Youngstown Lions Club projects throughout the year.

Now in its 76th year, the Youngstown Lions Club strives to model the goals and global causes of Lions International, serving with kindness, putting the needs of neighbors, communities and the world first. Lions Club International is made up of 1.4 million members in 49,000 clubs who bring hands and hearts to the communities they serve in nearly every country on earth.

Anyone interested in learning more about the Youngstown Lions Club may contact Lion Suzanne DeJoseph at 716-807-8875.