by Bea Peterson
On Thursday evening, December 17, Lions Club International District Governor Edward Stano, Jr. installed two new members in the Town of Hoosick Lions Club. New member Kevin Miller was sponsored by Hoosick Lions Club President Peter Church. Glen Swalm was sponsored by Hoosick member Jack Smith. Swalm, new to the Hoosick area, had been a Lion in the past and was pleased to be a member again.
The installation took place as part of the Club’s Christmas banquet at the Falls Diner. Members brought a heap of children’s gifts to be distributed at the North Hoosick Fire Department’s annual pre-Christmas Bazaar. NHFD and Lions member Ric Ferrannini said the event has grown larger every year. This year the Bazaar was December 19. Parents are welcome and given an opportunity to pick out toys for their children at no charge.
After the installation, Governor Edward Stano told the men and women attending the banquet that Lions Club International, founded in 1917, is the largest service organization in the world with 1.1 million members in 200 countries. In the early years, he said, the organization was challenged by Helen Keller to work to prevent blindness. That has been a major focus for the organization ever since.
Stano would like to see all Clubs have a Diabetes Chairman. “The leading cause of blindness today is diabetes,” he said. Lions Club offers an education curriculum and guidelines for setting up programs in schools and in communities to help prevent this disease.
A special New York State Lions Club project that has changed many lives, he said, is the Empire State Special Needs Experience, Inc. (formerly the Empire State Speech and Hearing Clinic). Established by Lions in 1939, it is a non-profit special education summer school/camp on a lake in a beautiful woodland area.
Stano said that while membership in China and eastern countries is increasing, membership in the U.S. is declining. He urged local members to encourage women to join the Lions Club. He suggested they invest in family memberships. “There are more needs in the community, and we need more members to meet those needs,” he said, concluding, “it is important for Clubs to welcome new members and to keep the members they have.