Riverside Lions Club Monthly Update

The Riverside Lions Club had a busy past few weeks hosting events, providing support, and earning awards.

The month of February started the Lions Club off with the Math 24 competition. The Riverside club spearheads this event and is supported by all the Lions clubs in Beaver County and Pizza Joes. This year’s event was held at the New Brighton High School, with approximately 150 students participating.

Math 24 is a card game played by 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students designed to test their skills with math puzzles. There is a competition at each school in the valley and the top four students from each grade move on and are pitted against the other school’s best. The top 80 finishers receive a certificate, and the top twenty finishers from them receive gifts furnished by the Lions and Pizza Joes. Among this year the gifts were an insulated cooler and a 5’ X 6’ blanket with the Math 24 logo, Pizza Joes also supplied prizes and a $10 gift certificate.

Pictured are PDG Chip Campbell and Cara Atkinson

The club was thrilled to host Cara Atkinson, Founder and driving force behind Club Hope Foundation at one of the club’s meetings, where a donation was made in Mike Milnes’ name. Mike was a member of our club who recently passed from cancer and had an association with Club Hope. Cara gave a brief history of the start of the club, after her cancer diagnosis. It initially started in the Ellwood City School system and has had tremendous expansion from a tiny thought in Ellwood. The club promotes HOPE in the face of a cancer diagnosis. for not only the cancer patient, but for the family and support group. There are so many success stories to give you Hope.

Members of our club participated in a District event Held at the Butler Blind Association. Along with about 45 members from throughout the district we assembled the equitant of 6000 servings of dry soup, which was distributed to community food banks. We had the opportunity to bring some back and gave it to Divine Grace Ministerium Food Bank.

Some club members also attended a workshop on the use of the SPOT camera. This is a camera that can diagnose six different problems not picked up by the conventional Visual Accuity test required by state law. It can detect flaws in eyes from six months to one hundred years old, in a matter of seconds and a distance of 3 feet, so there is no need to intrude on your personal space. As with any medical problem the sooner the problem is detected the better chance of correcting it. That’s why we encourage Pre-school children to participate in this program. The seminar was hosted by Past District Governor Gaylene Toland from the Apollo Lions. This service is offered free of charge to any group requesting a screening. If you’d be interested in having a group screening, please contact PDG Chip Campbell of the Riverside Lions at 724-944-1869. Pictured is PDG Gaylene Toland the instructor of the seminar.

Once again the Lions Club had the opportunity to help our neighbors. Our Lions responded to the flood emergency in the Riverside area, not once but twice. particularly in the Pullman Station area where, with the help of the Rochester/Beaver Lions, we were able to order and locate a 30 yard roll off dumpster to help get rid of the initial loss. We also provided 20 – 5 gallon buckets of cleaning supplies to the affected home owners, along with Mosquito repellent. Club members also collected truckloads of destroyed materials from McKim Way and Country Club Drive and transported them to the hopper. I would like to thank the Ellwood Rotary for stepping up to help in this emergency also.

We hosted two members of the Beaver County Humane Society. Nicole Miller and Alison Yazer, executive Director. Alison gave a talk about the capacity of the shelter and the excitement shared with the purchase of a building across the street where they located, they are in the midst of establishing a Dental clinic staffed by two Veterinarians, to serve the community better. Unfortunately, too late for my dog Ralph, cute as a whip, but ugly teeth. These are exciting times for the Humane Society.

And last but not least Lynn Campbell, Secretary of the club received a Melvin Jones Fellowship at the recent District 14 N Convention held at Shakespeare’s. This is the highest award that can be given by a club or District to a member for outstanding service. Lion Lynn has been a Lion for 13 years and has served as club Secretary for the last three. She also is on the SPOT Camera committee, Math 24 Secertary and is responsible, along with Joan Bowser for the Basket fundraiser and 50/50 drawings at all District events. The Convention was attended by approximately 150 Lions and guests. It was hosted by District Governor Maria Loudermilk of the Riverside/Hopewell Branch Club. Maria is the third DG from the Riverside/Hopewell Club in the last four years.

If your heart is into giving and you’re looking for a direction to funnel that giving spirit, most any service organization will welcome the interest, please contact PDG Chip Campbell at 724-944-1869.