Riverside Lions Club Community Updates

The Riverside Lions Club continues its community support through various programs and donations. The club offers a series of updates below spotlighting their recent efforts:

To start things off the club made a donation to the Ellwood City Library Used Book Sale in the form of gift certificates to be given to any teacher asking for them. The club passed out 80 certificates for the sale. This is the third year we’ve supported the book drive. Increasing the certificate amount each year. The sale is a great opportunity to catch up on you reading for a very reasonable price.

The club also signed up for the North Sewickley Trunk or Treat, candy was bought and assembled and BOOM it was called off due to inclement weather. We then had 300 bags of 4 pieces of candy to get rid of. It was a terrible temptation having them set around till we could distribute them. We donated some to the local nursing homes when Santa along with his number one Elf, Kendra Gagliano visited them at Christmas giving the candy along with a gift bag containing a fruit cup, string cheese, crackers, and Kleenex. Along with fresh fruit given to the staff to distribute. Santa distributed gift bags to three nursing homes in the area, including Trinty Oaks whose staff is pictured with Santa and #1 Elf Kendra Gagliano.

We hosted our annual Night at the Races at the Ellwood City Moose Lodge in mid-November. The crowed was cozy but exuberant. Before starting the Races we got to celebrate the two remaining members of the original Riverside Lions Club, who at the time was named the Northeastern Lions. the Northeastern Lions were established in Feb of 1962 and became the Riverside Lions in the early 80’s. The two remaining members are Mike Kuglics, who was the Club Secretary for 42 years and Jim Hinkle who is a past president of the club and chaired the annual Chicken and Biscuit Dinners and has always been a active member. A shadow box was presented with memorabilia from the Northeastern Lions. It includes a Vest and Hat with the Northeastern name on them, Lions pins from the era and their original name tags. PDG Chip Campbell thanked Jim for helping in being the foundation for our club and without his and all the other members of the Northeastern Club there would be no Riverside Lions.

The club also held our annual Christmas ticket sale. We had a red and green ticket; by selling two separate tickets we were able to spread the winners around. We’d like to thank everyone who helped with this fundraiser.

The picture indicates what your house can look like when you are the recipient of approximately 1200 toys to help distribute. We divided the toys between six schools and two food banks. The toys come through the Project Homefront. We’ve been very honored to be the recipient of these for the last few years.

Some members participated in our fourth District wide food packing event held at the Butler Blind Association. This year the event was attended by 60 Lions and, fortunately, the three television news stations in the area. We packed the equivalent of 10,200 dry meals. The meals and were loaded assembly line style into bags each containing 6 meals. The meals were Spaghetti and sauce, Beans and Rice and Macaroni and Cheese. All that needs done is to add water. The clubs that participated were given the opportunity to bring meals home to distribute in their area. Ours were donated to Meals on Wheels, Divine Grace Social Services and Christ Presbyterian Church for their free dinners.

We’ve also donated money and food and clothes to Divine Grace. Helped purchase a hearing aid for a local resident.

We would like to thank everyone who supported us this year and ask for your continued support. If interested in joining the Lions please contact PDG Chip Campbell at 724-944-1869 or chipc@zoominternet.net