Lions' History Sept. 4 Topic

By Jim Romine

On Thursday, September 4, 65 members of the Sanford Lions Club met for their weekly meeting. The meeting was called to order by Vice President Richard Henley, and Program Chairman for the night Jimmy Bridges gave the blessing for the meal. After all were seated, Bob Nelson and Ish Riviera entertained the Lions with some jokes and commentary.

After the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Lindsay Jones, Lion Marvin Joyner gave an encouraging recap of the Marketing Committee efforts. An announcement was made regarding the Flea Market, being held every Saturday morning through September. Anyone wishing to rent booth space is encouraged to contact Lion Teresa Dew. Lion Preston Spence announced that he had been lucky enough to be appointed Chairman of the Camp Dogwood raffle ticket sales for this year. These tickets are sold to support the camp for the blind, and the winner receives a new automobile. Preston reminded everyone that last year’s winner was Don Dollar of the Sanford club.

Lion Glenn Stubbs announced that the Relay For Life event, held at the Lions Club Fairgrounds for the last two years, raised over $176,000 to fight cancer, and thanked the Lions for their support. District Governor David Martin announced the dates for the District 31 – F Convention, which will be Nov 14 and 15 at the Days Inn in Southern Pines. All Sanford Lions are encouraged to attend and support their homegrown District Governor!

The Program Chairman, Jimmy Bridges, introduced the speaker for the evening, who was Jimmy Bridges! His program was on the history of the Sanford Lions Club, and many of the events and traditions that have made the Sanford Lions Club one of the strongest and largest in North Carolina. Bridges was well qualified to lead this program and discussion, having joined the club in 1956, and being very involved in its activities through the last 52 years.

He related how new initiates used to be required to eat raw meat after a pep talk on the ingredients used for the meat’s dipping sauce. That pep talk sent some folks running, but it was all in good fun, as it was actually pretty tasty. He spoke about requiring new members to carry a miniature birdcage with a lion in it everywhere they went, and if caught without it, had their time with the cage extended. He spoke of summer meetings being held around the community at various churches, where the food was always excellent.

Bridges spoke of the history of the Lee County Fair, now the Lee Regional Fair. In the 1930’s it was more of a carnival, and held on Steele Street. It moved to its permanent home, the Lions Club Fairgrounds, in 1969. He spoke of the development of the Fairgrounds, with construction of the baseball field, the Exhibition Halls, the soccer fields, and the new Arena. The Fairgrounds are truly a valuable resource able to be used by many groups county wide because of the generosity of the Sanford Lions.

After Lion Bridges concluded by saying that he was proud to be a part of the Sanford Lions for the last half century, Vice President Henley thanked Lion Bridges for the program and concluded the meeting with all the Lion’s repeating our motto, “We Serve”.