CHRISTMAS PARTY – 2021

Tuesday night, December 14, 2021, was our Madison Lions Club Christmas Party at St. Columbs Episcopal Church in Ridgeland, MS.

Several surprises were revealed this night. Our Metro Leos have been extremely supportive of our Chick-N-Go fund raisers for the past three years. Therefore, our board of directors approved a check to the Metro Leos in the amount of $1,000.

We mentioned the background of how Lions Clubs International started in 1917 through the work of Melvin Jones. The highest award a club can provide a club member or citizen in the area is the Melvin Jones Fellow.

This year we awarded two Melvin Jones Fellows. First was Betsy Landers. Betsy has been instrumental in being our Membership chairman for the past two years. And, it shows from the growth we have experienced in our club. Betsy also was our Previous President and had successes in that position until COVID started. Finally, Betsy was Chairperson for our first golf tournament fund-raiser that was beyond what we first expected to raise.

Our second Melvin Jones Fellow was Todd Rhodus. Todd was President of our Club for one and one-years before Betsy. Todd was instrumental in moving the board of directors to purchase an OptixPlus eye screening machine. Due to that purchase we have exceeded more than 1,500 eye screenings. Five to ten percent of those individuals screened need to see a professional eye doctor for additional analysis.

The night ended with a “Dirty Santa” present opening/stealing event. As in past years, it was hilarious and fun.

Yes, the image above shows Lion John Kirk proudly wearing the Viking helmet one of our Metro Leos won as a gift!!