TRAVERSE CITY -- The numbers are dwindling.
The Lions Club of Traverse City, in existence for more than 65 years, has just 13 active members. On a recent drizzly night, club members turned their regular meeting over to members of the Arcadia club -- tiny Arcadia! -- for tips.
Arcadia, with a summer population of 2,000 and a winter population of 200, doesn't even hold meetings after November. Yet the small town's busy club has close to five times the number of members as Traverse City's and about 10 times the amount of money in the treasury.
"Think outside the box," the Traverse City Lions were told. "Start small." "Don't go to the big festivals, go to the little ones."
With a passion for service that drew them to the international organization in the first place, members of the Traverse City Lions Club are ready to kick it into a higher gear.
The club gives away the money as soon as it raises it, to causes mainly associated with sight and hearing.
The Lions Clubs International commitment to people with low or no sight comes from a challenge Helen Keller gave to the group in 1925 to become "Knights of the Blind." Members collect used eyeglasses and hearing aids, which are then given to needy people. They also raise money to support Leader Dogs for the Blind, youth camps and retirement homes.
"You get letters and cards from people you've helped," said Cordell Rehkopf of the Traverse City club. "You do get feedback."
The Arcadia club, which organizes the three-day Arcadia Daze festival every summer, says you can't go through their town without seeing something the Lions Club has touched, from the Sunset Station park on Lake Michigan to the maple trees along M-22. Arcadia Daze brings in about $20,000 each year, said club president ("King Lion") John Berryman. The club also serves pancake breakfasts on three summer holidays and gets half the money from coin-fed binoculars at the scenic outlook just south of town.
"That's a no-brainer fundraiser," Berryman said.
Meanwhile, the Traverse City club, which meets the second and fourth Mondays of each month at the Grand Traverse Pavilions, just sold out of raffle tickets that they hope will bring in $2,500 and wrapped up another White Cane Drive that they hope brings in even more. Other service projects include selling tickets to the Northwestern Michigan College barbecue, delivering Christmas baskets, ringing bells for the Salvation Army and adopting a four-mile stretch of Silver Lake Road.
Besides new ideas, the club is looking for new members. For more information, call Jim Pascoe, 943-0804 or e-mail him at jdpascoe@att.net.
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