NEIGHBORHOODS
Lions hope for
youthful resurgenceHawaii's Lions Clubs have played a
By Rod Ohira
significant role, but their membership is
aging and they need younger volunteers
Star-BulletinHawaii has received a Lions' share of community services for more than 72 years -- from residents involved not only in staging holiday parades and building bus shelters, but saving eyesight and working with the blind.
There are currently 62 clubs in Hawaii dedicated to the International Lions motto, "We serve."
"From a personal standpoint, it's the satisfaction you get from giving back to the community," said Ken Kau, executive director of District 50 Hawaii and a Lion for 25 years.
Others who share that feeling will be joining the state's 1,906 members next year.
Hawaii, which played a significant role in spread of Lionism outside the continental United States, will host the first International Lions Convention of the new millennium, in June 2000.
"We're looking at 20,000 delegates or more and 30,000 people," said Mel Nakamura, a Waioli Lions member and former District 50 governor. "Right now, we're holding 9,000 rooms at 50-plus hotels."
The Hawaii Convention Center will be used for seminars, but for major events the Lions are planning to use the Stan Sheriff Center at the University of Hawaii. "We'll also have to use a second site with closed-circuit television for the big events," said Nakamura, general chair of the host committee.
The commitment of Lions here to the blind and sight conservation was inspired by Helen Keller's April 1937 visit to the islands.
"Few other projects can be undertaken, one would think, that make more positive impact on someone's life than helping a person to see," Honolulu Lions Club historian Shonosuke Koizumi says in the 1996 anniversary booklet, "70 Years of Lionism in Hawaii."
In October 1980, the Hawaii Lions Eye Bank merged with the Makana Foundation, and during that month the first cornea transplant was performed using tissue obtained by the eye bank.
"The number of corneal tissue provided by Hawaii Lions Eye Bank/Makana Foundation is over 1,800," said Nakamura said. "It's our largest single project."
The Hawaii Lions Foundation, a charitable corporation founded in 1960, administers the district's sight-conservation projects.
Its widespread service work continues, but there's concern within the ranks about the future because the membership is getting older.
"One of our biggest problems is attracting younger people," said 88-year-old Dorothea "Dodee" Charlton, secretary of the Honolulu Lions Club. "Young people don't want to tie in with older folks.
"Seventy-five percent of our membership is over 70 years old and the greater majority of them are 80 or over. We have three members who are 90."
Kau says other service clubs, such as the Kiwanis and Rotarians, are experiencing similar problems.
"It's not anyone's fault, it's just a sign of the times," Kau said. "Voluntarism is not in the top three of most people's lives."
Between busy work schedules and family commitments, younger people are more likely to volunteer for a special project, such as a community cleanup day, Nakamura said.
"But they don't want to make a long-term commitment," he added. "We're looking at different ways to build up membership, such as making things more flexible by allowing club members to attend meetings "as time allows.'"
One proposal is to recruit Hawaii Jaycees who have reached the dropout age of 40, says Nakamura.
"We're in the process of forming a joint council to talk and plan projects and activities we can do together," he said. "But there's a slight change in philosophies from one group to the other.
"The Jaycees are deeply committed to training people professionally, whereas Lions are more directly project-oriented. So we need to look at making our organization appealing in terms of relationships, scope and what we do now if we want to attract Jaycees."
Lionism spread from Chicago under the leadership of insurance man Melvin Jones and his motto, "You can't get ahead unless you did something for somebody else." It grew from 800 members in 1917 to 10,000 by 1926.
In the spring of 1926, Charles Lewis, secretary of the Long Beach (Calif.) Lions Club, came to Honolulu to scout the potential of expanding Lionism overseas.
Lewis met with Alexander Hume Ford, director of the Pan-Pacific Union, and the first overseas Lions club was formed.
But upon reviewing the Lions International constitution, Ford objected to its requirement that only "white males" be allowed to join.
Ford assigned Colbert N. Kurokawa to lobby for deletion of the racial clause, which took him on a two-month tour of Pacific Coast states.
At the 1926 International Lions Convention in San Francisco, an amendment deleting the racial clause was passed without a dissenting vote.
The Pan Pacific Lions later became the Honolulu Lions Club, which meets every Tuesday at noon in Elizabeth Fuller Hall at the Richards Street YWCA.
"When I was a Jaycee in Seattle, I got to work with someone who had the same idea of helping others as I did," said Murray Luther, a Honolulu Lion for 23 years. "As a Lion, it's the same.
"I like the closeness of this club, and what's better than giving to and caring about others? That's the aloha we all talk about."
At last Tuesday's meeting, the Honolulu Lions inducted a new member -- 53-year-old Sugunya "Kim" Hughes, formerly of Thailand.
"I like to volunteer and help and I find the people in this club are thoughtful and accept me for what I am," said Hughes, who was attracted to the club while doing volunteer work at the YWCA.
