History of Lionism

The International Association of Lions Clubs began as the dream of Chicago business Melvin Jones. He believed that local business Clubs should expand their horizons from purely professional concerns to the betterment of their communities and the world at large.

Jones' own group, the Business Circle of Chicago, agreed. After contacting similar groups around the country, an organizational meeting was held on June 7th, 1917, at the Lasalle Hotel in Chicago. The new group took the name from one of the groups invited, the “Association of Lions Clubs” and a national convention was held in Dallas in October of that year. A constitution, byelaws, objects and code of ethics were approved.

Among the official objects adopted in those early years was one which read, “No Club shall hold out the financial betterment of its members as its object.” This object was the beginning of unselfish service to others and has remained one of the Association’s main tenats ever since.

Just three year after its formation, the organization became International when the first Club in Canada was established in 1920. Major International expansion continued as clubs were established, particularly throughout Europe, Asia and Africa during the 1950 and 60s.

Perhaps the single event having the greatest impact on the association’s service commitment occurred in 1925, when Helen Keller addressed the Lions at their International Convention at Cedar Point, Ohio USA. It was there that she challenged Lions to become “Knights of the blind in the crusade against darkness.”

In 1990, Lions launched their most aggressive sight preservation effort to date, Sight First. The US$140 million-plus programme strives to rid the world of preventable and reversible blindness by closing the gap between existing health care services and those that remain desperately needed.

Broadening its role in International understanding, the association helped the United Nations form the Non Governmental Organisation sections in 1945, and continues to hold consultative status today.

Since those first years, the association has grown to include 1.4 million men and women in more than 45,000 Clubs located in 200 countries and geographical areas.