Ole Miss Service Club Looks to Leave Mark on Campus, Oxford Community

Ole Miss students signing up to join the University Lions Club.

Monday morning fresh off a four day weekend, students lagged to class with little motivation as they enter into final weeks of the semester. As the day slowly progressed the smell of fresh barbecue hits the air attracting students to a tent located on the Student Union Plaza with free food. But with free food there’s always a catch. It was a pitch by The University of Mississippi Lion Club to get students to learn about how they can give back to the community.

Chartered in 2009 on the campus of the University of Mississippi, the Lions Club is a campus club of the national organization which has been around for almost 100 years. Lions is the biggest service club in the world with over 1.4 million members in 207 countries.

For Ole Miss senior Justin Bell, being involved in the Lions Club has been a learning processing for him as he was thrust into the role as president. Now he has dedicated his time to giving the club the boost it needs.

President Justin Bell along with membership chair Tinecia Francis watches as Ole Miss student Zacchaeus McEwen signs up for the Lions Club.

President of the University Lions Club at Ole Miss, Justin Bell, said, “I actually ran for vice president but we were working on rebuilding the organization and we needed individuals to fill the roles. Another student became president but ended up graduating. We work in various areas whether it be agriculture doing clean up or collaborating with different departments on campus like the school of education. Anyway we can contribute we do it.”

One reason why the campus club has been able to have so much success, even with wavering numbers, is because of the help they get from the local Oxford Lions Club. They have partnered on events.They have had several projects which have benefited the community, such as sight screenings, collecting used eyeglasses, installing markers for the blind in elementary schools, hunger projects, to name a few.

Secretary of Oxford Lions Club, Ron Kitchens, said, “The Oxford Lions Club has been providing eyeglasses for those in need for many years, but didn’t have many clients from the University. The University Lions Club plans to identify and provide for those at the University that need eyeglasses. Other projects that are a priority for Lions Clubs are the Environment, Hunger and Youth.”

Dave Young (left) and Ron Kitchens (right) from Oxford Lions Club

This Saturday, April 2, from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., the campus club along with the Oxford club will be outside of Wal-Mart for the White Canes project where they will host a donation drive to fight the cause of blindness. Some of the campus Lions Club members will also be participating in the university’s Big Event, a town-wide volunteering event.

On the reasons the campus club was founded at the University of Mississippi was to get more young people serving their local communities.

Kitchens said, “I am impressed with the enthusiasm of the members. Incentives have been put in place for students aged 18 to 30, including no initiation fee, half-price international dues and waived district and state dues. One of the benefits to the member is that, on graduation, they can transfer to one of the 45,000 clubs worldwide and have an instant ‘family’ to help them with a new job or other challenges they may have in a new place.”

UM junior and membership chair of University Lions Club at Ole Miss, Tinecia Francis, said, “I’ve been a member of the Lions Club since last semester and joined because Justin spoke to me about it and he said it was a community service organization and I love community service . He described it in way of which they are trying to rebuild and I really wanted to help with that.”

Ole Miss students learning about the Ole Miss Lions Club.

While there are other service organizations on campus for Francis, the lure was the international component which provides a bigger network as well as the Lions Club being a non profit organization.

“I joined this because it is international and they don’t just focus on one thing and aren’t limited to doing one thing and everything that the Lions Club does is for service. If we raise money it can not come back to us and I really like that,” Francis said.

Membership is by invitation only, so contact any Lion for information. Faculty and staff are also encouraged to join, as well as anyone else interested in helping in the community. The Oxford Lions Club can be reached at its website: http://oxfordms.lionwap.org.

The campus club meets every first and third Thursday each month.

Ann-Marie Herod is a journalism student at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. She can be reached at aherod@go.olemiss.edu.

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