The Manchester Mirror is partnering with the Manchester Chamber of Commerce to highlight a different Chamber of Commerce member each week! This week we are spotlighting The Manchester Lions Club. Visit https://48158.com/ for information on joining the Chamber.

The Manchester Lions Club was chartered in 2007. President Barry Allen says, "I retired in 2006 and the first year we remodeled every room in the house, then what do we do? At that time, Peggy and I went to the Whistlestop for lunch just about every day and the owner Sue Miller asked us if we knew anything about Lions, as they were having an informational meeting that evening.

"I had happened to be a Lion when living in Oregon, so Peggy and I attended the meeting and Peggy started taking notes, so they made her the Secretary; since I had been a Lion before, they made me the Charter President."

There were many service organizations in Manchester at that time, so we looked to see where the need was and directed our efforts accordingly. Since the Lions' major concern is eyesight, we began doing eye screenings in the village and at the schools. We partnered with Kiwanis on a number of projects and eventually took some over when they disbanded. We also took over the Luminaria project from the Manchester Area Historical Society and fine tuned the operation to make it more efficient, and to keep the cost at a minimum. Then the "Kids Christmas" was taken over by Kiwanis from the Civic Club with our assistance, and we have taken that on as another project.

Personally, Peggy and I had a meteoric rise in the Lions organization, becoming Zone Chairs and State project chairs, eventually rising to the top position as the Council Chair for the State of Michigan. We now devote our energies to supporting our local efforts, including Worth Repeating, the Historical Society, and the Chamber and the Fair. Additionally, keeping a finger in the Lions pie, Peggy is the state co-chair for Childhood Cancer where we are big supporters of "Maggie's Wigs 4 Kids" and we both work at the Winter Camp for the Blind (adults) where I am the Operations Manager.

The Lions Club will continue to support our Manchester community in any way we can and can always use some extra help.

Internationally, the Lions Club focuses on eyesight, having been challenged by Helen Keller at a convention in Cedar Point in 1925 to become "Crusaders for the Blind in the fight against darkness." Since that time, our mission has been to preserve sight and prevent blindness. While doing that, we also help our communities in any way that we can, so we partnered with Kiwanis on a number of programs including Crazy Cash and children's programs.