We are a chapter in association with Lions International. The motto of Lions is “We Serve.” The acronym for LIONS is Liberty, Intelligence, Our Nations’ Safety. The primary focus is sight conservation, but each individual chapter or district or state can promote other causes and projects. Lions are traditionally known for collecting used eye glasses, frames, and also the cases, and we still do. Likewise, Lions also provide eye glasses.
Lions International also promotes leadership for youth from grade school to early college in its’ Leo program. It was at one time considered that Lions to be a male dominated organization, but later in the mid-80s opened itself up to including women as well, even though they were initially in Lions to begin with.
Tulsa chapters Brookside, Metro-McCullough & Downtown recently chipped in together to help repair a patient’s broken prosthetic eye with the help of a prosthetic eye specialist referred to us. It is also not uncommon for us to have eye doctors who are members of our Lions chapters.
Dr. Robert D. McCullough was a Lion but in his medical profession, also helped start the Osteopathic Hospital in Tulsa. His home chapter was at Tulsa Downtown and at the time long ago Tulsa Downtown was looking to fill a vacancy in the East Tulsa area by chartering a new chapter, hence the East Tulsa chapter. During the time involved in getting new membership for the chartering of the new chapter, many people came to know Dr. Bob as he’s affectionately called, around the world, since at the same time, he was serving as an International President.
A park in the city of Tulsa was also dedicated to Dr. Bob as well as our own chapter pin.
Lions International frowned on self promoting chapters named after living persons, however, it was the charter members who wanted to be able to recognize a living person such as Dr. Bob and they wanted the chapter to be named the Tulsa McCullough Lions. After several letters went back and forth, the charter was finally accepted, and a chapter dedicated to remembering a well known figure in Lions was formed. Lions International is thankful that such a transaction took place, as they are glad that there is a chapter that does exist in order to recognize Dr. Bob. For a time, the Tulsa McCullough Lions also chartered the Tulsa Deaf chapter. The Tulsa McCullough chapter later merged with Tulsa Metro. Now the chapter is called, the Tulsa Metro-McCullough Lions.
Back when Lions started, it was just a formal business meeting looking for something more to give the meetings purpose. At the same time, Helen Keller was already a pioneer in her fight with blindness and looking for a sponsor. They finally came together as she addressed Lions to become “Knights of the Blind.”
Dear Lions and Ladies:
I suppose you have heard the legend that represents opportunity as a capricious lady, who knocks at every door but once, and if the door isn’t opened quickly, she passes on, never to return. And that is as it should be. Lovely, desirable ladies won’t wait. You have to go out and grab ’em.
I am your opportunity. I am knocking at your door. I want to be adopted. The legend doesn’t say what you are to do when several beautiful opportunities present themselves at the same door. I guess you have to choose the one you love best. I hope you will adopt me. I am the youngest here, and what I offer you is full of splendid opportunities for service.
The American Foundation for the Blind is only four years old. It grew out of the imperative needs of the blind, and was called into existence by the sightless themselves. It is national and international in scope and in importance. It represents the best and most enlightened thought on our subject that has been reached so far. Its object is to make the lives of the blind more worthwhile everywhere by increasing their economic value and giving them the joy of normal activity.
Try to imagine how you would feel if you were suddenly stricken blind today. Picture yourself stumbling and groping at noonday as in the night; your work, your independence, gone. In that dark world wouldn’t you be glad if a friend took you by the hand and said, “Come with me and I will teach you how to do some of the things you used to do when you could see?” That is just the kind of friend the American Foundation is going to be to all the blind in this country if seeing people will give it the support it must have.
You have heard how through a little word dropped from the fingers of another, a ray of light from another soul touched the darkness of my mind and I found myself, found the world, found God. It is because my teacher learned about me and broke through the dark, silent imprisonment which held me that I am able to work for myself and for others. It is the caring we want more than money. The gift without the sympathy and interest of the giver is empty. If you care, if we can make the people of this great country care, the blind will indeed triumph over blindness.
The opportunity I bring to you, Lions, is this: To foster and sponsor the work of the American Foundation for the Blind. Will you not help me hasten the day when there shall be no preventable blindness; no little deaf, blind child untaught; no blind man or woman unaided? I appeal to you Lions, you who have your sight, your hearing, you who are strong and brave and kind. Will you not constitute yourselves Knights of the Blind in this crusade against darkness?
I thank you.
O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A was the third state to join Lions following Texas, and the first being the state that the founder, an insurance agent from Chicago, Melvin Jones, which is also the Lions International headquarters. Also, as another fact, many of the best eye doctors in the world come from Tulsa. Northeastern State University located in nearby Talequah has a school there for medical eye related studies.
Oklahoma is also a favored sight (possible pun intended) during the parade at the Annual Lions International Convention for the Native American/Indian attire. Every chapter in over 200 countries from around the world march in the parade. Lions International is the only service organization allowed in China. Youth and Adult Speech Contests are popular at the District and State Conventions, with the theme being selected by the International President, but still relating to Service and Lions.
Previous Oklahoma governor George Nigh convinced the State of Oklahoma that they needed to make O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A the state song.
The Lions of Oklahoma supports several state projects.
The Oklahoma Lions Service Foundation supports both an eye bank that collects eye donors and the Meadows of Hope foster home in Perkins. Cornea transplants are taken from the eye bank, performed by trained surgeons, and given to people who have made application for them. If you ever wondered where the organ donation check box on your drivers’ license came from, it may have started with Lions. The Meadows of Hope used to be limited to the troubled youth, but has now become a foster home so that siblings can now live and grow up together.
The Oklahoma Lions Service Foundation Mobile Screening Unit has seen several people testing them for visual acuity, glaucoma, blood glucose, lung capacity, bone density, blood pressure, body mass index and cholesterol screening. It is anticipated soon that the KidSight Cameras will also be part of the routine. The unit has been known to save lives.
This girl had a detached retina due to a developing cancer, and received a prosthetic eye. It resulted in saving the girls life. It was nice to know that our chapter also helped a patient with a prosthetic eye.
The latest thrill of being a Lion is to be able to go to a local school and conduct a preventative and early detection eye exam with an eye exam camera. Not all chapters have the KidSight Eye Cameras as of yet, but fundraising efforts are on-going to have them more widely available (coming to a school near you). There are some programs that already exist in some schools, but they cost the schools money and involve a certified technician. The Lions program will cost nothing to the schools.
Lions have managed to remain for 100 years since their original inception back in 1917 in which it was more or less in between World Wars when it started.
Why do we sing the Star Spangled Banner?
O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there,
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream,
’Tis the star-spangled banner—O long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d out their foul footstep’s pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand
Between their lov’d home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with vict’ry and peace may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto – “In God is our trust,”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
What does each word of the Pledge of Allegiance mean?
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”