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Washington Evening Journal
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Fairfield Lions Club hosts fundraising breakfast
Club’s spaghetti dinner is March 24
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – The Fairfield Lions Club not only fed a few hundred hungry people Saturday morning, it also raised money for Fairfield High School students about to attend college.
The Lions Club set up to serve 200 meals at its breakfast fundraiser Jan. 31 at Addington Place in Fairfield, an event it has not held since the pandemic. Proceeds went toward two $500 college scholarships for FHS seniors. At least one of those scholarships will be reserved for a student exploring a career in the trades, such as electrician or plumber.
Addington Place’s Executive Director Josie Heilmann noted that this was the first time the business has hosted a Lions Club breakfast since the change in ownership (the building was previously owned by SunnyBrook). She said Lions Club member Scott Brown asked her if Addington Place would be willing to host, and she loved the idea.
“We love to have people come through our doors for a good cause,” Heilmann said, noting that a number of the building’s residents made the trek down their hallway for breakfast.
Lions Club members Bob Keller and Arvin Bogaards said the club typically held its fundraising breakfast in October, and it might go back to holding the breakfast then. February and March promise to be a busy time for the club, since it will host a guest speaker later this month, and its annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser next month.
On Feb. 21, the Fairfield Lions Club will host a program called “Beyond the Page: Building Connections with the Iowa Library for the Blind and Print Disabled.” The event is 2-4 p.m. at the Fairfield Public Library meeting room, and will feature youth services librarian Denise Bean as the guest speaker. The program will provide hands-on resources to explore, a Braille alphabet bookmark, and light refreshments. Members of the public are encouraged to bring used eyeglasses and hearing aids to recycle through the Lions Club.
Fairfield Lions Club’s premiere event is its annual spaghetti dinner, which will be held Tuesday, March 24 at Fairfield Middle School. The event raises money for Fairfield’s sports, music and drama programs, and students from those programs volunteer their time serving food, waiting tables or performing on stage. Last year’s event raised $5,000.
The Lions Club meets the first Tuesday of the month at noon at the McElhinny House in Fairfield, and holds a business meeting on the third Tuesday of the month at the Fairfield Community Center.
Fairfield Lions Club celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021. It formed just a few years after the Association of Lions Clubs was founded in 1917. Throughout its history, the club has focused on vision-related charity. One of its most famous programs is called KidSight, which gives free vision screenings to young children around the world. Keller and Bogaards said the Fairfield Lions Club co-owns with the Keosauqua Lions Club a special camera used to take photos of the eyes of all preschool children to detect any problems early in their life. They said the club will need to replace this important piece of equipment soon, and it costs about $10,000.
“This is something we really enjoy doing,” Keller said about the club’s KidSight program.
According to the organization’s website, Lions Clubs International has 1.4 million members across 49,000 clubs. Keller and Bogaards estimated the Fairfield club has about 35 members.
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
