FORT THOMAS — Lions from the across the United States converged on Fort Thomas on Saturday for a rededication to service.
“Fulfillment, like when you are all by yourself and deep down in soul, ‘Am I fulfilled?’ That doesn’t come from all these material (things); it comes from a totally different kind of spiritual aspect. And that comes from serving others,” said Farhana Shifa, 21-N district governor for Arizona Lions.
The Safford Lions Club hosted the annual rededication at the Melvin Jones Memorial, which included remarks by Shifa, 21-S District Governor Keith Alexander, Safford Lions Club President Marion Hastings and Jerome Thompson, a past international director from Moulton, Ala.
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
Thompson also conducted the induction of the newest member of the Safford Lions Club, Brandon Bell, the manager of the Home Depot in Thatcher.
Following the event at the memorial, Lions participated in a special luncheon at Eastern Arizona College.
Melvin Jones, the founder of Lions Clubs International in 1917, was born in Fort Thomas in 1879. The memorial, a 50-foot spire and adjoining museum, was designed and erected in 1965 under the direction of Safford Lions Club members Roger David and Bill Lewis.
Lions Clubs International focuses of five causes: diabetes prevention, vision, hunger, the environment and fighting childhood cancer. The Safford Lions Club addresses the goals in a number of ways, including accepting donations of unwanted eyeglasses, distribution of produce through Health Department gleanings and the monthly Produce on Wheels Without Waste, vision screening of area elementary school students, and fund-raising by grilling hot dogs and hamburgers at various community events.
– David Bell Photo/Gila Valley Central
