Boothbay Region Lions meet the second and fourth Wednesdays of most months at 6 p.m. at the East Boothbay Fire Dept. Currently we have a roster showing 20 but only nine remain active. As with many local non-profits when membership numbers dwindle the benefit the community receives also lessens. We remain hopeful and continue to fundraise to help support the seven main pillars of Lions International: Youth, Sight, Hunger, Environment, Diabetes, Childhood Cancer, and Humanitarian.

Thank you to the community for the contribution of used eyeglasses. Drop off boxes are located in the small mall entrance, Boothbay Harbor Library and Dr. Jay’s Dental Office. A really big than you to the anonymous donor of two big plastic tubs of eyewear. We also accept iPads, hearing aids, and cell phones - no cases please for any of these. Soon we will drop off five boxes to the Massabesic Lions for further distribution and processing.

Last service year we donated over $11,000 to local causes and nonprofits. We continued those efforts recently with a raffle of a Generac Generator. The winner was Nancy Stoddard – Congratulations! Thanks to all who purchased a ticket - the proceeds are going to our local Food Pantry.

Our annual Christmas Lotto Tree scratch ticket raffle will start in two weeks. Winner receives a mini artificial tree with $300 worth of scratch tickets attached. Second prize is $100 cash and third prize is $50 cash. This will run until our first meeting in December so be sure to seek out a Lion or one of our helpers. The proceeds will go to LifeFlight of Maine. This is District Governor Kitty Doyle’s charity so we’re pleased to help contribute to her goal of $50,000. LifeFlight has been utilized on this peninsula many times and a valued part of our community when needed.

Look for the announcement of us partnering with Nathan’s Pharmacy to help locals with diabetes.

Please help us keep our Lions club alive - if you have a passion for helping contact us, if you like to be around great people - contact us. If you know of a project where we can help - contact us. Visit us on Facebook (new page) or call our president Dr. Jay Andrews. Stop by at our next meeting on Oct. 23 for dinner and see what we’re all about.